Is James Bond a Sociopath?
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Kel_Vernsen — 11 years ago(March 27, 2015 06:47 PM)
The thing is though Bond knew he had no more bullets left. He was toying with him as he had no reason to shoot him anylonger, he just chose that Dent was of no use to him
And what makes you think he won't try to kill Bond again if he let him go. Bond let him live after the first attempt, but then he goes for the gun again. So naturally Bond put him down. It's kill or be killed. -
tomimt — 11 years ago(March 30, 2015 12:45 PM)
Whit a gun with no bullets, a fact Bond was aware of. And besides killing him wasn't that smart either from Bond, as he could have interrogated him in order to get more info about Dr. No's lair. But no, he just killed him despite he knew that at that moment he was no threat to him at all.
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dennisvest30 — 10 years ago(April 19, 2015 10:35 AM)
Exactly, 007 has a license to kill. Turning Dent over to the police would have been a waste. Bond as an agent with MI6 isn't concerned with obeying laws. His orders are to accomplish the mission- period. Now he can't be reckless (to avoid undue attention to himself) but nothing he did struck me as being some crazy, insane person.
As for sleeping with numerous women, it comes with the territory. In Thunderball he tells Fiona he tells her he did it for Queen and country. He has to use whatever means he finds necessary. WTH is wrong with that? -
franzkabuki — 10 years ago(April 30, 2015 09:49 AM)
Sociopathic don't mean one's crazy or insane. And indeed - when a man kills for a living, he has to be at least somewhat sociopathic, no question there. Hopefully I'm not being overly optimistic in assuming most people wouldn't be able to do Bond's job for moral reasons as much as athletic ones. Killing folk ain't no joke once you stand there with a gun in your hand however easy inconsequential it's made to look in glammed up spy movies.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan -
louiseculmer — 10 years ago(August 12, 2015 03:45 AM)
well, if he kept being remorseful about killing people it would make it jolly difficult to do his job. and the flings woth women aren't meaningless, he seems to enjoy them. As for hitting them - the books were written, and the early films were made, before this modern obsession about men never hitting women no matter what - which come to think of it is odd anyway, considering we're all supposed to be equal nowadays. You'd think there'd be less squeamishness about hitting them nowadays, rather than more. And he never appears to me to drink excessively.
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Eric266 — 10 years ago(September 11, 2015 02:29 PM)
James Bond is an orphan whose parents died when he was very young. This left him with a sense of displacement. He didn't fit in anywhere and he had a detachment from people. It makes him the perfect secret agent as he has no attachments. When you are trained as an agent, they teach you to be dispassionate and detached. That's easier if you've been that way all your life. Killing is a very traumatic event if you aren't mentally trained for it, but the OSS was the best. They kind of touch on this in Casino Royale (2005) in the very beginning. The first kill is the hardest, the rest come easier. They reference this type of mentality in Gross Point Blank as well when Martin says he fit a certain psychological type that the Army was looking for.
Interestingly, Fleming was the same way. He was a drinker, used women like toilet paper and never looked back.
I used to be in a military unit whose mission got them into some tricky spots in Iraq and Afghanistan. You'd be really surprised how war affected people differently. Some just kind of shrugged off the killing, some couldn't stop seeing the horror and many of them turned to drink and drugs. I would be really curious to see a study done on the mental makeup of these folks to see if there was a common thread (orphans, abused as children, etc) for those who didn't seem affected by it. I bet Bond would fall into that category.
My memory foam pillow says it can't remember my face. I can tell its lying. -
KingCobra686 — 10 years ago(March 19, 2016 03:42 PM)
There must be studies of that sort out there. Suicide and PTSD are common and unfortunate issues that affect a lot of returning soldiers. It would be irresponsible if the military was not trying to study that to mitigate it.
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cartesianthought — 10 years ago(September 21, 2015 12:55 PM)
Two key characteristics of a sociopath is a high excitement threshold (needing to go to extreme lengths to get a bit of happiness) and a lack of awareness toward one's consequences of their actions.
I wouldn't say James Bond is either. He's simply just an imperfect man in a violent stressful job.