As I mentioned on a response to one of the blogs psycopathy has always been of my interest. Unlike the picture on the left and the Sex Offender Registry for instance, psycopaths don’t wear a tag nor do they list themselves anywhere as such.
According to Psycopathic Behavior, by Charles Montaldo, psychopaths are “generally cunning, manipulative and know the difference between right and wrong but dismiss it as applying to them, [they are also] incapable of normal emotions such as love.” On a more simplistic level psychopaths are characterized as charming, intelligent (at different levels of course), appear to be rational however egocentric, either antisocial or very outgoing, etc.
If there’s one person I automatically think about when I hear the word “psychopath” is Anthony Hopkins in the Hannibal Lecter series, specifically in The Silence of the Lambs. In this brilliant work Anthony Hopkins plays a “cannibalistic serial killer” who is taken into custody to help find another murderer; Buffalo Bill. Lecter is seen as pleasant, courteous, educated, incredibly patient not to mention intelligent, among other traits that are very hard to link with the image we get when we think of a mentally imbalanced person.
As I mentioned Lecter’s purpose is to help find Buffalo Bill. Clarice, an FBI agent that’s assigned to the case, is to get all the information she can from Lecter that would direct her to the murderer. As it turns out Lecter agrees to tell her about Bill if she shares information about her childhood with him, which she does although she’s previosly warned no to do so. Eventually, Clarice gets what she’s looking for thanks to Lecter, goes after the killer and the rest is history.
If you’d like to see Lecter in action Click Here.
**Warning: Brilliant but Bloody**
Nothing New Yokers can’t stomach tho (enter sarcasm here LOL). Enjoy!
I agree. I think psycopaths are very hard to figure out who is one and who is not. The way you have described them, I think I might know some lol. Thats the whole concept though, we never know who is a psychopath because they truly are psychos. They manipulate people without having any remorse for others feelings and emotions because they dont have any themselves. They are very egotistic and only care about themselves and their benefits in any given situation.
Also, they are very intelligent. They carefully think out and plan things ahead. If something doesnt go their way, they quickly have a plan B. I think that psychopaths definitely know the difference between right and wrong but ignore it. While watching the video, as you can see, he had an escape plan and knew he was going to get out of the cell one way or another, The freaky part is that after he had killed the two officers, he simply was relaxed and had no emotion about it whatsoever. He listened to the classical music as if he was enjoying the relaxing tones of the music and simply walked out of the cell. He didnt run out, but he walked out. Thats how confident psychopaths are about anything they do. They never get overwhelmed or get frustrated, rather they are relaxed and happy. Thats why its so hard to determine who is crazy and who is not because a psychopath is a manipulative and compulsive liar.
I also find it very funny that people arent diagnosed as psychopaths. I have never heard of someone going to the doctor and being told ” you are a psychopath, take this medicine”, lol. Its a mental psychotic state and I think instead of medicating people who simply think they cant deal with life a.k.a. the vulnerable people, we should work on handling the situation of psychos.