Sunday, January 5, 2014

Sociopaths on television: The Fall

Two sociopaths populate the main characters for television "The Fall," starring Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan, who was recently cast as the lead in "50 Shades of Grey" (yet another sociopath role?). Spoiler alert, Gillian Anderson plays a sociopathic high-functioning police detective whose cold-hearted approach to dealing with potential witnesses and sexual partners scandalizes many of her police colleagues. Jamie Dornan plays a serial killer masquerading (or just living this part of his life in a more average way) as a devoted father, husband, and therapist who works evening shifts on a suicide hotline. I'm not finished with the show yet, but the character portrayals and contrasts alone are enough to make it worth watching. Here's what a reader said about it:

I haven't seen this new show mentioned anywhere on the website yet, but you should check it out if you haven't seen it. It's a crime drama set in Belfast about a serial murderer. But what's unusual is that not only is the murderer a sociopath but so is the police detective tracking him. In episode one you only get hints about her. In episode two you really get suspicious of her with the way she goes about getting sex. In episode three her dead pan reaction to the death of a fellow officer confirms what she is. Gillian Anderson (X Files) plays the part perfectly.

In other sociopath Gillian Anderson news, she plays an interesting foil to Hannibal Lecter's sociopath in Hannibal, also on television.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Mental illness explained for children: Lilo & Stitch, Stitch Has a Glitch

"Lilo & Stitch: Stitch Has a Glitch" is probably the best children's film I've seen that deals with mental illness. The first Lilo & Stitch introduces the character Stitch is an alien who was originally built to destroy:

"626 was designed to be a monster, but now he has nothing to destroy. You see, I never gave him a greater purpose. What must it be like to have nothing, not even memories to look back on in the middle of the night?"

But Stitch does find a greater purpose in becoming part of the family of a little Hawaiian girl named Lilo who tries and largely succeeds in taming his aggression.

Still, Stitch's bad past sometimes haunts him, and "Stitch Has a Glitch" opens up with Stitch having nightmares about his past. Lilo decides to help: "We need to test your goodness level. For example, someone bad would let this Elvis Blue Hawaii lamp . . . smash to pieces against that wall. Or let my favourite book, Plastic Surgeries Gone Wrong, drop out this window to be lost forever. Or let his family member fall to her painful, crushing death. No! See? Look at all the good things you did."

But there is something wrong with Stitch. When his eyes turn green, he starts misbehaving. No one knows what is wrong. But then they figure it out, during Stitch's creation, he wasn't fully charged, which caused the "glitch". "Now his circuits are going haywire. He can't control it."

Lilo's approach to Stitch's problems is to get him to act more like her hero, Elvis Presley, but the plan backfires as Stitch continues to behave poorly and anger many people in their community. Stitch tries to do good things to fill up his goodness level, but it doesn't compensate for the bad he has done in the eyes of his friends.

"You ruin everything."

"It's not my fault."

"Then whose fault is it?!"

Lilo decides to give Stitch one more chance, but only if he promises to do good. Unfortunately he has another bad episode and Lilo snaps at him, "I don't know why I ever believed you."

"Something wrong with Stitch," Stitch tries to explain.

"I know what's wrong with you. You're bad. And you'll always be bad."

The scientist tries to fix Stitch using science, but he can't. Stitch keeps getting worse until he decides to leave because he is too bad and too dangerous to be around the people he loves -- a subtle allusion to suicide that is done in a tasteful way that is still appropriate for small children by having Stitch try and fail to leave the planet on his spaceship. When Lilo finally catches up with him, she fears that it is too late:

"I'm so sorry. I kept saying how I needed you. But you needed me more. You're my ohana, Stitch. And I'll always love you."

In this case there is a happy ending, but there is often not a happy ending when people, family and friends struggle to deal with mental illness. But this film provides an excellent example of these struggles that all ages can relate to. 

Friday, January 3, 2014

Slip-ups

I thought this was an interesting recent comment about the ways that sociopaths can slip-up:

There are a few ways the sociopath can blow it. 

1) He doesn't anticipate the disgust. E.g. an American in Thailand might pat a kid on the head. Similarly, I might remark to a mother/daughter pair, "it is amazing to think that she came out of you," because I just don't have the same feelings about things. Observers think, "the sociopath is disgusting."

2) He acts charming to get something. Then he takes it, impulsively, when the opportunity appears. Feelings of betrayal and hatred arise in the victim and observers, because the victim thinks, "he could & should have kept doing what I liked. He shouldn't have betrayed me." If you asked the sociopath why he deceived, he might say, "I gave the person what he wanted. Later, I saw an opportunity to take what I wanted, and I did."

3) The sociopath gets irritated by a person. There's stimulus -> rage -> plotting/scheming. The sociopath mostly thinks. He doesn't experience his feelings much. His response is to "act" either by doing something or thinking about what to do; it isn't to experience the feelings, question the feelings, question the assessment of the situation that led to the feelings. The sociopath might build weapons (or the equivalent) and stash them, anticipating a conflict; that's a way to "let off steam" by taking action. 

Finally, in response to a trigger, the sociopath lashes out and executes a plan, perhaps using preplanned elements. Outside observers see the sociopath as being impulsive, vicious, premeditated and overreacting. 

Feelings of horror or fear arise in observers and they decide the sociopath is very frightening, extreme and beyond redemption. It doesn't help that when they interview the sociopath after the stuff, he'll probably sound quite unemotional; observers will translate that into, "he not human."

Sound familiar?

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Sociopaths = night owls?

According to the University of Western Sydney "a preference for staying up late or into the early hours has a direct link to anti-social behaviour and so-called Dark Triad traits," as reported by the Daily Mail. The dark triad, of course, refers to narcissists, sociopaths, and machiavellians.

People were then rated based on a narcissism scale and were asked how strongly they agreed with statements including 'I have a natural talent for influencing people.'

They were additionally asked how they felt about statements made on the psychopathy scale, for example, 'I think I could beat a lie detector', and a Machiavellian scale, such as 'It is hard to get ahead without cutting corners here and there'.

Across the 263 students, the darker a participant's personality score, the more they tended to be an 'owl' and said they functioned more effectively in the evening hours. 

This was also the case when the three traits were analysed separately; each trait was stronger in people who considered themselves to be night owls.

Why might that be? Like almost all scientific findings about psychopaths, the theories explaining the differences seem to be as unbiased as a old-fashioned phrenologist unquestioningly explaining why certain races are naturally superior to others in order to justify the status quo:

Both nocturnality and Dark Triad traits are hereditary, and adaptive. Now that a link between the two has been established, researchers are speculating as to how it came about – likely, they say, people with Dark Triad tendencies use the cover of night to better engage a “cheater strategy.”

While the vigilant eyelids of morning people start drooping, the night owls are just getting revved up – using their optimal cognitive function for anti-social behaviour, “increased mating success in the short-term context,” mate-poaching, risk-seeking, and impulsivity (and, likely plot-hatching: there has to be a way to wipe the sunny smile off that breakfast server’s face).

It's a little like the people who try to straight-facedly give a scientific explanation for why they think that dolphins are nicer than sharks.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Sociopath quote: indifference

“The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.”

— Charles Darwin
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