Abstract

This essay argues that the profiler cycle of films represents the Superego command “to enjoy” as extreme dissatisfaction. In doing so, profiler entertainment articulates two key features of the Superego: devotion to duty for duty’s sake and skepticism of traditional authority. Representations of criminal profilers typically focus on their marginalized lifestyles, the extreme mental anguish of their work, and their desire to escape from evil. This essay argues otherwise and suggests that criminal profilers, as represented in popular culture, desire the distress and paranoia of their job in order to more fully integrate themselves into reality. Their failure to escape dissatisfaction stands as the ultimate sign of a successful profiler