Psychological Profiles

[Flick James]

Does anybody have any tips for researching for a psychopathic/sociopathic character? For example, Thomas Harris, who created Hannibal Lechter, obviously knows a great deal about psychopathology. Great psychopathic characters need to have good depth and background to be truly disturbing and believable, even if the viewer doesn't know about it. I'm working on a central character for a script and I have some basic details, but I wonder what some good online resources are for researching psychopathology to give the character a better psychological profile. I'm sure I find some on my own but I figure somebody here might know a good go-to resource.

[ulthar]

Harris' Jack Crawford character was based on real-life FBI serial killer hunter John Douglas.  Douglas has written several books about his career (he's essentially the founder of the FBI's BSU, and did a larger proportion of the groundwork for classifying serial killers).  The two that I've read would be excellent resources for you.

Mind Hunter

and

Journey Into Darkness

John Douglas page at Amazon

[Flick James]

Harris' Jack Crawford character was based on real-life FBI serial killer hunter John Douglas.  Douglas has written several books about his career (he's essentially the founder of the FBI's BSU, and did a larger proportion of the groundwork for classifying serial killers).  The two that I've read would be excellent resources for you.

Mind Hunter

and

Journey Into Darkness

John Douglas page at Amazon

I mentioned those to my wife and it just so happens she has Mindhunter, so I just started reading it. Thanks for the tip. She also found another one of his buried somewhere, Obsession.

[RCMerchant]

Talk to me. My brother Jimmy is a serial killer.