Dr Hannibal Lector Personality

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Dr. Hannibal Lector played by Anthony Hopkins, is a fictional character from the 3-part trilogy Silence of the Lambs. He is portrayed as a brilliant psychiatrist with a cannibalistic personality. The Lithuanian doctor is in his late 60s and never married given his personal beliefs and lack of emotion toward other people. After years of psychological torture as a child from the loss of his parents to watching his sister killed and eaten in front of his eyes, Dr. lector moved to the U.S. to pursue a normal life. He made a fortune as a self-made psychiatrist and became extremely popular throughout his community. Although he was well known and had many successes during his young adult hood, he was quite delusional. He believed he was similar to …show more content…

Lectors Antisocial personality disorders stems from his delusional personality and auditory hallucinations. He believes he hears his dead sister speak to him and tell him to carry out his gruesome tasks. He was always a loner even from a young age and never found time for any social interactions. His tendency to disrespect others along with high aggression leads to his violent behavior. The movie explains that Dr. Lector had killed and dismembered 9 people and would eat parts of their body afterwards, which was prepared by some of the world’s best chefs. One would say the criteria fits him to a tee and could also show some psychopathic tendencies. During a scene of the film Dr. Lector tells a government psychologist that he had eaten a man with beans and rice. With no change in attitude or signs of lying, his lack of care for others’ lives and feelings is apparent. He is a very well-spoken and confident man which usually doesn’t fit with someone with antisocial disorder, although his alter ego has taken years to master and his true self always overpowers. ASPD has 2 subgroups; sociopathy which is characterized by lack of empathy or superficial charm, and psychopathy which consists of aggression and predatory …show more content…

Lectors Antisocial Personality disorder lead back to his childhood. At a young age, he lost his parents and was forced to live in multiple orphanages around Europe with his younger sister. At about age 9 his sister was raped, murdered and eaten right in front of his eyes. With such a traumatic event comes psychological issues and the distancing from others. As a teenager, he would kill and torture animals, which he stated made him feel alive and excited. Although this is the only mentioning of past events in the movie so there is no true evidence this is the actual cause, but would defiantly be considered a viable possibility. Though the cause is unknown, there are chemical imbalances in specific areas of the brain. There is no genetic relation to his social problems or sociopathic tendencies, so we are unsure if this was hereditary or not. However, some people have genes that make them more susceptible to ASPD, or events could trigger its development. One of the interesting facts about Dr. Lector mentioned in the movie is he only hurt others who had done wrong to him in some way. He wasn’t a random killer, he chooses his victims accordingly and always had some involvement in his