Chapter 3470

In psychology, there is a pattern that hardly counts as a theorem: people with antisocial personality disorder possess an innate manipulative ability.

Contrary to what many believe, people with antisocial personality disorder do not lack sympathy and empathy. On the contrary, many of them perceive emotions with far greater subtlety than normal people, and their judgment of others' emotional states is highly accurate.

It is simply that the evil element in their personality causes them to treat this inborn instinct as an invincible weapon, using it to manipulate others and achieve their own ends.

At the same time, their ability to perform emotions is also far stronger than that of normal people; they can disguise their emotional state with almost no effort, leaving not the slightest flaw for anyone to detect.

Let me say it again: supervillains like the Joker and Scarecrow do not have a mental illness. They have no episodic onset, nor are they like the Riddler, who completely loses control during an episode and exhibits all manner of somatic symptoms.

Their brains have no pathological changes; their nervous systems function normally, allowing them to perform all kinds of precise operations at every moment — which is why they can use their talents to create all sorts of chaotic scenes.

They are not sick; they are simply antisocial.

Antisocial personality disorder is further divided into two types. Psychological theory does not delineate them clearly, but they can be broadly summarized as the active type and the indolent type.

The Joker is clearly the exemplar of the active type. The mental excitement he has always displayed is not a manifestation of schizophrenia or other mental illness, but rather the positive reinforcement that the antisocial factor in his personality gives him.

It is similar to: "As long as I think about how much chaos I'm going to cause, I'm filled with fighting spirit."

Possessors of this type of antisocial personality are relatively easier to identify, because they possess a very clear "evil desire."

The moment someone mentions doing bad things, making someone suffer, breaking rules and order to plunge something into chaos, they display an irrepressible excitement, practically writing "I am a bad seed" plainly on their face.

When ordinary people encounter such a person, they need only stay away; there is no need to reason with them, much less hope to change them. This evil desire can never be eliminated, and the pleasure brought by the positive reinforcement of doing evil may be even greater than that of drugs — it cannot be kicked.

Although such people already look very dangerous, they account for only about 5% of those with antisocial personality disorder — extremely rare — and ordinary people generally will not encounter them in normal life.

The more numerous and more dangerous ones are possessors of the indolent type of antisocial personality, like Scarecrow.

On the surface, these people appear to have no aggressiveness at all; they look exactly like normal people, and even — because of the high-functioning presentation that accompanies antisocial personality — come across as wise, rigorous, and charismatic.

They do not have such a strong evil desire. To be precise, their evil desire is not an active skill; it usually does not manifest outwardly, but requires a trigger.

They usually only do evil at critical junctures.

For instance, deliberately failing to save a dying person, concealing crucial information, interfering with a key judgment — simply giving a gentle push when people are standing on the edge of a cliff, then laughing down from above.

Although the active type are born terrorists, the indolent type, because they are hard to distinguish, often bring greater harm — at least in terms of victim count, they come out ahead.

When ordinary people encounter such a person, they are either attracted or fail to see through them and lower their guard; by the time these types strike at the critical point, everything is too late.

The best among them can even disguise themselves as completely indistinguishable from normal people. If they never encounter a triggering condition, they can maintain that disguise for a lifetime.

Scarecrow Jonathan Crane possesses precisely this ability. Although he is quite active in opposing Batman, fundamentally, his evil desire is not that strong. If the Joker's feelings toward Batman are fiery, then Jonathan's are clearly far colder.

It is for this reason that he presents a different kind of troublesomeness from the Joker.

When the Joker does something bad, he must let Batman know, and would love for the whole world to know; he himself does not shy away from admitting it.

So as long as Batman can subdue the Joker, sending him to face legal judgment is no difficult matter. He would even walk into Arkham Asylum's special cell with a smug swagger, head held high.

But Scarecrow is much harder to deal with. He will use all manner of means to exonerate himself, employing his cutting-edge chemical methods to destroy corpses, forge crime scenes, even directly knock Batman unconscious, making him lose the chance to obtain key evidence.

Compared to subduing him, sending him to court and having him face a fair trial is the hard part. For Batman, Scarecrow is his most difficult opponent in the realm of detection.

For example, in the Arkham Knight game, Scarecrow placed fear toxin bombs throughout the city. Although Batman resolved the danger and saved Gotham once again, how to bring Scarecrow to justice afterward is a question well worth pondering.

Who planted the bombs, who manufactured the fear toxin inside them, who should be held responsible when no harm was actually caused — these are all matters to be debated in court.

But unfortunately, the workload of assembling a complete chain of evidence for all these things is unimaginably vast. As long as a single link has a problem, the accusation will be hard to sustain.

For instance, even if Batman finds Scarecrow's laboratory for manufacturing fear toxin, even finds his fingerprints on the experimental apparatus, even if Scarecrow was in the lab at the time — none of that constitutes a complete chain of evidence.

Because Scarecrow can argue that he lent out the experimental apparatus, or that he was kidnapped and brought to the lab. It sounds absurd, but it holds up in the common law legal system.

To secure a conviction, one must catch him in the act — that is, catch Scarecrow at the very moment he is manufacturing fear toxin in his lab. Even surveillance video isn't enough; there must be an eyewitness, preferably a police officer.

Moreover, this would only support a charge of manufacturing dangerous chemicals, not of using dangerous chemicals to endanger public safety. To charge the latter, one must also catch him in the act of transporting the fear toxin somewhere and releasing it; otherwise, room for exoneration remains.

This is also the main reason why so many criminals in Gotham are caught and released, released and caught again. Because every charge is easily escaped, and even when convicted the sentence isn't long. What's more, many of them are mentally ill and can effortlessly evade legal sanctions.

It is precisely because Scarecrow's exoneration skills are among the very best of Batman's opponents that he gets to appear again and again. Many times Batman has sent him to the precinct, and he simply posts a bit of bail and walks out, continuing his crimes the next day.

If the Joker wins on quality, then Scarecrow is undoubtedly the exemplar of quantitative change leading to qualitative change. Precisely because Batman has clashed with him so many times, his understanding of him runs deep.

That Jonathan would say this was not beyond Batman's expectations. He knows Scarecrow is fundamentally a very arrogant person; even if this universe has inverted good and evil, making Scarecrow the Justice League's spiritual mentor, his fundamental personality would not change.

"What do you think the real culprit's purpose was in framing you?" Batman asked.

Batman was reminding Jonathan that the other party was not acting without reason. Choosing this time point was naturally to influence the people of Metropolis.

Jonathan was a bit baffled by the question, but the manipulative instinct in his bones told him that now was not the time to show weakness. If he wasn't firm, Batman would seize on the topic and hound him relentlessly.

"Whatever the reason, it has nothing to do with you, does it? Mr. Batman?" Jonathan countered.

"I'm afraid it does," Batman replied. "I came to this world with my own purpose. The ripple effects of everything that has happened to you may bring me trouble. I am merely defending my own interests."

"I see," Jonathan thought.

He knew of the Doujie. Although for various reasons he hadn't participated, he knew the general process. These visitors from other worlds came here to earn points. They had profit to gain, so naturally they worked extra hard.

He himself had taken down the professors of Gotham University; presumably this had affected his point-earning mission. Put that way, it was impossible to make Batman completely let the matter drop.

In that case, he had to seize the initiative quickly. Even if he couldn't manipulate Batman's actions, he had to exert enough influence on him. As long as he could divert his attention, he himself should be out of danger.

Jonathan sighed, leaned back in his chair, his face completely sinking into shadow, his gaze beneath his lofty brow ridges appearing exceptionally focused.

Batman observed him, and he realized that the psychology professor's assessment of Jonathan Crane might not be accurate. He did not look like a mental patient at all; his gaze was not scattered, but showed a peculiar focus.

Jonathan's appearance was unremarkable; put glasses on him and throw him into a pile of professors and scholars and you wouldn't find him for half a day. But he possessed a unique temperament — cold and cunning — that left a deep impression.

And this universe's Jonathan, Batman thought, did not look crazy enough, nor evil enough. When silent, he looked like a statue of a thinker, radiating wisdom from his stillness.

As for why he was like this, it was probably because the power of 170 years of property tax was simply too great. Jonathan had to go all out to keep his job. When a villain racks his brains, he too has his own evil charm.

"What do you want to do?" Jonathan asked proactively.

"First I want to know, who do you think the culprit is?"

Jonathan suddenly had a flash of inspiration; he realized this was a good opportunity — to get those few people who hadn't been poisoned into trouble, specifically Shiler who hadn't been poisoned and Victor who hadn't been poisoned.

Since it was a greeting, he couldn't leave out his old friend. Although he hadn't managed to send them to the hospital, having them get tangled up with Batman wasn't bad either. This is evil grinding against evil.

Jonathan was delighted in his heart, but his surface remained perfectly calm. He raised his eyes to look at Batman and said: "Putting poison in food isn't a very difficult thing; ordinary people can do it too. Precisely because the method is simple, it's even harder to investigate."

"But if the other party knows they aren't a professional, they might fear failing to control the dosage and killing themselves, so they might not let themselves be poisoned. This should be an important clue."

Batman's eyes narrowed slightly; Jonathan's deduction coincided with his own. From the poisoning method, one could infer the other party's chemical proficiency was average, possibly even that of a layman.

But if the other party is not a professional, and I myself cannot be clear about what effect a specific dosage would produce, or have no confidence in it, then the safest method is to not let myself be poisoned.

Of course, if he is cunning enough or bold enough, he might also take an extremely small amount of toxin, or simply pretend to be poisoned.

The coincidence Batman spoke of is that he and Jonathan share the same suspicion: the person who took action is one of the staff members of Gotham University.

(End of Chapter)