The Psychology of Dexter - Bella DePaulo [13]
One of the most powerful and destructive functions of the critical inner voice is to pass on the “Dark Passengers” from one generation to the next. We have seen how this is done when children integrate their parents’ aggression toward them during times of great stress, and the anti-self and the critical inner voice are formed. We then see how it is further transferred when parents project their own negative voices and traits onto their children.
In season two, Dexter discovered that Harry had, in large part, been responsible for the murder of his mother. His adoptive father’s insistence on following his own moral code and bringing a criminal to justice had led him to be negligent in relation to Dexter’s mother and her children. Dexter struggled to forgive the man whose selfishness resulted in the horrifying and bloody scene that traumatized him as a young boy. The last episode of season four was chillingly familiar, as Dexter’s selfish desire to be the one to bring the Trinity Killer to justice resulted in the death of his own wife, Rita. The final scene was a recreation of Dexter’s childhood: we saw his son, Harrison, on the bathroom floor crying, sitting in a pool of his mother’s blood. This is a graphic illustration of a basic psychological reality: if people do not deal with their own inner demons and distinguish their real selves from their anti-selves, they leave their children with a horrifying legacy.
Effective Therapies
Even though the dramatic childhood trauma and psychological stress associated with PTSD can certainly cause irreversible emotional and psychological damage, with the proper therapy model even the most severe trauma can be treated with good results. Research has now established that psychotherapy can change the brain and increase a person’s ability to experience empathy, insight, morality, and emotional balance. Unfortunately, Dexter did not get the treatment as a young child that could have effectively changed the course of his life. Even as an adult, Dexter is responsive to psychotherapy, as indicated by his reaction to his brief encounter with therapy. A sustained, trauma-focused treatment where he would be able to form a positive secure attachment to his therapist could allow him to change himself, his brain, and his life.
Recent research has demonstrated that the specific psychological treatments for the disorders of obsessive-compulsive disorder, major depression, social phobias, and post-traumatic stress disorder actually alter the brain. The treatment process emphasizes resisting acting out symptom behavior, enacting new positive behavior, and engaging in mass practice in these positive behaviors. There are many effective therapies for treating trauma disorders in children. Dyadic development psychotherapy is an evidence-based treatment for children with complex trauma and attachment disorders. The therapy is based on the findings from attachment research. Evidence-based treatments—treatments that integrate behavioral management strategies and cognitive behavioral therapy, which makes repressed traumatic memories explicit in order to integrate them and thus form a coherent narrative of one’s life—can effectively manage the behavioral regulation problems that occur in traumatized children. Had Dexter received this type of therapy as a young child, he would have been encouraged to make sense of the traumatic circumstances involving his mother’s death. He would have been taught relaxation techniques and learned to correct thoughts that were inaccurate or distorted as a result of his trauma. His acting-out behaviors would have been controlled and modified by both his therapist and his parents. In the process, he would have re-wired his brain so that he could more fully experience a sense of connection to others and develop empathy.
The fact that Dexter, as an adult, was able to benefit from even three short therapy sessions with Dr. Meridian in season one suggests that Dexter would have been a good candidate for therapy. When Meridian asked Dexter to imagine a time when he felt powerless,