Other misconceptions due to pop culture stereotypes are that psychopaths are always men, always criminals and completely lack emotions, none of which is medically accurate. Psychopaths are automatically presumed to be intelligent, cunning and sophisticated, an assumption that is not only inaccurate but paints a picture of only one possible fate for people suffering ASPD. Haskins explains, “Media showing attention to these things makes people think maybe they will receive the same attention for doing similar actions.”Ĭinematic portrayals of psychopaths are also harmful because they seriously mischaracterize those who truly have ASPD. Additionally, it creates bizarre standards of desirability and skews perceptions of what is acceptable behavior. This romanticization can be especially harmful to victims of abuse or assault, seeing characters who may resemble their abusers not only being glorified but also defended and forgiven. (Goldberg stalks and murders his love interests, and Jacobs blackmails and assaults peers to satisfy his sexual depravity, yet both are seen as desirable.) According to senior Stella Haskins, this is likely because “in today’s culture, people are fascinated by shocking and disturbing things… It’s more interesting in media for someone to be violent than for someone to be a good person.” Senior Stella Hofferman seconds this understanding, adding, “writers subtly encourage their audience to sympathize with these characters.”

In current culture, people are letting traits like intelligence, attractiveness, or sad backgrounds act as a pass for murder and assault. This obsession is also mirrored in infatuation for the equally attractive and inhuman fictional characters of Nate Jacobs and Joe Goldberg, a behavior that may not be as harmful as those relating to Bundy or Dahmer, but is still quite problematic and unsettling. Teenage girls continue to express their love for Bundy through social media, such as a TikTok trend where they pretend to be his victim. This behavior has been broadly translated into modern culture. Both men received thousands of love letters, proposals, and gifts from lovestruck female fans who seemed more than willing to dissociate horrific violent crimes from an attractive face. This phenomenon was brought into the spotlight during the trials of serial killers Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer. The romanticization of violent personas especially has endured as a historical oddity.

While modern representations are presented as more complex and refined, evidenced by characters such as You ’s Joe Goldberg, Euphoria ’s Nate Jacobs and Gone Girl ’s Amy Dunne, traditional issues with their depictions persist-specifically mischaracterization of ASPD and romanticization of violent behavior. With the widespread infamy of serial killers Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy, public perception of an obsession with psychopaths further evolved, characterized as high-functioning, intelligent and attractive. As medical and social understanding improved in following decades, psychopathy took form in characters of the likes of Psycho ’s Norman Bates, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest ’s Nurse Ratched, and East of Eden ’s Cathy Ames (although it should be noted these characters were only recently officially diagnosed due to a more concrete understanding of the condition). Some of the first representations of psychopathy in media were in the early 20th century, a term horridly misused to describe homosexuals, the unemployed and hypersexual women.

People who have this disorder are typically callous, manipulative and drawn to criminality, yet often give the semblance of normality or charm, a major reason why psychopathic characters in the media draw so much intrigue-a strange fascination that has extended over centuries. Psychopathy, sometimes referred to as antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), is a term used to describe a psychological condition characterized by a lack of empathy and conscience. But for some reason, these reasonable social expectations have not managed to extend to movies or television, where characters distinguished by these psychopathic tendencies are seen as enviable, attractive and even erotic. In modern society, a person who blackmails, stalks, assaults, tortures, rapes, or murders their peers would not typically be someone you would want to associate with, much less sexualize and glorify. Luke Leiden, Webmaster and Social Media Director | November 24, 2020

Nate euphoria psychopath