The Psychology of Dexter - Bella DePaulo [82]
For BPD patients, killing can be, like most everything else they do, an impulsive, fleeting reaction—an instant punishment for a slight or a quick reaction to an internal sense of being unappreciated, as when, later in the season, Lila’s reckless behavior culminated in the attempted murder of Dexter and Rita’s children.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Another personality disorder shared by addicts and killers alike is narcissistic personality disorder, which, according to the APA, is marked by “a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy.” If this sounds like a combination of borderline and antisocial disorders, you’re a quick learner. Named for Narcissus, the mythological Greek character who loved his image so much he drowned in a pond while watching his own reflection, narcissists care about themselves almost exclusively. While the antisocial individual derives no validation from their perception by the outside world (Dexter, for example, is only invested in his personal and professional reputation insofar as it keeps people from realizing that he is a serial killer), the narcissistic individual is eternally occupied with their adequacy, prestige, and the impression they leave on others.28 Yet, unlike the similarly obsessive borderline personality, narcissists worry little about relationships with others and show a profound lack of empathy, because of their preoccupation with themselves. We see evidence of narcissism in well-heeled, handsome serial killers with power fantasies such as Ted Bundy, as well as in despotic and highly self-regarding dictators such as Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler. Drug abuse among narcissists is prevalent, with cocaine gaining at least some studies’ mention as a particular drug of choice for this group (but, interestingly, not for individuals with borderline or antisocial personalities).
Dexter gave us an excellent portrait of a narcissist who is both a traditional addict and a criminal in Rita’s first husband, Paul Bennett, a man obsessed with remaining in control of the very family that he drove away through abusive violence and drug abuse. Paul viewed his family as an extension of himself, and his drive to possess them yet again was not motivated by a sense of fatherly responsibility or a need to make amends so much as a compulsion to forever be the focal point of his own saga, a self-obsession that could not coexist with the rejection that Dexter’s relationship with Rita represented.
As we can see from the wide range of overlap in even these few examples, these disorders and their descriptions are imperfect classifications that attempt to categorize a wide range of behaviors that themselves stem from a wide range of physical and chemical specifics in the human brain. The relationship between addiction and personality disorder is just as complex. Although personality disorders often influence sufferers’ drug use, even predisposing them to addiction, the relationship is reciprocal: chronic drug abuse can physically alter the brain in such a way as to perpetuate these symptoms.
When Dexter Morgan sat in the back of that stuffy church hall at the Narcotics Anonymous meeting, he was among people more similar to himself than he realized. Heavy drug abuse has been shown to damage the neurotransmitter function and areas of the brain that control, among other things, empathy, leading to antisocial and narcissistic tendencies, as well as the areas