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What Learning About Psychopaths Taught Me

Do you ever get those experiences where you are taken aback by your own actions or thoughts? Sometimes, when I feel vengeful, angry, or simply apathetic, I would think, "am I just crazy?". I ask myself this every time I catch myself not caring about the next horrible thing that has happened on the news or when I feel disconnected from a serious situation. After having read a good portion of American Psycho, I can now firmly conclude that I am not "just crazy", I am simply normal. I love how, through this book, so many questions I ask about myself with respect to my own levels of empathy and apathy can be answered. Because the novel is written from the perspective of a psychopath, it is easy to distinguish exactly how they think.

Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in the "American Psycho" movie.

According to Business Insider, it is difficult to diagnose a psychopath, which I find interesting. The article says that psychopaths are more logical and care more about the greater good (in ethical dilemmas, for example). Even though these people make up only 1% of the population, people with more power such as CEO's are more likely to be psychopaths because they can make logical decisions more easily, without any emotional attachment. This is similar to Patrick Bateman, who has a job with a powerful position and who works on Wall Street. In addition, similar to how the article suggests that psychopaths care more for the greater good, Bateman sacrifices the expression of his authentic thoughts when he does or says things in social situations to appease others and to maintain civility. For example, I found it interesting when Bateman thinks, "Luis Carruthers [...] takes a seat next to mine which means that I'm supposed to take off my Walkman." (Ellis, page 107). This is only one of the many examples where Bateman points out what he should be doing in a social situation instead of what he genuinely does. This quality about him is what fascinated me the most about him, or psychopaths in general, assuming that he represents how psychopaths generally think. Bateman frequently observes, analyses, and acts during social situations based on what he knows he should be doing to fit into it, and he does it expertly.

I think that this is what really made me conclude that there is nothing wrong with the way I think sometimes. I am not able to adapt perfectly to social situations because I live, act, and speak genuinely. Thus, I really appreciate this aspect of the novel for teaching me this.

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