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Re: Light Yagami’s presumed sociopathy and why he is objectively not a sociopath /psychopath

For as long as the Death Note fandom has existed, the question “Is Light a sociopath/psychopath” has existed in tandem. Many essays about this already exist, but to my knowledge none of those posts were written by a person currently training to become a psychiatrist which is why I’m throwing my two cents into the pool. As this post’s extremely subtle title suggests, I’m pretty solidly on the side that argues Light is not a sociopath/psychopath. The idea that Light is a sociopath is misinformed at best and most insidiously might just be a symptom of a broader social stigma on mental health. A psychiatric diagnosis is not pre-requisite for violent crime. Those who have a mental health diagnosis are, in actuality, far more likely to be the victims of a violent crime rather than the perpetrators. 

Bringing the conversation back to Light specifically, the idea that he’s a sociopath cannot be proven with the information presented in canon. This point is not debatable; there is simply not enough information given for any reasonable psychiatrist to make that determination. Furthermore, canon does not support that theory well either. Frankly speaking, anyone who thinks they can call Light a sociopath solely because he appears to meet criteria on a checklists doesn’t have a clue what they’re talking about. Human behavior is incredibly nuanced and determining what is or isn’t pathological is not nearly as simple as meeting criteria on a DSM-5 checklist. It is simply not a well informed argument to say that Light is a sociopath because he meets x amount of criteria. 

While this ought to go without saying, I’ve seen enough people over the years seriously suggest that reading something online means they understand psychiatric disorders that it seems to need stating anyway: the ability to read articles and checklists online does not translate into academic or clinical literacy. 

And by the way, the issue of academic and clinical literacy goes for me too, While half a year of clinical psych is more exposure than is typical for the average person in the fandom, I am also still learning and my opinions are not those of a licensed professional. Do take what I say with a grain of salt, but take people who have no training at all with even more grains of salt. There is a reason people go to grad school to study this stuff. 

So that all said, Light isn’t a sociopath. 

Now you may be going, “Eh, but if nobody can prove he is a sociopath, then you couldn’t prove that he isn’t a sociopath either.” And this is where I sashay in because ruling that out is actually pretty easy because so much evidence goes against it. This post will be going neck deep into the details of why Light is demonstrably not a sociopath. He is messed up certainly, but not a sociopath. 

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