Part Two
A couple of disclaimers before I go on:
For whatever reason, I seem to have the ability
to write in a way that makes it sound like I know what the hell I'm talking
about. So I want to be clear about this: I am in no way an expert in any behavioral
science. Nor have I made a disciplined and thorough study of psychopathic
behavior. I’ve read a lot, thought a lot, engaged smart people in conversations,
and now I have a blog. You get what I think, whatever that is worth.
Second, I’m not concerned with the theological
question of evil in this particular piece. I am interested in the problem of
evil as it presents itself to theists, but that’s not what I’m writing about
right now. Maybe someday I will. Maybe soon.
Third, this thing is going to take three parts,
not two. I realize that now.
Rlp
------------------
Serial killers have strange sounding names.
Corrl, Bundy, Chickatello, Fish, Dahmer, Gacy. Or maybe they have the power to
ruin a name, to twist it somehow, so that it sounds off-key in our ears.
Bundy.
See what I mean?
Clearly serial killers have embedded
themselves, almost mythically, into our cultural consciousness. We are afraid of
them, and even mentioning their names gives some people the shivers.
Every FBI profiler will tell you that
psychopaths are people who cannot feel for others. They don’t feel pity or
compassion at all. They seem to be missing some precious human component that
most of us take for granted. Psychopathology exists on a continuum, as does
almost everything. Serial killers are on the far end of that
continuum. There are many people
who feel very little for others, to varying degrees. That doesn’t make them bad
people or likely to become serial killers. Most of them wander among us, doing
the best they can. You have likely worked with or known someone like this. In
its mildest forms, psychopathic behavior presents as extreme
selfishness.
I have read many things about serial killers.
What I have looked for is an expert who would help me understand what are they
thinking and feeling. What is it like to be a person who cannot feel for others?
I have not found much help in this area.
After some years, I have come up with my own
way of thinking about the mindset of a severely psychopathic person. I offer
this to you for your consideration. I will describe this imaginary person as a
man, because almost all serial killers are men.
Imagine that you are in a room full of people.
All of them are holding bricks. To your great surprise, all of these people seem
very attached to these bricks. They dress them in little clothes, coo at them,
and tell stories about them. They take turns holding each other’s bricks, and
they pet the bricks gently with their hands. Everyone seems to be having such a
good time with the bricks.
Suddenly, a brick is dropped and broken. The
entire room is seized by a collective spasm of grief. People cry and sob. Some
run over and desperately try to put the brick back together. Clearly, these
people are injured in a way that you do not understand. You try to cry so that
you will fit in, but it is impossible to make yourself feel something that you
do not feel. No one can do that. You feel nothing for bricks. You know what a
brick is. You obviously understand that everyone else seems to like them quite a
lot. But you are unable to muster any feelings for bricks, either positive or
negative. They are just bricks. There are a lot of bricks in the world. So what?
This is what it is like to watch humans care
for each other and not be able to participate or understand what is going on.
Can you imagine what life is like for a person like this? Let's go back to our
imaginary man and imagine how his life progresses.
Over time you begin to understand that there is
something missing inside you. And you can tell it is something that is very
important and wonderful. You pretend to care about other people because you want
to participate in the game of love that everyone else seems to be
enjoying. You say and do the right things, but you feel nothing. You are, as it
turns out, missing many precious human emotions, most of them tied to
relationships. Your idea of love is a rather selfish one, though you have no way
of knowing that. For you, love feels more like possessing someone. Having them
for your own. This causes you a lot of difficulties as you repeatedly try and
fail at one relationship after another.
But there are some feelings you understand. You
understand the strong feelings associated with sex. You are fascinated by women
and drawn to them, though you aren’t able to care for them as individuals.
Having the sexual drive without the caring component means that all of your attempts at
romance have been stilted, awkward, and unsatisfying. You have relationships,
but not with healthy women. In a sense, you feel you have always been looking
into a grand ballroom from outside a window. The dancing and all that is going
on inside the ballroom looks like fun, but you have no idea how to be a part of
it.
There is another feeling that you have and
recognize. It is the wonderful feeling of having your own needs met. When you
get something you want, you feel a surge of happiness. Of course, every human
feels the same way, but since you have fewer avenues to find happiness, you
cling to this one kind of happiness with an obsessive need that is unusual and
very dangerous.
I don’t know how close to reality this picture
is, but I believe that it is a much better way to think about serial killers
than simply calling them monsters or saying, derisively, “They don’t feel
anything!” as though they have some control over that.
The psychopathic personality is but one
component in the volatile mix that ultimately produces a serial killer. There
are three components, as far as I can tell.
First, there is the psychopathic person, who is
created by a combination of genetic, biological, and environmental factors that are not
clearly
understood by experts. I'm not sure our experts are even close to understanding
these factors.
Second, there is the present environment or
situation in which a psychopath finds himself. In the right environment and with
some help, perhaps this person finds ways of coping. In other environments, his
condition worsens.
And finally, there is the most mysterious
component of all – human choice. Most people in the worst circumstances still do
not become serial killers. There is the matter of our freedom and our choosing.
In all human behavior, one choice leads to another. Each choice along a certain
path becomes easier. And at the end of many paths are extreme
behaviors that seem insane to most people. There are women who weight 900 pounds
and cannot get out of bed. There are men whose entire lives revolve around the
acquisition and consumption of hard-core pornography. Any reasonable assessment
of the content of that pornography would tell us that it is not beautiful or
even pleasurable. And yet some men crave it – lust after it.
And there are some out there who lack any
recognizable ability to love and relate to others. Some of them also find
themselves in some unique or tragic environment that feeds their
psychopathology. And finally, some of them weakly give in to a series of
horrible choices that lead them down an unthinkable path. It is this critical
choice element that means that they are responsible for their actions. To take
away their responsibility is another way of dehumanizing them.
Serial killers must be held responsible for
hurting others, but our growing understanding of the complex nature of their
personalities must guide us as we decide how to deal with them.
Coming next: What we should do with serial
killers when they are caught, both from a cultural and a spiritual point of
view.
rlp
