The main theme of the documentary is the exploration of the work done by Dr. Dorothy Lewis, a renowned psychiatrist, author of several books and who has focused her career on the study of violent people, criminals, serial killers, etc. But above all she has studied cases of people with dissociative identity disorders.
Through the documentary, we will have access to the recordings made in several of the most important cases in which the psychiatrist worked. It is in those recordings, where we will see the reality of that mental disorder, where a person can have multiple personalities.
Like the character in the film Split, or like the character in the series Mr. Robot. There are people with that kind of disorder, where other personalities take control of their mind and body.
Dorothy Lewis has not had it easy, the first time she presented her research to an audience of experts, she was criticized and even mocked. Likewise, her role as an expert in the courts, always on the side of the defendant's defense, has been refuted by other experts.
The expert psychiatrist makes it clear that her studies do not seek to exonerate criminals. They committed a crime, most of them terrifying crimes, but according to her theories, in the cases she worked on, they should not have been sentenced to death, because they were people who really had a mental problem, therefore a death sentence was excessive.
She is not in favor of the death penalty, for her, that has not solved the problem. It does not serve as a deterrent to committing a crime. On the one hand, in states where the death penalty is applied, brutal crimes continue to be committed.
One of the goals of her work is to get the justice system to change its methods, because criminals suffering from dissociative identity disorder would not be fully aware of the brutal act when they execute the crime.
Why do some people kill and others don't? What motivates them? Why are some people who are angry about something not able to kill? Others do it in a way that doesn't seem to matter to them. Several questions motivated this psychiatrist to devote her studies to the darker side of the human being.
One of the most revealing segments of the documentary is when they show the recordings of her interview with the man in charge of carrying out the executions. A man who had a normal job as an electrician in a village, but who had been in charge of executing two dozen people condemned to death.
For Dorothy Lewis, that man had the same characteristics as many of the criminals she had studied. A difficult childhood, some kind of mistreatment or abuse, difficult situations throughout his life, etc. In addition to the cold blood and willingness to move on. For the enforcer, it didn't matter if it was a child, a man or a woman sitting in the electric chair, he would do his job. Is that man a psychopath like the executed criminal?
Among the killers the doctor interviewed and studied was Arthur Shawcross, a serial killer who killed eleven women. It was his first major case and he had to testify at the trial, where they only showed the recordings of the sessions with the criminal, but completely ignored everything except the neurological study performed.
Other important cases in which the psychiatrist participated and studied the criminals were those of David Wilson, Marie Moore, Joseph Paul Franklin and he was also one of those who interviewed John Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman, although this is only mentioned in the documentary, but the recordings are not shown.
For her, most of these terrible criminals, suffered some kind of abuse in their childhood. Something that seems not to match the profile of the killer Ted Bundy. It is in this last part of the documentary, where Dr. Lewis' vision of Bundy is offered, with some important revelations, which reinforce her theory and weaken the myth that Ted Bundy grew up in a normal and happy environment. Ted Bundy was not born evil, he became evil because of a series of events that go back to the time he was inside his mother's womb.
A curious anecdote that is told in the documentary, is that Martin Scorsese contacted her when he was filming the remake of Cape Fear, so that the actor Robert de Niro could interview in prison some of the murderers he had studied, which would help the actor build the character of the film.
I find the work of this psychiatrist fascinating, I am a research enthusiast, and the study of murderers is an area that I love, so I really liked this documentary and it will delight all those who like this subject.
The documentary is written and directed by an expert filmmaker in this genre: Alex Gibney. His documentary works include Dirty Money, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Taxi to the Dark Side, We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks, Mea Maxima Culpa: The Silence in the House of God and The inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley among many others that have received excellent reviews and acceptance from both film experts and the public. He is a filmmaker who always offers high quality documentary work. Gibney is also the producer of the documentary, through his company Jigsaw Productions.
We may or may not agree with Dorothy Lewis' work, but her studies offer an important vision of the human being and his most primitive side. Many will be surprised to see a normal person, who smiles and is in a good mood, even though she has dedicated her life to exploring the wild and ruthless side of people.
If you want to know more about it, after watching the documentary, you can read this article from the wikipedia: link
An excellent documentary available on HBO.
My Ranking: 3.4/5
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