Analysis Of Henry Howard Holmes

Using the Psychoanalytical approach, Freud might say that Holmes’s life long killing spree was caused by Holmes’s unconscious aggressive and sexual urges. When Holmes was a child, a mother who devoted herself to the Methodist church instead of her children raised him, and this could have some connection to why Holmes acted out the way he did. Holmes got pleasure from hurting others, and death did not scare him. This could’ve been caused because he never got the love and nurturing he needed from his mother. Aggression is something that children who have parents that don’t give them enough love and attention are more prominent to having. The child will begin to resent the mother and father, and I believe that this was shown through whom he killed and the way he did. Holmes could have picked victims only being female with blonde hair because they unconsciously reminded him of his mother, and he was letting out the resentment and aggression he felt towards her because of how she treated him in the early years of his life. This resentment towards his mother could have been so built up that she’s the reason he did not feel remorse when torturing and killing mass

He was very smart and successful in what he did. I believe that if a few things would have gone differently for Herman when he was a child, Holmes might have never existed. Henry H. Holmes was a clever individual; some might even say a genius. Most serial killers work alone and rarely ever finish college. Holmes not only finished college, but also graduated from medical school. Holmes always stood out from the others, and I believe that if some of the different techniques we have presently would’ve been used on Holmes as a child, his behavior could have been controlled and even prevented. Instead of becoming the genius he had the potential to be, Herman Mudgett became America’s first serial