How Sociopaths hurt people around them

Sociopaths do hurt people around them and this is a fact of life, which I think that is foolish to deny. I am not going to talk here about the low-life sociopaths that manipulate people for material gains, because the matter has been rather extensively and correctly covered elsewhere. The material gains is only one of the many scenarios that happen. Also I am not going to talk about the sociopath as a child situation. I want to talk about the sociopathic spouse, or a sociopathic partner, who did not want anything tangible scenarios. 

Such situations lead to long-term emotional scars that sociopaths leave their "victims" with. Though, cases are different, there is a key factor that can be seen throughout all of them: Sociopaths do not "live up" to the expectations/needs that their partner or the society places upon them. Sociopaths may strongly reinforce these expectations by being rather successful at displaying the sexual behaviors that are common to normal humans. But, as often is the case, they may fail to sustain these behaviors over prolonged periods. Sociopaths are really good and convincing at delivering what is expected of them at the moment, but in the long term they ultimately fail. It is important to note that many of these expectations/needs are deeply rooted in human biology, thus not fulfilling them happens to hurt people around them very deeply. I want to go through some of these expectations/needs, how they work and how/why sociopaths fail to deliver.

• Lack of bonding and emotional feedback. Humans among other social animals have a range of mechanisms that are designed to bond people within a group or two people together. These typically include emotional feedback to the actions and worries of other people. This feedback could be expressed in body language, physical contact, trivial conversations and empathy in general. For a sociopath such activities clearly lack purpose and consequently they fail to deliver. This is often seen as being "cold" or "callous". But regardless, such communication is immensely important for normal humans and not receiving it is very confusing. When all the bonding efforts of a person turn out to be in vain, it hurts them a lot.
• Inability to empathise with emotional or physical pain. From my experience, it is next to impossible for a normal person to understand, how it is that you do not feel anything when the other person is hurting. In such situations one is expected to show some sort of an emotional reaction, but a sociopath will remain "cold" and rational throughout, being unable to soothe the person in pain. Not receiving comfort is a situation when it is expected, hurts people a lot. A sociopath will understand the concept of such pain,  but the attempts to soothe the pain may appear to be insincere, further aggravating the situation.
• Being overly secretive about everything. Sociopaths do not like talking about their past or sharing what is important to them, or sharing at all. This is deeply rooted in the childhood trauma that many sociopaths have. Such sharing is a part of emotional bonding, and not doing that may be seen as a sign of distrust. Sometimes people would expect to be provided access to cellphones or personal computers, but a sociopath may see it as an intrusion of privacy and be very vocal about not doing it, even if there is nothing "bad" to be found. Such actions will facilitate distrust and ultimately hurt people.
• Being distant/needing unusual amounts of personal space. As I mentioned earlier, a sociopath may need some extra personal space, when compared to other people. This make take form in shutting the world off via movies or games, or avoiding physical contact or conversations. Such actions at the times when their partner needs attention and bonding will surely lead to hurt feelings.
• Lying and deceptive actions. There are things that people want to hear and that one is supposed to say or do in certain scenarios, for the relationship to "work". It may be along the lines of empathy, one's feelings, or one's life plans and goals. So, if a sociopath wants to have a relationship with someone he or she likes, a certain degree of lying may be required. Some lie more successfully and others less so, but this will surely cause backlash sooner or later. In truth, the sociopaths do not seriously believe that "living happily together ever after" is a viable possibility. This is due to a plethora of reasons, that I described in the Relationships post.
• Breaking contact and disappearing for periods of time. Everybody wants to be alone at times, but sociopaths may need it more than others. As I described it in the Relationships post, sociopaths do feel varying degrees of discomfort, when around people. Sometimes they just want to "get away from it all". The problem here is that the situation would seem to have come "out of nowhere" to the other person, because they will not feel any tension building up in their partner. One day everything was fine and the next day he or she is gone or isolated themselves. These behaviors and their seeming irrationality seem to hurt people a lot.
•  Isolating their partner from friends and family. Sociopaths may feel highly uncomfortable when around other people. That is why they may refuse to take part in various group activities like family meetings, parties gatherings, picnics et c. Ultimately this may lead to the situation when their partner will have to choose between them and their friends and families. Whatever the choice, the partner may feel guilty before the other party. This will result in negative emotions and contribute to the negative atmosphere overall. Especially if this situation hurts other relationships, which it may.

This is not a complete list of all of the drawbacks of being with a sociopath. I understand that it is a scary one and it is clearly not for everybody. I've met people who could deal with all of this, but it came at a hefty price.