The Series "Dexter". How Is The Psychology Of A Maniac Close To Us? - Reviews, Society

• The series "Dexter"
• USA, 2006–2013 (8 seasons)
• Starring: Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter

"Dexter" is an unusual series that has caused conflicting responses from viewers: from demanding a ban to adoration. In any case, the responses are bright, emotional and the film is interesting from a psychological point of view

The main character of the series is a maniac killer who directs his anger and lust for blood on murderers who have escaped justice. Doesn't sound pretty, right? But gradually the viewer learns what formed Dexter's pathology, and the attitude towards him changes.

As a child, Dexter saw his mother's brutal murder, leading to a pathological interest in murder and blood. His adoptive father, a police officer, taught him to direct the lust for murder only to the villains and successfully hide from the police.

Dexter lives a double life: By day, he is a responsible forensic scientist working for the Miami police, a devoted brother and a companionable colleague. And at night the "Dark Fellow", as the hero himself calls him, takes power over him. And speaking in psychological terms, a subpersonality that makes you kill. And such, to put it mildly, an unusual character has become one of the most popular and beloved heroes of modern cinema. Why?

Consciously or not, the viewer always identifies with the hero of the film. In this case, with Dexter, the killer maniac. There is a Dark Companion in everyone - the dark side, which CG Jung called the Shadow

Every person has a cruel, aggressive part that thirsts for destruction and takes pleasure in destruction. But not everyone is ready to admit it. It is denied and suppressed, internal tension accumulates, and then this leads to outbursts of aggression, self-destruction, psychosomatics. Watching the series "Dexter", the viewer can safely live contact with this part and "let off steam" without realizing it.

The opponents of the series feared this very identification: what if the audience will start to take an example from Dexter and do lynching? Of course, there is such a danger. But if the viewer is looking for a reason to realize his aggression, they can be anything, even the animated series about Tom and Jerry. So it's not about external stimuli, but about internal processes. A person filled with dissatisfaction with life and internal aggression can get angry at the spring sun and green grass.

As Bulgakov's cat Begemot used to say, “History will judge us,” and time has shown that in no country the show of the “Dexter” series did not lead to mass murders.

The Dark Fellow is the inner provocateur of each of us. To succumb to him or not is everyone's personal choice, for which he himself is responsible. With each episode, we see the development of the characters. And if in the initial seasons Dexter shifts the responsibility to the Dark Fellow, then later he realizes that the Dark Fellow is himself. This shifting of responsibility onto a fictional character is a child's defense mechanism. "It was not me who broke the vase, but the kitten who came to visit us!" - say small children.

In Dexter's case, it's not about broken vases and kittens, but the inner logic is the same. This is the inability to admit one's responsibility, because it is associated with too strong feelings of guilt and shame, with the fear of punishment and rejection. The child is ashamed of a broken vase, he feels bad and is afraid that his parents will also consider him bad and will not love him. “I'm bad” is too painful an experience. And then a saving fantasy appears: "It's not me that is bad, it's a kitten, it's a Dark Fellow traveler, but not me!"

A fictional character becomes an object of shifting responsibility, a lightning rod for the anger of others and possible punishment. This is a "convenient" mechanism with clear benefits

But it leads to an ever greater distortion of reality. And it doesn't solve the problem.

Dexter as a character is interesting in that he changes in the course of the action, develops, transforms. If at the beginning of the series the emphasis is shifted to his actions, then gradually his experiences, reflections - the inner world come to the fore.

The first season of the series is based on the book by Jeff Lindsay, then the creators of the series wrote the plot themselves, and the story turned out to be exciting and psychological. We see the development of the characters: in the beginning, Dexter is a cold psychopath with frozen feelings. But gradually he begins to experience emotions, build relationships. And sacrifice yourself for the sake of loved ones and in the name of love. This is exactly what happens at the end of the film, when the “cold monster” from the first episodes puts other people's interests first.

But the ability to self-sacrifice is one of the key indicators of personal maturity and spiritual growth