The question was raised during discussion of this book as to whether Janie's killer was a psychopath or not. (I will try to discuss this without giving away any spoilers).
By definition, a psychopath is "a person with a psychopathic personality, which manifests as amoral and antisocial behavior, lack of ability to love or establish meaningful personal relationships, extreme egocentricity, failure to learn from experience, etc." (dictionary.com). I think the group would agree that the killer was not amoral or antisocial, was able to love and have meaningful personal relationships, and did learn from the experience.
One may then want to turn to sociopath as an explanation of the killer's behavior. A sociopath is "a person with a psychopathic personality whose behavior is antisocial, often criminal, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience" (dictionary.com). Clearly, the killer is not a sociopath either.
Therefore, in my opinion, the killing was an accident compounded by poor choices such as not reporting it immediately to the police.
By definition, a psychopath is "a person with a psychopathic personality, which manifests as amoral and antisocial behavior, lack of ability to love or establish meaningful personal relationships, extreme egocentricity, failure to learn from experience, etc." (dictionary.com). I think the group would agree that the killer was not amoral or antisocial, was able to love and have meaningful personal relationships, and did learn from the experience.
One may then want to turn to sociopath as an explanation of the killer's behavior. A sociopath is "a person with a psychopathic personality whose behavior is antisocial, often criminal, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience" (dictionary.com). Clearly, the killer is not a sociopath either.
Therefore, in my opinion, the killing was an accident compounded by poor choices such as not reporting it immediately to the police.