AnimeSuki Forum - View Single Post - Psycho-Pass

merakses · 2013-03-08, 13:03

I think that we're being a bit too hasty in concluding that criminally asymptomatic=sociopath who committed crimes. Outside of Sybil, we've only seen three asymptomatic people. Of them, Touma is clearly a psychopath/sociopath, and Akane is clearly not; while Makishima might seem like one, let's try and check him with an official test like PCL-R:

Factor 1: Personality "Aggressive narcissism"
Glibness/superficial charm - true
Grandiose sense of self-worth - probably true
Pathological lying - false: I can't remember a part in the show where Makishima lied.
Conning/manipulative - well, he certainly is cunning, but the same thing as above applies for the manipulativeness; so 50/50 on this one
Lack of remorse or guilt - true
Shallow affect (genuine emotion is short-lived and egocentric) - debatable, but let's assume true (although I do think that he genuinely liked both Choe gu-song (they were friends for a long time) and Senguji (Makishima seemed impressed at his decision to stay and fight Kogami after the latter got a Dominator)
Callousness; lack of empathy - true
Failure to accept responsibility for own actions - false (episode 11: he is aware that his actions may lead to being shot by Akane and completely accepts that as an outcome)
Factor 2: Case history "Socially deviant lifestyle".
Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom - most likely true
Parasitic lifestyle - no information; but this is pretty much inapplicable in a system governed by Sybil (no obvious way to use connections/manipulation), so I'm leaning more to 'false' here.
Poor behavioral control - false
Lack of realistic long-term goals - false ("I want to witness the splendor of the human soul. I want to see and check if it really is valuable.")
Impulsivity - false
Irresponsibility - most likely false
Juvenile delinquency - unknown
Early behavior problems - unknown
Revocation of conditional release - inapplicable under Sybil
Traits not correlated with either factor:
Promiscuous sexual behavior - unknown, but probably false
Many short-term (marital) relationships - false, as far as we know
Criminal versatility (a diversity of types of criminal offenses, regardless if the person has been arrested or convicted for them; taking great pride at getting away with crimes.) - we've only really seen him murder (or help others murder), and I don't really think that he feels anything about the act itself; so false
Acquired behavioural sociopathy/sociological conditioning (Item 21: a newly identified trait i.e., a person relying on sociological strategies and tricks to deceive) - not sure what exactly is meant here; once again, I don't really think that Makishima has openly 'deceived' anybody up to this point, but I'm not sure that this is all the meaning contains. I'm neutral on this one.

For anybody who's keeping count, that's 6 true, 8 false (some aren't 100% sure, but still) and 7 unknown/undecided/inapplicable. Make what you want of this result.

Also, studies (I could look up the exact names if you want) have shown that from a general sample, about 0,5% are potential psychopaths (scored 13+ on the PCL:SV, a simplified version of the PCL:R). If I remember correctly, criminally asymptomatic people were rarer that 1/1000000 = 0.000001%, which is ...less. All of this (and Akane) leads me to believe that the criteria that defines criminally asymptomatic people is more complex than ASPD, psychopathy, sociopathy or something like that.

P.S. Also, I don't know how many members did Sybil have at it's inception, but I find it unlikely that any of them were criminals. All in all, there is too much of the big picture we aren't being told: When was Sybil created(it was at least 50 years back, but how long exactly)? How many people were originally in it? How were they chosen? When and how was the first asymptomatic person found? I sincerely hope that Uro eventually gives an answer to at least some of these questions.

2013-03-08, 13:03	Link #70
merakses Member Join Date: Mar 2013	I think that we're being a bit too hasty in concluding that criminally asymptomatic=sociopath who committed crimes. Outside of Sybil, we've only seen three asymptomatic people. Of them, Touma is clearly a psychopath/sociopath, and Akane is clearly not; while Makishima might seem like one, let's try and check him with an official test like PCL-R: Factor 1: Personality "Aggressive narcissism" Glibness/superficial charm - true Grandiose sense of self-worth - probably true Pathological lying - false: I can't remember a part in the show where Makishima lied. Conning/manipulative - well, he certainly is cunning, but the same thing as above applies for the manipulativeness; so 50/50 on this one Lack of remorse or guilt - true Shallow affect (genuine emotion is short-lived and egocentric) - debatable, but let's assume true (although I do think that he genuinely liked both Choe gu-song (they were friends for a long time) and Senguji (Makishima seemed impressed at his decision to stay and fight Kogami after the latter got a Dominator) Callousness; lack of empathy - true Failure to accept responsibility for own actions - false (episode 11: he is aware that his actions may lead to being shot by Akane and completely accepts that as an outcome) Factor 2: Case history "Socially deviant lifestyle". Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom - most likely true Parasitic lifestyle - no information; but this is pretty much inapplicable in a system governed by Sybil (no obvious way to use connections/manipulation), so I'm leaning more to 'false' here. Poor behavioral control - false Lack of realistic long-term goals - false ("I want to witness the splendor of the human soul. I want to see and check if it really is valuable.") Impulsivity - false Irresponsibility - most likely false Juvenile delinquency - unknown Early behavior problems - unknown Revocation of conditional release - inapplicable under Sybil Traits not correlated with either factor: Promiscuous sexual behavior - unknown, but probably false Many short-term (marital) relationships - false, as far as we know Criminal versatility (a diversity of types of criminal offenses, regardless if the person has been arrested or convicted for them; taking great pride at getting away with crimes.) - we've only really seen him murder (or help others murder), and I don't really think that he feels anything about the act itself; so false Acquired behavioural sociopathy/sociological conditioning (Item 21: a newly identified trait i.e., a person relying on sociological strategies and tricks to deceive) - not sure what exactly is meant here; once again, I don't really think that Makishima has openly 'deceived' anybody up to this point, but I'm not sure that this is all the meaning contains. I'm neutral on this one. For anybody who's keeping count, that's 6 true, 8 false (some aren't 100% sure, but still) and 7 unknown/undecided/inapplicable. Make what you want of this result. Also, studies (I could look up the exact names if you want) have shown that from a general sample, about 0,5% are potential psychopaths (scored 13+ on the PCL:SV, a simplified version of the PCL:R). If I remember correctly, criminally asymptomatic people were rarer that 1/1000000 = 0.000001%, which is ...less. All of this (and Akane) leads me to believe that the criteria that defines criminally asymptomatic people is more complex than ASPD, psychopathy, sociopathy or something like that. P.S. Also, I don't know how many members did Sybil have at it's inception, but I find it unlikely that any of them were criminals. All in all, there is too much of the big picture we aren't being told: When was Sybil created(it was at least 50 years back, but how long exactly)? How many people were originally in it? How were they chosen? When and how was the first asymptomatic person found? I sincerely hope that Uro eventually gives an answer to at least some of these questions.