Meursault as a Sociopath?
In class it was brought up that
Meursault might be a sociopath and of course being the expert I was since I
watched the whole Shane Dawson series I was intrigued and decided to actually
do some research on how sociopaths are diagnosed. From visiting a couple of
sites on Google here are the characteristics I gathered:
- Glibness-superficial charm
- Grandiose sense of self-worth
- Need for stimulation
- Pathological lying
- Conning-manipulative
- Lack of remorse or guilt
- Shallow affect
- Callous-lack of empathy
- Parasitic lifestyle
- Poor behavior controls
- Promiscuous sexual behavior
- Lack of realistic, long-term goals
- Impulsivity
- Irresponsibility
- Failure to accept responsibility
- Many marital relationships
- Criminal versatility
The
implication of diagnosing Meursault as a sociopath is that we must interpret
his actions throughout the book quite differently. No longer is his tone and
mannerism neutral, but instead demonstrative of his callous-lack of empathy.
Take, for instance, this anecdote about a diagnosed sociopath who let a baby possum drown in her
swimming pool because she couldn't be bothered to fish it out with the net. If
Meursault is indeed a sociopath we cannot pass off his “neutrality” towards
Salmano’s treatment of the dog as normal and equate it to Marie’s verbal and
emotional response, instead it can be argued that Meursault clearly
demonstrates a sociopath’s lack of empathy for the dog.
In
my opinion the most important implication of diagnosing Meursault is the
reading of the murder scene. After the murder the lawyers try to explain the
murder with logic and reason and in our class discussions we have tried to explain
the murder, concluding the only “logical” reason must be that the sun made him
do it. However, if Meursault is a sociopath the spontaneous and illogical
murder makes complete sense because it is an illogical murder carried out by a
sociopath. If a sociopath is narrating this novel it is incredibly hard to
truly understand their actions because they can’t be understood by regular
minds nor can their narrative be trusted and by trying to rationalize their
behavior we can end up misleading ourselves. The judge tries to do this because
he does not care about an Arab’s murder but that pause and four bullets take Meursault’s
behavior from being possibly justifiable to the behavior of an unremorseful
sociopath.
Wow, that list of characteristics is right on for Meursault. I think you’re totally right that many of his actions can be better understood when his sociopathic characteristics are considered, and that almost brings a sense of relief, to have some explanation for his behavior. I wonder if it was Camus' intention for Meursault to be a sociopath. Great post!
ReplyDeleteMany of that list do apply to Meursault and that description of the diagnosed sociopath sounds exactly like something he would do. However, there are some parts of that list that don't really apply. Pathological lying, self-worth, conning-manipulative, parasitic lifestyle, irresponsibility, many marital relationships and criminal versatility don't really apply to Meursault as we see him often just tell the truth, live on his own, not care enough to get married, work hard enough to get promoted, not really care about himself and we have only ever seen him commit one crime. I think definitely that he is partially a sociopath, but I am not certain that he would be fully diagnosed as one.
ReplyDeleteAlthough there are quite a few things on that list you gave that are not Meursault - he has close to no superficial charm - the possibility of Meursault being a sociopath seems possible. I agree that if Meursault were indeed diagnosed as a sociopath, the murder would be explained. But what about the various sensations that Meursault is assaulted by directly before he pulls the trigger? Is it possible that he has some other, underlying psychological issue?
ReplyDeleteI agree, I do think he is a psychopath. A lot of the point that you made made sense. He does not seem to show emotion. Even at his mothers funeral he seemed pretty chill. Some of the things that are listed do not agree with. For example the list says that psychopaths are lier's. One of Meursault's character traits is that he refuses to lie. He could have easily lied about what happened when he killed the person but the refused to.
ReplyDeleteI don't mean to to justify murder or refute the great observations you made but here is a devil's advocate view:
ReplyDeleteI think branding him as a "sociopath" is dangerous territory. Isn't that just another way that society judges people. If his mind does work different why is that wrong, and why does that have to fit into a diagnoses? If we write of his actions as sociopath behavior doesn't it enforce the chaplain's view that meursault is just a criminal and misses the complexity. The whole way we talk about brain function and morality in this book makes me uncomfortable. Often we say there is something "wrong" with him, and his mind has a disorder, or broken. I'm not sure that is a healthy way to characterize someone, and it could dismiss his philosophical ideas
I agree that these characteristics fit Meursault's persona perfectly; he does have absurd behaviors throughout the book and his thought process is just not normal. We can see that he is very impulsive with his decision-making and does not really seem to take responsibility for his actions.
ReplyDeleteI think Meursault does have some sociopathic tendencies but I don't necessarily think he is one. His lack of emotion, empathy, and remorse point to him being one but we don't ever see him lie or manipulate people. I do think he has some kind of disorder though.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't think Meursault classifies as 100% sociopath. I get that his lack of involvement in addressing Salamano's abuse of his dog can be seen as lacking empathy. However, I didn't feel all of the characteristics fit with Meursault as a character. For one, he isn't a pathological liar or doesn't have a grandiose sense of self worth. I would even say that Meursault is actually more honest as when given the opportunity to lie at the trial, he doesn't or when Marie asks him outright about his feelings, he's blunt about his apathy. I do think there's something wrong with Meursault emotionally but I felt sociopathy isn't the problem.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely see some sociopathic tendencies in Meursault. It blew my mind how he killed a man and didn't seem to feel any legitimate remorse for his actions. I do wonder if he fully understood the magnitude of what he did, or if he even cared. I doubt that Camus himself created Meursault's character with a sociopath in mind, but I do think that in a lot of ways your list of characteristics can be applied to him, and wonder if he would be classified as a sociopath in today's time period.
ReplyDelete