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and violation of, the rights of others American Psychiatric Association, 2000:645. A person can be diagnosed as having antisocial personality disorder if he or she is
indicated by three or more of the characteristics of antisocial personality disorder American Psychiatric Association, 2000: 649. There are seven criteria of antisocial
personality disorder according to American Psychiatric Association 2000: 649-650, which are failure to conform social norms, deceitfulness, impulsivity, irritability and
aggressiveness, reckless disregard for safety of self and others, constant irresponsibility, and lack of remorse. The researcher finds out that Amy Dunne is
indicated to have antisocial personality disorder because her actions and behaviors show six criteria of antisocial personality disorder. The further explanation, which is
concentrated on Amy’s actions and behaviors that reflect on her personality disorder, will be discussed in the below section.
1. Failure to Conform Social Norms
The first characteristic of antisocial personality disorder is the failure to conform social norms. People who are diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder
find it hard to obey rules. They do not really care about law or social norms. They tend to break it. That is the reason why people with antisocial personality disorder
usually have criminal records Duggan, et al, 2008: 17. In Gone Girl, Amy shows several actions and behaviors which reflect her
failure to conform the social norms. Amy’s action that shows her failure to conform the social norms is shown when she prepares to frame her husband. She knows that
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she will be in the run for quite long time. Therefore, she has to prepare a lot of money in cash. It is impossible for her to purchase by using the credit card since it can be
tracked down. Amy starts to steal money bit by bit from his husband’s pocket and also from tip jar in her husband’s bar. This case can be seen clearly in the below
quotation. I have 10,200 in cash. If I’d cleared out 10,200 in a month, that would have
been noticed. But I collected cash forwards from credit cards I took out in Nick’s name – the cards that would make him like a greedy little cheat – and I
siphoned off another 4,400 from our bank accounts over the months: withdrawals of 200 or 300, nothing to attract attention. I stole from Nick,
from his pockets, a 20 here, a 10 there, a slow deliberate stockpile – it’s like that budgeting plan where you put the money you’d spend on your morning
Starbucks into a jar, and at the end of the year you have 1,500. And I’d always steal from the tip jar when I went to The Bar.
Flynn, 2012: 276 The failure to conform social norms is not only shown by doing something
that breaks the law. Amy also acts impolite to her new friend. Greta, her new friend in her hiding, watches television that shows the news of her missing. Amy waits Greta
to compliment her appearance on television, but instead of compliment her, Greta mentions Amy as ‘spoiled rich girl’ and ‘Bitchy’ Flynn, 2012: 298. This kind of
comment is not expected by Amy since she wants to be seen as ‘low-maintenance, easygoing, and cheerful’. Because Greta’s comment does not fulfill her expectation,
Amy spits on her beverages and cereal in the fridge when Greta is away. This kind of actions is obviously impolite and inappropriate according to social norms. Yet, Amy
still does it because she cannot accept Greta’s comment about her appearance on the television.
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In her hideout, Amy cannot use credit card since it can be tracked. That is why she has to save a lot of cash money so she can live well until her husband is fully
framed. She asks for a job to the owner of the cabin where she hides. One of her new friends, Jeff, offers her a job. The job is to steal catfishes from a restaurant’s tank and
sell them. Amy does not mind doing it. She joins Jeff because she is interested in earning money by stealing the catfishes. It is shown by her line “How many women
can say they were part of a fish-smuggling ring?” Flynn, 2012: 321. Here, she shows that she does not mind breaking the law or social norm as long as she gets
profits from it. Amy’s failure to conform social norms is not only shown on simple things.
She even does something that harms other people. It is seen clearly below. Police have been dispatched to Desi’s home, where they’ll find him naked and
drained, a stunned look on his face, a few strands of my hair in his clutches, the bed soaked in blood. The knife I used on him, and on my bonds, will be
nearly on the floor where I dropped it, dazed, and walked barefoot, carrying nothing out of the house but his keys – to the car, to the gate –
and climbed still slick with his blood, into his vintage Jaguar and returned like some long-lost faithful pet, straight back home to my
husband.
Flynn, 2012: 417 In the quotation above, it is clearly seen that Amy does not mind killing
people. In order to escape from Desi, she kills him with a knife. After killing him, she even steals his car and pretends to be ‘long-lost faithful pet’ so she can remain
innocent in front of other people. From some points above, it can be concluded that Amy is indicated to have failure to conform social norms, i.e. stealing, spitting on
other people’s food and killing people.
