MovieChat Forums > No One Lives (2013) Discussion > Sociopaths and Emotions (Spoilers)

Sociopaths and Emotions (Spoilers)


It is stated that a social path does not feel sympathy or cannot love. But in this movie when the Driver's girlfriend kills herself, he screamed seemingly devastate. He seemed as if he really did have genuine feelings for her. I understand that a social path can fake emotions to be able to deceive, and control an individual, but in this case, the driver had no reason to display such strong emotion after his girlfriend died. He did not need to continue acting like he loved or cared about her. He could have reacted in a cold angry manner which would have been expected even for someone who may not be in love, but wants revenge for the demise of his object. The fact that he screamed, and reacted so strongly made me wonder if he did indeed love her or at least cared about her. If this is the case, can a social path fall in love, though rarely?

I would have loved to see a prequel based on his girlfriend, whom I wish was the main actress since I was very fascinated by the fact that she fell in love with a social path that is enable to love or display sympathy. It was interesting to see that she was tormented with the fact that she loved such an untamed beast that was obsess with somebody else. To the point that she was willing to kill herself whether out of guilt for loving a social or due to not having the heart of this man whom she taught would heal the wound that he caused in the past just by loving her in order to erase the horror he had caused in the first place. It made sense that she taught that only the one that caused the pain could heal the wound. Maybe the only way for her to be healed was to make this cold hearted monster finally lose control by loving her, thus conquering the beast so he can become human. That would have meant that she won in the end despite the torment he had caused her. A way for her to get revenge, but still have his heart.

My question is do you think he was in love with her? And why?

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They were both socio-paths, imo. I think he screamed because it's hard to find another true socio-path ;)
I cried when my bamboo1 broke so I don't think showing such emotions means anything at all ;)


http://diandianusfilmovus.blogspot.com/

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No,she wasn't a killer.She was kidnapped by him

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I think at one point he said to his girlfriend that he does have feelings, he just processes them differently. He definitely loved his g-f in his own way. He was a very unique "hero" for a movie. Am I wrong to find him incredibly hot?

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Yeah I don't think hero would even be close to a word I would use to describe him. If you're asking that about the actor, then no. If you're asking about the character, then yes.

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I can appreciate your question, since it shows some analytical insight.

Here's my take on it:

Did he love her? First off, does he love her in what way? Like a 'normal' person would love someone else? Or like a creator would love its creation? Or in some other way? Unfortunately, I can't really claim that love is the word to use here. I can say with certainty that he cares for her in some way, shape or form. If sociopaths are incapable of feelings then I guess we can't call him one, can we? Psychiatrists can't even agree on Psychopathy anyway. He shows signs of some symptoms and not others. Boldness, for example, explains him perfectly. Dis-inhibition, however, does not match his personality at all. If you really want my opinion, I don't think he is meant to be understood. Every psycho is subject to environmental happenstance the same as the rest of us. This is why psychiatrists disagree about certain diagnoses, and why people are often given hybrid-diagnoses. Because environmental changes can alter traditional habits for psychotic individuals. IMO, it is this change(the unexpected suicide of his creation, Betty) that made him decide to let Emma go sooner than he would have for Betty. I don't think he was expecting what Betty did and it changed his plans for Emma, almost like he developed a bit of empathy for her. Unpredictable happenings change people's decisions all the time. I think he invested a lot into Betty, therefore cared about her in some way. I also think he picked up more than just some sick visceral feelings for her as time went on, as they continued to spend more time with each other. He definitely cares about her, but love her? Who knows. Sorry if you were expecting more.

For those who might have read this post before and it was slightly different, it's because I edited it. I originally posted from my phone, which is much more difficult, and causes a lot of spelling and grammar errors. While correcting those, I changed the explanation of my thoughts slightly as well.

So what do you guys think about these thoughts?

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Loved your analysis, though I disagree on some points. But like you say its a difficult diagnosis unless you know the Driver's history. But it was an interesting read. If you don't mind my asking, do you have a background in Psychiatry, are you a fellow colleague :)

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I appreciate the compliment. Hopefully my rant didn't come off as ostentatious, as I have no experience in the field of Psychology. However, I'm very interested in human behavior; so much so that I was once considering studying this field before ultimately choosing Computer Science. If you don't mind my query, may I ask what points you disagree about? I'm merely curious and I would probably trust your judgement as a professional in this field before mine.

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I don't think sociopaths or psychos can't feel. They do but not on the level that we can. They're just not emotional about it. Most of us are driven by emotions and that's where we are most of the time but for them (and this is only my opinion) they're more brain orientated/no emotion.

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She wasn't his girlfriend, she was his kidnap victim. The emotion he showed was due to losing a possession he had spent some time perfecting. He cried the same way one might if they saw their car driven off a cliff or their house burning down.

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He loved her like you would love a prized possession, especially something you had created yourself and felt very attached to. Even those who completely lack the ability to feel love can become attached, needy, possessive and feel a sense of loss if something they value is taken away.

They don't feel love in the true sense where you actually care what happens to the person for their sake. It's more about how losing that person they're dependent on would affect them.

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