The screams from within, the psychological connections between Silence of the Lambs and the thin line of making a murderer
The internal workings of the human brain, the underlying lack of differences between a killer and someone you know, even yourself. Though there could be biological differences that make murderers, there are more differences in the social psychology of killers from the average human. Silence of the Lamb came out in 1991, a training FBI agent is asked to help interview serial killers who are in custody. What is meant to be an interview turns into assistance to catch Buffalo Bill, a serial killer who abducts women and skins them post-mortem. Clarice Starling, however, doesn’t get the aid of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a cannibalistic psychiatrist, so easily, instead, he uses mind games to gain personal information from Starling. Helping her psychoanalyze Buffalo Bill while doing the same to her. Not everyone is perfectly sane, so what qualifies an average human, Starling is a good example, although she has trauma from her father dying, instead of leaning into murderous ways, she joined the FBI in order to catch them. What in life can push someone to murder, throughout the movie you can pick up on Dr. Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill both having some sort of mental disorder. Dr. Hannibal Lecter killed his victims by eating them alive, whereas Buffalo Bill kidnapped his victims and held them at the bottom of a well. Making them rub lotion on their skin for him to skin them after death, which he used to stitch together a skinsuit, as he had the desire to become a woman. The way these two serial killers were murdering people they lacked empathy, only killing for their own desire. This being a disorder that stands out in these two serial killers is antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), where there is this level of sociopathy, there is no awareness of right or wrong, and ignoring other people’s feelings. Though Buffalo Bill expresses malignant narcissism even for his antisocial personality. Narcissism is more common than people may think, serial killers can be viewed with low self-esteem, however, those with higher self-esteem are more likely to be narcissistic. Having higher self-esteem psychologically leads to more violent behavior, much like a serial killer. There is more to social psychology that creates a small line between potential killers and non-killers, like situations being powerful. Arendt’s theory states that anyone is capable of brutality, also thought of as “the banality of evil”. Relying on others to give cues on how to behave has an influence on someone’s disposition, beliefs and values, which can be skewed by the fundamental attribution error. There is a failure in the ability to recognize the importance of the situational influence on behavior. A normal human can fall for this error just as any normal person can be capable of this brutality. Dr. Hannibal Letcher and Buffalo Bill were both once normal people, people are not born serial killers, but rather they are made into them. When situations become too powerful the reflection is shown within the behavior of someone. The novel Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris, in the same collection Silence of the Lambs, explains that Dr. Hannibal Lecter watched his sister get cannibalized, and the situation altered his behavior. His reasoning for killing becomes based on those who have wronged him and have bad manners. Situations influenced his disposition, altering his beliefs and values. Dr. Hannibal Lecter was an average human who was seen as incapable of brutality, though all have the capability of the banality of evil, he had become a psychopath after. There may be many contributing factors to what makes someone murder, however, the social-psychological differences between someone who murders and an average person is a thin line.
