Psychopathy in the Movies, Personality Disorder Essay Sample

A psychopath refers to a person that exhibits different characteristics of personality disorder. Psychopaths tend to show antisocial behavior, aggressive and criminal behavior which makes them lack remorse or show empathy to other people. These characteristics often place psychopaths to be suffering from mental disorders. The film "The Silence of the Lambs" by Jonathan Demme is a classic example that explores the issue of psychopathy through the character of Dr. Hannibal. Dr. Hannibal was a psychiatrist who showcased aggressive, antisocial behavior that led him to engage in criminal activities. The character turned out to be a serial killer and was eventually locked up in prison. The analysis provides a background summary of this character and a determination that shows that he suffers a mental disorder.

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Dr. Hannibal is considered a criminal because of the traits he portrays. Dr. Hannibal is cold hearted and is portrayed as someone who has no empathy. Dr. Hannibal displays antihuman behavior by killing people. The psychopath in him comes out as not being emotional or empathetic to the victim. Dr. Hannibal does not feel what others feel nor has empathy for them (Tasker & Harris, 2002). Dr. Hannibal is exceptionally charming to his victims. He plays music perfectly, and he can also draw. These characteristics make him charming and less suspected that he could be harmful to any human around him. Dr. Hannibal uses these features to his best to lure victims. Dr. Hannibal shows antisocial behavior. He does not speak his mind out to anyone and leaves them to figure out things on their own instead of helping out (Tasker & Harris, 2002). Dr. Hannibal passes his time by playing with people's minds. A psychopath lacks conscience (Herve & Yuille, 2017). Dr. Hannibal doe not have a conscience in that whatever he does, does not seem like a mistake to him. Dr. Hannibal does not realize that what he does is wrong. Dr. Hannibal plays innocent or at least he pretends to be. A psychopath is not a violent person at all times. At some point, Dr. Hannibal was not violent and started helping out on another serial killer. They are skilled at what they do, and so they try not to have people have a better understanding of their personalities.

Dr. Hannibal's summary depicts an ability to empathize with his clients as their psychiatrist. He has a normal friendship and spends much time being a psychiatrist. He does not want to show his psychopathic ways as he wants to take advantage of his clients who would later become his victims (Tasker & Harris, 2002). Dr. Hannibal hides this for a while and later when the clients would find out about it, he would kill them. Dr. Hannibal does not want to show off as a psychopath in the beginning, but later he is found out and put to jail.

In conclusion, Dr. Hannibal has a mental disorder. He is a psychopath even though he has a past of offering psychological treatment to patients like him. Being a psychopath is seen as a mental disorder because one lacks the inner sense of what is right or wrong (Herve & Yuille, 2017). Dr. Hannibal is not seen as emotional or having an empathetic feeling. That's what creates psychopaths; the lack of human feeling and being so unpredictable. The mental condition of this character can be linked to his professional history where he interacted with different patients something that must have pushed him into being a serial killer.

References

Herve, H., & Yuille, J. C. (2017). The psychopath: Theory, research, and practice. Routledge.

Tasker, Y., & Harris, T. (2002). The silence of the lambs. Macmillan.