Each killer has their own unique motives for killing and one of the hardest things to do is to determine the why the killer committed the crime. Television shows such as Criminal Minds make the job look easy. On the show it may only take the actors hours to look at the evidence, determine the behavior of the suspect, and develop a list of suspects, however, in real life, this process may take days, months, or even years to determine. Sadly, this means that the killer has more time to carry out the crimes and, in the worst scenarios, is never caught. The problem is determining whether or not the suspect is killing to fulfill their fantasies or they have a serious illness. In this paper I will be arguing that serial killers kill for the sole
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The article states that while using Schahriar Syndrome as a model, they are able to explain even the most vicious human behaviours, such as planned and repeated homicide (Claus/Lidberg 428). This disease is broken down into five main characteristics: omnipotence, sadistic fantasies, ritualized performance, dehumanization, and symbiotic merger. These five traits are not only common among people with the disease but among serial killers as well (428). “The serial killer acts as if deprived of his entire existence. Thus, a psychotherapy process must focus on distinct settings to achieve its object as a source of information about primitive psychic mechanisms” (429). If there is any truth to the concept that it is just a disease, then maybe it is curable. On the other hand, Ilie Magdalena Ioana emphasizes that the desire to kill is not a disease, but an action that is the product of detrimental experiences. Ioana’s article explains that nobody is truly born a serial killer. She points out the fact that serial killers do not kill because of intelligence or imagination, it is their shaped personalities and emotions. “Neither the intelligence, nor the thinking, the memory, the imagination, or the language of a killer are the psychological causes of his murders, but the deeper springs of his personality: the emotional, motivational, natural factors that were generated not only by hereditary, biological factors, but by the factors related to education, socialization, culture and, especially, the socio-economic environment the individual lives in” (Ioana 1). Ioana lists numerous causes such as sexual frustration, childhood abuse, death of a parent, and many more as the actions that may have created the killer
The article states that while using Schahriar Syndrome as a model, they are able to explain even the most vicious human behaviours, such as planned and repeated homicide (Claus/Lidberg 428). This disease is broken down into five main characteristics: omnipotence, sadistic fantasies, ritualized performance, dehumanization, and symbiotic merger. These five traits are not only common among people with the disease but among serial killers as well (428). “The serial killer acts as if deprived of his entire existence. Thus, a psychotherapy process must focus on distinct settings to achieve its object as a source of information about primitive psychic mechanisms” (429). If there is any truth to the concept that it is just a disease, then maybe it is curable. On the other hand, Ilie Magdalena Ioana emphasizes that the desire to kill is not a disease, but an action that is the product of detrimental experiences. Ioana’s article explains that nobody is truly born a serial killer. She points out the fact that serial killers do not kill because of intelligence or imagination, it is their shaped personalities and emotions. “Neither the intelligence, nor the thinking, the memory, the imagination, or the language of a killer are the psychological causes of his murders, but the deeper springs of his personality: the emotional, motivational, natural factors that were generated not only by hereditary, biological factors, but by the factors related to education, socialization, culture and, especially, the socio-economic environment the individual lives in” (Ioana 1). Ioana lists numerous causes such as sexual frustration, childhood abuse, death of a parent, and many more as the actions that may have created the killer