Antisocial Personality Disorder in Paulo Coelho’s The Winner Stands Alone: A Psychological Analysis of the character of Igor Malev.

Abstract

The association of psychopathology and literature is not a modern phenomenon. A cursory glance at some of the works like Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov or Shakespeare’s Richard III or Shirley Jackson’s We have Always Lived in a Castle or Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange will suffice the fact that a lot of characters in Literature are Psychopaths in nature. The criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder is the disregard for morals, social norms and rights of other people. People with this disorder not only jeopardize their own safety, but they put other lives in danger too. The character of Igor Malev in Paulo Coelho’s The Winner Stands Alone is a rich billionaire who travels by his private jet to the glamorous Cannes International Film Festival only to ruthlessly murder people there. He believes that his cause for ending the lives of people is a noble one, he wants to signal to his ex-wife Ewa that he still loves her and that he wants her back in his life. This research paper will try to examine his behavior as a psychiatric disorder wherein he possesses cold intelligence and is therefore, left with no mercy for the worlds he destroys with each killing.