ASPD or antisocial personality disorder…does Rachel Gardner in Angels of Death have this? Let’s do a character analysis!
Symptoms of ASPD
Antisocial personality disorder signs and symptoms may include:
- Disregard for right and wrong
- Persistent lying or deceit to exploit others
- Being callous, cynical and disrespectful of others
- Repeatedly violating the rights of others through intimidation and dishonesty
- Impulsiveness or failure to plan ahead
- Hostility, significant irritability, agitation, aggression or violence
- Lack of empathy for others and lack of remorse about harming others
- Poor or abusive relationships
- Aggression toward people and animals
- Destruction of property
- Deceitfulness
These are just some of the symptoms that the MAYO clinic says are attributed to ASPD and we can see characteristics of Ray in them. But not all of them. For the most part, she’s calm, not impulsive, and plans ahead. She’s not hostile or aggressive towards others but she does lack empathy and remorse when she goes into “dark” mode. I wonder if that’s what the creators of the show were trying to show.
But Rachel Wasn’t Born Like This…She Was Made
Rachel is originally presented as extremely calm and collected, though this likely stems from her desire to die. The other floor masters say that she is ruthless, selfish, and manipulative, and willing to do anything to get what she wants. However, it is a misnomer to consider her an evil or malicious person, as she does not inherently understand human morality and does not have actual cruel impulses.
She is shown to have issues with empathy and difficulty expressing or understanding emotions, and while she has shown fear, anger, compassion, and happiness, these are rare, fleeting, and moderate. She does not, however, fake emotions, and will not pretend to have feelings that are not present. In the later episodes, though, she appears to become more expressive.
Her Fall Into Madness…How She was MADE into a Sociopath
I thought it was ironically funny that they mentioned poor or abusive relations since people with ASPD or sociopathic tendencies are MADE, not born. We went over this when we tried to decide if Zack was a sociopath or psychopath. Ray was raised by parents that were abusive and narcissistic, oftentimes ignoring her until it suited their own needs. Her dad yells at her and even tried to kill her after stabbing his wife multiple times. He thinks she’s crazy. If anything, HE’s the crazy one. But her mom isn’t that much better. She blames her husband for making her life miserable and for ruining Rachel. He is shown to beat her a lot, so she bought a handgun to protect herself. But she still abuses Ray and doesn’t protect her child. Instead, she gives in to her own selfish nature.
Rachel kills a dog and stitches it up as her first dive into madness. Then after her mother is murdered by her Father, she kills him, then does the same to them as she did to the dog.
After this and being institutionalized she realized how insane she was and became dejected and lifeless (which is why Danny takes such a liking to her). Now she wants to be killed and set free. If Zack kills her, she will be set free from her memories and her twisted mind.
Only until Zack helped her accept her actions that she finally comes to terms with her warped view. Afterward, Rachel started to act like a normal person, particularly in regards to Zack whom she grew to genuinely care for. This is when we start to see genuine emotion from her.
It’s so fascinating to me. The human mind is such an incredible thing and we are all brought up in different lifestyles. Think about it, if you had been brought up in Rachel’s or worse, ZACK’S lifestyle, would you still be the same person? Would you not have become more sociopathic and more devoid of emotion? I think I might have. If anything, just to create a wall or barrier from the outside wall.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!
As always,
Keep Smiling!
