I've always been fascinated by the Hannibel Lector for many reasons. Some of them are due to the character himself, indeed you can easily get mesmerized by the way he speaks, and just his...well, psychopathic cannibalistic nature (how can someone actually be like that?). How a man so supposedly "civilized" be so "barbaric." Anthony Hopkins (who seems to really have a great deal of fun playing the character) does a great job playing him too. Then again there's the fact that hollywood would glamourize and absolve a psychopathic and make him a "lovable, misunderstood cannibal." Not surprising given Hollywood fare these past couple of decades.
The whole Hannibal prequel seems to have reffuled some fan's feathers who think the author blew the legend* by trying to "explain" Hannibal. Indeed, it's a bit like George Lucas ruining Darth Vader by showing how much of a wussy he was when he was younger. Now it seems Hannibal really has a heart of gold as demonstrated by the love of his sister. Yeah...right.
(*=not to mention ruining the timeline, how could Dr. Lector get his own practice as an adult after becoming famous for being a cannibalistic nazi hunter as a tenenager?!?)
Wikipaedia has some interesting info on this.
Wiki said:
Lecter is portrayed to be intellectually brilliant, but at the same time, primal in his mannerisms. On several occasions in the novels, his extraordinary intellect is described as "not be measurable by any means known to man." His natural posture and stature is still and erect, and he tilts his head to one side when listening. Lecter's senses are so extreme that they are considered inhuman, his most noted trait is his animal-like sense of smell (being able to smell trace amounts of blood or semen, he is also able to identify a person by scent alone).
Hmmm, sounds almost reptilian...As for his psychological makeup...
Wiki said:
Even though Lecter has been branded a "pure sociopath", his general behavior fails to perfectly exhibit the standard forms of the condition. In order to be diagnosed as a true sociopath, a person must exhibit all three sociopathic characteristics from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual's checklist. Lecter however, is seen to only exhibit two of the characteristics. Harris also writes in Red Dragon that Lecter did not fit any existing psychiatric condition, and physicians who examined Lecter during his stay at the Baltimore Asylum reported his brain patterns were inconsistent with those of typical sociopaths. In Red Dragon, Graham said he believed that Lecter has a neurological disability, akin to a severe congenital deformity. In The Silence of the Lambs upon his first interview with Clarice Starling, Lecter performs self diagnosis; simply labling himself as evil. He states that the nature of his actions can't be reduced to a behavioral abnormality.
In Red Dragon, Graham said that Lecter displayed the earliest sign of sociopathic behaviour: sadism towards animals. However, Hannibal Rising revealed that during his childhood in Lithuania, he had formed a strong friendship with a horse named Cesar.
So it pretty much shows that the books contradict each other. After showing how brutal he is in Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, he begins to show some "humanity" by "falling in love" with Clarice Sterling and then, by the 4th and last book, he is totally redeemed in Hannibal Rising. Nothing to see here folks, sure he killed, tortured, mutilated and
eaten dozens of people but he's a really nice guy underneath all that evil...god, sounds like one of those stereotyped bleeding heart liberals we see satirzied so often. Even Lector himself states that "a rational society would have either killed him or put him to some use."
Still, I don't entirely reject the notion that someone cannot become a psychopath through severe trauma. While this is an extreme, almost absurd, example we do often see cold, heartless people suffering from severly traumatic pasts, usually that were untreated or even unacknowledged. Lector was clearly born one and the "traumatizing event" had no change on that fact. So, while I don't believe that if one experienced their family's brutal murder and experienced cannibalism as a child will "change" into a violent, sadistic, cannibalistic psychopath, at the same you never really know.
I've once heard that indulging in cannablism leads to atrophying of the brain. Perhaps in Lector's case it was the part with a conscious.