Synopsis

Psychopaths…they’ll charm you, manipulate you, then ruin your life.  But, not all of them with a gun or a knife.  In this extra-ordinary documentary, suspected psychopath Sam Vaknin goes in search of a diagnosis…was he born without a conscience?

Suspected Psychopath Sam Vaknin

“Making a movie with a psychopath,” declares I, Psychopath’s director Ian Walker, “is a little like poking a snake with a stick.” Unwittingly, the film-maker becomes a textbook victim. Joined by Vaknin’s long-suffering but ever-loyal wife Lidija, the threesome embark on a diagnostic road trip to the world’s top experts in psychopathy in which Vaknin (and his wife) undergo a battery of rigorous psychological tests and neuroscientific experiments.  He is the world’s first civilian to willingly seek a diagnosis for psychopathy.

Director Ian Walker after two weeks on the road with Sam

The former corporate criminal turns out to be a way better psychopath than any of them imagined.  By the end, Walker almost calls it quits on his own film rather than spend another day with its main subject.