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The Making of a Serial KillerPossible social causes of psychopathologyBerit Brogaard, D.M.Sci., Ph.D Posted Dec 07, 2012"I didn't know what made people want to be friends. I didn't know what made people attractive to one another. I didn't know what underlay social interactions.""I don't feel guilty for anything. I feel sorry for people who feel guilt."“I'm as cold a m#$%^&f&^%$# as you've ever put your f%$#ing eyes on. I don't give a sh$% about those people.”These creepy Ted Bundy quotes patently summarize the main traits of a psychopath: A callous, exploitive individual with blunted emotions,?impulsive?inclinations and an inability to feel?guilt?or remorse.Ted Bundy and Ed GeinThe causes of?psychopathy?remain a mystery. We don’t even have a satisfactory answer to the question of whether psychopathy is a product of Mother?Nature?or a feature of upbringing. One of the best sources of information about whether traits are a result or nature of nurture comes from the?Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart. The Minnesota Twin Study is a project originally led by Minnesota Professor of Psychology Thomas Joseph Bouchard, Jr. The Minnesota twin study has shown that psychopathy is 60 percent heritable. This percentage indicates that psychopathic traits are due more toDNA?than to upbringing.?Recent genetic studies of twins?indicate that identical twins may not be as genetically similar as hitherto assumed. Though only a couple of hundred mutations take place during early fetal development, the mutations likely multiply over the years, leading to vast genetic differences. This leaves open the possibility that psychopathic traits are largely genetically determined.If psychopathy is genetically determined, one should expect some abnormality in thebrain, the immediate source of psychopathic traits. A possible candidate for this abnormality has recently been identified in?a study at University of Wisconsin, Madison. Brain scans revealed that psychopathy in criminals was associated with decreased connectivity between the amygdala, a subcortical structure of the brain that processes negative stimuli, and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), a cortical region in the front of the brain that interprets the response from the amygdala. When the connectivity between these two regions is low, processing of negative stimuli in the amygdala does not translate into any strongly felt negative emotions. This fits well into the picture we have of psychopaths. They do not feel nervous or embarrassed when they are caught doing something bad. They do not feel sad when other people suffer. Though they feel physical pain, they are not themselves in a position to suffer from emotions hurts.The Wisconsin, Madison study shows a correlation between criminal psychopathy and brain abnormality. As this brain abnormality in the majority of cases of psychopathic criminals is not abruptly acquired, there is good reason to think that it's grounded in the psychopath's DNA.There are, however, some limitations of this study. The study measured criminal psychopaths. But not all psychopaths are criminals. Most psychopaths are manipulative, aggressive and impulsive but these features far from always lead to criminal activity. It remains to be seen whether non-criminal psychopaths, like their criminal counterparts, have reduced activity between the amygdala and the vmPFC. Another limitation of the study is that it doesn’t show that reduced activity between the amygdala and vmPFC is an abnormality specifically linked to psychopathy rather than to a range of mental conditions that have been associated with serious crime, including paranoid?schizophrenia?and extreme sexual fetises.Though the Wisconsin study sheds some light on what may bring about the traits of psychopathy, psychopathy remains puzzling. We don't know the reason behind the reduced connectivity in the emotional system. It could be caused by a dysfunction of neurotransmitters, for example, by a disturbance to the main excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. Alternatively, it could be a degenerative disease that leads to a reduction of the brain’s white matter, which is responsible for connectivity among neurons. The answer to what causes reduced connectivity in the brain’s emotional system would help answer some of the bigger questions about psychopaths, for example, the question of whether disorder is partially due to social (or other environmental) factors or is primarily genetically based.Social factors have some (even if only small) role to play in generating psychopathy. But after many years of investigating the minds of psychopaths, researchers have been unable to find any factors that could contribute to the development of psychopathic traits. Early?childhood?abuse or neglect often leads to posttraumatic?stress?disorder or phobias (e.g., in terms of making commitments). But?anxiety?disorders are typically associated with either greater connectivity between the amygdala and the vmPFC or a dysfunction of vmPFC that makes it unable to modulate negative information from the amygdala. We cannot exclude that childhood abuse or neglect may be a factor in making psychopaths commit crimes, but it's not a likely contributing factor to psychopathy itself. ?Furthermore, though serial killers like Charles Manson were abused and neglected as children, the list of serial killers with a normal childhood is long. Famous serial killers such as Ted Bundy, Jeff Dahmer and Dennis Rader grew up in healthy households with supportive family members.Elsa Ermer and Kent Kiehl of the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, discovered that psychopaths have difficulties following rules based on?moral?sensibility, despite fullyunderstanding?the rules. The blunted emotions of psychopaths appear to play a role in preventing them from following rules. But this is possibly correctable. We know that people with?autism?spectrum disorder have difficulties picking up on social cues or do the right things in social contexts. But higher functioning autists can normally learn to make the right kinds of signals in social situations. For example, they can learn to make eye contact, back-channel during conversation and express an interest in other people. Sometimes this requires years of training with a therapist or medical professional. They have to learn to do what others learn by interacting with family members and peers. If people with high-functioning autism, an inheritable disease, can learn social cues, then presumably some psychopaths can learn to follow moral rules by going through extensive training.One social factor in turning a genetically disposed individual into a psychopath, then, may be a negative one: They have not been given special training in following rules. Perhaps given their dull affect, one could experiment with training programs that increase negative emotion processing artificially and then teach them to associate these heightened negative emotions with morally bad actions. Certain? HYPERLINK "" hallucigenics, such as psilocybin, might be an effective tool.It is worth noting here that a large number of the most gruesome crimes were committed by psychotics, not psychopaths. Psychosis and psychopathy are different kinds of mental disorders. Psychosis is a complete loss of one's sense of reality. Psychopathy is apersonality?disorder, much like?narcissistic personality disorder.?Personality disorders?are potentially more permanent and less curable than psychotic diseases.Psychotics and psychopaths can have traits in common, such as blunted emotions, but they differ in terms of whether they are in touch with reality. Psychopaths are calculating and manipulative but they do not suffer from hallucinations or delusions. They do not hear the voices of strangers in their heads or hold elaborate false theories about the world. Serial killer Coral Eugene Watts strangled several women because he saw evil in their eyes. Belle Sorenson Gunness slaughtered her husbands because she believed men were evil. Ed Gein mutilated, skinned and gutted his graveyard goodies and his only live victim because he wanted to be a woman and believed he needed body parts for a?sex?change (or maybe to make a replica of his mother). Richard Trenton Chase drank and bathed in his victims' blood. He believed he had to do this to prevent Nazis from turning his blood into powder with a poison they had hidden beneath his soap dish.One hypothesis about psychotic diseases, such as schizophrenia and?bipolar disorder, is that the glutamate system is dysregulated. Overstimulation may lead to manic phases, delusions and hallucinations. Lack of stimulation could lead to blunted or negative affect. The overstimulation and lack of stimulation may happen at the same time at different receptor sites. The mechanism underlying psychopathy and psychosis may thus overlap with respect to the blunted or negative affect.Scott A. Bonn Ph.D.Wicked DeedsIf Not a Serial Killer, Then What Is Charles Manson?A fanatical cult leader, Manson ordered his followers to kill.Posted Mar 24, 2014Everyone’s favorite boogeyman, the infamous Charles Manson, made it into the news again recently when his 26-year-old girlfriend, Star, announced that she is marrying the 80-year-old convict. Gee, lucky girl.Manson was also denied parole for the twelfth time in 2012 for masterminding the 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others. Manson will be 92 if he lives to see his next scheduled parole hearing. Don’t worry. He will never be released.The diabolical Manson is often incorrectly referred to as a serial killer. That is simply not an accurate description of his crimes. According to the FBI, serial murder is "the unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s), in separate events," with an emotional cooling-off period between the murders. The FBI previously set the number of victims at three, but its Behavioral Analysis Unit lowered that number to two in 2005.The emotional cooling-off period is the most important factor in defining a serial killer. Ted Bundy and the “Killer Clown” John Wayne Gacy are good examples. They both slipped back into their seemingly normal lives in between their murders. That's where the cooling-off period comes into play -- their ability to maintain an outward appearance of being completely normal and functioning in society and then, when the urge to kill becomes overwhelming, they strike again.The misconceptions about Manson began decades ago and continue today. Manson was the?charismatic?leader?of the Manson Family, a quasi-commune (cult really) that he formed in California in the late 1960s. Manson believed in an impending apocalyptic? HYPERLINK "" \o "Psychology Today looks at race" racewar, which he termed "Helter Skelter," after the Beatles’ song of the same name. Manson masterminded two consecutive nights of murder to be executed by his followers in order to facilitate the race war.If not a serial killer, then what category of killer does Manson fall into? First, I contend that the Manson family murders constitute a killing spree. The Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations with almost no time-break between murders." The FBI’s general definition of spree killing is two or more murders committed by an offender or offenders without a cooling-off period.Consistent with a killing spree, the Manson family murders involved separate incidents that took place over two consecutive nights. Significantly, there was no emotional cooling-off period in between the two incidents. The killing spree was cold-blooded, calculated and planned.In addition, Manson’s followers are what are known as “mission killers.” Charles Manson had a grand design or vision—that is, to bring about Helter Skelter—and it led him to mastermind a murderous rampage which he believed would ignite the apocalypse. Stated differently, Manson sent his followers out on a mission to kill for him.Charles Manson was convicted on seven counts of first-degree murder for his role in the killings.This is despite the fact that he never murdered anyone himself during the family’s killing spree. Instead, he ordered his followers to murder for him. This is known as murder by proxy. A proxy murder is defined as a murder in which the murderer does so at the behest of another, acting as his or her proxy.Essentially, his family was doing Manson’s bidding when they killed on his behalf and in compliance with his orders. The court ruled that Manson’s family was an extension of him. The judge concluded that when his followers committed murder for him it was the same as if Manson had done it himself.Dr. Scott Bonn?is professor of sociology and criminology at Drew University. He is available for consultation and media commentary. Follow him?@DocBonn?on?Twitter?and visit his website?What is the difference between a serial killer and a mission killer? After viewing the documentaries about these serial killers, what characteristics would warrant categorizing them as one or the other?Based on the articles and documentaries, would either of these individuals warrant a clinical diagnosis based on disorders described in the DSM-V? Explain which, and why.Are there events in the lives of these individuals that you believe caused them to behave in such socially deviant ways? Describe how these experiences may have influenced their behavior in adulthood.Charles Manson Documentaries: The Face of Evil CNN, 2015) Manson A&E Biography Sawyer Documentary on Manson Bundy Documentaries: Dahmer Documentaries: ................
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