Research Paper Intro Although Necrophilia is a widely controversial topic, it is also one that is very unheard of: or is it? According to Katherine Ramsland’s “Necrophiles”, it’s a more common crime than it seems. She tells the stories of a variety of necrophiliac serial killers. In “A True Necrophile” by Katherine Ramsland, she also tells the story of the most popular mad men of them all, Ed Gein. As Katherine describes, Ed “apparently just loved bodies”. He used body parts to make ordinary household items such as skin for lampshades and bowls made from human skulls. Eventually, he used his own dead mother’s skin to create a female body suit and mask, using it to cross-dress. Ed was a serial killer, a cannibal, and he got pleasure from …show more content…
We are not particularly familiar with citizens who take part in this type of activity with corpses, the reason being because as a society we are not accepting of it. It is one thing to have an infatuation with a living breathing person, but why the dead? Indeed we as humans seek love and affection from others, however, a dead corpse does not have the capability to offer any of that. A person who feels the need to seek pleasure from a corpse is considered to be suffering from some type of trauma. Dr. Griffiths presents these important statistics that describe what type of people become necrophiliacs and what drives them to this insane state of …show more content…
Mark Griffiths, “Dead strange: A brief psychological overview of necrophilia” (2012), necrophiliacs usually seek employment in funeral parlors or morgues where they would have easy access to the dead bodies. Dr. Griffith also cites an important study from 1989 by Dr. Jonathan Rosman and Dr. Philip Resnick. These psychiatrists examined a number of cases from around the world. The most significant results studied the motivations for necrophiliacs. According to their studies (1989), two-thirds of the cases studied consisted of necrophiliacs who felt the need to seek a partner that would not be able to resist or reject them. Other interesting results concluded that in 21% of cases examined, the person committed necrophilia to a loved ones’ body because they were not ready to let go emotionally. Other motivations found were the desire to have power over someone, the need for company because of loneliness, and in the rarest cases, the sexual attraction to corpses. Perhaps due to the feeling of being neglected by other human beings, these people yearn for someone who cannot walk out on them. These studies were able to determine the motives and leading factors of
This article is a narrative. It does not aim to analyse the topic. It describes the author's experiences at the mortuary and the resulting disturbing thoughts she had.
In a study conducted by Hickey, he discovered that out of thirty-four female serial killers, almost one in two had a male accomplice committing murders with them (Holmes et al., 1991). He also revealed that 97% were white and the average age the women started committing murders was thirty-three (Holmes et al., 1991). Women serial killers differ from men in that most women kill for material gain, such as money or insurance benefits, and they usually commit murder with pills or poison. Stephen Holmes, Ronald Holmes, and Eric Hickey developed a typology for female serial killers similar to the one developed by Holmes and Holmes, discussed earlier. They begin with visionary serial killers, who are compelled by some force, such as God, or spirits, to commit murders. The second type is the comfort killer, who usually kills acquaintances and does so for a material gain, money or real estate (Holmes et al., 1991). The third category is hedonistic female serial killers, which is similar to the earlier typology in that the offender connects murder with sexual gratification. This is the least represented category for female offenders, but evidence for this type of killer can be seen in the case of Carol Bundy (Holmes et al., 1991). Bundy allegedly helped her husband kidnap, murder, and decapitate the
...uld certainly lead to a desire to dig up the bodies of recently buried women and use them to create macabre artifacts around the house. “Necrophilia can best be described as sexual arousal stimulated by a dead body. The stimulation can be either in the form of fantasies or actual physical sexual contact with the corpse.” (Hucker, 2010)
Jeffery Dahmer is arguably the most notorious serial killer -cannibal in history. Targeting men and boys, Dahmer‘s life of crime began with drinking and sex offending. His murders were exceptionally gruesome, often involving rape, torture, necrophilia, dismemberment, and cannibalism. The media often commented on how “normal” Dahmer appeared. Jeffrey Dahmer made everyone question how one develops into such a monster. By the time of his apprehension, Dahmer had sodomized, murdered, and cannibalized at least seventeen men, mostly black, Hispanic or Asian, in the Milwaukee area between the years of 1978 until his arrest in 1991 (Williams pg.1).
Death and Grieving Imagine that the person you love most in the world dies. How would you cope with the loss? Death and grieving is an agonizing and inevitable part of life. No one is immune from death’s insidious and frigid grip. Individuals vary in their emotional reactions to loss.
"Taboos and Social Stigma - Rituals, Body, Life, History, Time, Person, Human, Traditional Views of Death Give Way to New Perceptions." Encyclopedia of Death and Dying. Web. 31 Jan. 2011. .
Two distinct ways that identifies one's lifestyle is attributed to the concept of necrophilia and biophilia. Necrophilia can be defined as the love of death and biophilia can be defined as the love of life. Human character is dominated by both forces, but it is important to identify which of these forces plays a dominant role. The dominant role dictates the relational life one has with the world.
Mass Murderers and Serial Killers are nothing new to today’s society. These vicious killers are all violent, brutal monsters and have an abnormal urge to kill. What gives people these urges to kill? What motivates them to keep killing? Do these killers get satisfaction from killing? Is there a difference between mass murderers and serial killers or are they the same. How do they choose their victims and what are some of their characteristics? These questions and many more are reasons why I was eager to write my paper on mass murderers and serial killers. However, the most interesting and sought after questions are the ones that have always been controversial. One example is; what goes on inside the mind of a killer? In this paper I will try to develop a better understanding of these driven killers and their motives.
Just because he wasn’t displaying it openly doesn’t mean he didn’t feel anything. Also, Dahmer, might have been suffering from a mental illness as well as psychopathy. In the testimony of Dahmer’s Psychologist, she mentions that he was suffering from a mental illness called necrophilia. Which is sexual relations or attractions towards corpses. Although this may be true, I still don’t think that having this mental illness would cause a man to commit more than 15 crimes just for his need to have sexual relations with dead bodies because he did more than just kill them and have sex. He mutilated the bodies in various ways. Park Dietz, a highly regarded forensic psychiatrist, mentions that Dahmer wore condoms when having sexual relations with the bodies and many times was drunk which shows his lack of sexual desire and aversion to what he was doing (Adler 104-05). I don’t think any society anywhere would deem this behavior as normal, nor would they accept it as some kind of mental illness. These were deliberate acts he
“My consuming lust was to experience their bodies. I viewed them as objects, as strangers. It is hard for me to believe a human being could have done what I've done”(Dahmer).
Excerpt from "I Have Lived in the Monster" Robert Ressler: So you were aroused at just the physique? Dahmer: The internal organs. Jeffrey Dahmer was creating very disgusting acts to men some were even under the age of sixteen. He would pick them up and take them back to his house to take “pictures”. He would then give them alcohol that he drugged. The victims could not even speak clearly so there for they could not protect themselves from Dahmer. Dahmer killed a variety of people from different racial backgrounds. He also practiced necrophilia and cannibalism.
What would cause an individual to behave in this rather heinous and macabre manner? Using Robert Pickton as a case study, this paper will explore the phenomenon of serial murder and apply research literature to help explain his behaviour and examine issues such as psychopathy, mental disorder, and substance abuse relevant to the Pickton case. In addition, the paper will explore the sexually sadistic nature of Pickton’s murders. Finally, the paper will explore the reasoning behind Pickton’s selection of drug addicted prostitutes as victims that enabled him to conduct his murders in relative anonymity. ...
Most of Mr. Dahmer's victims were young, homosexual black men whom Dahmer subjected to sexual assaults (wikipedia.org). Jeffrey Dahmer had one goal in mind; finding a completely compliant sexual partner, essentially making his motivation for killing necrophilia. Dahmer was a closet alcoholic and also suffered from low self-esteem. He is one of the most notorious serial killers in American true crime history.
My favorite work of literature that I read this past semester was “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe while I disliked Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs the most. For both pieces of literature, my respective opinions of them are due to their length, characters, and plot.
Necrophilia is comprised of a large scale of actions and fantasies (UCSB1). Experts have made subcategories to aid in clarifying the spectrum of necrophilic actions and fantasies (UCSB1). The first subcategory is necrophilic fantasies. “Necrophilic fantasies” are simply fantasies of sexual contact with the deceased (UCSB1). The second subcategory, “pseudonecrophilia,” is defined as secluded episodes of sexual contact with a cadaver with no prior necrophilic fantasies or yearnings (UCSB1). The third subcategory is necrosadism. “Necrosadism” is described as, “a paraphilia in which one derives sexual pleasure from violent actions performed on a corpse, such as mutilation or the drinking of blood” (UCSB1). The final subcategory, necrophilic homicide, is like necrosadism, but differs in the fact that the crime of killing a victim to acquire a cadaver is a part of the fantasy (UCSB1).