diary / by Edward Mullany

A psychopath, on the other hand, is certainly uncivilized, insofar as his impulses, when enacted, are so taboo as to make him anathema to anyone who would call themselves ‘civilized,’ but he has no integrity, as he tends to live a duplicitous life, pretending to be other than he is, enjoying the protections of civilization while, when the opportunity arises, performing deeds that would reveal its fragility, or insecurity. I’m not even certain that the term ‘psychopath’ is suitable for the type of person that word presumes to describe, for it seeks to explain medically (or to legitimatize as a ‘pathology’) what is perhaps not a medical condition at all, but rather something closer to a proclivity for mortal sin.