Zerosky

Long story short, the kid's got issues. And as long as he doesn't resolve them, he cannot channel his full potential.

What I'm trying to say is that whatever he says he is, it's the description of the ideal version of himself that he believes he is. Whereas in reality, he's nowhere close to what he perceives himself to be. I think that's why he acts in an irrational manner. I think his ideal version is a cold blooded person who is also superior to those psychopaths who people perceive to be bad. He believes himself be better than everyone else, but at the same time he wants acknowledgement from them as well. It's contradictory, but I think that's because he hasn't come to terms with his approval issue.

I guess, but I think Lin doesn't want to think of himself as just a cold blooded killer, because most of the time, the world usually treats such people as garbage, and he doesn't want to think so. He wants to be superior and someone who doesn't want to be tied down to social norms, but then again, he does have a problem with how people perceive him; like with Rin when he hated being pitied by her, or when he got stressed out by his family when their expectations weren't met. So even though he might have crossed the point of no return, and even though he probably knows that, I think deep down he does want some sort of acknowledgement, maybe from himself, that he's different from those people that the society calls garbage. And while I do get that psychopaths tend to not worry about stuff like that, I think Lin does, seeing as seeking approval is what got him to become such a person in the first place. And as Lin is has kind of a different mindset, he does feel anger and lose control more often than psychopaths. Unlike them, Lin does subconsciously care about his image, even though he may believe to be more superior to feel so. I also think he's kind of a hypocrite as well. Not all the time, but still...

It's less about caring for the family and more about setting up rules for himself. He is probably a psychopath, but he doesn't want to believe that he's one. He doesn't want to end up losing his reasoning and sanity. So he sets up rules for himself. (Although yeah, he probably might be a psychopath)