What Real World Skills You May Learn From Mindhunter?
I don’t work for the FBI. Neither am I in any law enforcing agency nor do I intend to join one. I am a college drop-out who writes jokes in India. Yet, I think you can learn a thing or two of use in life from the Netflix series ‘Mindhunter’.
I wasn’t the guy who gives life lessons from the serials especially after the show ‘CSI’. There was a dearth of shows that showed science as cool and scientists as role models. CSI released and quickly gained popularity. Only problem was it showed wrong science. The show spread enough wrong ideas among people that courts gave it a term ‘CSI Effect’. There’s a story that one person asked for fingerprints off a blade of grass. Prosecutors have to explain jurors how things shown in CSI can’t be applied to real life. Even the shows that are based on real life leave out important details. ‘Pursuit of Happyness’ left out domestic abuse charges to make the hero look good. So, I was happy to not suggest anything to anyone from entertainment. That all changed when a workshop happened at work.
I write jokes for an AI chat-bot. People often send horrible pics to the bot. So, my company arranged for a few sessions of resilience training workshops. At the same time, I was hearing a lot about this new show called ‘Mindhunter’. The show is based on real-life serial killers and their interviews which led to a new tool of investigation — criminal profiling. At one resilience training workshop they listed the effects of being exposed to graphic imagery for a long time — short temper, insensitivity towards family’s problems, difficulty in sleeping, etc., The next episode of Mindhunter played all the signs out in a scene.
That wasn’t even the main plot, that was a sub-plot. And, it accurately portrayed what happens to a person exposed to graphic imagery without any help. The character that gets affected is Bill Tench. He’s a tough guy. He looks like he’s beaten up more than a few guys in his days. The series shows anybody, tough or weak, can get affected by these images. My company now takes measures to prevent adverse effects. The pics are shown in B&W, instead of full pictures thumbnails are shown, we identify the signs of stress, etc.,
I was least expecting a show to cover this aspect of an FBI officer’s life and that too, accurately. That wasn’t the only part they covered quite accurately.
There’s another thread of sub-plots that covers their use of empathy as a skill. The series starts with a hostage situation. A cop on the bull-horn threatens the hostage taker. This is escalating the situation. Agent Holden Ford arrives and presents the hostage-taker’s perspective; how the presence of loudness of bull-horn, the constant photo-clicking reporters and snipers can push the offender to the edge. And by listening to a few demands, he is more co-operative.
At work, Holden Ford, teaches about murder sprees to police officers. One time, he’s covering Manson murder spree and an officer gets angry about it coz he and his friends attended to it. They don’t need anyone to teach them about it. So, the agent learns from it. In the next classes, he begins by requesting officers to come forward if they were involved in any case and provide greater details. Instead of demeaning them, it gives them a chance to look better.
Even the arguments in between colleagues go like, “I agree…” which is a disarming technique according to behavioral therapy. No one can continue to rant if you agree with them. Whole series is chock full of such things to pick up from. It shows various ways they use empathy to gain co-operation from serial killers, and more importantly from colleagues. Who can’t do with a little co-operation from the colleagues?
After watching this, the real life events playing out on the larger canvas feel a bit unreal to me. It seems people think we are winning if we deeply humiliate our rivals. That’s why you see so many views on ‘Tight Slap’ videos or you see people cheer for a human tied to the jeep. It seems to only make things worse. I hope we better pick up these skills early else who knows how bad this trip will be.
[P.S: The agents do a few more things in addition to empathizing that gets them results like researching the offenders to avoid getting mislead. But those skills are specific to their profession. I focused on Empathy and Resilience coz they apply to everyone.]