Lance Armstrong’s Body Language on Oprah Showed No Contrition, Lack of Emotion, Blaming Others, and Possible Sociopathic Behavior

Lance did NOT want to give this interview based on his body language as he constantly pursed his lips throughout this interview. In addition

He would constantly look down and not look directly at Oprah when she asked direct hard hitting questions. There was a tone of arrogance and a disturbing monotone which indicated that the only thing he was sorry about was getting caught.

Oprah’s interview with Lance Armstrong was one of the most disturbing things to watch as the one thing that kept running though my mind was” Is Lance Armstrong a Sociopath?”  Here are some traits of a sociopath

a) Glibness 

b)Grandiose sense of self-worth

c) Pathological Lying 

d)Cunning/manipulative

e) Lack of remorse or Guilt 

f)  Shallow affect (genuine emotion is short-lived

g)Callousness; lack of empathy

h)Failure to accept responsibility for own actions

It seems that Lance exhibited all of these traits when one listens to his interview.

When Oprah asked Lance Armstrong if he felt what he did was wrong or if he felt guilty or if he felt he CHEATED  he said NO!  That was the most chilling and revealing part of the entire interview. It made me wonder if this man was a sociopath.

He seemed to blame everyone else but himself.  He first blamed the culture, his fans, the story which was too good to be true to a cyclist who had the disease who won the competition. He also  the fact that he had the disease (as he refused to say cancer) that made him feel driven. He blamed his mother for being a fighter and said he was a fighter too.  He blamed fellow cyclist  Floyd Landis’ accusation as getting back at him because he wasn’t on the team.

What was also disturbing was he kept  referring to himself in the third person as a “flawed character instead of saying that his character was flawed. It was a form of distancing himself.

As further indication that he really  didn’t want to  be there and talk was a tell tale sign of  his  head scratch. His autonomic nervous system was in full play here as it showed that he was getting anxious as Oprah asked ” How did it all work?”

Here we see Lance putting his fingers over his mouth indicating that he is guarded and doesn’t really want to talk.

His thought process also seemed sociopathic. When you ask a sociopath a question they may answer it one way such as Did you threaten anyone to take drugs? Lance insisted that he did not. But then when you ask the question another way like  Did you insist the members of the team see Dr. Ferrari ( who allegedly provided the drugs) he answered yes.  In keeping with this sociopathic line of thinking he was asked if fellow cyclist  Floyd Landis who spoke to the press about Lance’s doping felt rebuffed? Lance said No. But then when asked in a different way, if  he blew Landis off, Armstrong admitted that he did indeed blow Floyd off as he said that Floyd was upset because ” I didn’t put him on my team.”This  thought process is how sociopaths tend to think.

When Oprah showed his deposition tapes you clearly saw how he was lying as he shook his head yes when he was saying No.

When he was watching himself we he discomfort as he swallows hard and we see his jaws clenching.

he blatantly lies when he states to Oprah that he never failed a test. Then in his sociopathic thought  process he admits that retroactively he failed a test.

He tended to minimize what happened by saying “all this is a process.’ Again it was a form of distancing himself from what is happening with him.

When he said he is happier today than he ever was and Oprah confronted him and he back pedaled a sickening feeling came over me as I wondered again if he was a sociopath.

When asked why he sued people when he knew they were right and when I heard his monotone rote answer it once again made me wonder about sociopathy in relation to blaming others. He then talked about feeling attacked so he sued . He called one of his accusers a Bitch and Crazy but then says that he never called her fat. This was one of the most disturbing moments as you see is pathological thought process in action as he made it OK and justifies his actions of name calling because he didn’t use all three insults but only two.Oprah appeared to be disturbed by this as well.

There was a lot of chin itching and scratching which indicated that  was not happy about being confronted about his actions  in such a detailed manner. he blames his comeback for causing all of his troubles and tells Oprah that they wouldn’t be sitting there if he didn’t have a comeback.Once again his statement smacked of sociopathy.

His anger could be seen in his clenched jaw where his muscles protruded  along with his lower jaw as he said that he wouldn’t be  there if  it wasn’t for his comeback.

This interview did not help Lance Armstrong’s image. In fact it made it worse. We saw arrogance, defiance, anger, blame, and someone who really needs to be out of the public eye in my view. In my view he is a very disturbed individual who is very TOXIC!

Part two will focus on his charity, his sponsors,  and his family and how this has affected them so stay tuned for some more  behavior analysis and body language analysis.