villain psych

Sometimes I wander into forums ancillary to writing— for instance, a few years ago I visited lots of psychology sites while doing research for the villain in FOOL’S PROOF. One thing I learned there was the difference between guilt and shame. When a fellow writer asked about it, I was able to reply:

Guilt is driven by a need to confess wrongdoing. It’s what makes people confess crimes years later. If you are truly experiencing guilt, you will feel the need to tell it to someone; from this we deduce that guilt ends when you have fully unburdened yourself to the correct person.

Shame, on the other hand, can feel similar but it is not driven by the need to confess. Quite the opposite— the hallmark of shame is a need to hide, to avoid letting anyone know about the shameful thing, and if necessary to destroy whatever threatens to expose it. I’m not sure what fixes shame or when it ends.

The psychology essays I read all seemed to agree that psychopaths don’t feel guilt, because they are profoundly unable to empathize with others and the idea of confessing, opening up to anyone, makes no sense to them. They can and do, however, feel shame.

I used this information to craft an important scene in FOOL’S PROOF where our main character, who in many ways is a fairly selfish asshole, nevertheless strongly differentiates himself from the villain.