The Psychology of The Villain

The villain is the most captivating and intriguing of all archetypes. The hero would not exist without his darker counterpart, which reflects aspects of ourselves that we do not dare to acknowledge or confront, but which are present within all of us.

The villain is often a mirror of the dark aspects of humanity, embodying qualities that are evil, harmful, greedy, selfish, and destructive. In recent times, villains can even become sympathetic, and possess redeeming qualities, making some of them oddly likeable despite their malicious intent and immoral actions, thus challenging our traditional notions of good and evil. This type of villain has never existed to the degree it exists in the 21st century, symbolising a major change in the collective unconscious—which speaks to a psychological experience that is common to us all.

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📚 Recommended Reading

▶ Frankenstein
▶ Paradise Lost
▶ Crime and Punishment
▶ Batman: The Killing Joke
▶ Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
▶ A Wizard of Earthsea
▶ The Prince

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🎶 Music used

1. Ambiment – The Ambient – Kevin MacLeod
2. Smoother Move – Kevin MacLeod
3. Virtutes Instrumenti – Kevin MacLeod
4. What We Don't Say – Scott Buckley
5. Sinister Dark Ambient - Dark Rage – CO.AG Music
6. Heartbreaking – Kevin MacLeod
7. Phase Shift – Scott Buckley
8. Dreams Become Real – Kevin MacLeod
9. Magnetic – CO.AG Music
10. As The World Fell – CO.AG Music

Support the artists:

CO.AG Music

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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📝 Sources

- Kushkaki, M. (2013). Unmasking the villain: A reconstruction of the villain archetype in popular culture. Master of Arts, San Diego State University.
- Paulhus, D. L., & Williams, K. M. (2002). The dark triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Journal of research in personality, 36(6), 556-563.
- Faria, P. S. (2008). The journey of the villain in the Harry Potter series: an archetypal study of fantasy villains.
- Martin Del Campo, M. (2017). Sympathy for the Devils: An Analysis of the Villain Archetype Since the Nineteenth Century.
- The Psychology of Villains in Literature: Understanding the Motivations and Complexity of Antagonists by Chrissie)
- Fallen Heroes: Sixteen Master Villain Archetypes - Tami D. Cowden

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⌛ Timestamps

0:00 Introduction
1:46 The Meaning of Villain
2:40 The Oldest Form of The Villain
3:18 The Villain Archetype in Literature
11:00 The Superhero
12:26 Sympathy for the Villain
13:17 The Antihero
14:56 The Modern Villain
16:03 The Joker and Hyper-Sanity
19:55 Villains and The Dark Side
21:40 The Villain’s Journey
23:00 The Villain and The Hero
28:22 Villain: Mirror of The Dark Aspects of Humanity
32:56 The Villain Redemption Arc
33:18 The Dark Triad
36:20 The Tyrant
38:26 The Resentful One
40:19 The Traitor
41:30 The Sadist
41:58 The Criminal Mastermind
43:25 The Mad Scientist
43:54 The Jester or Trickster
44:20 The Terrible or Devouring Mother
44:50 The Femme Fatale
45:50 Conclusion

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#villain #archetype

[Eternalised]

*“The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”* - Solzhenitysn


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[Reality-Distortion]

"Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you."
That is a MAGNIFICENT quote.

[sophiashekinah]

I Love the insight you bring to this subject. "The heros greatest desire is not to defeat the villain, but to see him redeemed"...

[godleveleldritchblast]

One thing most people forget about the villain is that it's your own corruption and you can never ever get rid of it. The villain is there to force you to grow but is also there to take over if you fail.

[anthonyg]

The fact that I want to share this with ppl but know they won't watch bc " it was too long" brings out the villian in me. Awesome work man

[mativonburrata]

Imagine what changes could be made if a whole generation would bathe themselves in wisdom like this instead of wasting their life-essence on degenerate, mind-numbing and time-wasting behaviours.

Channels like these makes me proud of being a human.

[WeAreAllOneNature]

45:53 to 46, 12: ''We should consider villains simultaneously with heroes... as two sides of the same coin. Wholeness is achieved by the union of opposites. When we accept that we are all flawed... we are able to... become whole.''

[MattiasRayquaza]

Please make a “The Psychology of The Artist” would be super interesting & relevant!🙏🏼

[Alex-divh]

Man Eternalised never failed to impress me with these archetypes. Keep it up brodie

[FoundingStockNZ]

It's now the Dark Tetrad (4), they added Sadism, the positive delight in the suffering of others.

[psychosophy]

Hero and villain are relative, temporary labels to characters. What label you assign to each character depends on the moment (aka what events have occurred until that specific moment) and from whose perspective you analyze the character. The anti-hero can get away with his tricks while the hero is blamed for the anti-hero's mistakes. We all were villains at some point. We all revealed our shadow at least once. Embrace this reality and accept yourself as complex, ever-changing human being.

[ennuiblue]

you either ⚰️ a hero or.... you know the rest. Everyone has a 'dark passenger' as Dexter would say

[DsappontmentPanda]

Your voice is perfect for this content . Thank you . 🙏🏼

[Sumoniggro]

The interesting thing about the dark triad is that they are like rock-paper-scissors, the narcissist is the weakness of a Machiavellian because they are likeable so they foster loyalty from the people which makes them a threat to the control of the Machiavellian but is weak to the psychopathic because they need the constant validation from people but psychpaths couldn't care less about people, the Machiavellian loses to the narcissist because they either get overthrown or risk rebellion by making the narcissist a martyr, but through their control they eliminate the psychopath's ability to cause any harm, the paychopaths inability to care about morality, social norms or anything about societal structure make them immune to the manipulation of narcissists and even cause narcissists to let their masks slip off exposing their ugly truth to everyone but because they thrive on impulsivity and their inability to hide their true nature the opressive control of a Machiavellian makes their existence impossible.

[cristig]

Ironically enough, Machiavelli ended up being hated .

[gilgoofthegrove]

i thought all these "psychology of" videos were gona be filled with useless dribble, but they have ALL been masterfully crafted, i'm still surprised every time by how good it is
(I've been putting off watching this one because i knew i'd need to actually focus haha)

[Deeppocketdenim]

“Why else would dress up like a flying rat” is the funniest thing Joker has ever said.

[kavitamins]

Thank you for another amazing dive into a complex yet relatable archetype 💚
I particularly enjoyed the exploration of archetypal images of what shapes a villain. Just as every hero has a dark side, so too every villain has a light within, and it's in holding the tension of opposites that make their stories so compelling.

[NervozniZivota]

Funny sinchronicity... Yesterday, I woke up in an unsettling mood that quickly formed into a sentence (a residue from a dream I didnt remember): "The villain's purpose is to help the hero forge himself. No slacks may be cut. That would be a failure for both...".
Less than 20 hours later, I half randomly click on this vid, while searching for something else... 😳

[Answer]

My new favorite channel. Your Grail video has played through my car speakers 3 times while commuting to/from work, and now moving onto the other ones. Keep them coming.