Science & Tech

Doing Your Own Profile

Lesson time 09:51 min

In this final lesson, John discusses the importance of profiling ourselves. By understanding who we are, we can better understand others. In addition, John shares how his demanding schedule affected his health, and the importance of work-life balance.

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Topics include: Assignment • The Internet: New Frontier for the Predator • The Case That Nearly Killed Me

John Douglas

Teaches How to Think Like an FBI Profiler

Legendary Special Agent John Douglas teaches how criminal profiling methods can help you predict people’s motives to benefit your everyday life.

Preview

[MUSIC PLAYING] JOHN DOUGLAS: My career covered over 50 years of working violent crime cases. And I hope I was able to convey to you those experiences that you can use. But don't just stop here. Continue researching the subject matter. Read books. Be cognizant of your area. Be cognizant of others, studying people, skills that will help you predict behavior. And if you can predict behavior, maybe you can avoid becoming a victim. But that requires being introspective and truly understanding yourself. Essentially what I'm saying here, is that whereas I've been profiling cases and doing assessments of others, is for you to profile yourself. There's nothing wrong admitting you have a weakness. We all have them. But be honest with yourself. And ask those close to you what they perceive as your weakness. Are you too agreeable? Do you lack self-control? Do you have a fear of abandonment when relationships end? Do you have trouble making everyday decisions? If your friends tell you they observe any of these traits in your profile, know that these tendencies can raise your risk level when it comes to being manipulated and taken advantage of in your life. So hopefully what you got out of this class as well is don't increase your risk level where you become a potential victim, whether it's with a crime or a situation you were gonna be manipulated by someone. In the old days, when someone wanted to meet a woman or if they were so inclined to perpetrate crimes, they go out cruising. They go out cruising and looking for a potential victim. Now, they're kinda like fishermen. And they got several lines here. And they could throw them out there. The problem with the internet here is that you have nothing to assess other than the words that are coming across to you in messages here. To make a-- a good decision, you need more than words. The key thing you should not do is you should not be telling whoever this person is all your personal information. What your job is, where you work, you know, where you-- you live. If you do decide to meet this person, you should never meet this person in an area that is isolated. You maybe should bring-- you should bring a friend with you, go to a public area. I wrote a book one time called "Anyone You Want Me To Be." It was about the first internet serial killer. His name was John Robinson. When he was dealing with women over the internet, if they were looking for a job, you got it. You're looking for money, you got it. You're looking for some type of stability in your life, you know, you-- you got it. You need a place to-- to live, a nice-- nice residence, I got it. This anyone you want me to be guy killed about eight women that we know of and it could be more. Because there was nothing-- nothing to go by other than his words. So if you got involved in a dating app, we start investigating you and see what your background is, and there's nothing in your background that would cause you to be a h...

About the Instructor

Netflix’s “Mindhunter” was inspired by the FBI’s first criminal profiler, John Douglas. As chief of the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, he conducted groundbreaking interviews with notorious criminals such as Charles Manson and Ed Kemper, changing interrogative tactics forever. On MasterClass, he teaches you to use his methods in everyday life, unlocking your intuition to read people's motives.

Featured MasterClass Instructor

John Douglas

Legendary Special Agent John Douglas teaches how criminal profiling methods can help you predict people’s motives to benefit your everyday life.

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