- May 22, 2023
- 60
- 157
Empathy is not really a trait which is excluded from sociopaths or even psychopaths, what is really of concern with the ability of a person to empathize is how high or low functioning they are, classic psychopathic habitual criminals are universally low IQ, however people who nonetheless are psychopaths yet are very high functioning is a common trait for corporate executives, and yes there have been studies done on this. It's not that they can't understand other people's motivations and emotional states, it's that they aren't affected by that in the same manner as normal people, they're cold to it.Disagree.
Edwin has sadistic tendencies which he seems to have somewhat channelled through his sexual preferences as he grew older but that is a far cry from being a sociopath. He does not lack empathy, having show instead time and again that he loves his mother. And his hability to put himself on the shoes of the carnations (and others), to try to understand a bit what they are having to endure.
if you want a exemple of a sociopath in Pale Carnations you can simply look at Chuck or Kathleen. They fit the profile a lot more than Edwin.
In the case of Edwin, is he someone who is overly distraught by the things affecting the carnations and others, or is he someone who understands their suffering on an intellectual level? I think the game makes it rather clear that he's not deeply affected by any of the things he sees, he has an almost universally shallow affect, something also associated with sociopathic and psychopathic behavior, one notable exception is his reaction to his mother lying to him about who she did porn with, and in that case I would yet again ask the question, why does he care so much about who used to pay his mother to get fucked on video? It's because he feels personally denigrated by it.
Psychopaths having a fixation with their own mothers is also something that is actually well established, they can actually have rather obsequious attitudes towards their maternal figures, and Edwin is someone who obsessively watches videos of his mom getting reamed out by groups of guys for money, while he's talking to himself in his internal monologue about how he's going to do everything in his power to make sure she never has to be humiliated again.
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