All language subtitles for Signs.of.a.Psychopath.S05E01.I.Guess.My.Life.is.Over.Now.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

[man] The thing inside of me
is like the appetite.

It's like a wolf
that's feeling the hunger.

[officer] Right.

[officer] Okay.

[Dr. Nameeta Sahni]
He's living a parasitic life.

He's an adult who can't seem
to hold down a job,

he's been in trouble
with the law, on and off,

he's continuing to drink,

despite it being
terms of his supervision,

and these markers are all
indicators of psychopathy.

[Dr. Chriscelyn Tussey]
You can hear the fear

in Christopher Thompson's
mother's voice.

She's scared,

and she's worried
about what's going to happen,

and it seems like it's based
off of prior behavior

that's been problematic
and worrisome in the past.

[officer] Mmm-hmm.

[reporter] Des Moines police
were called

after a coworker
of 50-year-old Paula Thompson

noticed she hadn't been
at work lately.

They found that
there was a door ajar,

and they entered
into the home to check on her,

and unfortunately, found her
deceased inside the home.

[reporter] For hours,
detectives were on a search

for her son, 32-year-old
Christopher Thompson,

and finally found him
three hours later,

when he turned himself in
to the Polk County Jail.

[sniffles]

[sighs wearily]

[Dr. Jonathan DeRight]
He doesn't have any emotion in his voice.

He says "I killed her"
the same way

that someone might say

where they had dinner
last night.

His specific type
of lack of empathy

really has more
of a juvenile type quality.

He almost seems like

he has
the problem solving skills

of a three-year-old,
but obviously,

the aggressive skills
of an adult,

and that could be
a bad combination.

[sighs]

Many of us are able
to regulate our emotions

like a dimmer switch.

We know when
to turn things up,

we know when
to turn them down,

and it's
situation by situation.

Thompson shows us

that he really functions
like a light switch.

He's either on, or he's off,

and when he's on,
he's volatile.

When he's drinking
and he's on,

he's not only volatile,
he's violent.

He almost sounds surprised,
when reliving it,

that it happened that fast,

but he also
then goes on to say

he hit her a few more times,

and that's where we see,
with individuals like Thompson

that have
these psychopathic tendencies,

there's that inability
to regulate

their emotions and their rage,

and it just came
stumbling out.

[exhales]

[Tussey] Victim blaming is

a common characteristic
in psychopathic behavior.

Mr. Thompson is exhibiting
a failure

to accept responsibility.

He's saying,
"Well, she was negative."

"She kept telling me
I wasn't living life well."

And so, essentially,
it's her fault

that he acted
the way that he did,

and, ultimately, killed her.

[DeRight] You can see
how he had

this narcissistic injury.

When someone is
very narcissistic,

which is almost always

what you'll see
in psychopaths,

they have a very fragile ego.

It's inflated, almost like
a balloon that's been inflated

just about at its capacity,
and if anything

is going to disrupt that ego,
it's going to burst.

[DeRight] What he's talking
about was

kind of a white-hot rage,

where he was
just fully unhinged,

not trying to control
his behaviors anymore.

He seems to remember it
pretty well,

so I don't think
he blacked out.

He may be trying
to get across the point

where he's not planning
to do this,

he didn't try to do it,
he was just reacting.

He's trying to take away
some of the potential blame.

Ultimately, the decision
to move his mother's body

really seems like it was

more about
a convenience for him,

that it was just
offensive and messy.

[DeRight] You have to think
about, at that point,

five days with a dead body
that you're living near,

it's going to start smelling,

and he was sitting there
playing video games.

He was kind of living
this fantasy life,

where no one
was bothering him.

[Sahni] His decision
to go about his daily routine,

playing video games,
continuing to drink,

continuing
to watch television,

as if life is normal,

could be both his own way

of processing and coping
with what he had just done,

that he just distances himself
from it psychologically.

It may also be
a very clear indication

of the shallow affect

and the lack
of empathy and remorse

that this very psychopathic
individual experiences.

[Detective] Yeah.

Someone who has
a conscience and a heavy heart

is probably not
the same person

who, after admitting
to a murder,

drives to Walmart,

and goes and eats
popcorn chicken

in their car.

[Sahni] Thompson's actually
utilizing

the same passive approach
to his life

that he always has.

He doesn't make any decisions,

he lets the world come to him,

and he lets life
happen to him.

He didn't turn himself in
right after he killed her.

He turned himself in
after his mother's friend

discovered
that she was missing,

and he started to realize

people would start coming
around to the house.

[Tussey] There are
multiple instances

of Mr. Thompson's
problematic behavior,

starting with early teens,

so for instance,
he's staying with a friend.

When they ask him
to wash the dishes,

he gets upset,
and ultimately ends up

trying to run over them
with a vehicle,

and in another instance,

he is staying with
a different family friend,

and this family friend
asked him to leave,

and he threatens them
with a knife.

[Sahni] Thompson is really
showing us an individual

who can't deal
with his emotions.

He doesn't know how to deal
with disappointment,

with rejection, with rage.

He also has
a very low threshold

for when
those emotions kick in.

If he's asked to do anything

he doesn't want to do,
like a spoiled child,

he tantrums.

[Detective] Mmm-hmm.

[Sahni] Individuals
who exhibit

extreme levels
of antisociality,

as well as psychopathy,

do sometimes have
a pattern of harming animals.

Sometimes they harm animals

because
they're more vulnerable.

They are easy to coerce,
and to control.

He just doesn't seem connected
to the value for life.

[Sahni] Thompson acknowledges
that he had

some difficulty sleeping,
knowing that his dead mother

was in the other room,
but for days,

he continued going about
his daily routine.

He left the house,

he went to the liquor store
and got more alcohol,

as if he hadn't just killed
his mother.

We have to wonder,

if a friend had not noticed
that she was missing,

how long
would Thompson have continued

living in the home
with his decomposing mother?

Ultimately, he's confessed.
It's over.

Now he doesn't even have to
worry about

the real cleanup of her body.

He can just move on
to an incarceration,

where he won't have to take
care of himself yet again.

He doesn't have to take care
of the mess

that he created at the house,

and he can go on
to the next stage of his life,

basically allowing
someone else to care for him.