How to Recognize a Psychopath

[THP]

Hannibal Lecter is arguably the world's most famous psychopath. I know -- he's not real. Still, the anti-hero of "The Silence of the Lambs" embodies the chilling constellation of traits generally associated with this rare mental disorder. A highly-intelligent physician and psychiatrist, Lecter is superficially charming, even urbane -- at least when he's not cannibalizing his innocent victims. He is rarely emotional, and despite the brutality of his crimes, he shows absolutely no evidence of empathy or a guilty conscience.That's what makes psychopaths so mysterious and incomprehensible -- the lack of normal human feeling. How could somebody's child develop into that kind of merciless automaton? What did Hannibal Lecter's inner life feel like as he was growing up?More...

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