Cultural Product: DEXTER MORGAN

Actor Michael C. Hall portray's Jeff Lindsay's book character Dexter Morgan

My cultural analysis is base on Jeff Linday's book entitled Dexter. America's Showtime adopted this novel and turned it to a TV series which debuted last October 2006. Dexter's character is so strong that I think he is a good choice for analyzing his character.

Before going straight to my point, I'll let you watch this video so you will have an idea why I choose 

Dexter.

While watching the video, what do you feel? What have you noticed? What have you seen? Was it too gore or was it just ok? Why did he killed those people? Why those people? These questions are the same questions that struck me the first time that I watched this series. 

In the series, Dexter is portrayed as an emotionless guy who lives by this so called "Harry's Code." These code was taught to him by his father while he was growing up. Dexter being an adopted son of Harry, his father, grew as a strong man who literally kills 'bad' guys and does it with ritual. Throughout Dexter's teenage years Harry was Dexter's mentor. Harry would teach him the code, a set of rules constructed by Harry for Dexter in order for Dexter to control his urges by killing those who only deserved to die. According to Harry: "It's not about vengeance, not about retaliation, or balancing the books -- it's about something deep inside. Harry's Code basically states that Dexter can only kill people after finding evidence that they are guilty of murder, and he must dispose of all evidence so he never gets caught.

Dexter first started killing small animals when he was a young boy. As he grew into a teenager his urges became stronger. His first kill was a 45 Year old nurse, Mary, also known as the Angel of Death because she was slowly killing her patients with an overdose of Morphine. Mary was Harry's nurse while he was hospitalized for a heart attack. She administered his morphine and attempted to kill him by overdose. Harry realized what was happening and asked Dexter to 'stop her...before she hurt anyone else. Harry gave Dexter permission to use the lessons he was taught.

I have mentioned something about rituals. Before Dexter decide to kill the person who is guilty, he takes a blood sample from the victim with a scalpel for his slide collection. Encasing his preferred room in plastic tarp so no evidence is left and uses black plastic trash bags to dispose of victim remains overboard his boat called the slice of life.

 Dexter using his scalpel.

 Dexter and his slide.

Dexter and his plastic wrap and duct tape.

Dexter and his trash bag.

Now the question that struck my mind is: Is Dexter a psychopath? Now we define what psychopath is. According to an internet source, psychopath a personality disorder characterized by an abnormal lack of empathy combined with strongly amoral conduct but masked by an ability to appear outwardly normal. The following are the characters of a person who is identified as a psychopath:

1. gain satisfaction through antisocial behavior, and do not experience shame, guilt, or remorse for their actions

2. lack a sense of guilt or remorse for any harm they may have caused others, instead rationalizing the behavior, blaming someone else, or denying it outright

3. lack empathy towards others in general, resulting in tactlessness, insensitivity, and contemptuousness

In the personality literature, conscientiousness refers to the tendency to show self-discipline, the act dutifully, and to aim for achievement. People high in conscientiousness prefer planned, rather than spontaneous, behavior and are able to effectively control and regulate their impulses. Prototypic psychopaths are quite low in this trait, unable to put the brakes on their dangerous impulses and incapable of learning from their mistakes. Given this, it is no surprise that such individuals are often arrested and convicted for their heinous crimes. However, the personality ratings of the successful psychopaths depicted a dishonest, arrogant, exploitative person who nevertheless was able to keep their behavior in check by controlling their destructive impulses and preventing detection. 

Based on this insight, Dexter seems to fit the profile of a successful psychopath, and that is something that makes his character different from other psychopaths we have seen in pop culture. Despite Dexter's dark thoughts and even darker behaviors, his "work" is consistently clean, well-planned, and meticulous. He rarely acts out of impulse, and instead filters his destructive urges through a carefully organized code of conduct (i.e., "Harry's code"). In this way, Dexter is a fascinating contradiction: He is a cold-blooded killer and a warm-hearted father; an emotionally cold vigilante and a caring friend and brother; a violent assassin and a defender of innocence and justice.

Sources:

DePaullo, B. (2010). The Psychology of Dexter. Smart Pop.