The Tell Tale Heart Psychopath Analysis

Psychopathy is a personality disorder that is commonly misunderstood. "It tends to be used as a label for people we do not like, cannot understand, or construe as evil," said Jennifer Skeem, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Irvine. The study of a psychopath reveals someone who lacks empathy and remorse for their actions, and feels emotion only shallowly. The narrator in "The Tell Tale Heart" is not a psychopath. He cared about the old man, showed guilt for his actions, and showed delusion and other signs of irrational thinking. Although the narrator didn't recognize the feelings he was having, in the end of the story, after killing the old man, what drove him insane was guilt. And according to Robert Hare, in his book 'Without Conscience', concern for the pain, losses, and suffering of victims is not a characteristic of a psychopath. In the story the narrator hears the sound of his own heart beating. He knows that he has done something wrong and is guilty, which causes the rate of his heart to increase. Psychopaths cannot feel guilt. This is just one of the reasons why the narrator isn't a psychopath. There is obviously a mental conflict with the narrator himself too. Throughout the story, he showed delusion and other signs of irrational thinking. He seems to not reason logically. According to

According to the Hare Psychopathy Checklist – people who have empathy and feeling towards other people whose lives they touch are not known as psychopaths. In "The Tell Tale Heart," he cared about the old man. In the very beginning of the story, lines 10 and 11, he states "I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire." Studies show that psychopaths don't respond emotionally to concepts that obtain positive emotions in others, such as love. Therefore, the narrator cannot be a psychopath if he loved