Diagnosis of Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs)

What Makes Hannibal Lecter So Evil? A Closer Look at the Man Who Haunts the Big Screen.

Hannibal Lecter was born in 1938 in Lithuania. He belonged to a wealthy family. His father was a count. His mother came from aristocratic lineage of Visconti family from Milan. His younger sister was Mischa.

When he was six years old, he witnessed both his parents killed by German deserters. Lecter, his younger sister Mischa and other children were kept by the deserters to be slaughtered for food during the Baltic winter.

Lecter saw Mischa’s murder. Mischa was cannibalized by the German deserters. Lecter managed to escape. But the gruesome murders he witnessed scarred him for life. He lost his faith in God in the process. He believed that justice would not prevail. As a child, Lecter first manifested signs of sociopathic behavior in his sadism towards animals. He appeared to be unremorseful of his evil deeds. Also, he lied habitually.

He was later put in a government-owned orphanage where he lived for ten years. He tried to run away several times. But eh never stayed away for long because he got caught stealing food or clothes from the market. Frustration grew. Added to that was the misery he felt for losing his sister. He missed his terribly. At night, he would be found alone in his room talking to his dead sister.

Dr. Lecter would say later that his sister commanded him to do something everyday and he would carry it out. The employees at the orphanage did not sympathize with young Lecter. The financial strain of running an orphanage denied him the psychiatric care he desperately needed.

When he was 16, he was made to leave the orphanage and lived on the street. He stayed with his Aunt. There, he went to school. He was an extremely intelligent student but could not get along well with other children his age. At 20, his aunt disappeared.

Lecter moved to Baltimore, Maryland in the ‘70s. There he started his own psychiatric practice. He became very popular. He moved to New York where he became a part of a mental institution that provides counseling and aid to patients.

As per police records, Dr. Lecter killed at least nine people before he got captured. The last six were killed in a short period where he indulged in violence. All of his victims were partially disfigured. Dr. Lecter himself confessed to eating parts of his victims.

Lecter targeted men he considered mean and rude. Raspail the inferior flutist, Krendler the vindictive bureaucrat, Pazzi the corrupt cop, the census taker, even Mason Verger, one of his victims who managed to survive Lecter’ hatred —all of them reflected the traits of the deserters who cannibalized his sister.

Mischa’s gruesome murder became Lecter’s motivation for his later revenge and killing spree. Lecter wanted to seek revenge for Mischa and to restore dignity for his beloved sister.

By appearances, Dr. Lecter seemed soft-spoken, mild-mannered and very calm. He was clean-shaven and very warm. When asked about his childhood, he would only recall Mischa fondly, “Oh how I love her so. You know she talks to me every day. How could God abandon her?” About his belief in God, he said, “Why would I believe in a God who does not answer my prayers.” When asked the reason for his killing people, he said, “For I am royalty, a champion not simply without, but especially without God or law.” When asked if he wants to commit suicide, he replied, “Why would I want to kill myself.”

DIAGNOSIS

|---------------------------------------------- DSM-IV codes

|Axis I | Paranoid Schizophrenia ------------ 295.3

|Axis II | Schizotypal Personality Disorder-- 301.22

Antisocial Personality Disorder ------------- 301.7

|Axis III | Diagnosis Deferred

|Axis IV | Incarcerated for life

No social network

|Axis V | Global Assessment of Functioning-10

JUSTIFICATION OF DIAGNOSIS

Dr. Lecter is able to act cognitively and achieved his desired end. He is quite delusional. He sees himself as royalty and even similar to God. He also experiences auditory hallucinations every night as he converses with his dead sister where she asked him to carry out tasks for her.

His delusions and hallucinations stemmed from the gruesome murder of his beloved sister. He does not entertain suicidal thoughts. He is extremely intelligent since he does so well in his studies and later on with his practice. He has a reputation of being a brilliant Doctor of psychiatry.

Dr. Lecter is a loner. He does not find time for social interactions. He was never in a relationship. His aggressive and violent behavior shows utter disrespect for the rights of others. He murdered nine people and does not feel a bit remorseful about his actions. He is capable of inflicting great danger to other people. He disfigures and cannibalizes his victims. One of those, a census taker, he boldly declares that he ate him with "fava beans and a big Amarone". Before turning fifteen, at such a tender age, he already experienced stealing food and clothes.

The global assessment scale of 10 is due to the fact that he has shown signs of being able to inflict severe danger or hurt to others. He relishes the idea of consuming his victims. He is not suicidal though and is able to look after personal hygiene. He is also capable of handling a full time job.

Treatment Modalities of Hannibal Lecter

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies (CBTs)

The CBTs uses insight both verbal and intellectual to produce an emotional result on the patient. CBTs believe that the verbal cues, sentences often repeated serve as inner dialogues that would lead to healing if used in a positive sense. For instance, continuously saying “I am lovable” could later on produce positive results to the person’s self-esteem as it reinforces the person’s belief in oneself.

The therapist's role is to interpret the data the patient discovers (psychoanalysis) by enabling the patient to relate past experience and open up to the therapist. Another role the therapist has to play in order to effectively handle personality disorder in Hannibal Lecter is to actively strive to make the patient feel emotionally safe. To put the patient in an environment that is beneficial in creating positive changes in the patient.

Dynamic Psychotherapy

Or Psychodynamic Therapy, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

At the start of the therapy the therapist get into a "pact" with the analysand (patient or client). The pact must require the patient to continue exploring his problems regardless of the length of time it takes not to mention expenses. This would make the therapeutic environment conducive to the patient’s progress because he/she is aware that the analyst would be there for him or her no matter how it long it takes.

Life and Works of Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky

Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky is one of the most widely-known composers. His works are still being played to this day.

Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky was born and raised at Oranienbaum on the Gulf of Finland on 5 June 1882 (O.S.) or 17 June (N.S.). His father wanted him to pursue law so he enrolled in the course. The strong attraction to music though took him back to his roots. He composed piano pieces. His musical abilities were further honed through the able guidance of Rimsky-Korsakov, one of the famed Russian Five.

Stravinsky befriended Rimsky-Korsakov's son. He spent a lot of his time composing on his own. At that time he was taking private lessons in harmony and planned to enroll in the Russian Conservatory. Fate decided to step in when he met Rimsky-Korsakov, the head of the Conservatory.

Never the one to withhold help to a true artist and seeing the promise the young man showed, Rimsky-Korsakov volunteered to teach Stravinsky himself. Stravinsky, of course, jumped at the rare opportunity.

At the conservatory, Rimsky-Korsakov required his students to perform their works. Stravinsky chose his composition called Fireworks. His music caught the attention and impressed Sergei Diaghilev. He believed Stravinsky would be the ideal person to compose ballet music for his Russian Ballet. Diaghilev commissioned his three famous works The Firebird, Petrushka, The Rite of Spring.

When war broke out, Igor Stravinsky and his family left for Switzerland. When the war ended, he realized he was too far from the important music centers in Europe. In 1920, he moved to France.

The French Composer in France

Diaghilev passed away on 19 August 1929 leading to the disbandment of the Russian Ballet. Stravinsky felt disassociated to his native land due to this. He had not step foot in Russia for the past fifteen years since he left in 1914. He managed to become one of the leading musical figures in France though. Besides, Diaghilev's troupe was based in Paris, and most of Stravinsky's works had their premières in Paris.

Despite his popularity in France, he felt unappreciated. He was commissioned to compose only one work called Persephone which was to be presented in France under Ida Rubinstein and her company. The Americans and the Germans showed more interest in his works than French. He received positive reviews on his compositions from the former countries compared to France.

Success in Europe

Stravinsky played the solo part of his composition Capriccio on its first performance at the Salle Pleyel, Paris, on 6 December 1929. It received much acclaim. The demand for his services grew quickly. The next five years saw Stravinsky performing in a number of Europe's key cities.

It was during this time of his where his works met much success and acclaim that he was commissioned by his dear friend Koussevitzky, who became the permanent conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, to compose a symphonic work to mark their fiftieth concert season in 1930. He composed the Symphony of Psalms.

Weeping Woman with Handkerchief by Pablo Picasso

Weeping Woman with Handkerchief by Pablo Picasso is a depiction of despair and pain. The woman represents the painful realities in the world.Weeping Woman with Handkerchief is an oil painting on canvass done by Pablo Picasso, a Spanish artist. The painting is part of Guernica, which is a collection of antiwar masterpieces of 1937. In the Weeping Woman with Handkerchief, tears fell from the woman’s face which was reported to be inspired by artist-photographer, Dora Maar. Picasso’s captured in this painting his feelings toward the events in Spain.

The Weeping Woman with Handkerchief

The Weeping Woman with Handkerchief shows a woman who is in deep sorrow. One hand is at her heart while tears come streaming down her face. Her head is covered with traditional Spanish head covering called mantilla. This represents the ideals of Spanish womanhood.

One can see a line down the center of her face which is a technique developed by Picasso to show different angles or perspectives of an object or person. It is intended to depict the frontal side and the profile of the person at the same time.

The artist Pablo Picasso used oil on canvass on this painting. Picasso used watercolours prepared by hand on larger surfaces. Pablo Picasso's Weeping Woman with Handkerchief (1937) used a new way of depicting perceptions which is abstract painting based on African Art.

It shows the essence of a subject rather than its realistic portrayal. Andre Breton said that Picasso used Surrealism. During his time, the art was influenced by changes in science and society which showed less on tradition and a different view of the uncertainties of surface structure, and these were the underlying concepts on the idea of Modernism.

Picasso was among the pioneers of the style known as cubism. Through cubism, Picasso “examined” the primary geometry of things and the idea of seeing the same object from a number of different perspectives at the same time.

Symbolism of the Weeping Woman

His portrayal of people, like the weeping woman with handkerchief showed a distorted physical reality through exaggeration of shapes or setting things in the “wrong” place. Picasso did not want a realistic depiction of the world but in expressing deeper emotions of human experience through his art.

In the Weeping Woman with Handkerchief, Picasso created a huge collection of antiwar canvas Guernica in 1937 to protest the lives lost in the Spanish Civil War. The name Guernica is derived from the Basque city Guernica which was bombed by the Germans during the Spanish Civil War. After Picasso completed Guernica he continued to explore one of its motifs: the weeping woman. He was the subject of his paintings in the succeeding months.

The main theme of the Weeping Woman with Handkerchief is sorrow and pain. Tears which can be seen all over her face in the Weeping Woman with Handkerchief symbolizes despair. She represents both Picasso's public and private agony. Most of all, she is an emblem of the faces of life and the world around.

She was the victim of Spanish Civil War which Picasso strongly opposed, the grieving mother who lost her child in the war, the terrified peasant, the stunned survivor. She was also a depiction of Picasso’s lover at that time, the artist-photographer Dora Maar.

This is one of Picasso’s unforgettable masterpieces because of its raw portrayal of deep emotions. Its method of depiction is unique too being abstract; it is more concerned with showing the feelings or evoking emotions rather than the realistic depiction of the object or person.

Life and Works of Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky

Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky is one of the most widely-known composers. His works are still being played to this day.

Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky was born and raised at Oranienbaum on the Gulf of Finland on 5 June 1882 (O.S.) or 17 June (N.S.). His father wanted him to pursue law so he enrolled in the course. The strong attraction to music though took him back to his roots. He composed piano pieces. His musical abilities were further honed through the able guidance of Rimsky-Korsakov, one of the famed Russian Five.

Stravinsky befriended Rimsky-Korsakov's son. He spent a lot of his time composing on his own. At that time he was taking private lessons in harmony and planned to enroll in the Russian Conservatory. Fate decided to step in when he met Rimsky-Korsakov, the head of the Conservatory.

Never the one to withhold help to a true artist and seeing the promise the young man showed, Rimsky-Korsakov volunteered to teach Stravinsky himself. Stravinsky, of course, jumped at the rare opportunity.

At the conservatory, Rimsky-Korsakov required his students to perform their works. Stravinsky chose his composition called Fireworks. His music caught the attention and impressed Sergei Diaghilev. He believed Stravinsky would be the ideal person to compose ballet music for his Russian Ballet. Diaghilev commissioned his three famous works The Firebird, Petrushka, The Rite of Spring.

When war broke out, Igor Stravinsky and his family left for Switzerland. When the war ended, he realized he was too far from the important music centers in Europe. In 1920, he moved to France.

The French Composer in France

Diaghilev passed away on 19 August 1929 leading to the disbandment of the Russian Ballet. Stravinsky felt disassociated to his native land due to this. He had not step foot in Russia for the past fifteen years since he left in 1914. He managed to become one of the leading musical figures in France though. Besides, Diaghilev's troupe was based in Paris, and most of Stravinsky's works had their premières in Paris.

Despite his popularity in France, he felt unappreciated. He was commissioned to compose only one work called Persephone which was to be presented in France under Ida Rubinstein and her company. The Americans and the Germans showed more interest in his works than French. He received positive reviews on his compositions from the former countries compared to France.

Success in Europe

Stravinsky played the solo part of his composition Capriccio on its first performance at the Salle Pleyel, Paris, on 6 December 1929. It received much acclaim. The demand for his services grew quickly. The next five years saw Stravinsky performing in a number of Europe's key cities.

It was during this time of his where his works met much success and acclaim that he was commissioned by his dear friend Koussevitzky, who became the permanent conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, to compose a symphonic work to mark their fiftieth concert season in 1930. He composed the Symphony of Psalms.