And the king of the hollywood psychopaths—Hannibal Lecter of the Silence of the Lambs franchise—failed to impress Leistedt and his colleagues. Not surprisingly, this combination of attributes is difficult to achieve in real life, empathy or none. If playing a violin over the bodies of thine enemies does not a psychopath make, what do the accurately diagnosed look like?
Psychopathy is now considered to feature a unique brain structure: Studies have shown that brains of those with many of these traits show deficiencies in the amygdala, which is associated with emotions, and the orbitofrontal cortex, which aids in decision making. Sometimes, a psychopath can look a lot like your friendly neighborhood neuroscientist; James Fallon made headlines when he accidentally diagnosed his own brain scan as showing psychopathic features.
In making these characters famous, popular culture has also burned the words used to describe them into our collective consciousness. Most of us, fortunately, will never meet a Hannibal Lecter, but psychopaths and sociopaths certainly do exist.
And they hide among us. Or they may manipulate someone else into breaking the law, while keeping themselves safely at a distance. Sound like someone you know? Well, heads up. You do know one; at least one. Prevalence rates come in somewhere between 0. Psychopaths and sociopaths share a number of characteristics, including a lack of remorse or empathy for others, a lack of guilt or ability to take responsibility for their actions, a disregard for laws or social conventions, and an inclination to violence.
A core feature of both is a deceitful and manipulative nature. Lecter pursues power and pleasure through slaughtering and eating his victims and focuses on his own desires with no regard for the perspectives of others — an important factor of egocentrism. People with ASPD typically display a lack of concern for feelings, needs or suffering of others and a lack of remorse after hurting or mistreating another. Before his arrest as a cannibal serial killer, he was a prominent psychiatrist.
His profession demanded him to understand what others think and feel. More importantly, Lecter sends her a pair of Gucci shoes from a magazine she was reading. He initally sees her as an innocent, someone to be played with and manipulated but over the films Lector grows fond of her and continues to write to her when on the run. He will seemingly never cross the line of physically harming her that he is happy to cross with others.
He will happily murder and brutalize other people but seemingly Clarice is off limits for him. In Hannibal he rescues her after she is shot while trying to pursue him and tends to her wounds, and later he has the choice between harming her or himself in order to escape and chooses the latter.
If only real psychopaths were this altruistic…. Again these parts of the plot make for entertaining viewing but are based on a misconception as far as psychopaths are concerned. The idea that any one person could matter more to them than anyone else is a myth.
It is true the Clarice is shot while rescuing Lecter himself from being tortured to death, but the idea this would matter to a psychopath and make them feel they must repay the favour is a total myth. Even when they do appear to care for someone this care only remains in place because it serves a purpose for them.
If this situation were to change and the relationship suddenly no longer serves this purpose you will find them gone in an instant. Similarly murderous psychopaths have no trouble killing people of either sex; just because it is a women will not stop a psychopath killing, particularly if they have done it before.
It is also true though that not all psychopaths express their evil in this way, some prefer psychological abuse and mind games to actual physical violence and murder.
Lecter initially see Agent Clarice Starling as an innocent to be played and toyed with psychologically; however he develops and admiration and affection for her over the course of two of the movies. On the mind games front the Hannibal Lecter character is superbly played by Hopkins.
He never answers questions directly, with constant obfuscation, misdirection and complicated prose and references to literature. There is a constant distance and indirectness kept between him and the people interviewing him so getting information out of him is never straightforward.
In Silence of the Lambs he regularly asks Clarice Starling about her childhood. After being warned about this she initially deflects the questions quite well, giving only little snippets, but Lector later uses her desperation to find a missing person to open her up psychologically and reveal how her past trauma drives her current life.
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