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Serial Killers

We find ourselves asking, “What turns a person into a serial killer?” According to paleopsychology our civilized brains are built on a primitive animalistic core known as the R-Complex. Paleopsychologists also believe that there is some sort of malfunction in the brain of serial killers, that somehow their primitive brain overrides the "higher" brain: reason and compassion take a backseat to lust, aggression, and appetite. A study by Pavlos Hatzitaskos and colleagues reports that a large portion of death-row inmates have had severe head injuries, and that approximately 70% of brain-injured patients develop aggressive tendencies.

While we still may contain the savage instincts from our ancestors, the vast majority of individuals have the intelligence, reasoning, and logic to keep this brute nature in check. Theorists of Freud see this explanation quite similarly, except that they speak of the id. They believe that serial killers are not necessarily ape-men but have profoundly stunted personalities, stuck or fixated at an infantile stage of psychosexual development. Because of trauma during childhood, compulsive killers, never develop or progress their emotional development past that of a two-year old. Like a two-year o


One specific sexual practice that is most often recurrent among sexual sadists is autoerotic asphyxia. This practice involves temporarily diminishes the flow of oxygenated blood to the brain. Cerebral hypoxia, the medical term, can induce a sense of exhilaration and is believed by many people to enhance sexual sensations. This behavior has been traced back as far as 1000 AD. A Mayan sculpture was discovered which depicts a naked male with a rope around his neck, scars on his cheeks and forehead, and his erect penis is partially missing. There are no indications of those who practice autoerotic methods. To all appearances these individuals are perfectly healthy people from all walks of life.

Can psychopaths be successfully treated? According to the psychiatrists, "No." Shock treatment doesn't work; drugs have not proven successful in treatment; and psychotherapy, which involves trust and a relationship with the therapist, is out of the question, because psychopaths are incapable of opening up to others. They don't want to change. Most psychopaths end up in prison, instead of psychiatric hospitals.

As a youth, Ted was terribly shy and was often teased and made the butt of pranks by bullies in his junior high school. Regardless of the sometimes-humiliating experiences he suffered, he was able to maintain a high-grade average that would continue throughout high school and later into college. Friends from high school would later remember Ted as being a more popular figure than he was in junior high. Although he was very shy, Ted was thought of as being "well dressed and exceptionally well mannered." Yet no one recalled him dating anyone during that period. His interests lay elsewhere such as in skiing and politics. In fact, it was in high school that Ted's interest in politics began to bloom.

While it may seem obvious that serial killers suffer from some sort of mental illness, it does not mean that the serial killer does not know the difference between right and wrong or that they are unable to conform their behavior to the rules of society, we label them as psychopaths. Yet at the same time these individuals have the ability to hide their true selves from everyone around them. Harvey Cleckly conducted a study in 1976 titled “The Mask of Sanity.” This phrase refers to the psychopath’s ability to appear perfectly normal and conceal their cold-blooded nature. These individuals can make one believe that they are sensitive, caring, charming people, when underneath they are actually hollow to the core, complete egocentrics caring only about their own greedy desires. The serial killer is most frightening of all psychopaths, because they lack the most basic of emotion, empathy, conscience, and remorse. Behind the serial killers mask of sanity lays bitter evil, he is so good at dissembling that it can be impossible to see the true monster beneath. When they are stalking a victim, psychopaths don't consciously feel anger, "but the violence shows the dissociated effect." Many killers seem to go into a trance during their predatory and killing phases. The victim is seen as a symbolic object.

DeSalvo’s early victims were elderly women. He would gain entrance into the victim’s residence and then rape and strangle her. He also enjoyed desecrating the corpses by shoving broomsticks or bottles into the victim’s vagina. Toward the end of 1962 he began seeking out younger women. The murders became more vicious and bizarre. One victim, after being brutally raped, was left propped against the headboard of her bed, with a broomstick projecting out from her vagina, a pink bow around her neck and a new year’s card propped against her foot.

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Approximate Word count = 5789
Approximate Pages = 23 (250 words per page double spaced)


  

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