Whatever your level of affection for words, you will be interested to know that Brian Lowry, a well-known media critic, felt compelled to recant, retract, and (presumably) redact an unfavorable review of Dexter he published in 2006. How good must this show be to force normally haughty, complacent critics to publicly reverse their verdicts? Well, if you're at all familiar with the show, you probably don't need me to answer that question, so I won't. (Actually, Brian seems like a very decent guy. I'm not trying to take the mickey out of him, per se.)

You could say that Dexter Morgan is a lot of things: disturbed, immoral, courageous, charming, a little weird, maybe, and I wouldn't necessarily disagree. Today, though, we're going to focus on something I can sink my teeth into: his attitude with respect to his job as a bloodstain pattern analyst. Dexter is portrayed as being completely and utterly engrossed in his work. He's obsessed. It captivates him all the time, and when he's on the job, he has the look of a mad scientist or brilliant composer. It's implied that Dexter's attachment to his work is unnatural - perhaps a useful consequence of his schizophrenic personality disorder. Useful, but not necessarily "healthy."

But, is it healthy from a psychological point of view? Putting aside for a moment the totality of Dexter's questionable mental health, is this one quality of his - his single-minded preoccupation with his trade - a beneficial quality to have?

In answering that question, we have recourse to research examining a mental state referred-to, simply enough, as flow, a nod to the expression "go with the flow." The mental state of flow is basically analogous to "being in the zone"; it is full immersion and involvement in an activity. We've all experienced this before. My most poignant flow experiences happen when I write and play ping-pong. For you, it may be different. For Dexter, it's when he's "on the case"...or even technically off the case...basically, all the time. It's bloody justice that drives him 24/7.

Usually, our flow activities are those we are good at, but they can't be too easy for us. Part of flow theory is the notion of optimal challenge: not too easy, not too difficult. Some other characteristics of flow states: limited attention, clear goals, loss of self-consciousness, distorted sense of time.

One interesting thing about flow is that we are much more likely to experience it when we are engaged with a task rather than enjoying passive leisure time. This fact has interesting and unexpected ramifications for our happiness. For example, people are, on average, happier during work hours than they are during time they are off from work (Csikszentmihalyi & Csikszentmihalyi, 1988) - a useful fact of which Dexter seems well-aware. When we are in flow states, we report being happier. The fact that Dexter is very frequently in flow means that he is very frequently happy.

Another interesting question we can ask is whether or not Dexter's propensity to experience flow has consequences for the quality of his work. Intuitively, yes, obviously. We all know that tackling difficult problems requires focused attention and clear goals, and when we see popular representations of "geniuses at work," they usually exhibit all of the outward signs of being in a flow state, e.g., loss of self-consciousness, distorted sense of time.

But is there any empirical evidence to back up these intuitive notions? Yes, flow does enhance performance. Specifically, researchers have found positive associations in the areas of artistic and scientific creativity, teaching, learning, and sports. Though it hasn't been studied, at least to my knowledge, I'm willing to bet the farm that the performance enhancements wrought by flow also apply to bloodstain pattern analysts.

So, it appears that Dexter's unnatural tendency to obsess over and spend most of his time engaged in his work makes him both a happier person and better at his job than he would be otherwise. Does this mean that all those workaholics out there are actually the happiest among us? Not necessarily. In order for work to provide happiness, it must provide flow, which means that it must be optimally challenging and something we naturally like to do. Hence, wordaholics are more likely than workaholics to get their daily recommended dose of flow.

Take stock of your life: are you getting enough flow?

 Ted Cascio is co-editor of House & Psychology (John Wiley & Sons).

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