Do you still think so?
Yes, he committed crimes and he did get punished for it. I still think if he had some form of real support as a child, he wouldnt have done those things. Its tricky as psychology isnt an exact science and there is still a chance that even with early therapy and education he'd poison ppl etc, but my point still stands.
A young child with no firm parental figures (cant call his bio mother mum, father rarely interacts with him, mother spends a lot of time trying to make her son the crown prince thru schemes etc) and with no one to challenge him or teach him, he is going to have issues. We see in the aftermath of him throwing the mc into the pond how he essentially repeats what mc said infront of the emperor and it lands both him and his mother in trouble. Child sees, hears and copies - the behaviour of children is sculpted like so.
Anyway, it was probably a very long winded reply so sorry about that haha. I have a special intrest in this bc I'm in the medical field
Tbh, this kind of upbringing happen all around the world that doesn’t mean a person would eventually turn out bad. His surrounding might have been a bad influence but there is no way a normal child (as in having empathy which is the first trait for being human) will kill small animals and even tryna kill a child. If he showed this much aggressiveness this early, he surely didn’t develop any form of empathy and he is a goner. He clearly has psychopathic tendency and this kind of kids are very very hard to reform. Some kids even though having the best upbringing with good parents still turns out like that. There is something like born psychopath and they are not easy to handle. His upbringing might be a factor but still his aggressive/killing tendency can never fall under "bad upbringing".
I reversed that the sole reason for his aggression is his upbringing, I thought that'd just be an obvious point to bring up? LMAO Bc of course killing animals is a major sign that he has some problem.
However saying that these kids are hard to reform or calling him a 'born psychopath', I believe, is wrong and would make someone (if they were a medical practitioner looking at his case) a failure. He has emotions, he feels joy, sadness and anger - in fact the way the mc riled him up was by comparing their mothers and comparing herself with him. He was so upset at the way she called him lesser and it was clear it was an emotionally charged moment for him and the anxiousness and fear he felt when he realised his father is angry with him was very clear. A psychopath does not feel sadness or fear or anxiety. Child psychology is tricky, but I would never write anyone off like that.
A treatment plan would involve cognitive behavioural therapy and making sure his parents/guardians are more involved (like in this manhwa, in real world cases, a child harming animals is often minimised/hidden by parents). The entire thing is to help identify what the kid thinking when they abuse the animals and why etc. And what happens if they stop etc and then making the child hold themselves back. No diagnosis tho for a child that young, usually.
Okay, im on chapter 22 and im lowkey feeling bad for the second prince. Lil guy is also a kid, I think he just needs a therapist