Charles Manson was the leader of the Manson Family, a cult that caused terror in the late 1960s. Accused of killing seven people, Manson and members of his "family" were sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. These murders had a confusing effect on the legal system of the United States of America due to the fear that Manson would be free again. Many would say that Charles Manson is a psychopath because he caused the deaths of so many people, but murder is not an indicator of psychopathy. To decide whether Manson was a psychopath you need to do a deep analysis of his life and who he was. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayKathleen Maddox gave birth to Charles Milles Maddox at the age of 16 on November 12, 1943 in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was an alcoholic prostitute and took care of Charles Manson. His father was not present during his life, so Manson had no biological parents in his life. Instead, he lived part of his early childhood with his aunt and uncle, where they took him to church every Sunday and provided him with everything he needed. This wasn't enough for Manson, and after attempting to burn down his school at the age of nine, at the suggestion of an uncle, he was sent to a reformatory. Manson ran away from this school to be with his mother. He turned to petty crime after being rejected in his attempts to live with his mother. His early childhood was spent in and out of juvenile halls and juvenile detention centers (Sawyer 2013). The crimes only increased as he got older. His worldview was shaped by prison. Manson even tried to stay in prison at one point, saying he didn't want to hang out with the crazies outside. The way Charles Manson raised his "family" was to use a keen ability to read people and use it to manipulate into doing what he wanted. Casting young girls who did not have a strong bond with their fathers and had a strong desire for male affection was something Manson excelled at. He was able to easily manipulate girls using sex and kind words by preying on their need for security and love (Geis 1971). To attract men into the cult he also used sex by offering the prettiest girls and exploiting them. He was very successful in growing his cult into large numbers using sex. The level of control Manson had over his cult was cultivated through many different forms of manipulation. He would use sex, kindness and drugs to take away their sense of self until all that was left was what Manson had told them. He would recreate the crucifixion of Jesus while they were under the influence of LSD and tell them he would die for them while asking if they would die for him. Massive use of hallucinogenic drugs while isolating them allowed Manson to steal their individualism and create followers with no identity outside of them. One of the former family members, Dianne Lake, was a 14-year-old girl (Janos 2018). Her parents had abandoned her for their counterculture, which is how she ended up finding Manson and becoming one of his lovers and followers. Lake is a great example of how Manson took in young girls who craved love and security and turned them into what he wanted with sex and drugs. With this control, Charles Manson's twisted mind had terrifying power that he was ready to exploit. giving in to those he thought had wronged him. Manson had developed a love for music while in prison and wanted to become a rock n roll star, and when that didn't happen, he became bitter andangry at the industry. The murders that occurred at his hands were intended to put him in a place of power in the industry. He took the song “Helter Skelter” by The Beatles and told his followers that it contained subliminal messages of violence. At the trial, he even used the song as a motive for the murders and tried to get rid of the blame by saying that the boys were just listening to the song. which is one of many examples where he takes no responsibility for his actions. Looking at the life of Charles Manson there are many signs that he was a psychopath. When I applied the PCL-R to him he got a score of 32/40 which is a sufficient score to be considered a psychopath (Hare 2016). The PCL-R is a checklist created by Robert Hare to diagnose psychopaths. This has been a very important tool in deciding what makes a psychopath and looking at the traits which really helps make sense of some of the crimes committed. Someone who feels no guilt or remorse and takes no responsibility for their actions, like Charles Manson, is capable of horrible things. The first factor of the PCL-R involves interpersonal and affective traits. Interpersonal traits include casualness/superficial charm, grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, and being a deceiver/manipulator. Manson had a lot of superficial charm, scoring a two in this category. The way people seemed to be drawn to him was part of the charm he projected. He had a very high sense of self-worth, scoring a two, demonstrated by his belief that he was a key player in the role of the world. It could also be said that portraying himself as Jesus was also a sign of his grandiose sense of self-worth (Sawyer 2013). He was highly manipulative towards his followers, scoring a two, but wasn't as much of a pathological liar, scoring only a one on this one. He used lies to manipulate people, but he didn't seem to be lying just to lie. In the affective traits there is lack of remorse/guilt, superficial affection, insensitivity/lack of empathy and inability to accept responsibility. Manson got two traits out of three out of four, with only callous affection being zero. In his interviews he shows emotions such as excitement and even anger (Snyder 2011). His interviews have made his lack of empathy and remorse/guilt very clear in the way he talks about what happened. Not claiming responsibility for his actions is something he has done since he was a child. There was an incident at school where the girls beat up a boy Manson didn't like, and when they got in trouble they said it was because Manson told them too, but when questioned about this Manson said he didn't he had no control over what they did and it wasn't his fault. As an adult, he attributed the murders he ordered on his followers to the music of the Beatles. Lifestyle and antisocial are the categories of the second factor of the PCL-R (Hare 2016). Lifestyle is the need for stimulation, a parasitic lifestyle, no realistic long-term goals, impulsiveness and irresponsibility. Manson scored a zero for need for stimulation because his actions or crimes didn't seem driven by boredom, they were always supported by some kind of other need. He led a parasitic lifestyle, scoring a two, as he survived by stealing his entire life. Realistic Long Term Goals He chalked one up because he had plans, but didn't always seem to care where it ended up. Impulsivity was rated as one as Manson appeared to be easily annoyed, but did not always act accordingly. Manson scored a two in irresponsibility because he didn't care about the consequences. The.