Is henry a sociopath

Post by **FoxDie** » 16 Jun 2006

I have brought up this therory several times on differnent forums and I have been debating it with myself. Is Henry a sociopath? For those of you who don't know, a sociopath is any person incapable of feeling emotion or forming emotional bonds with others. This seems to fit Henry since we rarly see him express the usual feeling of anxiaty, fear, stress, confusion, frustration or diminished sense of reality that we can usually assosiate with other silent hill protagonists. We also know that Henry does not know any of his neighbors to any extent and lives totally isolated which seems to fit an Antisocial Personality disorder. However,
people suffering from ASPD show a disinct lack of empathy for the suffering around them since they cannot assosiate themselves with emotions related to empathy or suffering. Henry on several occasions shows great concern for he suffering of others around him. He is very tender with Cynthia as she dies and he activly tries to protect Ellien even though he does not even know her.

I leave this open to others to voice their imput, ecpessially those who have some knowlage on the subject

Post by **Silent Milance** » 16 Jun 2006

I think he is. He's been livinhg in Room 302 for 5 years, and his next door neigbour (Eileen) knows him only by name and saw him once.

Also, when he is in danger he doesn't say anything. He doesn't even scream, but when Richard is electrified he even touches the chair.

For some reason, he doesn't care for himself but he does care for some strangers.. But I don't understand why he doesn't try to meet other people. (Although, the residents of the entire Apartment Building are strange - Richard has a short temper, that one guy listens to music whole day, one sits and plays games, one drinks, one has cats, one paints... Almost like they are all sociopaths...)

Post by **FoxDie** » 16 Jun 2006

thats not true, most of the residints seem fairly normal with the exception of a few. The all express concern for Henrys disappearance, Ellien is terrified troughout the game, Richard expresses great anger over his own situation and even the guy with all th porn has aunhealthy sexual fetish for the nurse Rachel. A sociopath woyld not have any of these feelings. It is true though that many of the residents of the appartment building live main different lives, but htey have all for thee most part formed some sort of emotional bonds with the people in their live. Henry is the only one who is complletly alone.

Post by **AnneMarie** » 16 Jun 2006

It's actually 2 years that Henry has been living there - he's been trapped in there for 5 days.

I do think it is weird that there hasn't been a huge uproar about his disappearance. Therefore, it would seem he was isolated before being trapped, or else many people would be trying to find him, and trying to get into the room to find out what's going on.

Isn't it curious that no one had thought to get a ladder to look in the windows from the outside to see what was going on? That's something you would've thought Frank would have done.

Post by **Scabbed Angel** » 16 Jun 2006

A sociopath, or an under-developed, poorly performed character?

FoxDie wrote:For those of you who don't know, a sociopath is any person incapable of feeling emotion or forming emotional bonds with others. This seems to fit Henry since we rarly see him express the usual feeling of anxiaty, fear, stress, confusion, frustration ...

Apparently you forgot him shouting with passionate, heartfelt rage: "What ...the..... hell?"

Oh wait...

Seriously though, by taking care of Eileen, and his "emotion" when Cynthia died, I doubt he's really supposed to be a sociopath.

Post by **FoxDie** » 16 Jun 2006

Hey its just my therory

and besides if he is infact a sociopath or has a similer condition than his performance was perfect

Post by **Pissant_Partisan** » 16 Jun 2006

AnneMarie wrote: Isn't it curious that no one had thought to get a ladder to look in the windows from the outside to see what was going on? That's something you would've thought Frank would have done.

Not especially - Frank seemed to want to avoid room 302, he mentions in one of his speeches outside the door that similar occurances have happenned in the room. I think he knows there's something strange going on in there which he wants no part of...

Post by **The Adversary** » 16 Jun 2006

>He's been livinhg in Room 302 for 5 years, and his next door neigbour knows him only by name
Ever lived in an apartment complex? Ever taken the time to meet all of your neighbors? This isn't the fifties, when everybody knew everybody else. I've never known any of my friends who lived in an apartment to introduce themselves to any of their neighbors.

Post by **Snxke** » 16 Jun 2006

No, He's been living there for 2 years.

Post by **FoxDie** » 16 Jun 2006

Evem so, there other tenants seem to know each other fairly well, especially Frank

Through out the game you witness countless interactions between the tenants so some of them have to be at least on friendly terms. Henry is the only odd man out

Post by **ShiningSugar14** » 16 Jun 2006

Sounds pretty likely. I kept noticing various schizo references. Being trapped within oneself(or one's apartment) was the biggest one I recall, though I remember having a few more thoughts.

Post by **The Adversary** » 16 Jun 2006

>there other tenants seem to know each other fairly well, especially Frank
The Superintendent is generally pretty familiar with his tenants--it's kind of, you know, the job.

We don't know anything about the current tenants of the complex--except for Richard, whose been living there for thirty years, and Eileen, who hasn't been round that long. All of the tenants Henry learns about in the Apartment World are from when Walter was a child--thus nearly thirty years ago, back when it wasn't uncommon to know your neighbors.

Henry is no different from any other tenant in an apartment complex: He doesn't feel compelled to acclimatize himself with the other neighbors because he doesn't need to--it's not like anyone else in the apartment made an effort to meet him. You're suggesting that the rest of the tenants are BFF's, but I doubt that every new tenant went out of their way to do so.

Post by **Silent Milance** » 16 Jun 2006

Well, maybe sociopath is too strong of a term.

And St. Thomas, I think that it would be normal to at least know your next door neighbour. (At least in my country that is a normal thing, if it's not in yours, than I'm sorry...Really, really sorry). Sure you can't know everyone from the building, but come on! EILEEN LIVES RIGHT NEXT TO HIM! Besides, he obviously liked her.

Post by **Nurse Babz** » 16 Jun 2006

Sometimes, the only way you get to know your neighbors in an apartment complex is if a. they're family, b. you have problems with them or c. they live DIRECTLY across from you and you see eachother coming outside to go to work. Strangers don't give housewarming presents like jell-o anymore. What with the crime rate and all.

Unless another tenant's apartment starts to smell like DEATH, people could assume they went on vacation or something else nonthreatening.

>Apparently you forgot him shouting with passionate, heartfelt rage: "What ...the..... hell?"
*Yeah, you never know if he's shouting it or mumbling it.

Post by **The Adversary** » 17 Jun 2006

>Besides, he obviously liked her.
Shenanigans & horseshit.

Post by **alone in the town** » 17 Jun 2006

I've been living in the same place for almost fifteen years, and I don't know who most of my neighbors are.

Post by **BoozerDawg** » 17 Jun 2006

I see where the thread authors coming from, i cant really remember any points where Henry showed any emotion at what was going on, he just seemed to observe, go "What the hell?" then move on. In other SH's you could see the characters were obviously getting grossed out by things going on.

Post by **Watchdog** » 17 Jun 2006

Henry's been stuck in the room for 5 days when we meet him. He's probably gotten all his freaking out done by then. And all he ever wants to do is rescue the people he comes across, so you can hardly say he shows a lack of empathy.

And as for his minimal character, well...would it really affect the story if he had this great colourful personality? It would probably take away from the atmosphere somewhat if he ranted about everything like Heather does.

Post by **cl8on** » 17 Jun 2006

That is what I have always enjoyed about Silent Hill, the characters not displaying much emotion, just dealing with their surroundings (no matter how odd the situation is) and picking themselves up to move on. It really suits the atmosphere of the game as the above poster stated.

Post by **Nurse Rita** » 17 Jun 2006

I wouldn't go as far as calling him a sociopath. Maybe he just is a lonewolf?