So, I have this book idea. It's about a criminal, victim, and detective. I'm thinking it's a Suspense Novel. Anyways, the main character in my book is the criminal and I need help with him. Let me give you some basic info on this guy: Richard: He is well known and beloved in his city, Washington D.C. He is a prosperous entrepreneur is always willing to lend a hand to those in need. His hobbies are being a DJ/musician and photographer. But despite his remarkable reputation, dashing looks and sweeping charm, there’s a darker side to him, just like the city. What "caused" his darker side? Well, when Richard a was child, he crept into the attic (which wasn't allowed) during one of grandfather’s naps and found a handwritten journal with pictures inside. He knew immediately he had found something he shouldn’t have, so he kept it a secret. This journal he found was a journal/notebook/scrapbook of a famous and deceased serial killer (I have yet to create this character). Every summer he would read it and look at the pictures. Richard became demoralized, numb to other's pain, and began to idolize the author. He is a psychopath, but he also suffers from other mental illnesses. Ones that cause him to hallucinate so he sees, feels, and talks to this killer. Years later, he’s promised to carry out his idols legacy, but he is completely functioning member of society. No one would have suspected that he was criminal, not even the detective who has been on the case for years. Here's my question: What mental illness, which causes hallucinations, does he suffer from? So far the mental illnesses he has are psychopathic disorder and OCD, but these don't cause hallucinations. A close friend suggested schizophrenia, but I'm not sure this one would work because this is an illness that you can't control at all. My character has a little bit of control, as you may be able to tell from his description.
Reading a serial killer's notebook as a child would not cause any of those issues. Seriously, it would at worst just make him have a couple nightmares, and at best have no significant psychological impact whatsoever. In order for him to get obsessed with the author and want to be like him, he needs to already be a pretty warped kid long before he finds that stuff. Is the serial killer a relative? Because psychopathy has a strong genetic component. It can also be caused by childhood neglect or changing caregivers too much, specifically during infancy and toddlerhood. Or by a brain injury in the amygdala or ventromedial prefrontal cortex. As for the hallucination thing, is it absolutely essential? I for one am thoroughly sick of evil characters who hallucinate. The conditions that cause hallucinations are actually generally associated with less violence than most other psych conditions, but are stereotyped as causing violence, a stereotype that is actively harming people. It's kind of on the level of deciding to have your child molester character be a gay man, in my opinion.
@Ettina I'm still in the process of research and outlining, so thank you for this information. I was planning to have one or both of his parents be in prison because of crime due to being a psychopath themselves. I haven't completely worked out all the details yet. As for the hallucinations, I thought it would be best to explain his insanity. I imagine him seeing this killer and having "normal" conversations with him. (obviously they aren't conversations normal people would be having at all...) I'm hoping that the readers wont see him as a bad guy and see him as a good guy with bad mental issues, which he is. I want my readers to have sympathy for him and desire to help (obviously they can't, but I'll solve that). It all depends on how one writes it I guess.
The moment a professional realizes your MC is interacting with the nonexistent, the MC will be diagnosed schizophrenic. Maybe your MC is taking antipsychotic drugs helping to control the symptoms. As the medication wears off, the hallucinations begin.
Oooh! That's good. This way he is able to mostly control himself. That really helps. Looks like I'm gonna need to do a whole lot more research about schizophrenia.
Not a professional when it comes to psychology, but maybe you could have him do drugs that cause him to hallucinate.
People that experience psychotic breaks see and experience things that aren't there. I think people that have different kinds of seizures also experience this. Most importantly, no one can control any mental illness. If they could, believe me, they would.
I have experience with mental illness from the point of view of both a carer and as a friend of mental health workers, and I can tell you that, most of the time, the EXACT mental illness is not known or identified. Proper procedure is to look at the symptoms and then take a guess as to what drugs to try. There is a certain level of trial and error and experimentation involved. To me, this always sounded horrific. But the doctor will prescribe something, let the mentally ill person take it for a few weeks, manage the drug's side effects and see if it worked. 'Worked' means that it made the symptoms of the unidentified mental illness go away. If it didn't, they will try another drug. A patient could end up taking anything from schizophrenia medication all the way to the extreme end of anti-depressants in this journey. And the diagnosis written down is whatever needs to be written for the new drugs to be prescribed. Very few people diagnosed with schizophrenia actually have it. They may have something that is similar, but not quite, and schizophrenia drugs may manage the symptoms of this mystery mental illness, so the results justify the means. The brain is still such a mystery to medical practitioners that it can only realistically be done this way. And this practice has made words like 'schizophrenia' and 'psychotic episodes' into medical buzzwords that are read by medical professionals as very loose and never as a binding diagnosis. With that in mind, you are free from the responsibility of having to 'name' the illness. In fact, with mental illness, no one can say that you are wrong unless you do name the illness. You can give it any combination of symptoms that you want, it isn't even unrealistic to cycle through them. At one point, the person I was caring for was cycling through the symptoms of a different mental illnesses almost on a weekly basis.
Oh... I had another thought that could help you. There was a documentary made that featured some of the people who are connected to my circles: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/changing-minds-the-inside-story/ There was a patient in the documentary who was interacting with demons and angels, which may be, sort of, similar to your story idea, in a vague way. (He's in series 2) Regardless, you may find some useful stuff in the show, if you are able to find it to watch.
Drugs, brain damage, and genetic predisposition stuff aside since all humans are susceptible to hallucinations during sensory, sleep, food, and water deprivation you could create a condition in your villains life that requires deprivation of one or all of those things on some level. Just a thought