Was he really amnesiac?

There was a man of double deed is a poem that has been used in teaching children preparing to sit their SAT exams. Emphasis is put on the TONE of the poem as being of victimhood.
Paul Spector did suffer from amnesia relating to the period he committed the crimes but recognised that there were overwhelming reasons why he acted in such a barbaric way - his past. His only hope of some sort of future was a "cure" for his condition and acceptance by Society that his actions were driven by this condition, a catastrophic mental disorder. The doctor ruled out "cure" and Stella ruled out "acceptance". He now knows this is the end and takes out his revenge on Society, represented by a goading, disbelieving and completely heartless Stella.
He now knows he must find a way of leaving this "visible" world to which he does not belong. In doing so he perpetrates an act of mercy by relieving the young man of his wretched existence. Both of them living in the "invisible" world. Those that suffer from the completely debilitated condition of chronic depression know all about this invisible world!
Paul Spector was as much a victim of existence as those he killed.
"He who loves not, abides in death". Stella pins this to the fridge as recognition that she shares this universal truth with Spector. He has relinquished his existence for it makes no difference. She is still suspended in death in this world. For both of them -
TWAS DEATH AND DEATH AND DEATH INDEED.

I always had doubts that he was really an amnesiac. Even before Stella and her team talked about the possibility. But I knew he was feigning when we see him take off his oxygen tube, get out of bed, and flex his neck and shoulders. He's a strong man, and he was testing himself, to see what he would be able to do when the time came.

Also, it's exactly the kind of thing the very smart and manipulative and narcissistic Paul Spector would do. Feign amnesia in order to, he hopes, help himself, pretend he's innocent, hope to manipulate the court system.

It's also apparent in the way he watched his nurse, who just happened to have the same kind of looks as all the women he killed: dark hair, young, pretty face. And kind to him. The kinder they are, the more he wants to destroy them, I think.

He's truly a monster. A great fictional character, and Jamie Dornan played him with just the right creepiness. He is scary and threatening in every scene, I think.

I posed this in another thread as well: Why wouldn't he just have pretended to have amnesia prior to that first death? As a matter of fact why not have amnesia that stretched back to prior to his meeting Rose Stagg?

No.

I think in the immediate aftermath of his physical trauma, his memory was foggy if not blank to some extent. He did have a near-death experience, was in a semi-coma, drugged along with blood loss so it's easy to believe that his memory was compromised. At first!

After all, he is a cold-blooded murderer. Not exactly the kind of memories he would want to pop into his mind immediately or work to remember. But the memories started to come back. For me, after the first interview and when his nurse left him after being upset at what his lawyers told him about what he was being charged with, Paul sits on the side of the bed, does a series of upper body stretches, testing his physical strength. That to me was when I knew the memory of who he was and what he did had come back to him. Paul, the serial killer was very STRONG. And he took pride in keeping up that brute strength.

But naturally, he was not going to give himself up. And being the egoistic psychopath that he was, he was going to string the police on indefinitely. But Stella was clever enough to beat him at his own game by finding a murder she could pin on him during the period he did remember.

So no... I really don't think he had real amnesia. I think that's what the clinician who read the test results was trying to tell the psychiatrist: there was no physical indication that would support amnesia.

Bottom line: he was malingering.

ZoneFighter I agree with you completely about Stella. I'd add to that...Stella had no room for compassion toward Paul. She gave it all to his victims and their families. Not to mention the countless hours spent inside his twisted mind in an effort to ensure a conviction and the absolute sacrifice of her whole life to get justice for the victims and survivors... that would be hard for even the most compassionate person to get past. As well as the incredible violation of her privacy and security when he broke into her hotel room and read her dream journal. And like another person said in this thread...Paul showed no remorse what-so-ever, so that's a mitigating factor in one's ability to look past the monster that someone becomes and instead only focus on how they got there. Another point to consider is that we don't really know exactly what her thoughts or feelings were about his childhood. The writers didn't give us that. My opinion is that her actions in the interrogation room were 100% motivated by the importance of showing him to be lying about the amnesia and not due to heartlessness on her part.

I had such an overwhelming sense of relief for her in that last scene, sitting in her own house. Finally free.

Should have been an avenging scene where Gibson knocked the *beep* out of Paul.