Note: Within the essay, whenever the term serial killer is used, it encompasses any type of violent offender without a motive or a connection to the victims.
Today’s society is not able to truly comprehend the serial or the mass murderer. With no motive or connection to the victims, the violence does not make sense. It is difficult to depict a character or concept only partially understood. Psycho took this perplexing subject and executed it respectfully and appropriately. It was the pioneering film of the psychological thriller genre, and it is still looked upon as a masterpiece. Throughout history, when does the first person to try something get it exactly right? Not often. Is Psycho actually as morally impressive as many claim? Psycho …show more content…
DID is characterized by the appearance of at least two distinct and relatively enduring identities or dissociated personality states that alternately control a person 's behavior, accompanied by memory impairment for important information not explained by ordinary forgetfulness. Norman seems to have three identities. Sometimes, he is an ordinary grown man, understanding his world and thinking rationally. Sometimes, he is a child, following orders and being influenced by thoughts of the consequences. Other times, he takes over the position his mother previously played in his life. His memory of his mother portrays her as very protective, hard to please and consistently ordering him around. He could also possibly have paranoid schizophrenia. It is difficult to determine because the audience has no fact checker with his memory. It is clear his reality is not accurate due to his actions, but when recalling his childhood, he is the sole source. The mother personality, when manifested in Norman, seems to have an antisocial personality disorder, or psychopathy. Psychopathy is the lack of moral concern for others. This lack of empathy allows psychopaths to analyze people and give them a false sense of comfort, often times to exploit …show more content…
Humanity does not understand why some people seem to kill for no reason. Some serial killers have dealt with mental illness, some have dealt with abuse, and some have dealt with both. The vast majority of people suffering from either of these are not serial killers though. There is a correlation between psychopathy and serial killing, but that is it. There is no evidence to prove that all people with antisocial personality disorder are serial killers. In 1963, J.M. MacDonald published a theory about the homicidal triad of bed wetting, fire setting and animal cruelty. He claimed that it was possible to predict serial offenses by looking out for people who have shown two or more of these behavioral characteristics. His information has not been validated since, but it has been shown that people with these behavioral characteristics were likely to have been abused or neglected during
Today’s society is not able to truly comprehend the serial or the mass murderer. With no motive or connection to the victims, the violence does not make sense. It is difficult to depict a character or concept only partially understood. Psycho took this perplexing subject and executed it respectfully and appropriately. It was the pioneering film of the psychological thriller genre, and it is still looked upon as a masterpiece. Throughout history, when does the first person to try something get it exactly right? Not often. Is Psycho actually as morally impressive as many claim? Psycho …show more content…
DID is characterized by the appearance of at least two distinct and relatively enduring identities or dissociated personality states that alternately control a person 's behavior, accompanied by memory impairment for important information not explained by ordinary forgetfulness. Norman seems to have three identities. Sometimes, he is an ordinary grown man, understanding his world and thinking rationally. Sometimes, he is a child, following orders and being influenced by thoughts of the consequences. Other times, he takes over the position his mother previously played in his life. His memory of his mother portrays her as very protective, hard to please and consistently ordering him around. He could also possibly have paranoid schizophrenia. It is difficult to determine because the audience has no fact checker with his memory. It is clear his reality is not accurate due to his actions, but when recalling his childhood, he is the sole source. The mother personality, when manifested in Norman, seems to have an antisocial personality disorder, or psychopathy. Psychopathy is the lack of moral concern for others. This lack of empathy allows psychopaths to analyze people and give them a false sense of comfort, often times to exploit …show more content…
Humanity does not understand why some people seem to kill for no reason. Some serial killers have dealt with mental illness, some have dealt with abuse, and some have dealt with both. The vast majority of people suffering from either of these are not serial killers though. There is a correlation between psychopathy and serial killing, but that is it. There is no evidence to prove that all people with antisocial personality disorder are serial killers. In 1963, J.M. MacDonald published a theory about the homicidal triad of bed wetting, fire setting and animal cruelty. He claimed that it was possible to predict serial offenses by looking out for people who have shown two or more of these behavioral characteristics. His information has not been validated since, but it has been shown that people with these behavioral characteristics were likely to have been abused or neglected during