Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn once said “The battle line between good and evil runs through the heart of everyman.”
Since the beginning of time humans have been committing heinous crimes such as murder. In fact, Rome was built on the basis of two brothers, twins to be exact, killing one another for power. Yet almost 3,000 years later the same disasters are still occurring under different context.
A Dive into Mindhunter
In John Douglas, “Mindhunter”, he reiterates the idea that evil has been around for a long time and that much of human’s motivations have stayed the same; He reveals this by coming to realizations he has had about human behavior and discussing the experiences he’s had in his lifelong career of profiling some of the world’s worst criminals.
Initially, John talks about how the book was originally written twenty years ago. During this time certain cases were left open and some technological advances had not yet been made. John addresses the reasons as to why he decided not to change the original book even though cases were closed and they were more experienced as profilers. Using juxtaposition, John asserts that “Just as the basics of the human mind and motivation remain the same, so do the essentials of good criminal investigation” (xxvii).
The juxtaposition of the idea that the human mind and the “essentials of a good criminal investigation” doesn’t change is made to suggest that although science, technology and investigative techniques have made remarkable leaps forward in the past 20 years, the fundamentals of the human mind and motivation remain the same and likely always will. The same feelings that would get a person to partake in an action twenty years ago will remain the same for as long as humans are alive. Feelings such as lust, anger, desperation, and guilt will move a person to do things they never thought would be possible such as taking the life of another being. John continues to make conclusions about human behavior throughout the book.
He mentions history and how “The stories and legends that have filtered down about witches and werewolves and vampires may have been a way of explaining outrages so hideous that no one in small and close-knit towns of Europe and early America could comprehend the perversities we now take for granted” (19) Through the use of polysyndeton the author goes and on about the things that have terrified us.
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There are many myths and tales of the creatures that creep in the night, vampires that drain you of your blood, werewolves that tear your limbs to pieces, witches that put curses on you. However, the author concludes that these stories are probably fabrications of something even more sinister. He explains how people in the past probably made up these stories as a coping mechanism to distract from the truth that a human is capable of such dark crimes.
John ends his book by claiming that “The dragon doesn’t always win, and when we’re doing whatever we can to see to it that he wins less and less. But the evil he represents, the thing I’ve confronted throughout my career, isn’t going to go away” (409). Through his use of symbolism John compares all the serial killers as a dragon. This gives readers the illusion that these killers are these big, scary things that people are afraid of.
He reveals how him and his colleagues have worked endlessly to try and get rid of the “dragon”, but ultimately the “dragon” is too big and is never going to cease to exist. This once again reinforces the idea that the human mind’s motivations and needs will always stay the same throughout time.
Furthermore, to enforce the idea that evil has existed since the beginning of time he talks about his experiences as a criminal profiler. Very early on John reveals that “Behavior reflects personality. The best indicator of future violence is past violence.
To understand the “artist”, you must study his “art”” (xxviii). The author’s syntax through italicizing all of the last paragraph highlights how certain habits and actions a person executes reveals one’s personality. They also use euphemism to substitute the word “serial killer” with “artist” and the word “MO (modus operandi)” with “art”.
Mark and John claims that in order to comprehend the “artist” one must study his “art”, meaning that in order to get insight on the serial killer and how he works and what his/her motivations are, one must look at his/her crime scene and MO which is the certain way they go about doing things such as how they choose to torture, bind and kill their victims. “But twenty-five years of observation has also told me that criminals are more “made” than “born”” (408).
Top 5 Quotes from John Douglas
- There are certain crimes that are simply too cruel, too sadistic, too hideous to be forgiven.
- Lesson learned: Everyone is a potential suspect, and don’t let looks or behavior fool you.
- Modus operandi – MO – is learned behavior. It’s what the perpetrator does to commit the crime. It is dynamic – that is, it can change. Signature, a term I coined to distinguish it from MO, is what the perpetrator has to do to fulfill himself. It is static; it does not change.
- Predators may look and sound and often act like we do, but they don’t think like we do. Their logical process is completely different.
- One of the hallmarks of narcissistic, borderline, and sociopathic personalities is the unwillingness to assume personal responsibility for anything. It is always someone else’s fault.”