How To Describe Dexter's Personality

Mary Allen
Personality PSYC 4520
3/09/11
Troy Rieck
Dexter’s Personality

http://dexterwiki.sho.com/page/Dexter's+Serial+Killer+Profile

Many people who know Dexter would view him as a friendly harmless person, but if they only knew the alter side of him, they would come to know the neurotic and psychotic side of him. Dexter’s will to fit in has drove him to be two people. One that is only seen with the eye and the other that is hidden behind his conscious, known as by him, his “Dark ****.” The one person to ever come close to Dexter and understand this other side of him was his adopted dad Harry. Although Harry is the only person who knew of this psychotic personality of Dexter, his actions and behaviors affected many people close
They had been sitting in her splattered blood for days when he found them. Harry was a police and had a family of his own. He took Dexter and left his brother. Dexter never knew of this brother until eventually he came into contact with him in later episodes, and found out he was a murderer. Dexter’s traumatic past led to a sensation to kill. Like Hans Eysenck studied, Dexter was an introvert as a teenager, very quiet and to him self. He was also found to be much of a psychotic. Harry found him killing animals for no reason. He knew that he had an urge to kill because of what he witnessed in his past. Eysenck said that psychopaths were insensitive to others, hostile, cruel, and inhumane, which Dexter showed by harming animals who had no control over their selves. When Harry saw this he began mentoring Dexter into channeling his aggression the right way. Harry gave Dexter a code to follow, which explained that you could only murder someone who absolutely without a doubt deserved it and was harming others. He also told him to disguise the real him and pretend to be a friendly sociable guy to the plain eyes view. Dexter soon began killing people who he felt were a threat to
For one his mother was murdered right in front of him as a child. He comes into a life already with violence, so the only way he knows how to handle with the uncontrollable deviant thoughts is to backlash and take action. Mirroring is also a big part to personality development. Kohut explains in his theories that children have a need to be mirrored. Individuals crave self-objects whose confirming and admiring responses will increase their feelings of self-worth. Dexter looked to Harry for self worth. Harry gave him an alternative way to release this negative energy and increased his feeling of self worth. Harry spent his time mentoring Dexter which probably made him feel good that someone cared so much for him, so he listened to everything Harry told him, and idealized him for it. They also could relate to each other, falling under the Ideal-hungry personalities, since Harry was a police and worked with murders