AMERICAN POLITICAL AMERICAN POLITICAL ASSASSINSASSASSINS

CONTRIBUTING CONTRIBUTING CHARACTERISTICSCHARACTERISTICS

Other Personality DisordersOther Personality Disorders

Narcissistic Personality DisorderNarcissistic Personality Disorder

A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy,

Beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts,

Resulting in Self-Absorption, Depressed Mood, and/or Dramatic/Erratic /Antisocial Personality

as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

Long, P. W., M.D.(1995-2000). Narcissistic personality disorder. Internet Mental Health. Retrieved

on Jan.15, 2001, from: http://www.mentalhealth.com/dis/p20-pe07.html .

1. A grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)

2. Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

3. Belief that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)

4. Need for excessive admiration

5. A sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations

6. Interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends

7. Lacking empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others

8. Often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her

9. Arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes.

1. Obsession with victim2. A self-annihilating assault in the name of a

generalized abstraction.3. “His act and its punishment are in their

violence, significance, and finality, insurance that he will suffer no longer the humiliations of a sense of failure, and he will establish his future identity, ineradicably linked with the identity of his victim.”

Surrogate Suicide

Dr. Daniel Schwartz, Chapman attorney. Jones, J. (1992). Let me take you down: Inside the mind of Mark David

Chapman, the man who killed John Lennon. New York: Villard Books. Freedman, L. A. (1976). “Psychopathy of assassination.” In D. Wilkinson (Ed.), Social structure and assassination (pp.143-160). Cambridge, MA: Schenkman.

That he is:– Superior– Publicly important– Accepted– Brave– Patriotic– Inspired by God– Strong– Tough– Masculine– Aggressive– A man

That he is:– Inferior– Anonymous– Lonely– Cowardly– Homeless – Agent of the devil– Weak– Vulnerable – Homosexual– Passive– A mama’s boy

•Greening, Thomas. "Psychological Study of Assassins." Assassinations and the Political Order. William Crotty. ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1971. 143-160.

What does the assassin seek to prove?

What does the assassin seek to deny?

More American Mythology

In the increasing alienation of the white male, the class from which American political assassins are almost universally drawn

the gun becomes a symbol for masculinity

Travis Bickle Buys Power

Photo: Manolo’s Taxi Driver page

Bang!