Psychopaths are defined and well known as maniacs who have no emotions. They tend to hurt others, do illegitimate things, and break peace and order within a society. These kinds of human beings have been introduced a lot of times by the media through movie characters such as the Joker, Hannibal Lector, or Norman Bates. However, none are as close as the actual psychopaths in the real world; they merely depict serial killers in movies to create tension. I wanted to figure out how psychopaths behave and decided to compare myself with “Alex Delarge,” a well-regarded psychopath character from the novel “Clockwork Orange.” The contrast between myself and him will tell us more about psychopaths and cold-blooded human beings.
To give a little background on Alex, he is a gang leader and is obsessed with sexual relationships and criminal activities. Breaking in, harassing, and killing are everything in his job category. To begin with, Alex seems to feel nothing after harming others. He sings songs while doing criminal activities, and he randomly kills people without any thoughts or hesitation. Ordinary people, which I consider myself to be, would have feelings of anger, guilt, or even nervousness, but Alex seems to remain unusually calm and skeptical. The fact that he acts this way shows me that psychopaths have no guidance and thoughts about right or wrong; they behave according to their desire. They do not consider how their actions could end up, nor if what they do is right or wrong. Secondly, Alex never changes even after the Ludovico technique. The Ludovico technique is a project to eliminate men’s sexual desires, but really, it is a form of torture, making patients go crazy and delusional. Alex seems to be healed after the treatment, refusing women and sexual tools. However, when he gets back to society after the project crashes, he tries to get his gang back and even attempts to murder and harass strangers on the streets. If I were to take the Ludovico technique, I would have been wholly traumatized, never thinking about criminal activities. Since torture does not affect his mindset, I realized that psychopaths like him could never change as they do not feel guilt or are impacted.
While reading the novel, many people would have been scared of Alex, and I felt frightened and distant. Although I tried putting myself in Alex’s shoes, I couldn’t understand him. Antisocial personality disorder is always best to be prevented, but the disorder is very complicated to simply prevent. There isn’t a cure for psychopaths in modern society; however, medication and therapies have been developed to take care of psychopaths. Scientists should aim to find treatments so that psychopaths can become human beings with emotions.
By: Jinha Hwang