Sociopath hero having character development: Is This Allowed?

Actually the subtitle should be: Are you okay with it?

Okay I'm just posting this up and I'm wondering if readers can accept character development for a sociopath hero. Usually I find most sociopath heroes to be static characters, they stay the same throughout. However if I start giving some development for these type of characters readers might decry Character Derailment for them.

Basic description of the sociopath hero in my story: He's not the main character and is infamous for his harsh and questionable methods in interrogating villains and criminals (and occasionally heroes/anti-heroes alike) and they can be...brutal at his nicest. He shows little signs of empathy, enjoys watching the interrogated squirm (and all those nasty feelings) and do whatever it takes for any of the interrogated to reveal the truth with a high success rate in return. Okay, he's somewhat a subversion of being a sociopath as his pet bird happens to be his morality pet and at least treats it with decency, and that's about it in showing some empathy towards any living thing (not counting plants).

Tl;dr: So I'm wondering if it's okay to give some character development to a sociopath hero since they are often written as static characters and I want to make my SH a little more human than the usual S Hs.

edited 4th Aug '13 4:16:36 AM by MrHollowRabbit

Sherlock. In the BBC series, even Sherlock refers to himself as "a high-functioning sociopath". For the most part he is very much right. He is conceited, thinks mainly of himself and his own interests, and is oblivious to the feelings of others and keeps his emotions and feelings inside. During the show's two seasons we see the character develop and grow, thanks to John and the effect his presence has on him. He starts to consider the feelings of others and their safety and opens up, not only confiding his loneliness to John, but defending his landlady against his brother Mycroft (who is more than likely just as sociopathic as he is. Perhaps even more so).

The point is it doesn't matter if a character is a sociopath or not. A character, regardless of their mental, emotional or physical faculties and short-comings, should develop, and they more often than not will. A character who doesn't is, again, more often than not a static character; a flat character. In short, a boring character.

characters who do not develop are often that way for a point; ie, this mindset is unhealthy and stunts growth through a viscious cycle.

or, sometimes its simply because the story is more about their state of mind/characterization, so showing how a character develops simply isnt the point and you're instead focusing on (the often incredibly convoluted) way the character ticks. not every character needs development.

theres a difference between a Static Character and a Flat Character, thats why they have seperate trope pages. while neither is always bad, flat character is only really acceptable for extra's. meanwhile a static character is "not by definition boring" and simply doesnt grow as a character in a way that is negative or positive- as the trope page points out, hidden depths can lead to us changing how we view the character, so its not like the trope leaves you unwholely unable to do anything with the character.

edited 4th Aug '13 5:19:30 AM by Tarsen

Sociopathic heroes can develop in other directions than just becoming less Sociopathic. He could for example learn how others react to his behaivor and get a little fancy and Genre Savvy about it to avoid reprimands etc.

Two other sociopathic heroes who get character development and are all the better for it: John Cleaver of I Am Not A Serial Killer, and Belkar of Order of the Stick. (Belkar comes to mind because he too has a morality pet - a pampered white cat named Mr. Scruffy.)

belkar's an interesting case, in that his development is that he's faking his development so the rest of the group wont throw him to the wolves if he prods them at an unfortunate time (as haley was more or less in the process of doing when he was under that curse).

its clearly leading to Becoming the Mask

speaking of, Dexter comes to mind too.

Besides that, not everybody who acts like a sociopath actually suffers from the clinical condition. There are a variety of different reasons why a person's behaviour might closely mimic that of a sociopath without them actually being one. For that matter, almost all children exhibit sociopathic behaviour at some stages of their development.

Belkar also seems to be a case of Becoming the Mask: his original intention, as I recall, was to fake character development; it looks, however, as though it's somewhat taking root in him.

*meteors the ninja* :P

edited 4th Aug '13 12:56:12 PM by ArsThaumaturgis

Strictly speaking, sociopathy isn't a clinical condition - the name is no longer used in psychiatry because it wasn't clearly defined. Which makes Sherlock kind of hilarious in that "high-functioning" isn't a clinical term, either, to my understanding - it's more-or-less an unofficial way to distinguish between people with traits that don't reach the point of a disorder, in much the same way as personality types are distinguished from personality disorders. :P

Okay I've hear all of your suggestions and prompting another question here:

What do you think constitutes the crossing of line towards Character Derailment instead Character Development for a Sociopathic Hero? Of what terms do you think that the writing in keeping the personality of a Sociopathic Hero consistent?

...well, it comes with the trope description.

character derailment is a character suddenly and unexplainedly changing character- and its not just an out of character moment because it lasts

character development ia a character changing gradually and for explained and/or explicitly shown reasons that gel with the particular change.