Or lack of one, to be more precise.
I’ve mentioned it a couple times before, but I’ve been working with a forensic psychologist who’s been helping me with the police reports in Snake. I send him a description of the Snake’s latest murder, he takes a look at it and based on the information I give him uses it to try and guess things about the Snake, such as motive and who he might be. I use that information he gives me so that my FBI profiler character can give an accurate assessment of the Snake.
Now, I promisedmy friend/consultant that when the profiler character figured out the Snake’s identity, so would he. Granted, the profiler character figured it out using evidence that can’t be used in a warrant, much less a courtroom, but she figured it out, so I sent the identity of the Snake to my consultant, giving him a detailed history of the Snake, his personality, and why he became a killer. I also asked what sort of diagnosis the Snake would be given. This is the reply I got:
“He doesn’t have a diagnosis. Certainly, he has some psychiatric traits – like psychopathy, etc. – but nothing diagnosable. A diagnosis signifies that either some impairment is occurring, or there is clinically significant distress present. I don’t see either in his case. It’s clear that he’s not truly a psychopath, and it’s evident that he’s done what he’s done in order to seek revenge and ***********. While extreme in his methods, he’s quite noble in his cause. I wouldn’t burden him with a diagnosis.”
By the way, the ************ means there’s something in that paragraph I don’t want revealed yet, so I had to cut it out and replace it with something else.
Bottom line though is that I set out to create a unique serial killer the literary world had never seen before, and it looks like it worked, becuase I’ve never heard of a serial killer without a psychological diagnosis. Psychopaths, schizophrenics, mood disorders, paranoids, even a few conditions that cause mental retardation and facial dysmorphia, I’ve seen them all used with serial killers in movies and books. This is a first for me though, so I’m kind of happy that my own work is where I’m introduced to it.
Anyway, thought I’d share that with you. Have a good evening, I’m off to dinner.
Rami Ungar The Writer 