Analysis Of Hannibal Lecter

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PSYCHOLOGY OF EVIL: VENTURING INTO THE MIND OF A PSYCHOPATH
By: Aj Lavender

The term psychopath is defined as a person with a personality disorder that encompasses amoral and antisocial behavior, lack of emotion, and exhibits a high sense of egotism. The specific individual that takes being a psychopath to an elite status that no other psychopath is near him, his style is so unique that makes him one of a kind. This Psychopath who this description is about is Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs. Dr. Lecter was once a well-known and respected psychiatrist, who turned into a complete cannibalistic killer. The factor that grieved Dr. Lecter to be a cannibal was back in Dr. Lecter’s childhood where he witnessed his sister being mauled to death by a cannibal (Hannibal Rising). Throughout the movie Silence of The Lambs, Dr. Lecter is held in confinement giving newcomer FBI agent Clarice Starling advice and clues to solve the case of a serial killer that goes by the code name “Buffalo Bill”. The audience starts to see his psychopath ways more effectively in Silence of the Lambs towards the end when, Dr. Lecter is being transferred to a new penitentiary and for the time being is in a cage. At this point in time he is receiving his meal from the guards, and they have him handcuffed but what they did not know was that he was holding a pin to secretly unlock the lock. So the officers unknowingly step inside the cage, and to surprise Dr. Lecter releases himself and cuffs one of the officers to the cage and then goes on the eat the other officer’s face while the officer caged forcefully had to watch. To make matters even worst after mauling some of the uncuffed officer’s face he grabs the officer’s pepper spray and sprays it in the of...

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... a message to any other person that attempts to get in his way again.

As Baumeister can justify that Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a clear cut case for a normal psychopath, Dr. Lecter takes it a step further with using his supreme intelligence and wit along side with his psychopathic and sadistic mind, Dr. Lecter stands ground on being one of the most iconic fictional psychopaths to exist

Bibliography:

Demme, J. (Producer). (1991). Silence of the Lambs (Motion Picture). United States: Orion Pictures

Webber, P. (Producer). (2007). Hannibal Rising (Motion Picture). United States: The Weinstein Company

Baumeister, R. (1996). Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty. New York: Henry Holt and Company LLC.

Psychopath. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved April 04, 2014, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/psychopath

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