A lot of that can be true. But just because it can be does not mean it always is, or always in the same formulation.
Russell has a couple of problems, physical and otherwise. And yes, his brain does not work like most people. However, the way his is different is not uncorrectable, crippling deficiency of intellect; he is able to write basic motions and memos. He can formulate an argument (even if he does so by lying and with disingenuousness). True, he has zero sense of probity or how to use evidence (or what something shows...at all), and ofc there are errors and procedural lapses. But many of those errors are deliberate or out of obduracy, not a truly compromised intellect.
No, his brain works differently mostly because he has a personality disorder and because he lacks - chooses to lack - quality of character. He's a low-IQ narcissist. And narcs know they are "different"; through their lens this makes them exceptional and entitled. For them, it is their divine gift - a gift from God to the gift from God.
They could be better people, and they know that. They don't value being better people, except to the extent they are cornered by accountability for being bad people...and then you will see your crocodile tears. But they do not value character in itself. It is a choice: they know other people do things differently, and they are capable of it themselves, but they choose not to, plain and simple.
For Russell, bumbling around, causing his own plights, and being indulged for it is his expectation, his just due from the world. That's his response to his beliefs about himself that he is in a uniquely disadvantaged position through no fault of his own. He believes he should be held responsible for none of his choices because of the bad things always happening to him - all of which are due to externally-imposed plights rather than his actions, and if they are due to his own behavior it's justified in his case. Thus he can express outrage at Hardin's request for an extension and call it an unconscionable effort to drag out litigation and a specific effort against him personally...despite having done precisely that over and over and over, and having stated his desire is to bankrupt Josh. He has no scruples.
He can't help the Moebius or other physical problems. But he certainly could have a different approach to life. But no; if he can't win, he'll cause harm. He is convinced he is right, if people would just listen to him, and someone needs to make people listen to him. So, he stalks, he pressures, he wheedles, he nags, he threatens, he blusters, he boasts, he complains, he sues, he hides things, he recasts reality, he pleads ignorance and forgetfulness and victim, he lies and lies and lies ...all while continuing to behave in exactly the ways that are the root of why he is repellant. But it's not that he doesn't understand any of this, though he may deny it; he reads here, at least, and it's constantly analyzed and repeated. But he learns nothing, because he doesn't want to.
He chooses to be absolutely unreasonable at every turn - but he is not incapable of being reasonable; he just likes being an asshole. He thinks this works, although I'd love to see him show one time ever that it did.
He's fixated on people and situations that won't let him be great, whether real or strawmen. But being sulky is not something he can't help. He could, but he feels entitled to have or take what others have that he does not.
Entitlement is an underdeveloped moral state and a failure to develop a healthy sense of self, of the world, and of self in the world.
He could develop his character if he wanted to. He doesn't want to. Being blind to or refusing to accept your flat sides isn't incapability; it's unwillingness. If that's "broken," he's a guy surrounded by splints and bandages and advil for the pain, but he'd rather yell about why no one gave him plaster of Paris, an orthopedic surgeon, and med school training.
He's 30-something years old. He's not incapable of fixing his perspective; he wasn't just born helplessly awful. And whether his parents did anything to encourage this lack of character or sense of entitlement is irrelevant. He's a grown man and fully capable of changing his views and straightening up and acting right. He's capable of recognizing he does not have marketable talent, and that having hobbies - as hobbies - is fine. He is capable of realizing when he is blindly self-centering, and when his argument is wrong, and when he is being mean-spirited and displacing his own frustrations and hurt feelings on whoever doesn't do what he wants them to do. He can see that life isn't properly about getting revenge for not having what he wants. And he's long past any plausibly colorable excuse of blaming his bio or adopted parents, or anything else but himself.
Very very occasionally a narc will get so hit by consequences that though they will always see things as they do, they choose to accept that they are wrong in their natural tendencies and accept doing something or some things different. In that rare case, they don't actually change, but they agree to artificially act like a human. They don't change internally, but their impact on others does. They'll never be fully human but at least they're caged.
You'd think winding up sleeping in a rented car and having zero people in the world who want anything to do with you, whether as family, friend, employer, associate, or otherwise, might be a wake-up call. It's not. And that's a choice, too.
