People go to therapy looking for answers. Our more obsessive patients, preoccupied with their investments, want to make sure they’re getting a good deal. They spend most of their time fixated on their decisions. “Did I choose the right person to marry?” “Do I really hate my job?” “Can I do better?” While the questions appear to be simple, their answers, unfortunately, aren’t as evident. But people tend to repeat the same mistake: They seek out clear and objective conclusions. So, they may present a dataset to a therapist and ask, “Is this a good or a bad decision?”

Life, however, is chronically secretive about those sorts of answers, mockingly providing one counterexample after another for our need for certitude. The 1986 film Manhunter, about an FBI profiler named Will Graham, who’s in search of a serial killer, presents us with a vivid portrait of the cloudiness of human personality and, more broadly, human nature. Will seeks out the counsel of the notorious Hannibal Lecter for insights into the killer’s mind. Initially, Lecter, still resentful for having been arrested by Graham, refuses to cooperate. He later agrees, but his underlying motive, to work with the killer to murder Graham, is revealed, implying his inability to be rehabilitated. Lecter believes he and Graham are the same, which is........

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