I have always heard that a sociopath is someone who cannot empathize with anyone so I was wondering, can they enjoy movies? After all, if you cheer for Luke Skywalker you are, presumably, normal, and if you cheer for Darth Vader you might not be normal but you are certainly empathizing with him. I suppose it is likely that you can enjoy a movie without empathizing with any of the characters but that is not what I am talking about. I am talking about that ability to truly enjoy a movie because you are able to put yourself in a character’s place and live that character’s experience so that at the movie’s end there is that catharsis that makes movie watching, at its best, a magical experience.
Only if the movie is about them.
[sub]Wouldn’t this work better in GQ?[/sub]
How about an action film? There are some of those where I don’t emphathize with any of the caracters but the explosions are cool.
Do you know someone that you think is a sociopath but they enjoy movies?
Doubtful. I don’t think there is a definite yes or no answer.
I don’t empathize with people very much, and I love movies. Because I can laugh at them. (is that empathisizing? I don’t know. I know that dramas usually, but not always, just make me roll my eyes) So I prefer comedies.
Ooh, “empathisizing”. I officially copyright that word.
One can enjoy learning from the characters. I always prefer movies with characters you can learn from.
I’m not a sociopath, but I rarely empathize with characters.
I enjoy movies for the reasons listed above
-good action
-being scared shitless
-having a good laugh
-learning from characters and plots
-making me think
We enjoy movies just like anyone else. We just root for the bad guys.
[sub]Wouldn’t this work better in GQ?[/sub]
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I wasn’t sure since if it has a “real” answer I would guess it goes under one place, if it doesn’t it would go under another.
With the caveat that I am not an expert (my only background is a bachelor’s in psych - which is definitely not enough to be an expert!), my understanding is that “sociopaths” generally don’t feel any emotion as intensely as normal people do. They are able to hurt others without remorse because they don’t experience fear or pain themselves and don’t understand how it feels for normal people. Apparently they tend to do risky/reckless things because it takes something dramatic to give them any emotional arousal at all.
So, I’d expect that for the most part they’re probably numb to the things that normal people find exciting or pleasurable.
I recall reading an account of some hardened criminals in prison watching In Cold Blood on television. They were rooting for the killers and shouting advice for them at the TV screen.
There’s non-character-based TV and movies out there. The whole Law & Order universe (with the exception of SVU) is an example; there’s no character development at all and you’re really not expected to empathize with anyone most of the time. Sure, you feel good when the bad guy’s brought to justice, but that show has a way of deemphasizing even that by flipping it around–sometimes the good guy turns into the bad guy when he freaks out in court and charges the murderer.
I can’t think of any other examples off the top of my head, but any movie that you think about rather than feel or connect with, can probably work.