The Difference Between Explaining and Feeling

Mindhunter's second episode stages a conversation between a young FBI agent and a dramatized version of Ed Kemper, whose calm, detailed self-analysis complicates the line between insight and performance. This piece uses research on psychopathic communication and impression management to explain why articulate self-explanation can feel like honesty without being remorse. It ends by asking what we are actually measuring when we call someone's account of their own violence convincing.