Serial Murder I

Well here you have it ladies and gentlemen, the topic you've all been waiting for. Because really, when your layman thinks of Psychopaths, you know he's thinking Ted Bundy, Adolf Hitler, The Night Stalker, Barack Obama... the well known members of our ranks. And it's disappointing for the everyman to find that, the majority of us stay much more under the radar than that.

Which begs the question, How is violence and Psychopathy linked? It's an interesting question, and one where the answer is more ambiguous than perhaps we'd wish. As I mentioned in my last post, there is a wide spectrum of psychopathic personalities. The most studied is the low IQ, Criminal Psychopath, and that's where Antisocial Personality Disorder falls on the chart, in the middle is your everyday sociopath who wields varying but balanced combinations of criminal tendencies and superior intellect, which usually makes him perfect for the wonderfully cutthroat world of business and other such endeavors. Finally, on the far end of the spectrum, opposite ASPD, is the Psychopath, highly intelligent, silently narcissistic, clever and self-aware. The high functioning Psychopath is fully capable of equally 'heinous' crimes as the ASPD'er, but they are more known for premeditated, tricky crimes that if found out, generally fill the media with fascinating fodder for weeks, if not decades.

The thing people don't realize however, is that as much as Neurotypicals differ, so do we. To say all Psychopaths are violent murderers would be foolish, but to say none were would of course be even more so. It's almost like a rockstar who people picture being this amazing freak all the time, until they one day meet them and find they're just as boring and mundane as everyone else, though of course some of them truly do live the lifestyle. Hence their very short, very interesting lives.

Motiveless murder is fascinating on its own. Killing someone in rage is understandable even to the emotional. But purely for some unknown pleasure, that's what truly terrifies people. To think that no matter how nice and good and pleasant they are to people, their life can still end in a horrifyingly violent and bloody way. But what is the difference between a psychopath prone to serial murder/sexual assault, and psychopaths who-aren't? My only hypothesis is Sadism, pure and simple.

When you lead a largely unemotional existence, anything that can get your heart pumping is worth its weight in gold. For some of us, the feel of blood and the scent of fear does that. So simple. Empaths can't comprehend that. Everything must have extremely elaborate explanations. Serial killers must have horrible childhoods where they themselves were constantly raped and beaten and THEIR parents raped and beat them because they themselves were raped and beaten by THEIR parents who raped and beat them because....so on. The problem with that little psychological paradox, is obviously at some point, SOMEONE started raping and beating for no other reason than they enjoyed it. I don't know why that's so hard to believe. Perhaps a second part is in order..

"I wish I could stop but I could not. I had no other thrill or happiness. "

-Dennis Nilsen