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What normal person, regardless of his or her religion can behead a person and feel nothing about it? In the resent beheading of the 2 Americans and a Brit, the executioner was the same person ( they think ). Why? Was he the only one able to do it or was he the only one willing to do it. Even a terrorist organization such as Isis have regular people as members. All jokes aside here, but no matter how screwed up your political or religious views are only a few people are able to actually saw somebodies head off, brutally torture somebody or kill children in front of their parents.
Would a psychiatrist classify these type of people as psychopaths/sociopaths?
Also, although not at the same level, clearly, but how about the guy who gives death row inmates their lethal injection or pull the switch to the electric chair. Could you do that and still sleep at night? I know that I can lay sleepless all night if I think I hurt somebodies feelings. If I accidentally killed somebody I don't think I could ever continue living a normal life again, if at all. If I killed somebody in self defense I would still be devastated and would likely need extensive therapy.
I can't even phantom being employed as an executioner.
Do you think there is something missing in these peoples mind? Are they lacking something most of us have?
I have been thinking about this for a long time. What do you guys think?
This latest beheading stuff is extremely disturbing for "normal" folks - meaning folks living every day lives, going about their business, raising their families, eating good food, having fun times etc.
The people who can commit the kind of acts we've witnessed lately are depraved, devoid of peace, light and love.
They have been taught to hate, by either their parents, their environments/circumstances or their extreme religious views.
They feel justified in their actions, they feel powerful in the knowledge that others fear them, they feel that they are getting back at everyone and everything they believe is responsible for how bad their lives are.
And most of all, they feel that their actions are correct and right - how twisted is that?
I once read: Death is the greatest gift you'll ever received on this planet!
Perhaps that's what they're thinking before the head rolls or the electricity runs through the bodies?
There's any number of ways to kill someone, indirectly!
Faced with the choice of being a prisoner in Guantanamo Bay or beheading, I'll take beheading!
One way of torturing prisoners in Guantanamo Bay to seek a false confession: Piping in the loudest rap music, 24 hours a day! And as sensitive to noise as I am, give me the ax!
I think it tales a certain personality type to work in the "lethal injection field." I don't think most are psychopaths, it is probably just a job for them. Most probably use a lot of detachment and rationalization. Similar defense mechanisms to those working in crisis, ERs, or post-disaster areas.
An execution is an execution. The result is the same. I doubt if the one to be executed is going to enjoy the walk to their execution any more if they know they are going fo lethal injection and not a beheading.
We in the west have sanitized execution and made it neat and clean to the viewers. We have seperated the act of killing from the executioner to a mechanical process. The executioner is no longer doing the killing, he is simply pushing a button.
Relating this to the OP. There probably are different psychological factors involved depending on the execution method.
In today's world for executioners in the Western world it probably requires less emotional involvement. The execution is now a medical procedure, not a killing of the convicted. A sanitized peaceful method of removing the convicted from society. the ultimate cure for their bad behavior.Probably much easier for the executioner to separate himself from the fact he is killing a person
In other parts of the world, where the executioner is knowingly and openly taking a life in a very visible manner. The executioner is going to have to have a very different mindset. He is going to have to be fully convinced the person has to die, the executioner has to have a level of hate to allow him to kill, he has to have extreme hatred of either the person or the act the person is convicted of.
Our neat clean sanitary method of execution is not for the benefit of the convicted. It is for the benefit of the executioners, witnesses and the jury that convicted him. It also makes it easier for the Jury to convict for capital punishment and the judge to order the sentence.
About 15 years ago, I read a book about Saudi Arabia, I think it was called "The Saudis". I don't know if things are the same there now - probably...
Anyway certain things there were acceptable by their culture. Like chopping off the hand of a thief, "stoning" people, women were not allowed in banks, etc. (When cutting off body parts as punishment, I think this was done in public.)
I should think that in their culture, the persons who carry out these types of punishments would be considered "normal".
But in the U.S., someone doing these sorts of things would be considered nuts. But someone in the military killing people is considered normal - hunters killing animals is considered normal. And someone killing a cow (for food [butcher]) would be considered normal... But in India where cows are considered sacred... Perhaps life in prison?
I have been thinking about this for a long time. What do you guys think?
I have been thinking abut this for a long time also. This lead me to Charles-Henri Sanson, the fourth in a line of six members of his family who were executioners for the Royal family of France. Look him up in Wikipedia.
There you will find a list of reading materials including a link to a personal journal which is fascinating reading.
However I am not sure of the role of executioner as a tradition in the cases being mentioned here and cannot comment. I would think that the answer to your question about the mental state of a person who is assigned to take individual lives could be answered more fully by reading various autobiographies. Certainly we know that some people have been reluctant and, as a result, deeply wounded, by their responsibilities to their particular society.
I guess it is just like any other job, some people are cut out for it and some aren't. I work with a young guy who is going to school and studying to be a Forensic Anthropologist, and he tells me that seeing dead bodies in any state of decomposition doesn't phase him at all. Me, I would be passed out on the floor.
I've often wondered how Vets, who are committed to saving animals lives, are able to put them to sleep. That would also bother me a lot.
[quote=glass_of_merlot;36525791]What normal person, regardless of his or her religion can behead a person and feel nothing about it? In the resent beheading of the 2 Americans and a Brit, the executioner was the same person ( they think ). Why? Was he the only one able to do it or was he the only one willing to do it. Even a terrorist organization such as Isis have regular people as members. All jokes aside here, but no matter how screwed up your political or religious views are only a few people are able to actually saw somebodies head off, brutally torture somebody or kill children in front of their parents.
Would a psychiatrist classify these type of people as psychopaths/sociopaths?
A sociopath can kill you, sit on your body and eat your lunch; a psychopath is crazy and is capable of anything. Crazy people are a lot harder to control and not known to have political or religious views that drives them, per se.
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- how twisted is that?
And as sensitive to noise as I am, give me the ax!
Giving psychopaths a bad rap
