Psychopathy

Hollywood takes creative license when portraying psychopathy, often with confusing results. In the movie Seven, the killer, played by Kevin Spacey, is portrayed as a psychopath who is also motivated for religious reasons. John Goodman’s character in 10 Cloverfield Lane is portrayed as person who is evil, mentally ill, and psychopathic, leaving the viewer to sort out his personality and mental state. Hannibal Lecter, portrayed by Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs, is portrayed as a cunning, sadistic psychopath who also enjoys fava beans and chianti.

At its core, psychopathy is about control over others. At its core, mental illness is about depression, suicidal ideations, incoherent thought processes, hallucinations, and a host of other troubling symptoms. As a forensic psychology professional, you must be able to differentiate between psychopathy and mental illness and not let Hollywood—or anything else—cloud your thinking.

For this Assignment, you will take on the role of a forensic psychology professional preparing a brief paper to serve as an example of an analysis of psychopathy to share with future clients. To accomplish this, you will analyze a character in a movie to determine if they are mentally ill (e.g., psychotic) or if they have a mental disorder (e.g., psychopathy).

Assignment (3- to 5-page paper, double spaced and APA formatted, not including references, title page, or abstract)

Address the following in your Assignment:

Describe the film you selected.

Describe the subject you selected.

Describe the characteristics of the subject that could be considered criminal.

Provide an overall summary of the subject, describing their background (e.g., education, occupation, relationship history, psychological history).

Determine if the subject is mentally ill (e.g., psychotic) or has a mental disorder (e.g., psychopathy). Explain your rationale and provide examples to illustrate your points.

Your conclusions should be supported with scholarly evidence from your research and/or the Learning Resources and properly cited using APA style. 

The movie I would like to use is the silence of the lambs...