Loïc De Marie, 26, who has been diagnosed with psychopathic traits, recounted childhood experiences that he said highlighted his different emotional processing. He described an incident at age six where his younger sister was drowning in the family swimming pool.
"I didn't jump into the pool because I didn't want my clothes to be wet," De Marie stated during an interview with SBS's Insight program, explaining that he used a plastic golf club to help his sister reach the pool ladder instead.
He also recalled a classmate's death in a car accident when he was six. While other children cried, De Marie said he did not, which alerted a teacher to his differing emotional responses.
Three years prior to sharing these stories, De Marie sought psychological help after feeling different for years. He was subsequently diagnosed with traits associated with psychopathy, often linked to antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). Psychopathy is not a formal diagnosis in the DSM but describes traits such as a lack of empathy, manipulative behavior, and disregard for social norms. Researchers estimate that these traits appear in about one percent of men and 0.3 to 0.7 percent of women.
De Marie explained that he struggled to understand others' emotions from a young age, viewing people similarly to inanimate objects. He noted that therapy has helped him comprehend why he doesn't experience emotions in the same way most people do.
"When we hear psychopathy we think of Hannibal Lecter," he said. "We think of cannibals and serial killers, but most of us never kill somebody. I don't think I was born bad. I was born different."
In his youth, De Marie was involved in fights and was arrested after bringing a baseball bat to school with the intent to confront a rival student. He stated he would have attacked the student if provoked.
Therapy has taught him how to behave appropriately in social situations that typically require empathy or compassion. "Sometimes you need to fake it," he admitted, explaining that he learned to offer expected emotional responses like expressing sympathy when someone has experienced a loss, even if he doesn't personally feel it.
His father, Philippe, commented that the diagnosis provided an explanation for years of challenging behavior. "It was good to put a name on a disorder, and then you understand a lot of things," he told SBS. "We try to do the best we can to support him with a lot of communication and love."
Eva Kimonis, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of New South Wales, stated that research indicates callous and unemotional traits can be identified in children as young as two or three years old. "I think if we can address the problem when empathy is developing and it's starting to go the wrong way, then I think yes, we can teach empathy," she told SBS.