Psychopathy is one of the two most common metal illnesses associated with criminal behavior, along with Schizophrenia. It is also referred to as the antisocial personality disorder. As the name might suggest, individuals with this disorder experience personality characteristics that are unusual among the common population in the society. They are typically highly self-interested individuals who invest little, or not at all, in the well-being of others, and seek their own self-centered goals to satisfy their need for a physical stimulation. They lack a development in both morals and conscience. One example is illustrated by the movie American Psycho, which depicts the main character Patrick Bateman as being a psychopath. It is important to …show more content…
They are emotionally muted overall. This can be seen in the character of Patrick. He admits to having no emotions at all except those of disgust and greed. This pushes him to commit crimes. For instance, he stabs the African American, homeless man in the ally very violently till death for not obvious reason but because he feels disgusted by him, which is morally not acceptable. He makes it clear that he is nothing like this other man, maybe not even of the same species. Thus, he completely disassociates himself from the rest of the society. He does not think of himself as a human, but only in touch with humanity. Although people can feel his flesh when shaking his hand, he does not think he is really a human. In addition, lacks any feeling of guilt upon committing his crimes, which is an essential characteristic of psychopathy. When he admits his crime of killing his friend Paul Allen with an axe to his lawyer, he clearly admits that he does not feel any guilt for harming a person so severely and ending his life. In fact, he finds great pleasure in killing, and he ‘likes’ murdering and dissecting people. It probably stimulates him when he is conducting these violent acts. This is very problematic and dangerous, as it leads the person with this disorder to the non-stop seeking of more stimulation which often translate into criminal behavior. This is evident in the 20-40 …show more content…
They might do anything possible to satisfy themselves and their needs without caring about others. This can be seen by many traits of Patrick Bateman. For instance, it is very typical of him to pick up girls and practice different, outrageous sexual acts with no shame, then kill them and keep some of their body parts. He would do this to fulfill his need for a physical stimulation without any regard to the lives of these young women. In addition, Patrick is very high maintained, as he exercises daily, keeps a healthy diet, applies many products routinely to keep himself looking his best. It can be noticed that he is aroused by loud voices and screaming while exercising. Patrick is fixated on a perfect outside image to compensate for his emptiness on the inside, for he is not capable of feeling love or any emotions. He is extremely insecure about his image. For instance, he cares nothing about his viance, so he needs her only as a pretty, trophy figure to make him look good in society, for which he asked her to get breast implants. He has to get the best suits, finest women, classiest dinners, glasses, haircut, etc. Although these traits can be associated with any arrogant, business man, Patrick’s criminal behavior as a result of this ideology is what can be directly linked to psychopathy. For example, in his mind it is a deadly sin to have a better business card or a better apartment than his, which