Heh okay this is the OFFICIAL Izzy’s Psychopath Zach theory/headcanon.
‼️THIS IS NOT HEADCANONING ZACH WITH ASPD. NOT ALL PSYCHOPATHS HAVE ASPD. ASPD IS A HIGHLY DEMONIZED AND STIGMATIZED DISORDER, I AM JUST SIMPLY NOTING THE SIMILARITIES I NOTICED BETWEEN PSYCHOPATHY AND ZACH’S BEHAVIOR AS SOMEONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN PSYCHOLOGY.‼️
NOTE(S): individuals with psychopathy and sociopathy or who fit under the umbrella terms of psychopathy and sociopathy are not all bad people. They can be functioning members of society, this is simply just an analysis of Zach and the traits he has that fit the diagnosis of psychopathy.
I will also clarify Psychopathy in of itself isn’t a medical term. It is instead an umbrella term used to refer to several different personality disorders that often shows up in the diagnosis process. Someone can be a psychopath but also not have a specific personality disorder.
Anything negative said about Zach is not a reflection of my beliefs on ASPD. Nor is it a reflection on the behaviors of those with ASPD. This is **not** an analysis of Zach with ASPD, this is an analysis on Zach being a psychopath. Psychopathy and ASPD are not the same things,
**“Why Psychopathy? Isn’t Zach just a normal middle school bully?”** While yes you could claim/assume Zach is just a normal middle school bully, if you analyze patterns of behaviors in bullies and triggers for bullying Zach is an anomaly. Often bullying stems from past abuse, not all bullying does however so Zach seemingly not having a “wrong” being done to him to put him down the path of bullying doesn’t automatically make him odd. What does make him odd however is the fact that his bullying behavior does not stem from thinking someone is odd or weird or a loser, but almost just for the entertainment of doing that to another person. Perhaps Zach is targeting people like Hugh and Cap because **he knows he can get away with it** He doesn’t actually care if someone is weird, he cares that he can get away with harming them because they are. This can be the case for some bullies, so again. Not too much of an anomaly
This, however, isn’t enough evidence in of itself to call him a psychopath. We will have to analyze traits and behaviors he has that are classified under the term of psychopathy.
Traits/Instances of Zach having them:
1. Superficial Charm: At least for the beginning of Schooled Zach is a popular person, he is described as being charismatic and charming. Many people think he’s funny, cool, strong, etc. However, Zach doesn’t ever seem to think highly of other people or mean the things he says/does. He is only acting charming to appear “normal” and likable. Why do these things? Because the most important thing of all to Zach is his appearance and reputation. We can see how when people started shooting spitballs at Zach, it was more than that to Zach. It was a sign his reputation was over, that he wasn’t liked anymore. And it is what drove him over the edge.
2. Unnecessary Cruelty: I’m not sure I need to provide an instance of this because really the whole book is Zach being unnecessarily cruel, but some instances are; Stealing Cap’s shoes, Inciting the school to harass Capricorn, Physical Harm to Cap, Hugh, and implied others, plotting to ruin Capricorns social status/reputation with no provocation, the football incident, putting things such as dead animals in Capricorn’s locker, etc. All things done unprovoked
3. Lies, Exaggeration, Dishonesty: Zach repeatedly lies to Capricorn to embarrass and humiliate him. He also lies several times to avoid trouble, which I will talk about in the next point.
4. Lack of accountability and placing blame on others: After the football incident, rather than own up and admit he was involved with it, he tries to place all the blame on Hugh. This adds on to my own personal theory that he did not need Hugh to enact his plan, he simply needed him to be the fall guy so Zach wouldn't get in trouble. It almost worked however Daryll put two and two together.
5. Need for power, control, and dominance: Zach is a bully, and bullying is often also a power display. For bullying to work there must also be a power imbalance. Whether it is physical, emotional, or mental. Because there is often a (assumedly physical) power imbalance between Zach and his victims his need for control is fulfilled. However, when Capricorn doesn’t act how a typical victim would and isn’t shown to be under Zach’s control, he grows angry and tries harder. Trying to get the entire school to harass Capricorn in hopes that he will then be controlled. Capricorn becoming popular is also a threat to Zach’s dominance, which is partially why he reacted so viscerally.
6. Sadistic enjoyment of pain and suffering: He is a bully, he finds others suffering entertaining. Whenever something bad happens to someone else he feels not empathy, not compassion, but *satisfaction.* It is like he struggles to realize other people also have lives and feelings. Zach also finds Capricorn’s emotional distress over dead birds funny, he thinks his sadness and mourning for the creatures is something he can exploit for entertainment. He finds people’s (namely Hugh’s) fear funny. If someone is feeling something negative or suffering, chances are that Zach will find it entertaining.
7. Boredom and Thrill Seeking behaviors: for Psychopaths, it often takes more to excite them. This can be the reasoning for why Zach’s bullying is so violent and extreme. Normal bullying doesn’t satisfy him so he must be ten times more aggressive and extreme.
8. Disregard for laws, rules, and norms: Zach often disregards the school rules to accomplish what he wants, he even tells Daryll “School isn’t about grades, its about sports, girls, and having fun” (paraphrasing). This is him telling Daryll that the rules are whatever you make them. This could also be why he finds it not difficult at all to bully and terrorize others. Since he has no regard for moral and ethical laws, he has no reason to follow them.
9. Unaffected and unafraid of consequences: Zach doesn’t seem to have a natural or normal response to consequences, rather than making him feel guilty they just make him feel angry. He also doesn’t seem to be able to gauge consequences beforehand (ie: the football incident)
10. Detached, Cold, and callous demeanor: Psychopaths and by extension Zach, often struggle to experience a normal range of human emotion. Making them seem apathetic and uncaring in situations where others are experiencing distress. An example of this is when Daryll was upset about the football incident, Zach was oddly calm the entire time. While one could say this is because he knew what happened, he doesn’t even try to console his friend. This could be because he doesn’t understand why or how Daryll is feeling such emotional distress.
11. A history of Childhood Behavioral Problems: Zach has been a bully since kindergarten based on what he says to Hugh about knowing he was a dweeb even then. This is evidence that his psychopathic traits have persisted ever since he was a child. It’s likely Zach has never known what normal human emotional responses are and has learned eventually to fake them over time. His present bullying behavior can also be considered childhood behavioral problems.
12. A history of short and broken relationships: While there isn’t much evidence of this for Zach, he does have a history of having many victims. Which could possibly fit under this category. His relationships with his friends do not seem healthy either though, much more like a worshipper and the worshipped than an actual friendship in the case of him and Daryll.
13. Exploitation of others for personal gain: This happens several times during the book but arguably the most blatant example being when Zach was able to manipulate and weaponize Hugh to use him against Cap. He managed to use Hugh being angry and in an emotionally heightened state to manipulate him into helping him hurt Cap. Afterwards, he remained in contact with Hugh only because he had no one else he’d be able to exploit and manipulate into helping him anymore. Hugh is not a friend to Zach, but a pawn.
14. Calculated and strategic planning: All of Zach’s plans to tear down Cap are not based on emotional responses or anger, But are all carefully thought out and planned attacks. Would I call Zach aggressive? Absolutely. Reckless? No. He orchestrated a war against Capricorn, it was only because of Capricorn’s serenity that Zach lost his own war.
15. A lack of Conscience: Zach doesn’t seem to be able to see how his actions will affect others, he isn’t thinking about how they will feel as a result of his actions. He lacks guilt, empathy, and remorse. It’s shown it’s difficult to reason with him, because he’s not thinking about consequences logically. He only cares how he will be benefited.
16. There are several lines throughout the book where Zach shows a glimpse into his psyche. Namely when speaking with Hugh, Zach states the following: **“My whole life it’s been obvious what sports to play, what bands to listen to, what people to hang out with, it’s as if I was born with a natural guidance inside my head, showing me how to be cool.”** While this may seem nothing more than an offhand comment, it clearly shows Zach values himself as *better* than others. Because he knows how to fake what he feels to be seen as someone likeable. Zach doesn’t have the thinking to see how the way he thinks is abnormal. He isn’t aware that normal people don’t think the way he does.
17. Poor attention span and loss of interest: There isn’t much evidence of this but uh Zach tends to move onto new methods of bullying quickly? Idk how to prove this trait. Someone doesn’t need every trait to be a psychopath tho
18. Violent tendencies, Aggression, and abusive behavior: Zach is a bully, and regularly shown abusing, manipulating, using, and hurting people. He is implied to have physically abused Hugh, and was definitely mentally abusing him. Perhaps even emotionally. He was also abusing Cap throughout the book, and even manipulated his closest friends (Daryll says Zach convinced him he was as stupid as he was, perhaps verbal abuse as well?)
19. Hostile and Oppositional by nature: He's a bully. Do I need to keep restating that?
20. Manipulation/Deception: Zach has repeatedly manipulated others into believing he is right, Daryll says that in the past Zach’s word was enough. He’s described as being the ringleader and someone who can “pull others strings” to make them do what he wants, this is because he was able to act right and confident to make others think he was. He could make someone doubt themself just by his tone, **(“You're delusional!” It was classic Zach—the sneering, superior put-down tone that he used on other people, but never on me.)** His superficial charm allowed him to seem like he knew what he was doing. He painted his victims in the worst light possible to make others also harass them. He gaslit, manipulated, and deceived the people around him.
Yep!! That’s the end of the theory!! My hands hurt from typing so much
‼️ZACH BEING A BAD PERSON WHO FITS THE TRAITS OF PSYCHOPATHY DOES NOT REFLECT ON ALL INDIVIDUALS WITH PSYCHOPATHY. MANY PSYCHOPATHS CAN BE NORMAL, FUNCTIONING MEMBERS OF SOCIETY, AND GENERALIZING THEM ALL IS INSENSITIVE. PSYCHOPATHS ARE ALSO NOT ALL MURDERERS. PLEASE DONT TAKE ALL YOUR INFORMATION FROM HOLLYWOOD OR ASSUME IM SAYING ZACH IS WHAT ALL PSYCHOPATHS ARE LIKE‼️
(Also please don’t say this is me saying he has ASPD/any other personality disorder. I’m not. I’m specifically using psychopathy as it is a broad term/spectrum and not all psychopaths have ASPD. I do not see him as having ASPD, this whole theory got started because I had been researching and reading more about psychopathy lately and saw a lot of the traits in Zach. Psychopath is also not a medical term or a Cluster-B disorder in of itself. I’m not saying he has a cluster b disorder, I’m saying he has psychopathic tendencies at least. NOT ASPD.)
