When Mary Carew found out that she was pregnant it was a shock to both herself and her mother. The young woman, aged 21, was already an alcoholic and was not prepared to have nor raise a child. The father of the baby, a man by the name of Gerry, was a young man himself, not ready to handle the burden or responsibility of a child. The question was raised that Mary should have an abortion, which is almost went through with, until her very religious and conservative mother found out that she was pregnant and put a stop to it. After threatening Gerry to stay in her daughter’s life and do the right thing by marrying her, he up and left Athens, GA to places unknown. Mary wasn’t quite sure how she would handle raising a child, considering she was still one in her own eyes, but her mother promised to help, especially if she had a girl. It turned out to be a boy and she named him Jason.

The men in the life of the Carew woman didn’t always end well. His grandmother, Marion’s husband and Mary’s father, had vanished under mysterious circumstances after Mary’s birth. With Gerry out of the picture, Jason was raised by his alcoholic mother and his psychotic grandmother. Even when Jason was still a baby, he was subjected to beatings if he cried or misbehaved in any way, shape or form. From an outsider’s prospective, Marion came off as a kindly woman; a woman of God first, attending mass every single day and she always carried a rosary. On the inside, she was a vile woman who wanted to watch the world burn around her, waiting for the rapture to come and send all of the sinners down to a hell where she would be free from sin. As Jason grew up, he came to realize that she was the true sinner in every form of the word, and she would eventually pay. The beatings became more frequent as he grew and started to defy the woman, but as he grew he began to outsmart her, locking himself in his room to focus on his studies, while his mother drowned herself in alcohol to cope with life.

Being the intelligent lad that he was, Jason was extremely interested in both math and science. The human brain constantly fascinated him, and specifically he was fascinated with fear or lack of fear. For a boy who was constantly picked on by both bullies at school and bullies at home, Jason had very little fear of being harassed or even beat up. Instead, he would wait until the perfect moment to strike back at those who had wronged him, either with his words or by some sort of psychological means of torture. When he reached both middle and high school, this included going after those who bullied him and started to infiltrate their girlfriend’s minds with false narratives that would make them flock to him. Even though he wasn’t the most attractive guy in the world, he had the confidence of the beefiest jock and it seemed that he could brainwash a girl to think the same of him. Even though he never had the power in his personal life at home, at school he was developing power plays that would play on people’s fears; the fear of being rejected, the fear of never being popular again, the fear of failures in relationships. Everything was a mind game for Jason and he was simple the puppet master in all of the madness.

The plan was to take his use his interests in a meaningful way to him down the line and he worked hard to apply and get accepted to Stanford University. His grandmother was shocked and appalled that he wanted to leave the family nest and refused to let him leave. However, Jason could manipulate his mother to do anything that he wanted and, with her alcohol infused blessing, he was off to Stanford to study Psychology, with a specialization in Cognitive Sciences. College life was very different for Jason because he wasn’t sure how to manipulate those who were just as smart, if not smarter than him. His charming personality and crooked smile did seem to win him favors and make friends, though he almost always kept those at an arm’s length. Those he did let in were able to see that Jason was perhaps emotionally fragile, thanks to years of unnecessary abuse, but he never let them truly see his almost sociopathic tendencies. Everything about his life was involved around research and by his work, and the plan to get into a prestigious school of Harvard for his higher level education meant that he barely had time to cultivate the relationships that he did manage to make. When he was accepted to Harvard’s program to receive his Master’s, alongside his PhD, he was thrilled at the prospect of being able to become a Clinical Psychologist post-graduation.

With his arrival at Harvard, Jason, once again, had to re-invent himself and find a new set of friends. His almost nomad sensibilities at this point meant that he could change the narrative on his life and he had started to tell people that he was an orphan, whose parents had died tragically in a fire when he was away at a sleepover one evening. He played up to the sympathies of those around him and, even though he was surrounded by the smartest minds in the psychology field, he somehow managed to dupe the world. It gave him a personal power of satisfaction and he started to date a young woman who he thought was the love of his life. Their relationship was very hot and cold, given Jason’s focus on his studies, combined with the fact that his lies were starting to play with his mind and the line between fact and fiction became rather blurry. One night, after an explosive verbal fight, where Jason lashed out and seemingly took out his rage on every single woman that had wronged him on her, she left him for good, leaving Jason brokenhearted. For one week he wouldn’t eat anything and his appearance started to worry both his professors and colleagues, who urged him to seek professional treatment. He didn’t want to appear weak and he became cold and heartless toward almost everyone, in an effort to finish his studies and his thesis.

Post-graduation, Jason decided to take up permanent residency in Boston, where he joined a practice and started taking on clients. After a few years of work under someone else, he was able to save up enough money to open his own practice, retaining a majority of his client base, as well as taking on those who needed a compassionate ear. However, Jason is still fascinated with fear and tends to focus on the fears of his clients, using it to manipulate them without them knowing. Although he has had a few relationships over the years, he much prefers to not let many in, only a select few who he deems worthy of his time. However, he always greets people with the warmth and sensitivity that any compassionate person would have, leaving him to wonder if he is the world’s greatest actor or perhaps if he himself is sliding into madness. Whatever the case; he is happy, he is healthy and he is the one controlling his own narrative now.