Contextual Study: Psychopathy & Empathy

   As a generic character type of Thriller texts is a 'psychotic individual', i carried out some research into psychopathy and empathy.



   In the early 1800s, doctors who worked with mental patients began to notice that some of their patients who appeared outwardly normal had what they termed a “moral depravity” or “moral insanity,” in that they seemed to possess no sense of ethics or of the rights of other people. The term “psychopath” was first applied to these people around 1900. The term was changed to “sociopath” in the 1930s to emphasize the damage they do to society.

   Psychopathy can be described as an aspect of personality or as a personality disorder. As a personality disorder, it is characterized by enduring antisocial behaviour, diminished empathy and remorse, and disinhibited or bold behaviour. As an aspect of personality, it represents scores on different dimensions of personality found throughout the population in varying combinations.

   A psychopath could be described as a person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior without empathy or remorse.

  

   In this scene of Tarantino's 'Jackie Brown', we see the character Louis - the 'psychotic individual'- kill Melanie in a public place in broad daylight.

   The fact that Louis shoots Melanie in a public place - such as the car park- in broad daylight portrays him as a fairly psychotic character as he has not been secretive about the murder; and seems to show very little recognition for his actions, along with the fact that he still talks to her as if she's beside him; when she's laying dead on the floor after being shot twice.



  

   Psychopaths exhibit antisocial and aggressive behaviour, as well as emotional and interpersonal deficits including shallow emotions and a lack of remorse and empathy. Studies suggest psychopaths have atypical responses to distress cues (e.g. facial and vocal expressions of fear and sadness), including decreased activation of the fusiform (part of the temporal lobe and occipital lobe, located between the inferior temporal gyrus and the parahippocampal gyrus) and extrastriate cortical regions (the region of the occipital cortex of the mammalian brain located next to the primary visual cortex), which may partly account for impaired recognition of and reduced autonomic responsiveness to expressions of fear, and impairments of empathy.