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Case Study 3: An analysis of mental illness linked to crime
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An in-depth analysis of the subject, Patrick and his crimes. Analyzes if crime is linked to mental illness.
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1Casebook 3
Rosalee Otaki
PSY0010
July 18, 2021
, 2
The study of serial killers and mass killers as well as the possible reasoning to crimes,
mental illness or even type of killer has been a very large source of popularity in the film
industry for a number of decades. Although many terms are used in unison in the industry, they
are very different. Sociopaths are generally very capricious while psychopaths are the opposite
and generally feel no emotion but can mimic them (Sacco, 2021). The movie American Psycho’s
mains character, Patrick Bateman, will be analyzed to determine if he is a sociopath or
psychopath, a mass killer or serial killer, what drove him to kill and if he shows signs of
antisocial personality disorder.
The classification of sociopaths or psychopaths can sometimes be difficult to place as
some killers might show signs of both, some might be impulsive while having an easy time
manipulating others (Sacco, 2021). Patrick Bateman happens to show signs of both but leans
more towards psychopathy. During the course of the film, Patrick seems to be going through the
motions of life with a lack of emotion until he can no longer hold his façade. He is very
manipulative as a psychopath can be but shows various erratic reactions while killing or leading
up to his killings (Sacco, 2021). Patrick was in constant need of various stimulants including
drugs and sex while working as a Wall Street businessman which fed his need. Although Patrick
was educated and had a very strong employment path, he was consistently reactive and made
abrupt decisions similar to a sociopath (Sacco, 2021).
Patrick did show signs of antisocial personality disorder in multiple scenes in the movie
including his abrupt reactions to situations leading to killing as with the scene where Patrick kills
a woman on the street for asking him what he was doing to a cat at an ATM. Patrick showed a
lack of planning during his killings especially one scene with the prostitutes as one run from the
scene and his initial reaction is to run after her with a chainsaw (Sacco, 2021). Patrick is shown
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