The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Psychopathy in The End of The Fucking World

Tanya Singh

In the show, The End of The Fucking World, the protagonist, James, is a self proclaimed psychopath. DSM 5 doesn’t recognize psychopathy as a personality disorder but what he is claiming to have is probably antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). But as he is 17 years old, he is not eligible for a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder. He does show some symptoms of conduct disorder.

He saw his mother commit suicide at a very young age and has never dealt with this. He projects his grief in the form of anger towards his father who tries very hard to connect with him. He holds his father responsible, in a way, for his mother’s death. Before fleeing the town with Alyssa, he punches him in the face and steals his car. His story is a classic tale of the self fulfilling prophecy of mental illnesses. After his self-diagnosis, he starts behaving in such a manner as to meet the criteria for the illness, anti social disorder in this case. This is the main reason why clinical psychologists refrain from giving patients with a diagnosis until absolutely deemed necessary— the patient is likely to start behaving in line with the common symptoms of the disease. Also, people are not diagnosed with personality disorders until they’re 18. Even at 18, people are hardly diagnosed with personality disorders. This is because the traits of these disorders are not fully formed and thus, subject to change. He could have conduct disorder but even then, the chances of developing ASPD is only 25 to 40 percent. However, social dysfunction is observed in more than 80 percent boys with early onset conduct disorder.

But the actual nature of personality disorders is not very known in society. Even the creators of the show make James fit the bill of a psychopath by not depicting him to be apathetic towards anyone or anything and using others only for profit. This is commonplace depiction of psychopathy or sociopathy in media is quite sinister. Sherlock, another contemporary hero, is portrayed to be a sociopath. And there is a sense of mystery and desirability linked to his personality disorder.  He is the antisocial genius who is disillusioned with life and cannot commit and somehow such a character is gifted with superior intellect. This sensational representation of personality disorders sidelines the difficulties people with these disorders actually have to face. Also, this representation of personality disorders spreads misinformation because both the terms, psychopathy and sociopathy, are commonly used but neither is included in DSM 5. 

There is one part of the show which isn't a grossly sensational representation of mental illness—  it shows the problems of the self fulfilling prophecy of Jame's self diagnosis of psychopathy. He likes to kill animals in his free time which apparently gives him a rush and he desperately wants to kill a human. Later in the show, he actually does kill someone— the serial rapist who was going to rape Alyssa, his girlfriend. This is when he breaks down and accepts that he is not a psychopath because he has emotions. He is afraid of the consequences of his action and shaken to the core because he actually killed another human and he accepts his feelings for Alyssa. This is a refreshing departure from the usual psychopathic hero with a taste for blood. In this manner, he is able to break free from the vicious cycle of self diagnosis.

The show could have gone a step further and shown him introspecting and acknowledging his grief over his mother’s death and the resulting commitment and detachment issues.

But this is the problem with shows like this, the characters are portrayed as mysterious and dangerous but intriguing because of their disregard for social norms. It wouldn’t have the same dramatic effect if James would have been shown sobbing out his heart to Alyssa about his mother’s death when they first met because she could likely have been his first friend in a long time (as he must have isolated himself from people because of his apathy).