James Fallon

mystery - I'm glad you brought this topic up! James Fallon seems like a great example of someone who could be described as 'borderline' mentally ill. He doesn't technically have an illness, as his mental state doesn't get in the way of his functioning in life. But he has some rather odd, rather strong personality traits which fringe on disruptive. This goes back to what Erifrail describes in this thread. I think it makes sense to think of mental illness as the extreme/maladaptive manifestation of otherwise normal traits.

Auburn - I can see what you're talking about. He does appear to have an excess of heaviness to his eyes, much like some of the bipolar and schizophrenic samples we've seen in the other thread.

From what I've seen, he also seems to show signs of anxiety and mania, which is something he mentions struggling with in the last interview (he speaks of having OCD as a youth, as well as mania and narcissism). Particularly, there is a symptom of mania called 'push of speech', where the person will talk so rapidly that it's almost impossible to interrupt them. They'll have a tendency to speak over others. I see James do this quite a bit; his articulation is quick and seems nervous/agitated and he forcefully interrupts the people interviewing him. He also does something else which seems to indicate the high-strung state of mania, where he licks or bites his lip really quickly in a tweaky sort of manner.

Despite the fact that he has all the signals of Ni, the center of his eyebrows are fixed in an upward scowl. He appears concerned or worried, much like what I was describing about persons with anxiety in the other thread. His overall expression seems disturbed or upset:



I also see something of the flat affect happening with him. It's a bit hard to tell because of his beard, but his upper lip is kind of frozen, and the range of motion of his mouth as he speaks seems limited by a downward tension. This tension is especially visible in the first image above, where the corners of his mouth go into a slight frown. I agree with his type likely being FeNi, but he seems to lack emotional warmth in his articulation compared to others of his type. At first, I thought he might be Te-lead because of the rapidity of his speech and his dismissive, rude demeanor.

From the way he looks and acts, I'd expect him to feel quite emotionally disturbed. Yet, this isn't the way he describes himself. It seems there is a disconnect from one's emotions in psychopathy, and I have to wonder if this is what allows him (and other psychopaths) to function normally despite the imbalance in their brain. Perhaps they are simply unaware of what others would feel as emotional pain.