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Katarina Whitson

Mr.Pace

DC English IV

5 April 2019

Psychopath or Sociopath

When someone hears reports in the news about murders and mass killings they usually

say “What a psychopath” not very often do people use the term sociopath. If people think it is

okay to kill people doesn’t that make them a psycho? In the novel The Devil in the White City

tells the story of H.H. Holmes that designs a “castle” and kills many different women inside. He

also kills different women, children, and men throughout his life. People may have thought

Holmes was a sociopath when the first heard about him but once learning about his life in full,

not many can argue that he is indeed a psychopath.

Both words are defined as someone having a personality disorder showing antisocial

behaviors. The main difference between the two is that sociopaths are usually able to feel some

emotion. Whether they have a deep connection with their family or something else in their life.

Psychopaths tend not to have this connection with anything. No matter what they do they do not

feel remorse or guilt. For example a sociopath may not feel guilt for hurting a stranger but they

feel the guilt when hurting someone they know. It is also said that some of the antisocial

behaviors seen in a sociopath may lessen over time but that trait is not found in a psychopath.

H.H. Holmes (Herman Webster Mudgett) is considered as a psychopath. He was able to

kill anyone and have no remorse. He was also able to involve other people in some of his acts
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and not have any guilt for what it might do to their life. Another reason I believe he is more of a

psychopath rather than a sociopath is the fact that most serial killers do the same thing every

time. They kill every victim the same and do the same horrendous things. Holmes had many

different ways of killing his victims, between pumping gas into their rooms, holding a poisonous

rag to their faces, and other techniques. He was not constant which is almost more scary than

knowing what is going to happen every time.

Many people consider Chicago a bad place. It is ironic that America’s first serial killer

took his place in Chicago.“‘... a gigantic peepshow of utter horror, but extraordinary to the

point’” (28), a perfect description for Chicago and what took place during that time. I wonder if

Holmes chose the city just for that and the fact that the World’s Fair was being built there made

it even better for his purpose. Holmes was a real life psychopath and one of America’s first serial

killers. Most of Holmes traits seem to result from a childhood trauma. Holmes’ main victims

were women which probably means he has problems with his mom or a past trauma from an old

girlfriend. Holmes was a psychopath that had no remorse for what he did to innocent people.

Being a psychopath or a sociopath is never good. Holmes’ childhood affected who he became as

an adult. More than likely his relationship with his mother, in my opinion, charged his hatred

towards women. Maybe if Holmes’ home life when he was a child would have been different he

wouldn’t have turned into a psychopath.