Psychopath or Sociopath?
Is Bud a psychopath or a sociopath?
shareSociopathy is a form of psychosis (psychopathy), so yep, he fits the bill! I think that Wagner was quite good in getting that across, especially for a film of the 1950's.
shareCorrection: A psychopath has nothing to do with psychosis, which state includes episodes of full-blown hallucinations, delusions and other highly nonfunctional behavior. Sociopath is just an updated name for a psychopath, who are fully functioning and look like your nextdoor neighbor but lack empathy. It is not a mental illness but a personality disorder belonging to a fair number of successful businessmen and other me-firsters. I haven't seen the film but the usual American faux pas on big screen and tv to this day is to depict a psychopath ( = sociopath, a.k.a later "antisocial disorder") and call him "psychotic" as in suffering psychosis -- whereas the two don't go together at all.
shareApparently only Americans are subject to this faux pas, which is ironically in French.
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