The Psychology of Dexter - Bella DePaulo [68]
While all of the defense mechanisms described above are important to understanding how Dexter’s psyche works, his most essential unconscious motivation is rationalization. Rationalization is used when we do something we know is wrong, but we come up with an excuse to justify it. For example, we may “fudge” a bit on our tax returns because we feel the government takes too much of our money. We might not pick up our dog’s poop on the sidewalk if we tell ourselves our dog is small and thus the poop doesn’t matter. Or we might kill dozens of people and tell ourselves that it’s okay, as long as it follows the code.
Dexter is so caught up in rationalization that in “The Dark Defender” (2-5), he envisions himself as a superhero. This is where society grants killers permission: superheroes are defending the world against evil, fighting for truth and justice, saving innocent victims. These are all the lessons Dex wants to believe are true about himself, based on the Code of Harry. He’s like Batman: a dark figure, waiting in the shadows, who will avenge wrongs done to society by paying back the bad guys. He’s saving future victims—so what he’s doing is okay. Isn’t it?
Dex started on the path of rationalization because of Harry’s teachings. In “Popping Cherry” (1-3), we witnessed Dexter’s “first time” (his first murder, not first sexual encounter). Harry had already taught him the code, including the telling lesson, “Killing will serve a purpose—otherwise it’s just plain murder.” Harry instructed Dexter to kill a nurse at the hospital who was giving him shots of poison along with his pain killers. Dexter seized on this chance to kill someone without feeling guilty: “The nurse was my first playmate. I’ll always be grateful to her for opening up so many magnificent new doors for me.” In that same episode, Dexter observed a young killer named Jeremy. Jeremy was convicted of killing someone four years ago, but Dexter granted him a pardon: “Jeremy didn’t murder that boy four years ago. He was taking out the garbage—just like I do.”
Dexter is accustomed to his own rationalization, but he knows that most people in his life wouldn’t agree with the choices his unconscious has helped him to make. In “An Inconvenient Lie” (2-3), Dexter stood in the morgue surrounded by his Bay Harbor Butcher victims, while Lundy spoke to him about the case. Dexter tried to appear normal, saying what he thought Lundy would expect; he told Lundy that there’s never any excuse for killing. To his surprise, Agent Lundy contradicted him, noting that the one good reason—the one justified reason—is to save an innocent life. This simple statement is the keystone to Dexter’s entire world, the foundation of his entire system of justification. He honestly believes that by killing killers he’s saving their future victims, and therefore his mission is a noble and fair one. And if Agent Lundy, a stand-up and moral man, also believed this, then Dexter himself becomes less culpable in his own mind. When Dexter was keeping Doakes prisoner in season two, they had several debates about whether Dexter’s actions were justified, and Dexter continually used rationalization to defend himself. Doakes asked Dexter why it’s okay for Dexter to kill other murderers, and how Dexter could think that it’s more “moral” than when Doakes is forced to shoot criminals on the job. Dexter argued that Doakes shoots people for a paycheck, whereas Dexter is doing it because it’s the right thing to do. Doakes then tried to tell Dexter that a police officer killing on the job is just upholding laws like self-defense, but Dexter argued that the code is actually better because it requires a “higher standard of proof” than the law. Dexter even told Doakes