Aileen Wuornos Case Study

Aileen Wuornos had a career of prostitution, which started at age 11, and murdering the men she had relations with. During the trial, a psychologist diagnosed her with a borderline personality disorder and mental retardation, from an 81 point IQ. After she was arrested for the murders, Aileen revealed that she was sexually abused multiple times throughout her life. Her father committed suicide while in jail for child molestation. Her mother was left to raise two children alone, so she gave them to the grandparents. During Aileen’s stay, her grandmother was an alcoholic, while her grandfather and brother sexually abused Aileen. Throughout this time, she became pregnant, at age 14, and was forced to give up the child. After she gave up child, …show more content…
Aileen shot herself in the stomach with a 22 caliber pistol at age 22, and was sent to the hospital where she admitted it was not her first time. Even though she told the doctors about her mental illness, she was released after her wound healed and had little treatment. Borderline personality disorder almost requires treatment or counseling from a doctor because the mood swings can be extremely uncontrollable. If Aileen was treated properly and gave a strong support staff in a group counseling service, she may have not murdered those men. Support through a mental illness or disorder is important in living with the …show more content…
Since this disorder has symptoms of extreme episodes of anxiety and expressions of anger, along with the difficulty to control impulses relationships with people are hard to maintain. Also, this disorder gives the individual an unstable sense of identity, which was apparent in Aileen Wuornos. These unstable emotions and outburst push people away that do not understand the disorder or know that it exist in the individual. This may have been an issue with Aileen, since she did not know she had a disorder until she was examined while on trial. Living with a mental health illness to this degree, unknowingly, can be fairly difficult and lead the individual down the wrong path. Aileen’s illness combined with her childhood experiences created a dissociated individual that had little self worth or a sense of right and wrong. The illness pushed away anyone that could have been helpful to her. Organizations that are created to get individuals back on their feet would not have dealt with Aileen’s behavior for long. Aileen was almost set up to fail since her childhood, since she had no one to pick her up when she needed it the most. Borderline personality disorder can negatively impact a person’s life if it is not treated, and Aileen is a perfect