Well said Margarita25!
And YES! We get another 2 episodes tonight. I love that! Hats off to Josh, Rachel, & the producers for doing that.
One of the things doctors & detectives must be watchful for, as pertaining to psychiatry/psychology in order to make our diagnoses, is to not "Project" one's own experiences, feelings, or motivations on to the patient, or in this case, the perpetrator. When we make a wrong diagnosis, it's usually either due to one of the following self-defense mechanisms:
1) "Stereotyping" (saying that all people who do a certain thing have a certain diagnosis). A silly but easy to remember example of this self-defense mechanism would be: "All skinny people are on Speed or Meth"! Or, one of the stereotypes we caucasians were awful about once using like, "All black people love watermelon & steal televisions". This is not only rude and hurtful, it doesn't help anyone or anything. Stereotypes are based on our own prejudices.
2) "Projection", which is similar self-defense mechanism, but projection is the attributing your own personality or motivators onto the patient or perpetrator. An example would be: Since, the I'm very interested in sports, or "I love to compete with others", then the person "projects" that personality trait on to their patient or the perpetrator. This 2nd one is difficult to detect, unless one listens to the speaker closely. It's used to "make a doctor feel better about themself" by belittling the other person, using the very thing that motivates the doctor while the doctor actually hates himself for feeling that way. It's purely unconscious, so the doctor/detective rarely sees himself doing it.
Here's a great example of "projection", just in case there are Sleuths who are interested: My wife and I were out with another couple during medical school. My wife made a comment about how beautiful another lady's purse was. It was an expensive purse, but certainly beautiful. She merely likes well-made, beautiful things. The other medical student we were with commented, "Man, you're gonna have problems! You're wife has very expensive taste". What this rude jerk didn't understand about himself is that he not only offended me & my wife who actually has "GOOD" taste, but that it's HIM who loves expensive things. Everyone knew that about him. Projection is used when the speaker or investigator despises what is in their own hearts (they only see it unconsciously- that's why they don't know), so they "project" that distasteful personality trait on another person. It's quite common, even in every day life. Try listening for it, and you'll hear it. The problem is in knowing the speaker. Are they "stereotyping" or "projecting". That's the catch. We all knew my medical student colleague was greedy & loves money.
I hope this helps someone to understand these two self-defense mechanism better. I get verbose (has anyone noticed yet? LOL), and I have to force myself to be direct & to the point. It's merely insecurity I've lived with my whole life.
"NARCISSISM": for anyone interested (this will be a little different than the info in many criminal texts): Narcissists are extremely sensitive & have very thin skins. When you discover what the weaknesses of a narcissist are, you can devastate them often with only a few words. They put up a very thick, "GLASS" wall between themselves & everyone else (I'm not referring to the "glass wall" of schizphrenia. That's different). Narcissists often intimidate others around them in order to prevent others from saying anything that might hurt their feelings. The problem with narcissists and especially twisted SK's, is that their arrogance can be complex & unusual enough that it's difficult to determine their weak points. Breaking down a narcissist is what Detectives do in Movies/TV when they taunt the perp & get them angry to the point of breaking. Unfortunately, SK's are not like normal people, and a detective can't look for normal personality traits/motivators in the perpetrator. If they do, the SK will laugh. It proves to them that they're smarter than everyone else. As discussed in the myriad of excellent books available concerning SK's & psychology, the detective must try to think like the perpetrator, even though it's very difficult for most of us. You can't discover what's in a twisted, morbid, dastardly individual's mind by assuming they think like normal people; and by the same token, you can't discover what motivates them by projecting one's own personality traits or motivators on the killer.
That's it for the psychology lesson. Again, I didn't intend to train those of you all who are experts in this field. I'm new here. I just know psychology & psychiatry well enough to want to share what I know for those who are interested. Some of the issues in psychology are difficult to understand, just as it was for my medical student colleague, above. He didn't pass psychiatry. He's a huge "projector". (In case anyone's interested, different self-defense mechanisms like "projection" & "stereotyping", and personality traits like "narcissism" are often seen in particular types of psychiatric disorders. Just google them if you're interested. It's often interesting to discover that you can determine the personality & self-defense mechanisms of someone like a killer. For instance, "histrionic" individuals use "projection" quite often. (my friend was histrionic. Males can be histrionic, too!).
Thanks for the feedback everyone! And, let's find these horrid monsters.
