A Comparison of Infamous, Jeffrey Dahmer and Fictional Character, Hannibal Lector

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The infamous Jeffrey Dahmer and Hannibal Lector have been looked at multiple times and no one can get an exact reason as for why they ever committed such insane crimes. Although one is a fictional character and the other is real the common characteristic they share is a psychopathic personality. Most doctors can agree that psychopathy is a mental illness opposed to a choice of character unlike other criminals. They all tend to agree on that specific issue, researchers and doctors are unaware of proper treatments or if psychopathy is treatable. Many doctors will describe psychopaths as manipulative, with callous emotions and lack of empathy for anybody (Kerns). Most doctors start research with hope of discovering something new or discovering a treatment but most end with the same conclusions they had known in the beginning. Doctors have looked at research and brain scans which in a psychopath do show differences compared to a “normal” person (Kerns). Doctors can all agree that studies show differences between a normal brain and a psychopathic one, what they don’t understand is how to treat or prevent crimes from happening or why a psychopath can’t control urges that they get. The fact that psychopaths understand that viscous crimes are very much tragic and definitely illegal, which includes the possibility of being put in a mental institution or prison. The tragic prospect of crimes often doesn’t affect them due to their personality. They also don’t register the pain they inflict upon their victims (Kerns). The basics of knowing the vicious crimes of many psychopaths are well known and view as tragic cases of someone gone crazy, but what most people don’t look at is the fact of many researches done on psychopathic behavior.There s...

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...ut most people like to think that they can control their urges. Psychopaths can be manipulative “likeable” social people or they can be drug abusers that can’t deal with their emotions. There are a lot of different ways to describe a psychopath and many can agree on how to spot them but most people can’t figure out how to control them. The brain of psychopaths is very different from the brain of a “normal” person. Because most don’t show signs until they have committed a major crime there is no way of determining who is a psychopath and who isn’t. Therefore, in my opinion there isn’t much to do to secure people from the dangers of a psychopath and the best way to secure people is to have them in a prison or a protected mental institution. There should be more studies and funding done on controlling and treatments for people that demonstrate psychopathic behaviors.

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