The Psychology of Dexter - Bella DePaulo [69]
Dexter’srationalization is a living thing, which can morph and expand as needed. In “Left Turn Ahead” (2-11), he told himself, “I’m sparing Rita and Deb by framing Doakes . . . Right?” In “Easy as Pie” (3-7), he convinced himself to kill an innocent person for the first time: his friend Camilla, who was dying of painful lung cancer. She’d asked him to do it, to help her die in the hospital. At first Dexter refused because killing an innocent is against the code, but it didn’t take long for him to talk himself into it, using rationalization: “I’m doing a good thing, right? This . . . this is mercy.”
Dexter’s mental gymnastics keep expanding, so much that they start to run away without him. When he befriended assistant district attorney Miguel Prado, Dexter actually mentally debated whether he should murder a defense attorney at Prado’s request because she was enabling the bad guys, even though she was just doing her job (the conclusion he eventually reached). Unfortunately for Dex, Prado killed her anyway. When Dexter discovered that Prado was running fast and loose with his code and had lied to him several times, Dex realized that the code is important for protection and became newly committed to it. Although Dexter often stretches his ability to rationalize to the breaking point, he inevitably comes back to this defense mechanism as his home base, a safe place for his mind to live without anxiety. He can kill as many people as he wants, as long as his mind can continue to justify his actions.
How Will It End?
Freud believed that most defense mechanisms will eventually backfire, as we’ve seen in several examples above. So he recommended that, in therapy sessions, individuals identify their mechanisms, deal with the anxiety or trauma related to them, and move on in a healthy way. If you’re using denial, you must admit it and deal with it. If you’re using rationalization, you must realize you’re doing so, stop doing it, and consequently stop doing the behavior you knew was wrong all along.
If Dexter took Freud’s advice, what would happen? As mentioned above, he has a uniquely insightful view into his own unconscious mind. Dexter seems aware of most of his defense mechanisms. This was seen most clearly in the two occasions when Dexter contemplated suicide. Dexter’s entire mental world is built around the concept that serial killers deserve to die. So the only logical conclusion would be that Dexter must, inevitably, kill himself.
In “Circle of Friends,” Dexter felt an affinity to Jeremy, the young boy who was just starting to kill others. Jeremy appealed to Dexter because Jeremy was like himself—Jeremy said he was tired of pretending, tired of feeling nothing, tired of living only inside his own head. So Dexter decided to help Jeremy, just like Harry helped him. Dexter decided that Jeremy was just like him, and that Jeremy thus deserved some guidance and a mentor. Unfortunately, Dex’s decision was too late—Jeremy killed himself. But what’s most interesting was Dexter’s first thought when he saw the suicide: “I guess I was wrong. Jeremy did hear my advice. He killed someone who deserved to die.” But remember that Dexter liked Jeremy because he saw him as another version of himself: someone with no human emotions, someone with the need to kill others. The only logical, rational conclusion we can come to is that Dexter knows deep down that he, himself, deserves to die. He should make the same decision as Jeremy.
Dexter questions this path, though. In “There’s Something About Harry” (2-10), Doakes told Dexter that his father had a secret, and Dexter eventually learned that Harry committed suicide. Why did Harry make this decision? Because he taught Dexter to kill but couldn’t handle the reality of the “monster” he created. Harry walked in on Dexter chopping up a pimp, someone Harry had inadvertently pushed Dexter