Running head: PSYCHOPATHY, FATHER-DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIP AND AUTHORITY IN THE SILENCE 1

OF THE LAMBS

Analysis of the concepts of psychopathy, father-daughter relationship and authority in the

movie The Silence of the Lambs
Carlo Robles
St. Marys University

PSYCHOPATHY, FATHER-DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIP AND AUTHORITY IN THE SILENCE OF THE

LAMBS

Analysis of the concepts of psychopathy, father-daughter relationship and authority in the

movie The Silence of the Lambs
Introduction
The Silence of the Lambs narrates the FBIs search for a serial killer nicknamed
Buffalo Bill. He kills his victims (mainly teenagers), skins them and dumps them, each
one in a different river. In order to catch him the FBI contacts Clarice Starling, an
outstanding student of the FBI Academy. By following her bosss instructions, Jack
Crawford, Clarice visits the prison of high security in which the government keeps locked
up Hannibal Lecter. He is an old psychiatrist and murderer who has been gifted with a
superior intelligence, and who rejoices at practicing cannibalism. Starlings mission will
be to try get as much information as she can from Dr. Lecter regarding the behavioral
patterns of Buffalo Bill. This film relates to psychology in many levels, the main of
which is the behavior of the serial killer known as Buffalo Bill. This first level can be
consider a superficial one, because it is the element that articulates the whole plot, and,
therefore, is the one that gets more attention along the film. However, for this essay three
other psychological themes have been selected in order to evaluate the accuracy of its
portrayal. The first concept that will be discussed is Psychopathy. Within the film it can
be recognized two characters that portray different stages of the disease: Buffalo Bill and
Hannibal Lecter. A comparison between both figures will be set in order to distinguish
such stages. The father figure is the next concept to be discussed. For this matter the
relationship that is initiated between Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter will be
analyzed. The third and final concept to be discussed is the notion of authority within the
movie. It will be recognized two types of authority by appealing to the characters that

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represent each of them: Hannibal Lecter and Dr. Frederick Chilton (director of the
Baltimore psychiatric asylum in which Dr. Lecter is locked up). At the end of the
discussion of each concept it will be analyzed the accuracy of its portrayal by appealing
to specific scenes of the film.
Psychopathy
Perhaps the most famous of the mental disorders, psychopathy is considered
worldwide a social challenge. It is a devastating disorder defined by a constellation of
affective, interpersonal, and behavioral characteristics, including egocentricity;
impulsivity; irresponsibility; shallow emotions; lack of empathy, guilt or remorse;
pathological lying; manipulativeness; and the persistent violation of social norms and
expectations. (Robert D. Hare, 1996, p. 107). Before we proceed it is worth pointing out
that sometimes psychopathic symptoms are misunderstood and confused with another
disorder known as Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD). Regarding this, Louth, S. M.,
Hare, R. D. And Linden, W. (1998) explained the following:
Similar to antisocial personality disorder (APD) as defined by the Diagnostic and
Statistical manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association,
1994), psychopathy also consists of a cluster of personality traits and affective
symptoms not considered necessary for a diagnosis of APD. (p. 91-98)
However, one of the psychopathic traits that has driven more attention is the lack of
empathy in the subjects diagnosed with such disorder: Most clinical accounts of
psychopathy make explicit and implicit reference to the serious difficulties psychopaths
have in understanding and appreciating the emotional significance of experiences and
events (e.g., Cleckley, 1976; Hare, 1993) (Louth, S. M. et al., 1998, p. 91-98). In fact, it

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has been suggested that for them emotion is like a poorly learned second language
(Louth, S. M. et al., 1998, p. 91-98). Nonetheless, recently the despairing atmosphere that
surrounds this disorder has started to turn lighter. A recent study held by a group of
scientists from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, has shown that:
Only when asked to empathize did the criminals' empathy reaction, also known as the
mirror system, fire up the same way as it did for the controls. Without instruction, they
show reduced activity in the regions of the brain associated with pain. (Hogenboom,
2013)
Based on this information, the group of scientists concluded that psychopaths
actually dont lack empathy but they have some sort of switch to turn it on and off;
however, under normal circumstances it seems to be off. (Hogenboom, 2013). This
opened a window for a better understanding of the disorder, and for the development of
new treatments. Since the notion of psychopathy was developed, it was believed that a
psychopath diagnosis was a despairing panorama, because of the characteristic lack of
empathy of the disorder. However, through this study, it has been proven that psychopaths
are not absolutely unable to feel empathy, but is just that this is not their automatic
response or, their default reaction. Now that it has been shown that they do have
empathy - even if only in certain circumstances - therapists have something to work with.
(Hogenboom, 2013).
In The Silence of the Lambs, nonetheless, one of the psychopaths is portrayed as
being in a bleak state, from which there seems to be no cure or turning back. Buffalo Bill
does not seem to want to stop his terrible assassinations at all. In fact, during the scene in
which the agent Crawford and Clarice Starling are talking in a car after have seen the

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corpse of Buffalos fifth victim, Starling asserts a number of things regarding the serial
killer. Among those characteristics she points out in order to build a profile, Starling
mentions that Buffalo Bill is a cautious and precise male, whos never impulsive and who
will never stop killing because is getting better at it.
On the other hand, Hannibal Lecter, even though he seems to rejoice with the power
that gives him other peoples fear, he decides to help Starling with the Buffalo Bill case.
This confers a bit of hope to his diagnose, because he hasnt been willing to help anyone
before Clarices visit.
The other trait in which both psychopaths differ is the stage in which each one is
regarding his disorder. Buffalo Bill, although is quickly progressing, is still in an initial
stage because his lack of empathy, remorse and guilt is not absolute yet. In the scene in
which he first interacts with the Senators daughter, once she is already her captive, his
attitude seems to be somewhat unstable and not totally sure. In fact, the way in which
their dialogue is held is symptomatic of some sense of guilt and remorse. He only gives
her commands trying to make no eye contact with her captive. However, he does not treat
her with the proximity of an interlocutor, but in a very impersonal way: instead of saying
Put the cream in the basket he tells her She puts the cream in the basket. This
avoiding attitude, as said above, is an indicative of guilt, which shows hat he has not lost
all sense of guilt yet. Hannibal Lecter, in contrast with Buffalo Bill, does not feel any
guilt nor remorse about the crimes he has done. In fact, sometimes he seems to justify it
by appealing to the bad manners of his victims. This shows that he is in a stage in which
his crimes are not regarded as horrendous, but almost as an unconventional necessity.

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Father-daughter relationship
The father figure is a concept that changes along the ages and between siblings. For
example, the notion of father that a son has may differ widely from the notion of his
brother and/or from the one of his sister. As it can be seen, such difference is not totally
determined by the gender. The relationship that will be taken into account for this essay is
the one that is established between the father and his daughter. Regarding that subject,
Sharpe mentions that:
There are clearly many kinds of fathers, and many kinds of fatherdaughter
relationships, which contain unresolved contradictions and ambivalence. The fatherdaughter relationship covers a sensitive and uneven terrain, where positive and
negative characteristics can have a sometimes uncomfortable coexistence. (Sharpe,
2001, p. 4)
Very often, such bond is likely to change as the daughter starts growing and passing
through different stages of her development. However, in the film it can be recognized
some sort of identification from Clarice Starling with her father. Sharpe (2001) highlights
as following:
Children identify with people who are close and important to them, . . . they may
identify with those they love or admire, or those who have power in their lives. Parents
obviously play a crucial role, and children will identify with them differently
depending on the type and quality of their relationships. For instance, a girl usually
identifies with her mother, and takes on some of the characteristics appropriate to
femininity and the feminine role. She may also identify strongly with her father and
take on some of his attributes. (p. 30).

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According to this perspective, Clarice may have identified with her father because
she respected him very much. In fact, after her first encounter with Hannibal Lecter at the
Psychiatric Asylum of Baltimore, she has a flashback in which it is shown her attitude
towards her father as she was a child. She waited for him with great enthusiasm at the
porch and, once he got home, she used to be very interested in how his day go, specially
in events regarding his job. Clarices father was a police officer, and that may give us a
clue about how strong her identification with her father was. The need for approval seem
to play an important role too within the father-daughter relationship. Regarding such
concept, Sharpe (2001) makes a clarification:
If you admire or care about someone, it is reasonable to wish to please them and earn
their praise. This desire to please, however, seems to be a more female than male
quality; the need for approval is one on which girls appear to be more dependent than
boys. (p. 30).
At becoming a police officer and trying to be the best at it, Clarice Starling seems to
be looking for an approval; however, it is not clear if it is a need for approval from
society or from her dad. In any case, an event that affects her the most, is the passing of
her dad as she was still a child. This tragic event must have left in her some kind of gap
craving to be filled. The relationship that is established between Starling and Hannibal
Lecter along the film, seems to resemble a father-daughter one. This may mean that
Clarice is trying to compensate the loss of her father by interacting with Dr. Lecter. He
treats her in a challenging and respectful way, and as if he was trying to protect her.
However, it is worth pointing out that Hannibal finds out, by means of the quid pro quo
deal, the relationship that Clarice had with her father, and may have used this

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information, his abilities as a psychiatrist and his manipulative skills to take advantage of
Clarice and play with her emotions regarding her father.
Authority
The notion of authority has traditionally been associated with the main social
institutions that regulated or at least had a major role in society. Meissner (1971) explains
for this matter:
The more traditional notion of authority had focused primarily on the definitional
aspect of authority and on the moral or ethical justification for the use of authority
either in the political organization, the state, or in the ecclesiastical organization, the
Church. (p. 20)
Therefore, authority implied any sort of organization within society and it was seen
as to serve this purpose. However, the functions of authority turned out to be more
diverse than thought before. In fact, Simon (1951) indicates that the paternal function of
authority is only one function among what must be regarded as a diversity of functions of
authority. He continues by saying that paternal authority seeks the attainment or
maturation of the capacities of the governed to enable them to govern themselves
effectively. Given that the notion of power may be confused with authority, Meissner
(1971) distinguishes between both terms:
Power is essentially the capacity to influence the behavior of other members of the
group, but authority is not just any kind of power, since it depends upon the
recognition by the subordinate members of the group that the one possessing authority
may legitimately prescribe patterns of behavior for the group to follow. (p. 22)
For Meissner (1971) authority is a form of institutionalized power (p. 26-27).

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Therefore, in The Silence of The Lambs it can be seen how many factors converge to
shape an authority figure. However, two types of authority are shown in the movie: Dr.
Chilton and Dr. Lecter. Both characters will be recognized as authorities by Clarice
Starling. Even though each one of them represent a different type of authority, the major
similarity between them is the fact that they are caucasian men with a postgraduate title.
Dr. Chilton will be analyzed at first. He represents the type of authority whose power
rests upon his despotism. He tries to flirt with Clarice Starlingin a rude waywhen she
comes to his institution for the first time, which shows his great sense of self-control.
However, he is depicted as being authoritarian and despotic. After seeing the agent
Starling coming repeatedly to the institution he manages to meet with Hannibal Lecter,
Dr. Chilton decides to confront her in order to find out the reason of her constant
meetings with Hannibal. But since Clarice remains reluctant of sharing the reason of her
visits, Dr. Chilton decides to record her conversations with Hannibal. Thus, Dr. Chilton
discovers that Clarice tells Hannibal that the Senator is offering him his transfer to a
better institution in which he would have more privileges as long as he cooperates with
her and the FBI to find her missing daughter. Hannibal accepts the deal and decides to
cooperate with Starling. However, after she leaves, Dr Chilton goes to Lecters cell to
mock at his naivety for believing in Starlings offering. He tells Lecter that he called the
Senator immediately after Starling left to prove the legitimacy of such proposal and found
out that such offer had never been made. By making fun of Lecter, he shows his
despotism and how his authority is merely based on pointing out peoples inferiority and
it is used to have power over them by aggressive means (such as mockery). As it can be
expected, this type of authority is rendered useless when the individuals lack fear. The

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authority of Hannibal Lecter, on the other hand, is quite different and much more
complex than the one held by Dr. Chilton. Hannibal Lecter uses his own disorder and the
stigma associated with it to amuse himself. He tries to scare Clarice Starling because he
knows that she is just starting to get involve with the FBI in a professional way. Besides,
before visiting him, Clarice is told by her boss (Crawford) that she must be really aware
that Hannibal Lecter is a dangerous and manipulative man. By this means, Crawford is
indirectly legitimizing Lecters authority. This seems to work within Clarices perception
of the situation, because along the whole film she always treats Hannibal with great
respect, and calls him as if she was a student: Dr. Lecter. Another factor that may
emphasize his authority is the fact that he was a psychiatrist before being out into prison.
This means that he has also an intellectual authority regarding psychological and
psychiatric subjects, which may have helped to increase Clarices awareness. In fact, it is
because of that scholar background that Crawford and the FBI decide to contact him
through Clarice Starling. On the other hand, Hannibal Lecter himself helps to build and
consolidate his authority too by using a cryptic language in his dialogues with Clarice.
For example, when she is about to leave after her first visit to Lecter, she is attacked by
another prisoner named Miggs. This unsettles Dr. Lecter and he decides to give Clarice a
clue by saying Look deep within yourself. By saying these words he did not want them
to be understood in a metaphorical way, but in a literal one instead. After such encounter,
Clarice finds out that Your Self was the name of a storage facility in Baltimore that was
rented by him in the past. Moreover, the person that Clarice should look for, according to
Lecter, was Ms. Hester Mofet. which was actually an anagram for the rest of me. This
shows the pleasure that Hannibal finds at talking in a cryptic language, because this gives

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him power and control over the situation. Such power lies in the unpredictability of his
actions and thoughts. Clarice Starling has almost to keep at his pace in order to solve his
enigmas. Because of such unpredictable behavior, Hannibal can not only play with the
doubt that he deposits in the people surrounding him, but also with the fear caused by
such uncertainty.
Conclusions
The way in which psychopathy is portrayed in The Silence of the Lambs can be
regarded as both despair and somehow hopeful. This is so, because such concept is shared
by two characters, although in different ways. Buffalo Bill does not seem to be willing to
change and stop his macabre plan of making himself a suit with womens skin. Therefore,
it can be said that Buffalo Bill stands for a morbid and despairing psychopathy, since
along the film his disorder seems only to get accentuated. On the other hand, the
character of Hannibal Lecter offers a bit of hope in the nature of a psychopath. Even
though he is manipulative and does not seem to feel empathy at all (as psychological
studies have shown), he decides to help Clarice Starling at catching Buffalo Bill. After
all, that can be seen as a bridge being set between Lecter and society.
The father-daughter relationship is also accurately portrayed in the movie. The
spectator discover through the dialogues between Lecter and Starling the great
significance that Clarices father had on her. Furthermore, it is shown by means of the
sudden flashbacks how she keeps struggling with his decease. However, the building of
that bond by means of her memories will help at the understanding of the relationship that
is developed between Clarice and Hannibal Lecter. Her trust on him and the great respect
that she feels for him seem to be hints that she tries to fill with the image of Lecter the

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gap that her fathers death opened on her.

Finally, the way in which the notion of authority is depicted shows with great
precision how some attitudes and circumstances enhance the legitimization of authority,
and how some others rather obstruct it. Dr. Chilton stands for an authority that tries to
claim his power by means of threats and an arrogant attitude. On the other hand, Lecter
portrays the authority whose legitimacy is almost built by itself: his disorder and his title
of Doctor confer him such an authority that even the FBI seeks for his help.

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References
Hare, R. D. (1996). Psychopathy: A clinical construct whose time has come. Criminal
Justice and Behavior, 23, 25-54.
Hogenboom, M. (2013). Psychopathic criminals have empathy switch. BBC News:
Science & Environment. Retrieved from
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-23431793
Louth, S. M., Hare, R. D. And Linden, W. (1998). Psychopathy and alexithymia in female
Offenders. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science/Revue canadienne des
sciences du comportement, 30, 91-98.
Meissner, W. W. (1971). The assault on authority: Dialogue or dilemma?. New York:
Orbis.
Sharpe, S. (2001). Fathers and Daughters. New York: Routledge.
Simon, Y. (1951). Philosophy of Democratic Government. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.