Most realistic depiction of a psychopath

I don't know if I would consider Gekko a psychopath....he's greedy, ambitious, ruthleess, and self-absorbed, but he is sane...JMO.

I was wondering who thinks Alex Forrest belongs on this thread?

I suppose partly because she’ll stop at nothing to get what she wants… but that said, I think her interest in another human, however self-centred, is excessive for one.

But you don't think she's a psychopath?

I'd say she is.

I concede she could be one, sure.

I don't know that I could pick out a psychopath in the real world. I can't really say which film offers the most realistic depiction. At most, I think I can find characters in films that make it very clear, especially through expository dialogue, that that character is intended to be "read" as a psychopath. For me "psychopath" or "psycho" is as much a folk-psychological diagnosis and term of abuse.

Psychopaths are sane.
As per one of my original posts, you're mixing up psychopath with psychotic.

__________________

This is the typical underresearched/thoughtless response. It doesn’t make one insane if they don’t relate to the emotional responses of others.

Wow, it's just a discussion, buddy ad everyone's entitled to their opinion...lighten up. OK, that's the second time I've been insulted in a couple of hours, I'm out of this discussion, sorry I interfered.

Ooh!
I got one!

Johnny Lawrence in the original The Karate Kid (1984).

Rich kid, decent upbringing.
Hasn't suffered a lifetime of abuse, so he's not a sociopath.

However, Johnny is drawn toward a strong, powerful figure in John Kreese, who teaches Johnny and his friends karate.
Well, he's technically teaching them how to affectively kick peoples' heads in.

Now, from the stories of the past, Kreese is probably a psychopath as well.
Sure he's been in war/conflict, so maybe a little PTSD etc mixed in, but when we learn of his past, we learn he's always been a hardass control freak.
He's always been extreme.

Now, as for Johnny... he's got the good upbringing, top end social status, fancy cars and bikes, a popular friend circle, and a popular girl on his arm. The relationship is rocky... and Ali has kinda called it off with him.
She doesn't want to talk... but his response is "Well I wanna talk to you" and he gets physical with her... even going as far as snatching her radio and smashing it.

Then there's Daniel... who stands up to Johnny, defending Ali, and has also been charming to Ali.

Johnny's reaction is to kick seven bells of sh*t out of Daniel.
Johnny then actually goes out of his way to hurt Daniel throughout the course of the story.
When they see Daniel eating dinner with his mother, Johnny actually goes as far as stalking Daniel, waiting for the right time to attack, and pushing him down a steep hill which could have killed him... and even encouraging his friends to do the same, to target Daniel.
They've been taught no mercy by Kreese... but, Johnny's natural psychopathic tendencies latch on to such lessons. These extreme methods make sense to Johnny.

When Daniel snaps back against his tormentors with the water hose at the school dance, the group chase him, and it's Johnny that beats him to a pulp while the others simply restrain Daniel.
When Dutch holds a battered Daniel up, Johnny says "An enemy deserves no mercy"... and he's going to kick Daniel in the face, and kill him.

(I'd say Dutch is also a psychopath, possibly non-functioning because Dutch is far more unhinged and less calculating than Johnny)

The fact is, Ali broke it off with Johnny, and Johnny's response was one of anger and violence... then Daniel stepped on Johnny's territory... and Johnny's reaction was one of violence and targeted abuse.
The training received from Kreese has also cemented Johnny's violent and psychopathic tendencies.

Daniel unwittingly messed with a psychopath, who has a group of similar-minded friends and violent martial arts training from what is probably another psychopath.

I'd say Johnny suffers from having a poor mentor / teacher (as you pointed out) which turned him into a bully. He gives into peer pressure and is jealous. Generally, he's a typical teenager (with an added sense of entitlement due to his familial / school & dojo social status).

Does all this equal psychopath?

I think Johnny is redeemed in the end scene by not wanting to use Kreese's underhanded methods and by handing Daniel the trophy while expressing his respect for Daniel - which all shows he was never a psycho, just a misled teenager who got carried away with his own sense of social status as the "leader" of his clique, a privileged rich kid, the top student at his karate school and as a jilted boyfriend.

I might agree with you about Dutch, though - he did seem the most psychotic of the Kobra Kai's featured.

P.S. Rodent, you're the best around!

I forgot about that bit at the end when Johnny basically apologises

Dutch and Kreese definitely are psychopathic though.

I had a look online a minute ago, and there was research done by some doctors, they apparently watched over 400 movies, and Anton Chigurh was rated the most accurate movie psychopath.
Annie Wilkes and Catherine Tramell were also listed as accurate.

Apparently Lector, Bates, Bateman aren't.

But did anyone ever suggest Bates is a psychopath? I always read it as him having multiple personality disorder and killing in a rage.

Weirdly if you google movie psychopaths, Norman Bates is top of the list with Lector.

This is that confusion thing between psychopath and psychotic. Even Google is useless.

Right. Fair enough. Unhelpful to put it mildly.

FFS I got another one...

I literally just finished reading the Jurassic Park novel again.

John Hammond.
The book version of Hammond, he is a total psychopath.
Even when he's dying, he blames absolutely everyone else for the park failing... he even blames the kids for his own demise.

Hammond even goes as far as blaming Malcolm for the park's failure at one point.
It's like, "the park is failing because he wanted it to fail"

Like, somehow, Hammond is totally perfect, and everything he did was perfect, his vision for the park was perfect, and he fails to see the problems of the park, even when they're happening directly in front of him...

... when he finally settles to the fact that the park has failed, it was everyone else was at fault, including Malcolm somehow managing to will the park to fail.

All one needs to confirm Kreese is a psychopath is a viewing of Karate Kid III (1989) - where Kreese starts literally acting like a comic book supervillain (or a guest star on the old Batman TV show) complete with maniacal laugh!

Terrible entry for the series, but worth watching for laughs & cringe-worthy bad acting!

People will have to start watching movies with the DSM beside them.
(Although, some now consider the DSM itself as an outdated contrivance.)