Matti Paasio asked Dave Cullen:

Is there some logic behind a psycopath committing suicide? That baffles me a bit... seems to be against his nature.

Dave Cullen Yes. I actually talked to Dr. Hare about this. He said it's very common for a cornered psychopath to kill himself as an escape from a life of certain imprisonment. That sort of loss of power and control and humiliation is the ultimate horror to a psychopath, and suicide is a highly rational choice.

I think the problem for most of us conceiving it is that "suicide" comes freighted with all sorts of feelings and assumptions about what it's about: a life of misery and despair and feeling so awful about myself/my life that I want to end it. And THAT is what seems against the psychopath's nature. But that's not at all what's going on here.

The psychopath's choice is far more like a happy/satisfied person who gets hit with terminal cancer in the extremely painful/debilitating latter stages, with no hope of recovery or anything good, who decided to euthanatize himself.

flag