What CAUSES behavior?
In Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, two brothers pull a robbery on their parents’ jewelry store. Both are desperate for money (the younger one for child support, the older one for drugs) and their mother is killed when plans go awry. A couple of aspects of this presentation are interesting. The older brother is the first character making the “Psychopath Kings” category and the nature of bonds in the family are captivating. What happens when a man and woman are deeply in love with each other for many years? That’s a good thing, right? What about when those two people are your parents? And you want more attention from them?
This is not to suggest that the current way of managing anxiety in families–extreme child focus–is a good thing. In fact, if your parents have enduring feelings for each other, you have a better chance of getting out there and making such a relationship for yourself. But what if you have problems and there is little emotional energy left? Both brothers in this film are immature, have intense needs for validation, and both have been unsuccessful in establishing adult lives. What does it say when the younger brother’s “true love” (and one day a week sex date) is his brother’s wife? How adult relationship is that?
The Philip Seymour Hoffman character is first to go on the Psychopath Kings list as he has so removed himself from emotional life that he is unable to feel concern for another person, even a family member. A couple of scenes give some background to his removing himself from the human race. His father was too hard on him, his brother was the one who was seen as needing attention, but there has to be more.
MysteryShrink’s Famous Test:
If it’s true that ”X” CAUSED “Y” then everyone who experienced ”X” is now “Y.”
In this case, if it’s true that being an older son whose father is hard on him results in extreme drug use and the capacity to dispassionately kill, then everyone older son whose father was hard on him has extreme drug problems and is capable of killing without compassion.
MS says, take a second look at what “causes” behavior. We don’t know, not like we psychologists say we do. Over recent decades, we in the mental health field have said that domineering mothers and distant fathers cause homosexuality, that having an alcoholic parent causes particular emotional problems, that not getting enough attention from mother causes you to be insecure, that getting too much attention from mother causes you to be insecure. Not that long ago, we claimed mothers caused autism by rejecting their children in the womb.
So what caused our psychopath to be the way he is in BtDKYD? A mix of physical inputs, events (including how he was raised), his basic functioning capacity, and the availability and functionality of him emotional field (family). We don’t know specifically how the mix comes together. Beware of anyone who picks one and says that caused his/her behavior. Be double aware of anyone who picks a physical feature, event, personality feature, or member of your family and claims THAT caused you to be a certain way.
Okay. Enough lecture.
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