I disagree. I think Brigid was acting rationally when she
deceived Spade and Archer. She was just off the boat from
Hong Kong, keeping company with a killer, and was being
pursued by Gutman and company. On top of that, she was
waiting to take possession of what she believed to be a
priceless treasure. What was she supposed to do? Walk into
the shabby office of a couple of shady operators and announce
that she needed protection because she was waiting for a boat
captain to deliver a jewel encrusted bird? What do you think
the odds are that she would have gotten the bird if she had
told Spade up front what it was all about? I'd say pretty
slim. Spade had larceny in his heart. Brigid wasn't
psychotic. She was totally rational. Spade used his brains
and his fists. Brigid used her brains and her tits. It was a
pretty even match up, but she lost.
Now, on a certain level, I do agree with you about the people
pursuing the Falcon being a bit nuts. They're obsessed, but I
don't think they're psychotic. Their actions make too much
sense.
> Okay! The "blond Satan" bit is what Spade looked
like.
> There is a cunning cast to his face that makes
him
> look shrewd. I don't believe that Hammett meant
or
> implied he was 'satanic' philosophically.
>
> I define a psychotic as a person whose reality
has
> little in common with the reality of the people
they
> live around. Psychosis is a very interesting and
hard
> to detect mental disorder. One of the first signs
is
> irrational lying. If a person lies for no
logical
> reason, (a logical reason for lying is to
hide
> embarrassment) they are quite possibly
psychotic.
> People who believe they are on the trail of
a
> priceless heirloom which is more important to
them
> than human life are, by definition, psychotic. Even
if
> they're right, which in this case they were not,
this
> is an irrational method of solving a
problem.
> O'Shaughnessy has no reason whatsoever not to put
her
> cards on the table when she first meets Spade
&
> Archer. Her intent is to manipulate and use them.
All
> of these people seeking the Falcon are
psychotics.
> Their shared reality is completely out of wack.
Spade,
> due to his experience with criminals, can get his
head
> around their reality without getting sucked into
it.
> This is really his talent.
>
> Couple of interesting points: psychosis is a
mental
> disorder. Sociopathy, a word which today is often
used
> interchangeably with psychosis, is a
personality
> disorder. This is an important distinction. They
share
> narcissism but a sociopath may be in the here and
now,
> just think they're better than other people to
the
> extent they don't have to obey the same rules.
A
> psychotic always has an unique world-view. That's
the
> difference. These two disorder afflict about 5% of
US
> citizens. Less than 1% of psychotics &/or
sociopaths
> are actually criminals. They tend to be
very
> charismatic, often have high IQs, many people
driven
> to executive jobs suffer from these problems.
Richard
> Nixon, for instance, is literally a text-book
example
> of a psychopath as was his Attorney General,
John
> Mitchell. They believed that the schemes they
worked
> up were more important than the laws they were
both
> sworn to defend.
>
> Patrick King
>
>
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