Criminal Psychology

The mindhunter series on Netflix deals with the criminal psychology at its core. The two lead

characters agent Holden Ford and Bill trench interviews a plethora of serial killers. Most of them

are serving life sentences through the interview. The agents want to create a profile and pattern

by understanding the motives and the reason for serial killing (Chowdhury and Singh, 2018).

This is done to create guidelines for future crimes and detection.

The first anecdote of the series chooses to analyze the serial killer Kemper.

Kemper regardless of his size and criminal record is self aware and a very placid character.

The character also shows a high degree of self control through calm description of the murders

he has done.

Mindhunter is largely an exploration of criminal psychology rather than a crime series. It dwells

deep into the criminal mind of serial killers to understand and establish a pattern between all of

them.

The method behind the madness

The series shows the way Ford’s life is affected as he directly interacts with the criminals.

Ford loses empathy and submerges himself into the mind and through the process of criminals

and rapists (Wisanggono, 2021). This creates an insatiable lust for more insight into the criminal

mind.

The process leads to such a horrific stage where the reactions with his girlfriend are affected.

The series is based on agent Ford taking up the charge of putting forward a study into criminal

minds in the early 1970’s. During this time there was very little progress made on the subject.
The agent gets involved with the process so much that at the end he loses control and has

emotional breakdown. The dialogues with Kemper also leads him to rethink the professional

boundaries and the way he has been involved with the criminals and their through process.

References

Chowdhury, D.R. and Singh, A.R., 2018. Through the Psyglass: Psychological Viewpoint of The

TV Series Mind Hunter. Indian Journal of Clinical Psychology, 45(2), pp.65-68.

Wisanggono, A.D.H., 2021. Making Sense Of Systemic Racism By Reading The Racial Narrative

Of Mindhunter Netflix Series Season 2 (2019) (Doctoral dissertation, UNIVERSITAS

AIRLANGGA).