Writing a Psyche test

I need help in creating a scene where my protagonist undergoes a psychological test and is deemed unfit for military duty. The character needs to come off as demented but his friends claim it's all an act that he puts on to scare people.

The scene I had in mind was sort of a rip-off of the Voight Kampff test scene from Blade Runner where a series of questions is asked to determine whether a person is human or a replicant (android).

So my protagonist is asked a simple question where they encounter a turtle rolled over on it's back and helpless in the middle of a desert. They are asked what they would do and my protagonist responds that he would eat the turtle for nourishment since desert = food & water is scarce.

This surprises the interviewing doctor since most people say they would turn the turtle over and let it go free or even take it as a pet. My protagonist would go on a bit further and explain that such sentiment was foolish and turtle would die in the desert so it's better to make a meal out of it, perhaps use the shell as a soup bowl.

The doctor after a few more questions comes to the conclusion that my protagonist needs serious mental help and his presence in a war zone (he does covert black ops) would be disastrous for everyone involved.

How do I expand on the above but also make it look like my protagonist was playing with the doctor but the latter claims, "No one is THAT good of an actor. There is something deeply wrong with him."

On the other hand, is eating the turtle a perfectly reasonable response?

edited 2nd Dec '15 5:12:25 AM by SmokingBun

Is eating a turtle a reasonable response? Well, it's pretty pragmatic, so your character comes off as rather cold, but otherwise perfectly reasonable.

Generally, I'm not sure about specific questions, but I suppose what your test needs to showcase is that:

• Your character will not follow orders (doesn't accept authority)
• Your character doesn't work very well in strictly organized society (military)
• Your character puts his own survival above survival of his peers or the ideals he's supposed to be fighting for (= can switch sides without remorse, will go do his own thing even when he's supposed to be watching others' backs)
• Your character enjoys killing too much even before getting the training that's supposed to desensitize him to it, meaning it might be hard to rein him in(= if he's put on the battlefield, he'll turn into Sociopathic Soldier)

I've got only tangential relation to the miliatry, but I'm pretty sure ringing any two of those bells will discount him for psychological issues. I hope this helps at least a bit.

Also, mild nitpick but "demented" would be the wrong term since that would be talking about "dementia". The terms you might want to use instead would be "antisocial"/"dissocial". Alternatives would be "sociopathic" (though it's a little archaic) or more non-specific terms such as "pathological" or that he has a mental health disorder.

As for the questions, the danger of such a test is that it will be trying to extrapolate and draw conclusions beyond its findings. Just because someone lacks empathy towards an animal, that doesn't mean s/he will behave the same towards other humans; especially when specifically instructed otherwise. As for the turtle, a more psychologically pathological answer would be for him to kill the turtle in order to put it out of its misery.

edited 2nd Dec '15 12:35:07 PM by peasant

Does the psych test have to be absolutely correct, or does it have to only be reasonably correct to have reason for the miltary to not accept the potentially ill-fitting person? Heck, is it meant to be correct in the first place? Since you're talking about the protaganist, what is the purpose of making that protaganist legally unfit for duty?

For the turtle question: have the psychologist ask "what if the turtle was your friend's pet?" It might show the 'ready to turn his back on his friends' side of him.

In addition, the fact that he went on to describe the turtle's shell as a soup bowl should also be a point towards 'unfit for duty'. Unnessecary visceral detail.

edited 2nd Dec '15 4:40:41 PM by hellomoto

Richard Feynman, the physicist, had to take a psych test for the draft board when the Korean War was heating up. As a "true" scientist, he had a very low opinion of psychiatry, and decided to screw with the interviewer(s). His results came back "Deficient" rather than "Normal."

Then again, the Army psychiatrists did an extremely sloppy job when they evaluated him. After the screwup was straightened out, and it was decided that Feynman was more valuable as a science teacher than as a draftee, he was classified: "Deferred - 4F - Medical reasons."

The link below may give you some ideas about what they ask and look for.

http://psychwatch.blogspot.com/2007/09/richard-feynman-gets-psychiatric-exam.html

edited 3rd Dec '15 1:47:26 PM by pwiegle

@Kakai

So basically the character should be an anti-authoritarian Darwinist. That is to say anything and everything he does is to maintain his status at the "top of the food chain" so to speak and everyone else is a stepping stone. I can live with that. My character does enjoy killing though, to the point his bosses decide he's the perfect choice for suicide missions with zero oversight since there is a good chance nothing will distract him.

@Peasant

Well honestly I couldn't think of a better word to use at the time. But yes; Anti-Social, loner sociopath is ultimately what I'm aiming for if you want to use proper definitions.

Point noted, I mean you have perfectly normal people who don't blink at the notion of killing a spider or lizard or anything that isn't conventionally cute/adorable. I guess killing the turtle just because it was there does come off as more sociopathic. As Kakai mentioned, eating it would be practical in the desert scenario, like a Man Vs Wild thing.

@hellomoto

The idea is that the psyche test was a final metric for my protagonist to become part of a spec ops team like say SEAL TEAM SIX but since he gets slapped with the "unfit for duty" mark he is unable to join. One of the senior officers who observed his test considers him valuable and recommends him for a covert black ops team who work under plausible deniability and conduct missions that the public should never be made aware of. They don't want to waste his talents.

The test doesn't need to be absolutely correct but it's more of a way to inform the audience that this apparently normal person doesn't have a very healthy state of mind. He can be charming and amicable but it's more of a mask.

@pwiegle

Ok that's pretty funny. Thanks for the link. I may write it as the Army Brass not taking their psyche tests too seriously for precisely this reason. They can be faked and my protagonist is known for his twisted sense of humor.