Just Read: "My Life Among the Serial Killers" by Helen Morrison, MD

Just Read: My Life Among the Serial Killers: inside the minds of the world's most notorious murderers by Helen Morrison, MD, 2004, 0060524073.

An okay book. This was most interesting because of Morrison's view that serial killers are born and not made.

The popular theory is that serial killers are raised that way through brutal abuse and work their way from torturing animals to killing people. Morrison looks at things from a Freudian view and, according to her hours of conversation with these guys, the killers never progress past an infantile state of emotional development. They have no reasons to kill. Are unable to process a lot of things in live. Are unable to understand the illegality of their crimes.

I don't quite believe or agree with everything Morrison has to say but the book has some interesting ideas. She summarized her ideas at the end. I like that. They are:

-They do not have motives for their murders
-They have no personality structures and do not fit unto the usual theories of development espoused by people like Freud or Kohut.
-They are not psychopaths because psychopaths can have the ability to control what they do, think, and feel.
-They are not mentally retarded;most of them have an above-average intelligence.
-They are not psychologically complete human beings, even though they can mimic and play roles.
-They have not all been sexually abused, nor have they all been physically abused.
-They are addicted to killing and they cannot control their actions.
-Serial murder is not a phenomenon only of Western society. It happens around the world.
-Serial murder is not a new Phenomenon. It probably began with the most primitive of societies thousands of years ago.

One question of mine she does not ask is, "Why?" There must be a reason beyond experimentation. Do they enjoy what they see or hear? Touching the bodies? What?