Ted Bundy's Theory: The Mind Of A Killer

The Mind of a Killer
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a “serial killer” is an individual who murders two or more people in a span of a month. Ted Bundy, an infamous serial killer once stated, “You feel the last bit of breath leaving their body. You’re looking into their eyes. A person in that situation is God!” illustrating the empowerment the killer felt when hurting their victim. Sigmund Freud, the founding father of psychoanalysis, a perspective looking at the unconscious mind in which early childhood experiences influence current behavior especially on the focus of sexual relationships. This really really helps in understanding serial murderers such as Ted Bundy, who thrived on being empowered by hurting others. Psychologists

Psychiatrist John Macdonald reflected this on his study of 100 patients who had aggressive behavior to kill others. His study was officially known as the Macdonald Triad. The triad focused on three characteristics a child has will create an aggressive individual in the future. The first characteristic was enuresis, or bed-wetting past the age of twelve years old, then fire-setting or pyromania, and finally cruelty and abuse towards animals. Two of these characteristics were proven for the individual to have abusive and aggressive behavior. These behaviors were usually led by abuse and neglect by adults. Although Macdonald originally proposed the thought that these characteristics can help spot serial killers early on, psychiatrists Hellman and Blackman de-bunked the theory illustrating with their own study that there was no correlation between the triads and serial killers but also proving that the child who has these characteristics will have poor coping mechanisms and will have aggressive behavior that could lead to serial

She calls these killers, “actors with a natural penchant for performance”. Another infamous serial killer, Henry Lee Lucas who ran his killing spree for over twenty years stated that imitating was “being like a movie-star… you’re just playing the part” (Confessions of a Serial Killer 1985). What also shocked many of psychologists and doctors where that most of these killers had a normal life at home without the partner ever knowing about the murders. For example, Gacy married Carole Hoff who was completely oblivious to all the killings. Even after the Dr. Morrison had asked about the smells that were coming from under the house where the victims laid, Carol simply shrugged and stated that she thought the smell was coming from dead mice. But Scott also states that when the killer is caught they create a role of a “mask of insanity” and pretend to have problems such as multiple personalities, schizophrenia, and even had black outs to avoid the