The Psychology of Dexter - Bella DePaulo [74]
This skewed sense of responsibility flows from a parent that is preoccupied with meeting his or her own needs. Any number of reasons may explain such a preoccupation, including addiction, immaturity, mental illness, job stress, and/or interpersonal problems, to name a few. The Morgan family appears to be particularly affected by Harry’s job stress and, to a lesser extent, the features of his personality that are consistent with narcissism. Dexter’s flashbacks reveal that his father was grandiose and believed himself to be almost god-like with respect to the administration of justice. Harry was intolerant to defeat, and took personally decisions made within the criminal justice system. His decision to train young Dexter as a vigilante and then instruct him to murder—first nurse Mary and then Juan Rinez, a pimp Harry was going after for murder—exemplified this. Overall, Harry’s need was to be revered as a good cop—a sort of savior, even—that put all the bad guys away. Both Dexter and Deb were recruited by Harry to fulfill this need.
Of the two, Dexter was recruited in the most flagrant sense. Harry took a boy who began to demonstrate symptoms of conduct disorder (killing animals, lack of remorse), most likely as a result of his early traumatic experience, and made him into a vigilante. In doing so, Harry did not recognize that Dexter had needs that required attention (therapy, etc.). Instead, he saw Dexter as a problem. In the episode “See-Through” (2-4), Dexter had a flashback that revealed that Harry’s wife, Doris, suspected something was amiss. She and Harry were seen arguing about sending young Dexter for psychological testing. Doris prevailed, but Harry thwarted her efforts by instructing Dexter to respond contrary to what he truly felt during the exam. Afterward, Dexter was released to his parents without a treatment plan and Harry congratulated his son for hiding the “monster” within him. Harry continued with his own type of therapy, and taught Dexter the code, which he believed was the only way to save Dexter. Though created in part to satisfy Harry’s need to take care of the bad guys, the code did teach Dexter one way of keeping his urge to kill in line. In this way, perhaps the code was good for Dexter; it controlled his behavioral urges. Nevertheless, young Dexter’s urges were culturally unacceptable and illegal, and they placed Dexter at risk of harming himself as well as others. In this same vein, the code failed to acknowledge Dexter’s psychological needs. Besides learning the code, he learned not to trust or express his own feelings. He followed Harry’s lead, making his father happy and proud. Harry gained a son to use as a means to his own ends.
Deb, albeit more subtly than her brother, was also recruited by the family to help pursue Harry’s needs. Because Harry’s need to be a good cop—and by extension, to make Dexter a good vigilante—did not include Deb, her job was to stay out of the way and make as few demands as possible. Harry seemed to view his only daughter as a bother or an obstacle, as time spent with her meant time spent away from Dexter’s training. Through Dexter’s flashbacks we see that Deb frequently attempted to get her need for attention met by inserting herself into activities that Harry and Dexter engaged in together, including hunting and visiting crime scenes. In “Return to Sender” (1-6), for example, we learned that young Deb once asked to go on a pheasant hunt with her father and brother. Desperate to be included, she even offered to stay in the car and study during the hunt. Harry declined her plea. Later in the episode Dexter recalled that soon thereafter Deb was caught shooting cans with Harry’s gun. She was a good shot, but Harry punished her with grounding and said, “I’m disappointed