The Psychology of Dexter - Bella DePaulo [81]
Interestingly, those with ASPD likely rarely use drugs to overcome emotional difficulties, because, well, they feel little if anything. However, many of the same factors that make ordinary individuals likely to take drugs—namely impulsivity, high risk-taking, and environmental influences—are present at extreme levels in ASPD individuals due to their disregard for societal norms that are meant to keep those attributes in check. Research has shown such similarities can be traced to brain function in areas most associated with impulse control and emotional regulation.
Borderline Personality Disorder
In season two, Dexter found himself under the spell of his Narcotics Anonymous sponsor Lila, a charming and seductive artist who purported to understand the darkness within Dexter in a way that he thought impossible since Harry’s death. While drawing ever closer to Lila, Dexter began to uncover more and more of her dangerous, erratic behavior, which seemed to be controlled by far more emotion than his own. In fact, Lila displayed classic symptoms of borderline personality disorder, a disorder characterized by extreme and highly variable moods.
People with BPD have chaotic and unstable interpersonal relationships, but unlike individuals with antisocial disorder, whose relationships suffer from lack of empathy, the relationship trouble for those with BPD stems primarily from the severe emotional roller-coaster experienced by anyone pursuing, or being pursued by, the BPD sufferer. Despite what are often the best of intentions, BPD sufferers subject those around them to their severe bouts of tension, anger, depression, and anxiety, which often shift radically and without warning. Prevailing wisdom seems to suggest that these emotions are triggered by perceived rejection or failure. As Lila pursued Dexter, first with an innocuous offer of NA sponsorship, then with a rapidly escalating series of seductions, rejections, and ultimately arsons, kidnappings, and murders, we witnessed dramatic swings in mood, self-image, and conduct that followed even the smallest disappointment or perceived threat of loss. In one memorable sequence, Dexter approached his parked car at work to find Lila, whom he had recently rejected as his sponsor, sitting inside. She opened the conversation with what sounded to be a calm, reasoned argument for a continuation of their relationship, but when Dexter firmly rejected this, she began to cycle wildly through a series of emotions, from anger to desperation to self-pity. Aside from the impulsiveness and recklessness she displayed, extremely common traits among borderline individuals, her own insecurity and hyper-sensitivity to rejection pegged her as a textbook BPD sufferer.
With regard to addiction, borderline personalities dwell among the many drug and behavior addicts with impulse control problems. People with BPD tend to approach drugs, as well as alcohol, sex, gambling, and other unsafe behaviors, with characteristic recklessness, particularly as this behavior often aids them in their manipulative and unbalanced relationships with others. BPD sufferers’ behavioral issues generally arise from just how far outside of the normal boundaries of accepted behavior these people are willing to go in order to achieve what they want. This, in combination with their extreme, overly dramatic moods and split-second emotional reactivity, can result in uncontrollably volatile