Analytical Blog #3

Essential Question: What psychological problems lead someone to committing heinous acts?

I have briefly answered this question in a previous blog, but I find it very facsinating so I wanted to dig deeper. When a normal human being learns about a serial killer, we are deeply disturbed by their actions. We wonder how someone could even have murderous thoughts and what truly could drive someone to hurt another person for personal satisfaction. I've always been interested in researching more on this topic. My favorite book I have read this summer, Serial Killers and Mass Murderers, by Niguel Cawthorne has seventeen chapters, each a short biography of different killers. Cawthorne briefly discusses the mental states of the killers, but never goes in depth with it. The lack of information on the real psyche of a murderer has inspired me to do some research myself. What makes a killer kill? 

Around two-thirds of serial killers are diagnosed with Cluster Type B Personality Disorders, which includes antisocial, histrionic, borderline or narcissistic disorders. Although these disorders are common in killers, most people who have them are not violent. Antisocial Personality Disorder/ psychopathy is a disorder characterized by lack of remorse, lack of empathy for others, manipulative behavior, aggression, and compulsive lying. I have always speculated Antisocial Personality Disorders were developed due to abusive childhoods, but PTSD and phobias have been directly linked childhood abuse, but not Antisocial Personality Disorder. While some antisocial killers such as Charles Manson had a neglectful childhood, Dennis Rader and Jeffrey Dahmer grew up with healthy, supportive parents. Therefore, psychopathy is not caused by social factors. Biologically, there has not been extensive research about psychopathy. Although The Minnesota Twin Study has proven that psychopathy is 60 percent heritable. Also, the University of Wisconsin studied brain scans of normal functioning brains, versus the brains of psychopathic people. The scans have shown that psychopathy correlates with decreased connectivity between the amygdala, a subcortical structure of the brain that processes negative stimuli, and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), a cortical region in the front of the brain that interprets the response from the amygdala. Due to the low connectivity, the processing of negative stimuli in the amygdala does not transfer into intense negative feelings or emotion. While these are credible studies, it is not a definitive answer to why killers kill. All this study proves is that Antisocial Personality Disorder/ psychopathy is likely a genetic condition, it does not show why some suffering with the disorder become violent killers. Personally, I believe it is a combination of a brain abnormality and environmental factors that actually push the person to fill their murderous desires. I hope there is more research done into this topic in the future, because it may make it easier to prevent killers from killing, and maybe there is some type of unknown mental treatment or cure for killers. 


https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-superhuman-mind/201212/the-making-serial-killer