A Clockwork Orange Mental Disorder Essay

A Clockwork Orange is the 1971 film adapted from the 1962 Anthony Burgess novel of the same name. The story follows the life of Alex, a sadistic, psychopathic fifteen-year-old living in a futuristic, dystopian London. The film is chaos driven, and the situations that the protagonist places himself in only reaffirm that. His principles of morality, responsibility, and rationality are nonexistent. This paper aims to assess the psychiatric disorders present in the protagonist of the film.

According to the Structure of Psychopathy figure, Alex could be classified as a psychopath. Alex is not your normal fifteen-year-old. His grotesque behavior is excessive and repulsive. He religiously engages in numerous criminal activities including assault, breaking and entering, theft, rape, and murder. He is manipulative, overtly and covertly aggressive, violent, impulsive, and morally incompetent, but equally as bright, self-confident, and charismatic. Because of this he can play the victim just as easily as the villain. To his parents and truancy supervisor, he presents the “good boy” image. His parents do not question that he has not been to school in a week, and do not suspect anything is wrong when he comes home late, instead believing he has been out at night working odd-jobs. By successfully lying to his parent, Alex is able to easily do as

His victims are just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and their inability to not be the victim, makes them the victim. Alex’s attacks can be viewed as hostile aggression, in that there are no advantages for him. He simply enjoys the act of acting out. He does not acknowledge his own psychology. Creating chaos is more of an aesthetic act. While in the midst of a break-in, Alex gleefully sings “Singing in the Rain,” and continues to sing the song as he beats the homeowner and proceeds to rape his wife. He is so remorseless that he later refers to the break-in and beating as a “wonderful