Joe Carroll: Serial Killer

In the Netflix series “The Following,” A college professor by the name of Joe Carroll turned into the most ruthless serial killer of all time. He taught about the literature of Edgar Allen Poe. One aspect of Poe was that he believed there too be a certain poeticism in death, and more specifically, the death of a beautiful woman. Carroll became so wrapped up in his own teachings, that he began killing beautiful women himself. But did the subject of Poe really transform Carroll, or did it just edge on an innate killer? It’s difficult to make the case that Carroll was a born killer because he led such a normal life up to that point. Typically, it’s hard for a psychopath to function in society due to their lack of emotions, but Carroll was able

And like every good writer, he had an outline. But since the novel is about real people, he has to control them to do exactly what he wants. This is where Carroll shows the strongest part about him, his frontal lobes. His planning, creativity, and high-level reasoning are all unparalleled. Joe created a diabolical plan for his novel that contained failsafes, and was so detailed that it relied on the emotional reactions of FBI agents. For example, when he was captured unacceptably, he already had a plan for escaping. Knowing that a particular FBI agent was an aggressive interrogator, Carroll withheld information and egged him on until he snapped and broke Carrol’s hand. Carroll then sued the FBI and asked for his release, something he knew would never happen. Using his high-level reasoning, he brokered a deal with the FBI to drop the charges if he can be transferred to a different prison. He had already had his friends kidnap the warden’s daughter of the new prison, and he used that leverage to escape. The intricacy and deceptiveness of the plan indicate very impressive frontal lobes. He also has very impressive creativity, but it gets used in a dark way. He views death as art form, and displays his victims to have symbolic meaning in his novel. For example, he would gouge the eyes out of his victims as a misguided tribute to Poe. This a psychopathic

Because of his obsession with monetary value, he often makes bets with other people. In one instance, Gallagher bet a fellow bar patron ten grand if he could stay conscious after two shots from a taser. Gallagher lost the bet, and instead of paying the ten grand he didn’t have, he gave away his own son. He will do whatever he can to preserve himself in any situation. This is due to an incredibly weak prefrontal cortex in the frontal lobes, that is, if he even has one. He showed that he has absolutely no impulse control as he couldn’t stop the impulse to give away his son. He also shows a lack of planning skills as he doesn’t plan for the consequences of his actions. He had no plan for what he would have done if he lost the bet, and listened to a strange impulse as a result. His personality also seems to be affected in this situation, which is most likely because of the alcohol. Evidence from the show has shown that when Frank is sober, he is very attached to his family. But in this situation, he gave away his son without a care in the world. Frank was clearly not thinking straight because he was probably in a panic as a response to his sympathetic division of the peripheral nervous system. When he realized that he owed someone ten grand, the sympathetic division aroused his body, he became nervous, and panicked. When he gave