Thanks Charlie. I like that term "mentally fragile." I find I
don't have clear concept of psychotic behavior, and I often
don't understand when a character is psychotic or just highly
neurotic or when that line is crossed. Often it's obvious,
but I suspect my knowledge in this area is so limited that I
am only catching the obvious and not the nuances.
A follow up question to all: Do you find that psychotics are
greatly maligned in crime fiction? That they get a bad rap? I
mean that word psycho is so often associated the word
"killer," do you think it is unfair? Do you find that there
are a disproportionate number of psychotic criminals to
psychotic victims in noir fiction?
When I think of a psychotic victim, the first protagonist
that comes to mind is Jim Thompson's Kid Collins in After
Dark, My Sweet. His psychotic tendencies make him highly
vulnerable, easy to exploit. I tend to see him more of a
victim, than a criminal, but that might be the romantic in
me.
Thanks to all, George
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Charlie Williams"
<cs_will@...> wrote:
>
> --- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "George Tuttle"
<noirfiction@>
> wrote:
> > Question:
> > No doubt, psychosis is a great story devise in
noir fiction, but how
> > true is it to real behavior? Has there ever
been a critical analysis
> > of Nick Corey and other representations of
psychotic behavior from a
> > psychologist's point of view? Does this type of
fiction capture the
> > symptoms and traits? Having no training in the
area, I am curious.
>
> George,
>
> I can only speak for myself but characters just come
out like they
> do. Plus, a mentally fragile character is always
going to be more
> interesting than one who is rock solid up top. In
fact, if I find
> myself (as a writer) with a character who is
starting to look a bit
> too sane, I'll (subconsciously?) slip in a little
flaw that will
> ultimately lead to his mental unravelling, and by
the end he's
> crawling around in a puddle of his own urine, making
hyena sounds.
>
> As far how "real" this behaviour that behaviour
might be, I don't
> think it matters. You don't need a syndrome label to
describe how a
> character is. Then again I'm not a great one for
research. My mum was
> a mental nurse - that's enough for me.
>
> Good question.
>
> Charlie Williams.
>
> -------
> charliewilliams.net
>
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