It is quite common for us to come across various newspaper articles reporting different crimes in different areas. While we dig deeper into these stories, few pondering questions that always come to our mind would be: Was the guilty found? How could someone possibly commit to such an erroneous act of hostility and vengeance?
In society, a lot of people struggle dealing with a person having a mental disorder owing to the stigmas and stereotypes deeply embedded since times unknown. They view them as “others”- dangerous people that you’ve always been advised to maintain a safe distance from might fall under the category of being mentally ill.
However, it is essential to adopt the right attitude towards people that exhibit abnormal behaviour to make them feel inclusive rather than an outcast in society. Their treatment for a better lifestyle can be made possible by being cooperative and extending a hand for help towards them.
Netflix’s new series “Mindhunter” is quite a production for an audience that is heavily invested in realising the need for psychology in solving crimes and then analyzing the behaviour of a criminal. The show, based on real life events, focuses on the FBI's venture into the behavioural science unit in relation to the psychology behind it.
The show begins with Agent Holden Ford releasing a strong potential for psychology to understand a criminal’s thought process and why he did what he did. While his seniors warn him saying “psychology is for the backroom guys”, Holden’s working partner, Bill Tench, gets on board with him and together, they manage to convince their boss to let them work in this arena. In his efforts, Bill simply puts forths a rhetorical question that leaves everyone dumbfounded, “How do we get ahead of crazy if we don't know how crazy thinks?”
Following his instincts, Holden starts visiting Edmund Kemper, a real-life serial killer, to converse with him in prison. Throughout his meetings with Edmund, Holden strikes to become friends with him in order to make him feel more comfortable around him and hence, be more communicative.
Soon enough, Edmund starts to brag about his wrong-doings and talks about his relationship with his mother. He talks with absolute distaste when they discuss his mother and admits physically humiliating her in response to his mother’s constant taunts directed at him.
He stresses upon the fact that he had known a week ago that he was going to kill his mother. The infested anger within him was so powerful that he later humiliated her corpse and threw darts on it. In addition to this, he carefully disposed off her vocal cords in the garbage explaining that it was the way she spoke to him that would always make him furious.
He further elucidates upon his upbringing style and mentions his mother’s ill-treatment towards him as a major contributory factor for all the murders he had committed, including his grandparents and other college girls.
Edmund, while talking about his mother’s attitude towards him, strictly points out all the wrong practices her mother had chosen that could be viewed as his trigger points.
When enquired upon his other murders, he goes into detail about his overwhelming urge to kill people and the sense of being the one in control for once.
While Edmund realises his abnormal behaviour and understands he is not mentally fit to live in a society, he would have been able to cope better with his illness by receiving social and family support. Instead he was locked in his basement by his mother who would constantly hint at the possiblity of Edmund raping his own sister.
Thus, it was mainly the bad treatment of Edmund and his falling relationship with his mother that aggravated his abnormal behaviour and turned him into a serial killer later in life.
A widely known concept, attachment theory can be substantiated to understand its far-reaching implications in Edmund’s future. The theory focuses on receiving kindness and love of a mother- something that is considered as a crucial catalyst in the healthy development of a human being. If the child fails to receive proper attention and care from his mother, he is likely to face troubles in his personal development as well as future relationships.
Raping women and muder can be viewed as a henious crime by majority of people but what makes this an interesting study is how some people are unable to control their temperment and are not able to feel empathy towards anyone for the record.
For concluding reports on Edmund Kemper, the viewers are made to realise the origin of his abnormality, that is, a troubled childhood and being on the receiving end of a failed mother-son relationship.
CITATIONS:
- Penhall, J. (2017, October 13). Retrieved from https://www.netflix.com/watch/80114857?trackId=200257859.
- Butcher J.N, Mineka S, Hooley J.M, Kapoor P (2019) Abnormal Psychology (17th ed) Pearson India3. Lecture Notes
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