you may have read the popular new york
magazine article or perhaps you're
watching the latest netflix show
inventing anna
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anna delvey or sorokin has taken the
world by storm and perhaps she'll
continue with an upcoming book deal and
rumored hbo docu-series but in this
episode i want to hear from you
is anna the anti-hero of her own story
or is she really the villain
from what i've seen there are arguments
on both sides she managed to outsmart
the banks but also managed to cheat a
lot of her friends
so let's dive into who anna delvey is
where she came from and why she's
pretending to be someone that she's not
and how she feels about getting caught
then we can decide whether we think
she's the villain or the hero in this
story first let's dive into the story
who is anna delvey
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now anna delvey is really anna sorokin
she was born in russia and later made
her way to germany as a teen then built
a personality around being a wealthy
german heiress named anna delvey who was
set to inherit i think 60 million
dollars between 2013 and 2017 she worked
her way into new york social circles
living a lavish lifestyle in 2017 she
was arrested after defrauding banks
hotels and acquaintances in the u.s for
a total of 275 thousand dollars in may
of 2019 she was sentenced to between 4
and 12 years in prison for grand larceny
but on february 11th of 2021 just after
serving two years sorakan was then
released from prison on parole when her
father vadem sorakan was asked about her
quote
she has a selfish personality we can't
do anything about it we raised her well
end quote he mentioned that he and her
mom had lent her money and they never
received any of it back and he knew
nothing of her life in the u.s
elaborating that he knows nothing nor
cares to know anything about her life at
this point and i don't know it comes
from nature he said naturally she is
guilty to a certain extent on march 25th
of 2021 ice detained anna for
overstaying her visa and she has been
detained ever since her current trial to
be deported back to germany is set for
october of 2022. psychologist and
best-selling author of the confidence
game maria konokova identifies in her
research three traits common to con
artists psychopathy
narcissism
and machiavellianism
since we don't use all of those terms
every day let's define them really
quickly
so
psychopathy is a lack of empathy
poor behavior controls and often results
in criminal behavior
narcissism we've talked about a lot
before and i'll link the videos that
i've done in the description but
narcissists have an overly inflated view
of self they can be addicted and driven
by a need for attention and can use
others to get these needs met whether
that's for attention money or power or
whatever
machiavellianism describes people who
are incredibly skilled at manipulation
they are able to tell people what they
want to hear and convince them to go
along with their plans all the while
making that person feel like it was
their own idea like they came up with it
to begin with now these three traits
together are known in psychology circles
as the dark triangle so let's take a
look at some of the behaviors of anna
sorokin to see how they might or might
not fit into this psychopathy is the
first one and obviously watching someone
on tv and reading interviews doesn't
really give us the ability to diagnose
but i will say that anna sorokin's lack
of empathy for her victims is a
startling indicator that she might have
some of the tendencies that would lead
themselves to this type of diagnosis
most notably
is her complete lack of remorse do you
feel bad about some of the people that
got burnt along the way
can you name me the names of the people
and i'll tell you if i feel bad about
them you've been described as a con
woman
very good con artist i don't see myself
as such
you don't think you've conned anybody no
you led them to believe that you had a
trust fund with millions of dollars in
it and it would be accessed when you
turn 26. how did i lead them to believe
except how do i lead someone to believe
how much money i have
next let's talk about narcissism it's
not just the lack of remorse that's
startling it's interesting to note the
way anna simply
doesn't even think she did anything
wrong it's one thing to not regret your
misdeeds it's another to believe you
didn't commit any misdeeds and that
seems to be linked in part to the
entitled sense that anna has or maybe
she has some delusions about her
situation which obviously you know would
push us towards another type of
diagnosis like schizophrenia or
schizoaffective disorder
the story was true
it wasn't that hard
like i did have this project and i did
have this vision and it probably would
have worked out if i did have the money
so but you didn't have the money that's
why the project was no good if i would
have gotten the money from the bank
the whole anna delvey foundation your
whole business was just this house of
cards
it wasn't real anna so many businesses
are just a house of cards you just don't
know about it
although many interviews about anna
seemed to imply that she had a strange
abrupt personality and wasn't
necessarily a warm or winning person she
seems to have had an incredible knack
for getting people on board with her
ideas by appealing to the currency that
mattered most to them not even flattery
but fun social dynamics one of her
victims rachel laroche williams says she
quote challenged my sense of propriety
and encouraged me to care less about
what people thought to cut loose and to
have some fun she said anna crossed my
path when i felt isolated i was happy to
have a new friendship the timing worked
in her favor it's like she could tell
when someone needed a friend or was
having a hard time and would prey upon
that vulnerability do you see this whole
thing as a victimless crime
i don't see this case as a crime at all
how about that how can you not see it as
a crime
many people don't see anna this way
there's an entirely other angle many
people see her as the modern female
version of robin hood and they admire
her for what she's done one of those
reasons
is the victims
it's hard for us to have sympathy for
anna's victims big banks they feel like
organizations not people with feelings
when they're the ones that are being you
know conned it can kind of feel like a
victimless crime and are other victims
it's hard for some people to sympathize
with new york socialites the people she
conned have a life that many might envy
there can be a feeling that they got
what they deserved i've heard a lot of
people saying that online and many might
feel that even williams who we quoted
earlier was happy to take advantage of
anna before advan anna took advantage of
her so it was okay one way but not the
other
also anna exploited things that we might
feel are problematic to begin with
you know williams had said that she
trusted anna in part because of her
social media following and i don't know
about you but when i hear that it can
feel like what's broken here isn't anna
but maybe our influence culture and it's
so willing to trust people who have
enough followers on social media and
even though we know it can be just one
perspective we can still
get caught up in that and this story can
feel a little bit like the emperor's new
clothes like everyone was willing to go
along with anna because a friend of a
friend you know said she was cool and it
feels like the system itself is what's
problematic and the part of us that's so
desperate to be cool you know we can
make ourselves vulnerable to
situations and people like anna we can
get conned williams is quoted as saying
that anna took on traditionally male
dominated power structures when it came
to financial scamming
people are interested in that
the story is timely because people are
so interested in social media now and
it's positive and negative impacts on
society and the way in which it
encourages people to want to build
themselves as an internet celebrity and
there's also the fact that many people
find her fascinating just kind of want
to see what she'll do next
i personally find this incredibly
interesting because we all know she's
dangerous in many ways i don't think
anybody would disagree with that right
yet we can't stop watching reading
wanting to know more about her
and you all know how much i love crime
shows like law and order svu criminal
minds mid-summer murders you name it
and the reason that we are often so
interested like i am in shows like that
and in people like anna is because we
are wired to seek out threats
so that we can learn more about them
figure out what they are come out come
up with plans to avoid these things and
protect ourselves so of course we want
to know more about anna delvey or
sorakan and what she might be doing we
do this to keep us safe and help us feel
better and more in control not to
mention that we can also enjoy drama
that doesn't involve us because we can
get that risky feeling that maybe
adrenaline dump without any of the
threat or consequences i mean i get it i
like that stuff too
so which is it is anna someone we can
admire or someone we abort psychologists
say she took advantage of relational
bonds and used them against people
but don't many of us do that for
different motivations
or is anna a hero revealing to us the
brokenness and our need to believe in
social media or are those of us who
admire her just more victims of her kong
now obviously i don't know anna
personally and i've never met her and
i'm limited by what i can watch and read
which we all know never gives us the
whole story but based on what i do know
i personally don't think anna did
anything good just because banks aren't
people doesn't mean that people weren't
affected by her harmful deeds and
thinking of her as robin hood doesn't
really fit for me because she didn't
really give money to people who needed
it she spent it on lavish goods and used
it as a way of manipulating others sure
she shed light on some issues that we as
a society do need to acknowledge and
work to rectify but it doesn't really
excuse the behavior so in my opinion
stealing from anyone is wrong i'll tell
you if i feel bad about them
you've been described as a con woman
very good con artist i don't see myself
as such
you don't think you've conned anybody no
manipulating others is abusive behavior
and i just can't support someone who
does things like that especially when
there's no remorse and not to mention
the fact that her parents like cut her
off and don't want to know anything
about it and what she's doing what she's
up to that also really struck me but
those are just my thoughts i would love
to hear yours do you think she's the
villain or the hero or is it not that
easy to decide let me know what you
think in those comments down below thank
you so much for watching and i'll see
you next time
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you