Is craziness essential to achieve a seemingly impossible goal? The main character of Gattaca is Vincent Freeman. It tells the tale of a man who goes through genetic changes to achieve his life goal of flying to space. The catch is, he’s secretly ineligible because of a problem with his heart, and he’s only able to make it through by becoming a clone of a seemingly perfect man, Jerome. Vincent Freeman, who later takes the identity as Jerome, achieves his goal of going to space because of his psychopathic nature. Through various scenes, this notion is clear because of his actions, thoughts, and personality. What classifies someone as a psychopath? A psychopath is often not what people make them out to be. For example, if a professor still has …show more content…
Vincent is an individual who has no business being a member of Gattaca. Gattaca only accepts not only the best of the best, but they only accept “perfect” people to do their missions. Vincent is far from that. In the beginning of the movie it is established that Vincent is far from a perfect human being. Through a genetic test, it is believed that Vincent will die of a heart condition at the age of thirty (McRoberts et al, 2003). Using flashbacks, the movie shows how far from perfect Vincent is as he grows up. In scene twenty, Vincent is caught dozing off as he is cleaning a window at Gattaca (McRoberts et al, 2003). It is obvious that he’s stuck pondering about his obsession of becoming a member of Gattaca, and going to space. Caesar warns that he, “might get ideas”, looking at the window (McRoberts et al, 2003). This relates to Vincent gazing off, and thinking too much might make him think he’s worth of being a Gattaca elite. Vincent then replies that it will make it easier for the supervisor to see him once he’s inside of Gattaca (McRoberts et al, 2003). This clearly shows that Vincent has an inflated self-worth because he’s very clearly an individual that has no business even being in the presence of the people of Gattaca. Without confidence, and strong belief in himself, he wouldn’t have gotten as far as he
Psychopathy; the trait that truly distinguishes humans from ¨machines¨, emotionful to emotionless. Within the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, one may logically assume that the protagonist, Patrick Bateman is indeed implied to be a psycho as the title suggests. However upon further analyzation, Bateman is revealed to be an unreliable narrator, he does not captivate the reader with all of his emotions verbally, for they are revealed through his actions. Bateman certainly does murder people, however, clinically murder doesn´t rule somebody to be a psychopath. Bateman feels no visible remorse for the victims he kills, because Bateman lives in an artificial hyperbole of a yuppie world where no love is shown, all relationships superficial.
In 1997, Andrew Niccol produced the movie GATTACA. The movie described a world with genetically modified humans, modified at birth to be the perfect child their parents always wanted. In the 1990s, the movie seemed like a science fiction fantasy, but recent advances in biomedical procedure have started to make it a reality. While a future full of genetic engineering may be an intriguing notion, the human genome should be left alone. Humans should not be tampered with.
Gattaca presents a world destroyed by the pursuit of perfection. Do you agree with this? “The word perfection cannot be defined as one person or one thing. Perfection can only be told or seen in a first person view. No one will genuinely think something or someone is as perfect as another person, it’s impossible to see eye to eye with something that is as powerful and subjective as perfection.”
Although Vincent was able to pass through the barrier between the valids and invalids, it was extremely difficult. It became so much work that there were points where he, as the most motivated invalid, wanted to quit. Even though Vincent didn’t fall victim to the eugenics ideology, imagine how many others, just like Vincent, did. Vincent alone made the society in the film Gattaca better through his contributions working a professional job. The concepts of eugenics wish to essentially eliminate everything Vincent was. The society Vincent lived in was willing to do everything in its power to prevent Vincent and all other invalids from becoming someone important. What
The psychopath know the reasons behind acting a certain way and just don't think about the consequences. Even in the DSM-IV clear definitions of a psychopath doe not exist but the closes to diagnose is anti-social personality disorder. Dr. Hare instead developed the Psychopathy Checklist for people to diagnose psychopathy. The first part of the Psychopathy Checklist looks at the emotional and interpersonal traits of the disorder(Hare, 1993). Some of the emotional qualities that the clinician would look for is as followed: glib/superficial, egocentric/grandiose and lack of empathy.
A psychopath is “calculating and measured in their actions” which makes is harder for one to be identified ("Characteristics of a Sociopath."). Although there is no clinical diagnosis for a psychopath one can be determined through their characteristics and actions for one is more “likely to construct a complex scheme or plan and to carry it out” if they suffer from this mental disorder ("Characteristics of a Sociopath."). They are the most dangerous personalities in society as they have the capacity for extreme violence and the intelligence to blend into a community as an average citizen. It is the personality Iago from Othello that could be diagnosed as a psychopath as he is cold, calculating, manipulative, and is elaborate in his plans. Iago
Sociopaths are prevalent among society, and some researchers, like Martha Stout, claim that one out of every twenty-five people is a sociopath. However, this statistic is incorrect. This statistic is based on the assumption that sociopaths and psychopaths are the same people—which is untrue. While the sociopathic and psychopathic traits overlap, sociopaths differ in that they are obviously nervous and agitated, unable to create the illusions that psychopaths are so proud of. They live on the fringes of society, uneducated and unable to keep a steady job. Psychopaths, unlike sociopaths, are suave and able to maintain an illusion of conformity and maintain relationships on a superficial level. Both, however, are dominantly male, tend to disregard the rights and social mores of others, and have a tendency display violent and disruptive outbursts without remorse. Unlike psychopaths, who completely lack remorse and the ability to love, sociopaths may attach themselves to certain people, though they still remain contemptuous of the rest of humanity (7).
Life in the movie Gattaca is outwardly orderly and efficient. Perfect genes are chosen for potential children, so the parents already know their child will be successful. Seamless health and physical traits are valued, and those with these qualities are called Valids. Valids are able to work the high status jobs such as the jobs in the Aerospace Corporation or athletics. Those who are born naturally without the best genes are discriminated against and called Invalids. Vincent is an Invalid who has always wanted to fly into outer space. He has the intellect and drive but not the flawless genes, therefore; he is incompetent. Vincent finds the opportunity to pose as a former swimmer, Jerome, who is injured in a car crash and no longer able to
Notably, the media parades psychopaths to be violent and erratic. Although these traits may be true in some cases, many people overlook the fact that there are many other characteristics that attribute to the term psychopath. A few examples of a psychopath
According to Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist Revised, (PCL-R) (2003) a psychopath can be defined as being irresponsible, showing a lack of empathy, cunning, and lack of remorse or guilt among other characteristics.
Are psychopaths like Alice, “mad or bad?” (page 21). The question whether psychopaths are mentally ill or just a bad seed has caused much debate. Dr. Hare explains that the problem is not only labeling them mad or bad, but who deals with them. “Does the treatment or control of the psychopath rightly fall to mental health professionals or to the correctional system?” (page 21). Not only are professionals confused on how to classify psychopaths, but the media also creates confusion. Psychopath means mental illness and the media uses the word to classify someone as, “insane or crazy”, (page 22). Dr. Hare explains that even though psychopaths, “cannot be understood in terms of traditional views of mental illness”, they, “are not disoriented or out of touch with reality, nor do they experience the delusions, hallucinations, or intense subjective distress that characterize most other mental disorders…psychopaths are rational and aware of what they are doing and why.” (page 22). Most professionals use the term psychopath and sociopath as one in the same. Since DSM-III, antisocial personality disorder has been used in place of psychopath and sociopath. Philippe Pinel was the first psychiatrist describe a psychopath and Harvey Cleckley was one of the first successful publish a book describing a psychopath to the general public . Pinel used the term, “insanity without delirium”, (page 25). Cleckley wrote The Mask of Sanity, which influenced researchers in North America. Dr. Robert Hare explained that WWII was the first time clinicians felt a need to diagnosis people with psychopathy. Due to the draft, there was a need to weed out the people could disrupt or harm the military structure. Dr. Robert Hare realized how hard it was to identify a true psychopaths from rule breakers and developed the Psychopathy Checklist. This checklist is used world wide to help clinicians identify true
...res of the psychopaths and gives the reader various examples of these individuals playing out these characteristics in everyday life. A widely used checklist is provided so the reader can get a wide spanning view of what is accounted for when scoring a psychopath. This form of research is very important within the deceitfulness of this population; it allows the professional to ignore their words and examine their actions. Hare made it clear that it is not uncommon for there to be an emotional and verbal disconnect from their actions. With virtually no emotional functioning psychopaths feel no remorse for the offenses that they commit and it is very important that we work towards using the opportunities we have to study and assist these populations; not only for them but for ourselves.
Identity is often thought of as what people consider themselves, not how others see you. In the movie “Gattaca” however this is not the case. Identity is something you are born with. When you were born you were tested for diseases and life expectancy and therefore treated accordingly. In the world where technology has been fast forwarded to be able to pick which genes or gender your child inherits and becomes to create the best possible outcome, kids that were not genetically changed were called “invalid.”
What is a psychopath? What type of person can be characterized by this and how do they come to be? But first before we can answer these questions we must first know what a psychopath is. Psychopaths are people suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behaviors; clinically it is a person who has a lack of what we would consider a conscience. Psychopaths are seen to suffer from a lack of empathy because of psychological, genetic and environmental factors. Scientists have many theories concerning psychopaths. Scientist do not have a definite clear cut answer on what is the cause for psychopathy but they have many ideas; nature and the nurture of the person. Nature is the genes that the person carries. The nurture of the person when they were a child is simply means how they were treated when they were growing up and/or how they were raised. Some scientists even consider it a possibility that it could be a mixture of the two.