He’s a legend in his own mind.
Luigi Mangione, the Ivy League grad accused of assassinating United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a midtown Manhattan sidewalk, displayed a pattern of “grandiose” behavior associated with personality disorders like narcissism and sociopathy, mental health experts told The Post.
“There’s a level of grandiosity in his decision that his own opinions would merit his complete disregard for some of the most basic laws of our society. . . . and this sense of permission to take a man’s life into his own hands,” said Manhattan psychologist Dr. Chloe Carmichael.
“For him to imagine himself as this ‘hero’ — it raises questions for me about a personality disorder that’s along the lines of narcissism,” Carmichael continued.
When cops nabbed Mangione, 26, at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s on Monday, he was reportedly in possession of a three-page manifesto in which he raged over “parasitic” health insurance companies and expressed disdain for corporate greed and power, law enforcement sources told The Post.
Dr. Alyson Cohen, a New York City psychotherapist, likened Mangione to serial killers Ted Bundy and Charles Manson, who exhibited symptoms of “antisocial personality disorder,” formerly known as sociopathy.
“Antisocial personality disorder is when people lack the ability to have empathy and compassion for other humans. With a cold-blooded killer, the cold-bloodedness is literally a lack of emotional consideration,” Cohen explained.
“I don’t think that someone who feels deeply on an emotional level would be okay with shooting someone in the head,” Cohen added.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Carole Lieberman, on the other hand, believes Mangione was simply depressed by chronic back pain.
“Clearly this is someone who was planning on going out and conquering the world. So does he have some grandiosity? Yes. But I do not think he was a sociopath,” Lieberman opined. Instead, “he felt like time was running out for him to accomplish his dreams, which is why chose to murder Brian Thompson.”
All three mental health experts ruled out schizophrenia, which can suddenly afflict young men, citing a lack of evidence that Mangione suffered from delusions or hallucinations, telltale signs of the disorder. Additionally, it’s unlikely that a schizophrenic person would have been able to pull off such meticulous planning, they said.
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