American Psychopaths In Edward Pierce's American Psycho

Hollywood’s overzealous portrayal of mental illnesses in movies, such as American Psycho, has caused psychopath to become synonymous with serial killer. However, the term psychopath generally describes a person who charms easily, lacks remorse, manipulates, and craves stimulation. Throughout the novel, Edward Pierce exemplifies the traits commonly assigned to psychopaths, suggesting his motivation for the crime of the century stems from the disorder. To accomplish his lofty goal of robbing a South Eastern Railway train of thousands of British pounds of gold, Pierce utilizes his psychopathic characteristics. From the start of the novel, the narrator describes Pierce as “very charming,” a trait many psychopaths possess (Crichton 5). Pierce uses his charm to gain the confidence of Miss Elizabeth Trent in order to manipulate her into inadvertently revealing the location of one of the keys he needs for the heist (84). Pierce reveals his charm was a sham, and he holds no romantic feelings toward Miss Trent when he “groan[s] inwardly” upon encountering her for the first time since he extracted the information from her. He then proceeds to lie his way out of having to see her again (153-4). Pierce’s meetings with Miss Trent demonstrate his willingness to manipulate an innocent person …show more content…
After the run-in with Miss Trent, Pierce revealed nothing to “[indicate] the least remorse” (Crichton 155). His lack of remorse paves the way to his ability to give the order for Barlow to give Clean Willy “what any gammy trasseno gets,” death, after Pierce discovers Clean Willy has become a police informant (156). Even after Pierce manipulates and orders the death of an associate, his demeanor betrays “no hint of contrition” and no “trace of moral remorse” as he stands trial for committing “his black deeds” (261). Without a guilty conscience weighing him down, Pierce executes the crime of the