Psychopathology Film Analysis: The Silence of the Lambs

The Silence of the Lambs        

      

Plot Summary:

This film is about a F.B.I trainee from the behavioral unit, Starling, who is assigned to seek advice and psychological insight from the imprisoned psychopath, Dr. Lecture, who used to be a psychiatrist, in order to catch a psycho serial killer so called “Buffalo Bill” who kidnaps, murders, and skins off female victim. As Buffalo Bill was pursuing his plan on the latest victim who happened to be the senator’s daughter, Catherine, The Silence of the Lambs clearly illustrates his symptoms of the following disorders: Antisocial and histrionic personality disorder, Transvestic fetishism, Autogynephilic transsexualism.

Disorder:

            Antisocial personality disorder is marked by pattern of disregard and violation of other’s right through aggression and antisocial behaviors, without feeling guilt or remorse (Student Notes). Buffalo Bill violated social norm by kidnapping and killing women. He used false name and stayed in the house that was not his. He disregards the victim’s safety for he lives for his own personal gain of skin. He is very aggressive and impulsive. When Starling was suspecting him, for example, he rushed to the basement and prepared to attack her.

Histrionic personality disorder is characterized by pattern of excessive attention seeking, emotion instability, and self-dramatization (Student Notes). Seeking to become a woman and targeting on a senator’s daughter shows his desire for complete attention. He is also very dramatic, in the scene “It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it’s told. It puts the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again. Now it places the lotion in the basket”. He has excessive emotionality, for examples, when Catherina started screaming or crying, so did Buffalo Bill. He is, as well, lively and seductive in his own way.

            Transvestic fetishism is known as cross-dressing. Buffalo Bills enjoyed makeup and dressing up in women’s cloth. He had entire secret basement filled with women clothing including the one that he was making out of victims’ skin. He also had, to some degree, Fetishism — sexual interest that centers on a nonliving object or non sexual body part (Student Notes). Example is in one of the scene where Buffalo Bill sighed with ecstasy when he touched and felt Catherine skin at the back after he knocked her out in the van. His obsess with women skin suggests that he gets some sort of recurrent sexual urges from it.

            Transsexualism is remarked by strong and persistent cross-gender identification and persistent discomfort with one’s biological sex or inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex (Comer, 2010). Buffalo Bill could not stand being a man, he desired to be a woman to the point that he started killing for their skin to make himself a female dress. He spent most of his time cross-dressing and worked on his feminine appearance. He is an Autogynephilic type—attracted to oneself as a female. He always fantasized himself as a female, one example could be when he was dancing with his penis tucked between his legs and posed for the camera.

Causes:

Biological – Buffalo Bill’s antisocial and histrionic personality disorder could arise from low serotonin activity and deficient functioning of frontal lobes which is responsible for sympathy.

Psychodynamic – It is from his “severe childhood disturbances associated with violence”, “years of systematic abused” that makes him “hate his own identity” as quoted by Dr. Lecture.

Behavioral – His behavior is learned by modeling. He might have parents with such antisocial behaviors and/or his parent might unintentionally reward him for such behaviors. Cross-dressing could acquire from this operant conditioning as well (Comer, 2010).

Treatment:

Cognitive – Cognitive deals with schemas by challenging his faulty logic, changing his beliefs, trying to guide him to think about moral issue, and assigning behavioral tasks.

Psychotherapy – Psychotherapy, hormone therapy, and sex change could help stop violence behaviors since those behaviors could develop from the rejections of many hospital for sexual reassignment surgery.

Behavioral – Aversion therapy may help teach him appropriate response for certain stimuli.