# Jack Bauer ("24") is a sociopath? - discuss **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 21, 2005, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514 "2005-03-21T04:08:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/1 "2005-03-21T04:08:45Z")
He kills people at the drop of a hat. He tortures with wild abandon. He can’t keep a relationship with another human being. I think he might be a sociopath. But no, you say, he only does it for his job. Well, I say, he still does it. It’s still all going on his conscience and his karma. What do you all think? Is killing and torturing all right as long as you’re doing it for your job, for the side of “good”? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/2 "2005-03-21T04:14:45Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > What do you all think? Is killing and torturing all right as long as you’re doing it for your job, for the side of “good”? No, but it’s only a TV show. I thought stabbing the guy in the back of the neck last time was pretty cool, but it’s TV. Putting 110V to Paul’s chest would get him in jail in real life unless he worked in an Iraqi jail. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/3 "2005-03-21T04:16:16Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Putting 110V to Paul’s chest would get him in jail in real life unless he worked in an Iraqi jail. 🙂 I missspoke. It would put him in jail _even if_ he worked in an Iraqi jail. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/4 "2005-03-21T04:21:40Z")
Bauer has training in military “black ops.” This is what people like him are trained to do, in the name of their country. He’s a soldier, in that he’ll do whatever it takes to get the job done, and he’s been conditioned to not think about the collateral damage along the way. I’m not saying real-life soldiers are anything like Jack Bauer, but this is what the man is paid to do, and this is what he’s sacrificed any hope of a “normal” life as a well-adjusted human being for. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/5 "2005-03-21T04:24:29Z")
There are no sociopaths in cartoons, and that’s what 24 has become. ---
**Author:** ![PigBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/97f17d/32.png) [@PigBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigBoy)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/6 "2005-03-21T04:34:45Z")
He cried a little bit at the end of last season. That cancels out all the bad things he did in the previous three years, doesn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/7 "2005-03-21T05:04:10Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > I think he might be a sociopath. What Jack is is ruthless. He’ll do anything to get his job done, and since this is TV, ‘anything’ is exactly what he has to do. Jack is what CTU demands of him. He doesn’t seem to feel remorse about doing the job. But since on the show there are always people’s lives on the line, he probably shouldn’t. If he acted the same way by himself on off hours, yeah, he’d probably be nuts. As far as I know, there’s no reason to think he actually does that. He wasn’t torturing or shooting people or going outside the law when he was just working with the Secretary of Defense or he wouldn’t have been going to a budget meeting with Driscoll. 😛 It seems to make ‘outside’ life very hard, but he does know how to turn it off. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/8 "2005-03-21T05:28:33Z")
Well at the end of the last season I saw (3?) he started crying. This may be showing that indeed all the times he has to shut off his emotions is taking its toll–and personally that is how I am currently interpretting that. Though I don’t know how they could proceed with the show if he suffers a complete emotional break-down and just sits there twitching and sobbing torturedly. So might just be a sociopath after all. (But he’s seemed like such a nice young man) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/9 "2005-03-21T05:47:02Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > No, but it’s only a TV show. > \ 🙂 Yes, I know it’s just a tv show - that’s why I chose to discuss it here, rather than Great Debates. My husband says Jack is a murderer, but not a sociopath. He kills and tortures whenever necessary, but he has a conscience, so he doesn’t qualify for “sociopath”. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/10 "2005-03-21T06:07:55Z")
A sociopath is just a potential CTU agent in the wrong career. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/11 "2005-03-21T06:54:15Z")
I think he just cried at the end of the last season because he hadn’t had a fix all day. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/12 "2005-03-21T09:00:50Z")
> [@](#): > > A sociopath is just a potential CTU agent in the wrong career. Yeah, sociopathy doesn’t pay all that well. I should know. And the retirement plan is just pants. ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Norder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/13 "2005-03-21T21:20:34Z")
Jack is just very good at what he does. All through the show you see him having emotional reactions empathizing with all sorts of people he cares about and feels responsible for. He does what he does for the good of other people, not himself. There’s no way he qualifies as a sociopath. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/14 "2005-03-21T21:30:07Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > I think he just cried at the end of the last season because he hadn’t had a fix all day. I thought it was because the show was over and he wasn’t going to be drawing a paycheck until next season. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/15 "2005-03-21T22:53:18Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > …he’s been conditioned to not think about the collateral damage along the way. I’m not so sure that’s true. He might let a colleague, who presumably has taken the same oath to the country, get beat up a bit in order to further the big picture, but it’s not like he’s blowing up orphanages because Sayed Ali’s might be hiding in the basement. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/16 "2005-03-21T22:56:36Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I thought it was because the show was over and he wasn’t going to be drawing a paycheck until next season. Nah… “We keep thinking about _tough_, because _baby needs a new pair of shoes!_ Cha-_ching!_” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![YPOD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e99b99/32.png) [@YPOD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YPOD)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/17 "2005-03-21T23:00:11Z")
Maybe he is that way because, when you think about it, almost nobody does what he suggests, or answers him truthfully, even after he has been proven 100% right about fifty million times now. Or alternatively, maybe it is his relationship with the mysterious “division” level at CTU. Terrorists have kidnapped the secretary of defense, seized control of dozens of nuclear reactors, yadda yadda yadda. So Michelle comes in, and needs to be filled in? What the hell are they doing in Division - monitoring more serious problems? ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/18 "2005-03-22T00:40:05Z")
It may be a different thing, but my brother was trained in the 70’s and 80’s in Naval special groups. He joined straight out of high school and was a SEAL and later in a more specialized group. At one point I asked him if he would do something bad. I don’t remember what it was - killing a child, sniping someone, that sort of thing. He said, “The only people who matter are my family and the members of my team. Everyone else is just breating _my_ air and taking up _my_ space.” He had been trained that no one matters. They indoctrinated him, using techniques that are used by cults. I’ve never watched _24_, but I can see that a person like my brother could be considered a sociopath. He may even be one. Now, however, he’s a small business owner, the father of four sons. He’s a solid citizen. I just hope the government doesn’t call on him again. StG ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/19 "2005-03-22T05:06:27Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > \They indoctrinated him, using techniques that are used by cults. > \StG See, this is what I’m talking about. Everything Jack does is okay, because he’s doing it for good and Motherhood and apple pie. But he’s still doing wrong things. I guess the bottom line is, do the ends justify the means? Is the person who is willing to do horrible, wrong things for the right reasons still a horrible person? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514/20 "2005-03-22T05:12:17Z")
That’s just one of the many ways the show reflects the time we’re living in. I’ve heard it said that superhero comics are facist. If that’s true, it’s at least equally true of _24_. Superman is beyond the law; these guys break the law frequently and you root for them doing it. It’s a TV show and I don’t plan to quit watching, but I think it raises some major questions. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-bauer-24-is-a-sociopath-discuss/295514.md?page=2)