Summary Of Monsters And Men: The Psychopath Phenomenon

Of Monsters and Men: The Psychopath Phenomenon
Psychopaths became a hot topic in American pop culture during the 1980s and 90s, with the gruesome exploits of real life monsters such as Ed Gein and Ted Bundy being adapted for the silver screen with films like Silence of the Lambs and Friday the 13th setting the foundations for the serial killer thriller. This glorified image of the intelligent psychopath, the social outlier that has risen above the laws of the average human, has risen to become a part of popular culture myths. Instead of fearing these figures of cold indifference like we should, we idolize and covet the power they wield. The psychopath has come to replace the vengeful gods of myth within our popular culture. Modern nihilism
Psychopath’s brains biologically do not function the same way as everyone else’s, specifically in response to threats and emotional stimuli. A study carried out by in a 1994 prison population measured the cardiac, facial muscle, and electrodermal reactions of psychopathic and non psychopathic individuals in response to and found that subjects with low-psychopathy had more significantly higher responses to fearful imagery than the psychopathic subjects (Patrick 1994). More recent studies utilize electroencephalograms (EEGS) in order to monitor brain activity. Electroencephalograms (EEGs) done on certified psychopaths and non-psychopaths show certain areas of the brain do not physically react the same to emotional or physical stimuli. The standard human brain “tends to respond automatically, even reflexively, when processing oddball or salient target stimuli” (Kiehl, 92), but the psychopath’s brain has abnormal responses, typically not as strong. Their amygdala, which processes emotions and reactions to stimuli, does not process words with emotional connotations much differently than neutral words such as “kill” versus “table” (Kiehl, 114). They are not capable of feeling the remorse that comes to most naturally, freeing them from the moral obligation the rest of society is controlled by. Psychopaths do not have impulse control in how little they consider the
Yet whenever we watch their movies, it is typically not the heroes being hunted that we root for, but rather the killer. Hannibal Lecter is a perfect example of a bad guy that we love to hate, because he seems above the average person. He is highly intelligent, only targets the disrespectful, and seems unbeatable by law enforcement. Serial killers are the ultimate avengers, indiscriminately interfering in the lives of mere mortals. These characters let us imagine life without the constraints of laws and social norms and taboos. We can imagine a version of humanity where consequences of actions don’t need consideration or filtering what is acceptable to say becomes unnecessary. In this world, if someone annoys you in at work, just punch them in the face or tell them you hope they get hit by a bus. In reality, you just grin and bear it until you get home and work off your frustrations by binge-watching Criminal Minds. These figures transcend our social order, but it is important to note that this romanticization is almost entirely fictional. There are no charming serial killers like Hannibal Lecter who will quite literally wine and dine as Beethoven’s Goldenberg Trio plays along in the background. Real psychopaths are capable of acts of extreme cruelty and brutal murders that aren’t as easy to stomach as the artistic and censored representations we see on screen.