Speaking about psychology is something I really like to do. Do it in English is very interesting and I’m very happy that my creativity has found another way to practice English without getting me bored.
Where I can start talking about psychology?
The first thing that I would like to share is the first time that I realized my love with psychology.
I was 6 years old and I remember that in the house of one of my nanny there were a VHS with an handwritten on the sticker: “The silence of the lambs”. After 6/7 years, Dvd’s were becoming the new way to watch movies and I started buying a lot of them at the stationery shop in my village. One day I saw a dvd with the same writing as the WHS stickers I mentioned earlier. I had some euros in my pocket and I decided to invest them all buying that Dvd. I still have that Dvd.
Immediately I come home and I share it with my mother that immediately say “Oh, that’s a very scary movie! Are you sure that you want to watch it?”. I remember that at that age I wasn’t that brave, and my experience with horror movie was only with Iacopo, the bravest of my friends. During sleepover, that we called “pigiama parties”, horror movie session was something that we usually did, starting from movie like Dario Argento’s “Profondo Rosso” to Tommy Lee Wallace’s “It”.
However, I decided to watch “The Silence of The Lambs” telling myself that, if I was afraid I would have covered my face with my hands.
The Silence of the Lambs
The movie begins with a so beautiful suspenseful music and with an amazing sequence of shots of a girl running between trees in the fall. That scene let me feel something I never feel before, I was watching something so perfect to me, like the director (Jonathan Demme) decided to use that sequence to talked exactly to my subconscious, my past and my sensitivity.
From that moment on, I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. I was blown away by the storyline and was impressed that I wasn’t afraid of what I was watching. But the thing that struck me most wasn’t only the plot and the incredible feeling I felt. In fact, it was the fact that Dr. Lecter, interpreted by the fantastic Anthony Hopkins, was talking about something that I, up to that moment, did not know: the psychology.
Psychology: the Lecter’s superpower
He used it not only for helping detective Clarice Starling (interpreted by Jodie Foster) to found the serial killer (other words that I learned that moment) Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine, another amazing actor that really influenced my psychological knowledge in another movie), but also for handle conversation brought it where he wanted.
Dr. Lecter used this psychology not only to help Detective Clarice Starling (interpreted by Jodie Foster) find the serial killer (another word I learned at the time) Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine, another actor who really has influenced my psychological knowledge also in another film), but also to manage the conversation by focusing it where he wanted.
Dr. Lecter had this superpower because he was a serial killer do, like if craziness and psychological knowledge were two parallels streets.
Serial killer’s mindset: why we are so interest of?
The last thing, but not least, that influenced my love of psychology was the serial killer’s mindset. Honestly, I had this awareness when I saw the prequel of “The Silence of the Lambs” a few years later in my teens: “Red Dragon”.
During the investigation on a serial family killer, detective Will Graham (interpreted by Edward Norton) realized that the killer (interpreted by the amazing Ralph Finnes) signs, moved by proud, trees where he was hidden before killing the families. That it’s explained very well in the second season of Mind Hunter, Netflix’ serie.
In this other film starring Hannibal Lecter as the protagonist and still interpreted by Anthony Hopkins, during the investigation of a serial killer of families, detective Will Graham (interpreted by Edward Norton) realized that the killer (interpreted by the fantastic Ralph Finnes) has signed, moved by the pride, the trees he hid behind before killing families. This pattern is very well explained in the second season of Mind Hunter, the Netflix series.
In those early teens, I had a compulsive need to have sex with as many girls as possible to sustain my pride, which at that age was the mast of my self-esteem. At that time I used to write the name of every girl I had sex with in a diary, adding grades and sometimes keeping some souvenirs (tickets, paper packets of condoms, letters, photos). Not only that, when I saw around those girls I had had sex with even once I felt strong and proud.
But looking at that behavior and especially looking at the bad reputation I had from girls in the city, I realized almost immediately that this behavior was not healthy.
Watching at Red Dragon, however, I realized that there were similarities between the compulsive need to kill and sign the victims of a serial killer and my compulsive need to have sex with as many girls as possible and write them in my diary while saving souvenirs just like serial killers do.
Conclusion
I know that story is more than weird, but it’s my story, and mostly I’m still in love with psychology since those days and so I think even though it’s weird it’s also very important to me. Can you imagine, after that time I have seen The Silence of the Lambs nonstop to this day?
I would really like to share all the movies that have influenced me on this psychological journey. And I will. Every day from today I’ll share all this kind of stuff, so I can save those memories forever and practice my English at the same time.
Niccolò Di Paolo