Do you think serial killers are mentally ill?

[req10]

As someone who can relate to these guys a lot more than the next person, I feel like the diagnoses that are slapped on serial killers by prison shrinks are given to them a bit too haphazardly/eagerly. I feel as if a normal person would desperately be looking for a reason to dismiss this behavior as “mental illness” rather than admit that the capability to do the types of things they have done lives inside each one of us, and is a naturally occurring desire even. I think many serial killers are misdiagnosed with things in order to discredit them as well. It’s a commonly held belief that these guys kill for fame, so if you go ahead and say a murderer is schizophrenic it stains their credibility and makes it easier for the observer to set themselves apart from the killer in question. This all makes me think that they are more lenient in attributing certain behaviors exhibited by the prisoner to mental illnesses that would further paint a calm, lucid man who presents as sane, instead as crazy. I don’t think they are crazy, just different.
…What do you fine folk think?

I don't think they are mentally ill only thing that is seperating me from them is "Law" and i don't think i am mentally ill

 

[SickoPsycho01]

Killing has always been a form of mental illness we can track the first recorded murder back to Kane and Abel who were both mentally ill talking to some imaginary forces and trying to impress them

It is highly contentious that there ever existed two brothers named Cain and Abel, one of which killed the other. It’s likely a story used to teach a moral lesson more than an actual concrete history of two brothers’ lives. Are you a biblical literalist?

 

[God'sMan]

Just

It is highly contentious that there ever existed two brothers named Cain and Abel, one of which killed the other. It’s likely a story used to teach a moral lesson more than an actual concrete history of two brothers’ lives. Are you a biblical literalist?

Just giving an insight that if people were actually documenting history, that the Bible and scripture from our ancestors is a good reference point. The painting of Ivan the Terrible holding his son which he murdered is another good example, we can almost feel the chaos surrounding his mental state. There are lots of examples from history, killing randomly or in acts of passion and anger are good examples of mental illness whereas killing during war is necessity and is a direct mindset of must kill to survive. I am almost certain that a good determination between mentally stable and unstable would be the very reason behind the killing. Where my biblical example shows the actions of an unstable mind, killing because both angry and jealous which happens quite often and can be supported by even modern cases of murder. Serial murder has to stem from some sort of primal urge to fulfill a need that can only be achieved through the action itself, I am classifying that as mental illness but modern courts and victims do not want to label the serial murderer as mentally ill because they themselves have developed a mentality at that point of justice and retribution.

 

[Gore fan]

It does not matter if the person is mentally ill or disabled, if you kill, you should be killed! eye for an eye!

 

[SickoPsycho01]

It does not matter if the person is mentally ill or disabled, if you kill, you should be killed! eye for an eye!

Agreed. I’d you are stupid enough to get caught you deserve to be re-paid in kind.

Serial murder has to stem from some sort of primal urge to fulfill a need that can only be achieved through the action itself,

I’m glad you used the word primal. It is a primal urge that leaves me seriously questioning myself sometimes. I think that beneath our thin veil of civility we are still violent and xenophobic apes at our core. I think the urge to kill comes from the parts of our brain that haven’t adapted to our modern sedentary way of life. I think the reason birth rates are collapsing and people are walking into shopping malls and stabbing people at random are results of a lifestyle our brains aren’t prepared for. We have only lived like this as humans for a blip in our overall history. I just think it’s easier to point at a man who could not stop killing and say he’s mentally ill than have to confront the fact that this is us. This is who we are. We are violent and we hate, yet we are also capable of great things when we set that aside… the only issue is we have set it off to the side too long.

 

[metaldrumm]

As someone who can relate to these guys a lot more than the next person, I feel like the diagnoses that are slapped on serial killers by prison shrinks are given to them a bit too haphazardly/eagerly. I feel as if a normal person would desperately be looking for a reason to dismiss this behavior as “mental illness” rather than admit that the capability to do the types of things they have done lives inside each one of us, and is a naturally occurring desire even. I think many serial killers are misdiagnosed with things in order to discredit them as well. It’s a commonly held belief that these guys kill for fame, so if you go ahead and say a murderer is schizophrenic it stains their credibility and makes it easier for the observer to set themselves apart from the killer in question. This all makes me think that they are more lenient in attributing certain behaviors exhibited by the prisoner to mental illnesses that would further paint a calm, lucid man who presents as sane, instead as crazy. I don’t think they are crazy, just different.
…What do you fine folk think?

Definitely something wrong with their thought process either because of a brain defect or trauma or some type of brain disease or everyone would be a serial killer !

 

[SickoPsycho01]

You all need people like me. Like this. Like them. You can embrace that near infinite malice as a culture and use us as weapons of war who will have no more hangups in doing our job than the missile you would have sent in our place, or you can continue to let us sit around purposeless until we snap 15 years later and bury 6 women in a patch of woods three quarters of a mile off of a remote fire road inside a national park. If you don’t make room in society for someone like that they are gonna end up raping dead bitches deep in the forest. I can promise you one thing, you will NEVER lock all of them up… So you may as well utilize them. If only you people who are wired normally knew just how fucking many sick fucks out there get off to the sound of a slit throat spurting blood.

 

[Dark_Voyeur]

Depends.

 

[Imi]

This is a rather silly question, of course serial killers are mentally ill, this is not a matter of debate
The exception to this is perhaps robbery serial killers who kill people not specifically for the sick pleasure of killing, but for money and to avoid being witnessed.
But basically, murderers and especially serial killers are not normal people from a brain point of view

 

[orchidd]

I don’t know whatever is going on up there, I just know I wouldn’t mind. 🤝🏻

 

[Denim Chicken]

I rElaTe tO sErIaL kIlLeRs mOrE tHaN tHe nExT pErSoN 🤡🤡🤡🤡

 

[Mr.unknown]

Most of them

 

[Kentukky88]

answer is : Yes

points
1: antisocial behaviour
2: No empathy
3. Egoistic/narcissistic
5. killing their own tribe
so on.........

 

[Zargonthe great]

I don't think they are mentally ill. They do it because they like it.

 

[GoreErectus]

Does a pika fuck in the woods?

 

[Pensacola333]

Yes...Vladimir Putin is a very very sick psychopath. Give him more time and he will kill millions with his nuclear weaponry. - Just sayin'

 

[handbanana72]

I think some, perhaps most, have some adjustment disorders at the least. Many have extremely overbearing, abusive parent, usually mom. Something sexual/violent/death associated happens at a key time in their lives and these feelings/emotions become entwined. Very few are schizo, bipolar, etc. They are highly intelligent individuals that can control all aspects of themselves to get what they want. When they get it, they go animalistic. I wonder if they believe that there's no god, no heaven or hell. That there's no suffering or consequences after death so they are free to act out their darkest desires and not feel any guilt or remorse.

 

[Jenny]

I think it matters less if anyone thinks they're mentally ill or how they got that way in the first place. Isn't that a given if they're a "serial killer" anyway?
To be labeled a "serial killer" they have to have murdered (not killed but, murdered) atleast 3 people, in seperate events, over a period of time.
They obviously can't be trusted to live in a society where we're trying not to have individuals killing one another. Building psychological profiles is fine once they're locked up either in prison or a mental institution as it helps law enforcement learn more about what makes them tick and might be useful in helping to catch the next one but, maybe labeling them mentally ill is only an excuse as to minimize the fact they will not be put to death in many cases & will cost tax payers money until they die or are released, that could be better spent otherwise. It's almost clichè what some researcher learns about any specific one of them. How many need to be studied anyway?

 

[Dark_Voyeur]

I once heard a person say that serial killers provide a public service.

In fact I was watching an interview of a retired NYC cop who said the killing of paul castellano was a public service.

So who knows? I'm confused now. Lol

 

[Tooly]

Nuh mate, they're just misunderstood is all. 😑