Just a week included the premiere of the series «Chikatilo» with Dmitry Nagiyev in the title role and an interview taken by Ksenia Sobchak with the Skopinsky maniac, who was released after a term for the rape of girls turned into slaves.
And no matter how many people argue that the very fact of this interview is worse than any perversion, the fact remains — the number of views of this very perversion is off the charts. The authors of the series about Chikatilo also hope for public interest.
Then, maybe, neither Sobchak nor Nagiyev is to blame, but we ourselves, that we are given the product that we are interested in? Those same maniacs and perverts. We, like the notorious Sobchak, instead of not looking at all this horror, try to consider in detail and even savor this nightmare, as if they themselves were still perverts. And the general public is actually interested in maniacs, hearse weddings and other nightmares and vulgarity?
Lev Bertovsky, forensic scientist, Doctor of Law:
— Interest in the personality of maniacs — bright, creepy — is inherent in human nature, in my opinion. The demand for such content has never stopped. Chikatilo still rattles the minds, but I don’t understand what prompted films to shoot about him. This is the director’s perverted logic.
In my practice it was like this. After Chikatilo, we caught Pichushkin (Alexander killed his victims with a hammer on the head. — Ed.). He then said that he had a dream — to surpass Chikatilo. And then we detained [Tigran] Petrosyan, who was killing the girls, he came up and hacked them to death. He was declared insane, and during interrogation Petrosyan said that Pichushkin had come to him in a dream. The maniacs are activated, seeing that all the glory goes to someone else.
There is a high danger that films and programs about maniacs will provoke others to step out of the shadows and take action. But it should be borne in mind that such content can get lost in the general stream.
Ekaterina Trofimova, psychologist, candidate of biological sciences:
— Everyone has a basic anxiety. He must spend a certain amount of anxiety in a day. That is why there are programs on television related to courts and investigations, including about serial killers and maniacs.
A surge of energy helps a person to free himself from aggression and calm down, without breaking down on loved ones. At the same time, it is important to understand that even five years ago, the media did not really talk about them. A striking example is Viktor Mokhov, an interview with whom Ksenia Sobchak recorded. In a sense, maniacs turn out to be scapegoats for moralizers, on which you can swear and feel like a decent person, because it is very right to hate maniacs.
The topic is attractive also due to the desire of people to «figure out» who the maniacs are and how to identify them. They say that you own and store information, which means that you are protected. But this is an illusion.
Why do negative characters get sympathy? Sympathy for bad heroes can be a psychological defense — including from victims. Watching movies about maniacs for a healthy person will not do the same. On the contrary, it will cause rejection and a desire to take better care of yourself.
Kira Druzhinina, profiler, candidate of philological sciences:
— The tendency to violence is not written on the person’s face. It is impossible to determine by the shape of the nose or eyes that we are facing a potential maniac. Those who lived and worked with Andrey Chikatilo, as one say, that he was super quiet and adequate, and no one could have imagined that he could create such horrors. Profilers analyze not only how a person looks, but also how he speaks, how he moves, how he reacts to words and actions.
From the fact that the maniac is shown on TV, he does not cease to be a maniac. Another thing is when we start to delve into the origins of his actions. Such ways to talk about the perpetrator — through childhood trauma, difficult life — humanize. But there can be no excuses. It is more correct to tell not about the maniac himself, but about the course and details of the investigation.
