Inside The Mind of Drew Peterson

He's facing some stiff charges from a Will County jail cell tonight, but Drew Peterson continues to laugh and crack jokes while maintaining his innocence. His strange antics always leave us scratching our heads. But is Peterson's sunny disposition his defense, or a serious personality disorder? David Novarro reports on what experts say may be going on inside the brain of this dark celebrity.

“Three squares a day and a spiffy outfit, how can I beat that? And look at this bling!” Peterson once said about his prison outfit.

He does not act like a man accused of doing the unthinkable.

On another occasion, Drew told reporters, “I'm going to Disneyland” when asked where he was going.

Now facing first degree murder charges alleging he killed his third wife, Kathleen Savio back in 2004, Peterson also remains a suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife Stacy.

Licensed clinical social worker Bill Martin has not examined Peterson, but he says his behavior in the media appears to be both narcissistic and sociopathic.

“It is America and Drew Peterson is innocent until proven guilty. But you wonder about some of the emotions he expresses are not appropriate to the situation,” said Martin.

Martin commented that narcissists are self-centered and all lack one thing that most people learn at an early age: empathy.

“You can see there's a missing part of their neurological development, so they don't really feel somebody else’s pain,” added Martin.

Martin added that mentally, Peterson may not realize his comments and jokes are bizarre and sometimes frightening to the public.

It may also explain why he hasn't participated in any searches for Stacy. Martin says narcissists may not able to care about others' feelings.

“They just don't have a conscience. They are involved with manipulative dealings, their relationships are very exploitive. They get involved with people to suck them dry for whatever they have,” added Martin.

Physiatrist Paul Dobransky, who also has not treated Peterson, agreed that Peterson's public persona shows signs of severe narcissism and sociopathic behaviors. But the doctor points out Peterson doesn't show signs of having complete disregard for human lives.

It's somebody who one might say is immature and selfish and they want what they want and they want it now,” said Dobransky.

Drew has explained his actions in public before.

Peterson once said that, “Everybody calls my behavior early on bizarre or unusually but again I have no books or guidelines on how to act so basically I was very afraid of what was going on and it was a knee jerk reaction.”

But his wives' families want to know when this reaction will end. Very little is known about Drew Peterson's early childhood, but experts say we're all born narcissistic. It takes nurturing and mature role models to learn behaviors otherwise.