Psychopath The Psychopaths in Caroline Roberts’ Novel the Lost Girl

altered by his experiences, he does not embody a single idea or quality but it much more complex, his responses take us by surprise. From the explaination about character above, the character of Fred and Rose West are type of round character because the portrayal of their character is described with more detail and complex through the whole story of the novel. Her thoughts, feelings, actions and attitudes are changed and also his responses take us by surprise. Fred and Rose West suddenly become cruel people when they attack and torture their victim but for a while they also can become very nice people.

c. Psychopath

Psychopath is a mental disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity and deceptiveness. Psychopath currently labeled as antisocial personality disorder, but the term psychopath was replaced since 1952 with sociopath in the DSM Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder II 1968 and officially named sociopath. Though lacking empathy and emotional depth, they often manage to pass themselves off as average individuals by feigning emotions and lying about their past. Halgin and Susan Krauss 1997:310 recognized this disorder as a defect of “moral character.” Widespread publicity still is given to this disorder, particularly when it is reflected in violent crime. Consider the case of Ted Bundy, a serial killer who sexually assaulted and ruthlessly murdered several dozen women, yet was able to deceive people with his charming style. Bundy committed these brutal acts without concern for right or wrong, and without remorse for his deeds. Fred and Rose West, as if Ted Bundy, are people who were able to treat somebody very Universitas Sumatera Utara stingy. They are able to torture, kill, rape, mutilate and then mutilate them with no fear. Most cases of antisocial personality disorder are far less extreme than that of Ted Bundy, yet all share a lack of concern for what is right or wrong. People with this disorder wreak havoc in our society, and for this reason they have been the focus of a great deal of research. Antisocial personality disorder is disturbingly common, with an estimated lifetime prevalence of 4.5 percent of adult males and 8 percent of adult females in the United States. Halgin and Susan Krauss 1997:310 said that according to Robert Hare psychopathy remains a key concept in descriptions of antisocial personality disorder. Two sets of traits in particular stand out as central to the notion of psychopathy. The first set includes interpersonal and affective qualities, such as glibness and superficial charm, a grandiose sense of self-worth, a tendency toward pathological lying, lack of empathy for others, lack of remorse, and unwillingness to accept responsibility for one’s own actions. The second key set of traits revolves around impulsivity, a characteristic that can lead to behaviors expressed in an unstable lifestyle, juvenile delinquency, early behavioral problems, lack of realistic long term goals, and a need for constant stimulation. These antisocial behaviors are likely to be linked with a history of alcohol and drug abuse. Psychopath or antisocial personality disorder has a history of failing to comply with social norms. They perform actions most of us would find unacceptable, such as stealing from friends and family. They also tend to be irresponsible, impulsive, deceitful, and unable to sustain co-operative relationships with others or cope with the ordinary demands of living. Barlow in his book Abnormal Psychology described that psychopaths are often being aggressive because they take what they Universitas Sumatera Utara want, indifferent to concerns of other people. Lying and cheating seem to be second nature to them, and often they appear unable to tell the difference the truth and the lies they make up to further their own goal. They show no remorse or concern over the sometimes devastating effects of their actions. They also felt no sympathy, no feeling for the pain that he caused, and do not care about the effect of their behavior. These characteristics are sometimes referred to as the Harvey Cleckey criteria and include: Superficial charm and good intelligence; absence of delusions and other signs of irrational thinking; absence of ‘nervousness’ and other psychoneurotic manifestations, unreliability; untruthfulness and insincerity, lack of remorse or shame; inadequately motivated antisocial behavior; poor judgment and failure to learn by experience; pathologic egocentricity and incapacity for love; general poverty in major affective reactions; specific loss of insight; unresponsiveness in general interpersonal relations; fantastic and uninviting behavior, with drink and without; suicide rarely carried out; sex life impersonal, trivial and poorly integrated; failure to follow any life plan. Cleckey, 1982, p. 204 The problematic characteristics of people with antisocial personality disorder are enduring in nature. That is their problems begin in childhood and continue throughout most of their adulthood. As children, many of them had serious problems with impuls control, the ability to restrain the gratification of one’s immediate needs or desires, and were regarded as having a conduct disorder. Children with conduct disorder get in trouble at home, in school and in their neighborhood. The more frequent and diverse the childhood antisocial acts are, the more likely the individual is to have a life-long pattern of antisocial disorder. Barlow 1995:533-534 explains that the causes of antisocial personality disorder are from biological dimension: genetic influences, family, twin, and adoption studies all suggest a genetic influence on both antisocial personality Universitas Sumatera Utara disorder and criminality. Derek Russell Davis in his book An introduction to psychopathology, explains that the causes of the disorder among others: external agents affecting the brain directly, e.g. alcohol, drug or violence producing injury; and events and circumstances outside the person which compose his experience. From the explanation about Psychopath above, the causes of Psychopath to the character of Fred and Rose West are: first because of the drugs, it was explained when Rose’s mother was consumed ECT to suffer from depression. It caused prenatal injury to Rose and she grew up into a moody teenager and performed poorly at school. Rose also worked as a prostitute. The second because of the environment or experience, Fred and Rose had a bad memory about their parents when they were child, Fred saw his father had sex with his daughters, Fred also sexually abuse by her mother and Rose sexually abused by her father. Universitas Sumatera Utara CHAPTER III METHOD OF STUDY

3.1 Source of Data