I've been listening to the Serial Podcast Season One (it's homework for COMM 215). The big question of the season is whether or not Adnan Syed killed his ex-girlfriend. The reporter, Sarah, ends up being ambivalent on whether or not he's guilty. One direction she constantly re-examines is: what is his personality? Is he a psychopath? No one really knows for sure (or at least if a psychologist evaluated Adnan, it wasn't shared on the podcast). The remarkable piece of the puzzle is what the defense attorney (she's part of the Innocent Project) said about that subject. She suggested that "you wouldn't be that lucky." And she stated that most of her clients were not psychopaths. They were either not guilty or--as she so eloquently puts it--dumb.
What led me to the question: why do we assume, after we break up with someone, that he/she is a cold, calculating liar? Oh, he lied to me the entire time. He just wanted x, y, and z. He didn't care about me.
But is that really true? The truth is, people with Antisocial Personality Disorder, while manipulative and without conscience, well, they are still in the minority. It would be extremely unlucky (and perhaps say something about your personality) if all you did was date them, one right after another.
So, why would I assume--and why would I debate--that Morpheus lied to me about how he felt. The odds are, he didn't. He was just an ordinary human being with his own faults--and you can still deeply hurt someone even if you are, in general, a kind and loving person--because we all do it. What we do know is that Morpheus lied on some occasions, or at least, liberally stretched the truth. But does that make him merciless? No, perhaps there is a much more boring and ordinary explanation.
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