He's sometimes glib but doesn't keep it up very often (far less than in Awakening), his sense of self-worth isn't that high (he never really focuses on himself as a catalyst, just possesses the firm belief that there needs to be one), only lies to Hawke once about a very specific thing (not being at all pathological), and is only occasionally manipulative.
Or- he is frequently glib and attempts wit, though it fixates more and more. He does have a martyr complex, and places himself and his judgements above everyone else he is affecting, even the ones he claims to represent. He deceives Hawke on a regular basis across the acts, hiding information and misleading with exagerated rumors and claims, and he conducts these actions with a stated purpose of trying to make other people follow his cause.
He feels intense guilt about the Chantry explosion ("There's nothing you can say to me that I haven't already said to myself"), feels deep emotion (especially evident when romancing him), has empathy enough to work alone in a free clinic for the penniless in Darktown, and is perfectly willing to die to accept responsibility for this ("And if I pay for that with my life, then I pay").
And here you're fixating on specific instances rather than trends. He expresses little guilt about many other things he does including throwing the mages to the wolves, and his emotions are shallow in the terms of fixating on specific issues to the ambivalence of all else. His empathy is increasingly limited to the support of his cause, and his relationship with Darktown is also self-serving. Anders also routinely seeks to avoid responsibility for his actions, that choice not withstanding.
There's no indication that he's easily bored, his general lifestyle is very giving and active and he only asks for Hawke's help three times in seven years while volunteering to help Hawke out at any other given moment, and he avoids impulsivity quite well given that he has an angry spirit living in his head this whole time. One could try to argue for the third and final on this list, but those characteristics alone do not a psychopath make.
There is every indication that he has a need for stimulation: the presence of Justice pushing him further and further and not letting him rest or be passive about the cause. It was rather the point (and effect) of his merging: Justice won't let him be apathetic. His relationship with Hawke, in which he takes shelter under Hawke's and co's influence even when not helping, is partially parasitic (though not completely devoid of symbiotic as well: they rarely are). Justice's influence is extremely impulsive, and his focus is increasingly short-term without regards to consequences.
These are exactly the trends that make a psychopath. Trends, mind you- the nature of mental diseases is that it is a spectrum of trends, not a uniform of absolutes. The trends where a person does, rather than the instances in which they do not, are what make up a diagnosis.
See above for behavioral controls; he's quite self-disciplined, relatively speaking. "Juvenile delinquency" is a shaky one, given that he never seemed to have hurt anyone in his escape attempts; similarly, he's no more criminally versatile than anyone else who follows Hawke. He had no marital relationships at all and what promiscuity seemed to exist was largely a Circle cultural thing; he certainly shows no sign of it when romancing Hawke.
Anders is increasingly incapable of self-control, manifesting in his loss of control and influence over Justice. Juvenile delinquency doesn't require hurting people. Unlike most of Hawke's companions, Anders is involved with various deliberatly subversive groups and tendencies.
The last two were actually a separate category that didn't copy the label (listed as other items). I would agree that Anders doesn't express those.
So, in the end, no; Anders is by no means a psychopath. He's certainly mentally ill in some respect; I think he'd been compared to someone with bipolar disorder once before. A psychopath, however, he is not.
Considering you consider instances of exception to disprove trends, I don't think you understand how disorders are recognized.
Retour en haut
