One of the favorite themes of police-style television series is the hunt and capture of murderous psychopaths who terrorize towns and cities. But what is a psychopath? How do you think? What are its most outstanding distinctive features?
In a world like the present one, simply reading the daily press is enough to come into contact with information about people of great evil who brutally hurt their fellow men, through perverse acts such as rape, amputation, kidnapping and torture. Many of us may have wondered what is in the mental world of these depraved and perverse antisocials.
The dictionary of Psychology defines the Psychopath as an emotionally unstable person almost pathologically, although without notable mental disorders. Scholars of the subject indicate some psychopathic personality traits that are useful to us in understanding the matter. Psychopaths generally: They do not experience feelings of guilt, they exploit others in an insensitive way, they do not suffer easily from nervousness or shame, they reveal an inability to love, their affective relationships are usually very poor, they tend to be reckless, they can be irresponsible although some are perfectionists, they reject social morality, they lack true loyalty, they are extremely selfish and oriented towards their particular desires, they do not fear the consequences of their actions, and they can be apparently kind and charming. In general, they appear to be healthy people.
As possible causes of psychopathic tendencies, the following are mentioned: Karma, astrological predisposition, genetic inheritance, brain damage or sociocultural learning. According to a specialist in brain function, who supports the thesis of biological causes, there are certain brain conditions that limit the ability of some people to feel or recognize affectively even close people.
The theorists of emotional intelligence refer to the absence of emotional restraint, and to a triggered exacerbation of the most primitive emotional reactions.
On his part, Professor Robert Hare, an expert in psychopathic behavior, states that according to his studies, the typical psychopath can say "I love you" but without feeling anything different from when they ask for a cup of coffee. From this perspective, there would be innate factors related to brain biochemistry, which would drive certain people to act disproportionately and insensibly.
On the other side of the street are those who consider the social aspect as the main cause of personality disorders and the emergence of psychopathic personality; they include culture, relationships, parenting style. The most understanding people see these characters as almost normal people, although with very intense interpersonal, affective and behavioral symptoms.
A scholar like Ressler, affirms that there are "stressful agents that can trigger criminal reactions. Among these: conflicts with parents, partners, people of the opposite sex, economic difficulties, birth of a child, physical harm, legal problems, death of someone close, etc. Being overwhelmed by frustration and resentment can promote negative behaviors of a high degree of dangerousness There are cases of psychopaths that seem to confirm this thesis in a certain way.
The death of Ed Gein's mother triggered his psychopathic career. While after a heated argument with his mother, Ed Kemper virtually freaked out. Christopher Wilder, who traveled across the United States to rape and kill eight women, claims that he began killing after being rejected in his marriage proposal.
There are famous cases of actions by psychopaths, such as that of Bella Kis, a Hungarian gentleman who, after a painful love disappointment with his wife María, decided to charge the world his penalty with at least 21 homicides, 20 of them committed against women he previously seduced. . By the way he was never caught. Another striking case was Henry Landru, a refined and educated man, married with four children, who committed more than 100 murders of women, before being sentenced to death by guillotine in February 1922.
Charles Manson, the murderer of actress Sharon Tate, starred in one of the most notorious cases in the USA, linked to drug trafficking, child pornography, sexual abuse, and human sacrifice, it has been said that he was the son of an alcoholic prostitute, who never knew his father, and that he had a stepfather who dressed him as a woman. An anecdote relates that his mother wanted to exchange it once for several liters of beer. He was imprisoned and repeatedly raped and injured at the age of 13. His record shows us what someone so badly treated can do.
Perhaps one of the most famous, if not the most, is the Marquis de Sade, known for his sexual orgies and for his tendency to force women to please him with strange rituals that included physical pain and severe mockery of religious symbols on which he defecated for fun. It is said that he was beaten and raped in adolescence and that he had libertine relatives who initiated him into sexual depravity. He was imprisoned many times and died in the Charenton asylum, where he died on November 30, 1814.
It is important to note that despite the great medical and scientific advances in general, nowadays no method or treatment has been discovered or invented to guarantee the cure or cure of this disease. In this sense, the phrase of the criminal Carl Panzram has become famous, who once said: "I have no desire to reform myself. I want to reform people who want to reform me. And the only way to achieve it is by killing them.
This motto is : rob them, rape them and kill them. " No case of reformed killer psychopaths is known.
For us the important thing here could well be to accept the importance of these beings, learn to be cautious, and avoid severe abuse, and repeated to children and young people, since this physical or emotional damage can be a trigger for regrettable actions.
Let us pray to God for a better world and act to help create it.
