The film American Psycho and HPD

KX,

OK, I tried to watch American Psycho keeping the basic HPD criteria in mind. For those of you who (like me) have been living on another continent the past 15 years and missed it...

American Psycho is about a 27-year-old Wall Street exec who can't seem to control the urge to go out and kill people.

He is very much obsessed with his looks, physique and manner of dress, and shows no empathy whatsoever in his dealings with people. (check and double-check!)

I guess murdering people in cold blood counts as a lack of empathy, but I have a hard time seeing how he manages to hack so many bodies, sever so many heads and spill so much blood without so much as staining his Cerruti 1881 suits or breaking out in a sweat. But suspension of disbelief is certainly required in a movie where a mere gunshot at 100 metres is enough to blow a police car sky-high, and leaving a bloody trail behind a body being dragged through an apartment lobby causes nary a stir.

What other clues to HPD can we find?
Low tolerance for frustration? He'll feel like murdering you if he finds out your business card is flashier than his. If you really piss him off, he'll chase you with a roaring chainsaw buck naked though the apartment and down the hall.

Funny, didn't wake the neighbours. Must have been heavy sleepers.

Rapidly shifting emotional states? He goes from nice guy to axe murderer in as much time as it takes to slip on a raincoat so the blood doesn't splash on the suit. (oh right, that's how he stayed clean that one time...)

I could go through the list... but those are the three that pop out the most, and besides, I promised myself I'd spend no more than 20 minutes on this.

If you have absolutely no imagination and need to see a cartoon-like depiction of some but not all of the traits ascribed to those with HPD, then I'd say go rent it.

Otherwise KX, I'm still not convinced that movies are an accurate enough depiction of real life to be of much value in the general discussion of personality disorders. Then again, I've still got a few more movies on your list to check out.

That was one of the movies I never vouched for but said I'd heard described NPD ie Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Not HPD.

I was told American Psycho at the end was discovered just to be the guy's fantasy not what he actually did ie the murders.

Blue Sky I can vouch for though as I've watched it.

It is an excellent portrayel of Histrionic Personality Disorder.

It's about a NPD. Thats been stated by the author. But even more then that it's about a phsychotic narcissistic sadist serial killer in high society new york in the 1980's.

Realisticly and from a criminal phsychology and profiling standpoint none of it fits together and his actions would be that of about 4 different personality types. Bateman is a combination of Bundy, Dahmer and Chikatilo with no MO. He lure's female high class prosisitutes. Then he approches a homeless man, then he kill's a child in the zoo. Knife, gun, chainsaw, axe. Impulsive then controlled. Some you can take as narcissistic injury others compleatly random. I mean one's a personality disorder and the other is a serial murderer. Bateman happens to be both.

It's just a movie/book and dosent portray anything well.

But one hell of a book none the less.

>damn< (Slaps head)

NPD. Sorry, KX, I was going from memory.

I'll check out Blue Sky and get back to you.

Just saw a French movie (Bon Voyage) in which the leading character is a very typical Hpd. She is self-centered, shallow, vain, and manipulates, lies, cries and destroys all men around her for her selfish interests. Along the way, because she is also gullible, she gets attached to the wrong people who are not as naive as the typical hpd-victim.
It's a 2003 movie with Isabelle Adjani (the hpd), and Gerard Depardieu. (In French with English subtitles)
I'm sure many dvd rental places would carry it.
Aside its value for hpds and victims, it's a good movie also.

Olson wrote:... his actions would be that of about 4 different personality types.

DID?

If he had a dissasociative identity disorder he would have distinctly different personalities and the main charecter would "lose time". I think they just threw $#%^ together for entertainment purposes.