Most realistic depiction of a psychopath

In 2014 Belgian psychiatry professor Samuel Leistdt wanted to find out which movie characters best embodied psychopathic traits best.

Leistdt called on 10 of his friends to help him watch 400 movies over the course of three years, the films spanned nearly a century from 1915 to 2010.

And the winner is...

Anton Chigurh

Two honourable mentions goes to Hans Beckett” in “M” and Henry Lee Lucas in “Henry: Portrait Of A Killer”

Sorry if this is old news but just something I came across and found interesting. What do you think of the choices and can you any others who deserve honourable mentions.

I totally go with Chigurh and can see why he came first. Henry portrait of killer remains to this day one of the most disturbing films I’ve seen .

Not surprised at all. Chigurh rocks.

Interesting.
I'm always interested in peoples' perceptions and misperceptions of psychopathy.
On the other hand, I also love it when movies have their own, theatrically effective versions of it. I'm not a stickler about "the portrayal of mental illness" (even though I'm a doctor) when it comes to film, where the idea is to tell a good story.
But Chigurgh is certainly a great one in both categories and I love the pick.
I recently saw Eaten Alive and was struck at how realistic Neville Brand's portrayal of a psychopath was. I met some people like him on the psych wards and they scared the hell out of me.

That’s fascinating. I’ve never been near a psych ward (shame, really), but many people that know me well and a very respected world-famous doctor have suggested I may be one. So I’m especially interested in the topic and have been reading around it all my life. Incidentally, when the holidays come, I think about this much more than usual. Got into the latest unpleasant discussion about my clear empathy/emotional deficiency last night and it does bring it all back.

Athena Walker is the UK’s self-described psychopath “who’ll answer your questions”, and most of what she says about herself resonates with me on some level, except she can bear long-term relationships/emotional ties and I can’t. That said, I also understand it when people try to “diagnose” psychopathy online but find it tragicomic. To me it’s an “if you know, you know” sort of thing, unhelpful as that is.

I think it’s a bit of a stretch to label psychopathy as a “mental illness” - you would know better than I, but it sounds wrong to me. Otherwise I do think total accuracy does not always serve plot purposes, so take from that what you will. My instinct would be to avoid anyone in the film/the director actually labelling the character a psychopath, which then gives one wiggle room to give them the characteristics that fit the needs of the plot and any vague emotional development disorder (there are a great many, and people don’t have to be psychopaths to react in the way Hollywood teaches us that psychopaths react.) without the danger of them being proven “wrong” about psychopathy. That would be my 2 cents.

Vincent Gallo in "Buffalo '66" is very natural and realistic. I just looked up the definition, and it doesn't necessarily have to be violent, but abnormal. Terrence Stamp in "The Collector" is not as great of a movie, although both characters kidnap, and the latter is a lot more abnormal.



Good topic! Hope to see some recommendations in the future.

__________________
https://www.youtube.com/c/LoyalOpposition

It might come off a little nuts but I always thought Robert Mitchum as Harry Powell in Night of the Hunter was a great psycho.

Speaking of which, Anthony Perkins maybe?

i don't trust psychiatrists, maybe i am a psychopath because of this. The modern definition seems to be just someone who kills and doesn't care about it or feel much of anything. A sociopath just seems to be someone who's highly manipulative but wouldn't kill unless there was something to be gained.

This

Typically psychopaths have learned to hide their psychopathy and will blend in well, especially in everyday situations, superficial conversation and such and their lack of empathy will usually show in certain choices they make more than in everyday behavior. Personally I believe most psychopaths are unaware of there being anything wrong with them.

I agree with you and it's funny you mention it because, as I was typing my response, I started to use the term "mental illness" because that's kind of how everyone talks about it and sociopathy and so forth, and the suffix "path" indicates illness or disease... but, having seen it up close and dealt with it sometimes in both my professional and personal life, I agree, it doesn't seem like illness or disease, it's more of a variant.

Empathy is partially learned behavior and difficult to define precisely. A psychopath might end up selling their business company to anyone for pennies more than what their own offspring, who's been working in the very same company all of their adult life, is offering. Does that sound like something you'd be capable of doing?

Perkins as well as Patrick Bateman and Hannibal Lecter didn’t make the cut as Leistedt and his team said their character traits don’t quite fit the psychopath mold

I haven't seen Joker (2019) yet, but heard by many accounts that Joaquin Phoenix's depiction of tortured comedian turned psychopath "Arthur Fleck" was very realistic.

(But reputation-wise, that idea may be hurt by the character being based on a long-time comic book villain).

I have ruminated that this character isn’t based on The Joker at all. It’s just a thinly conceived veil to tell this story to the masses. Perhaps that’s what we all “didn’t get”. Even writing that I’m more into it than ever. Who even is the ****ing Joker anymore after Ledger, Leto, Phoenix... and who will be the next joker and the next... Hmm yeah I’ve sold it to myself.

I agree 100%

Although they might once have been scared, innocent children that had no chance of growing up to become remotely functional adults they don't get any sympathy from me as adult serial killers, but I disagree with your conclusion. For one I believe the idea of a government executing anyone in its captivity, no matter how monstrous, is in principle, lets say highly questionable philosophically. Also by definition we can't know that there's nothing to learn from something we don't fully understand. But I get where you're coming from. A disorder that creates a serial killer is a pretty f'***ed up thing to try and wrap your head around and it seems such disordered individuals would have to be broken to a point that they're simply unreachable.

The problem with the term psychopath is the usage and understanding of its meaning.
A lot of the time, especially in movies, is psychopath gets confused and mixed with psychotic.

Believe it or not, there's a lot of psychopaths in society. Around 3-4% of the human population can be classed as psychos.

Sociopath is basically the same, except a sociopath is made. Through outside influences, life intervening, trauma, childhood experiences whether it be with abuse or even with their neighbourhood surroundings growing up... a sociopath is made/built over a long time.
They have the same traits as psychopaths, with the occasional difference in empathy.
Sociopaths do have the capability for empathy and guilt over their actions, but their train of thought tends to make them shrug it off.

Psychopaths are born. They show traits from an early age, regardless of their upbringing.
Traits like lack of empathy, a tendency toward violence if things don't go their way, blaming others for their own actions, and little to no guilt if they hurt someone or something, usually blaming the victim for what happened.
---
There's also the sense of self-worth with psychopaths that differs from sociopaths.
A psychopath is perfect, and woe betide anyone who says otherwise, or doesn't live up to their standards. If a psychopath feels they failed in any way, it drives them to the extreme to make sure they perfect their weakness. Even if it means perfecting the way they murder someone.

A sociopath is neurotic, and have a tendency toward self-harm, and have thought patterns that go back to their abusive/traumatic past.
They feel inadequate, a low sense of self... but like psychopaths, this drives them to "prove" they are perfect, even if it means killing.
---

There is such a thing a "functioning psychopath" though.
Most, if not all, billionaires are functioning psychopaths.
They haven't murdered their way to the top, but they have stepped on, screwed over, and damaged pretty much everyone they meet to get to where they are.
They feel no remorse about those that have been hurt by their actions and simply cannot see the trail of destruction behind them, and see only one thing: They got to where they are, because they're damned good at what they do.

---

Ok... might take me a while, but I'll have a think about a genuine psychopath and sociopath portrayal in movies

__________________

Definitely Harry Lime in The Third Man, a character who only got one scene where he had any dialogue at length, but was still summed up perfectly in the conversation on the ferris wheel:




"Look down there. Tell me. Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you twenty thousand pounds for every dot that stopped, would you really, old man, tell me to keep my money, or would you calculate how many dots you could afford to spare? Free of income tax, old man. Free of income tax - the only way you can save money nowadays."

Great post! I've heard it stated several times before but I'm still not sure about this though:



Doesn't this sound like how most toddlers can behave in certain situations? Seems to me that all children are initially quite selfish and have to learn how to relate to others appropriately through testing the limits of their behavior toward others and adjusting accordingly. Not to say that all disorders are results of bad parenting. More that some children for whatever reason need above average parenting to become functional adults, and when that's not available trouble awaits.

Wonder what the professor thought of Mickey and Mallory Knox, or Earley Grayce.

Yeah it's true about toddlers acting selfish, but that's just human nature.

Look at all the other apes and primates, whether chimps or gorillas or even those Macaque monkeys in Asia... they're selfish, controlling, they steal stuff and fight over anything and everything.
Toddlers are basically chimps

But with guidance a child can learn to be empathetic, can learn compassion when shown, and can be taught moral behaviour... those that simply won't or can't, or pretend they are learning not to hurt others, or simply cannot grasp the concept of feeling anything except what matters to them on a personal level, grow up to be Bezos, Zuck and Branson... or end up in jail for serial murders.

We're all basically chimps... at any age.

Humans... and how I love you talking monkeys for this... know more about war and treachery of the spirit than any angel.

- Lucifer in The Prophecy (1995)