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Regardless of what caused it, my impression was that he was helpless to stop it and not exactly happy about it. He seemed to do his best to be transparent with the authorities in the hopes of helping them understand what drove him and possibly prevent such crimes in the future. People are driven by compulsions every day: to wash their hands repeatedly, to drink, to eat, to pull their hair out. His was just a particularly dangerous and depraved compulsion. I also have no reason to doubt his sincerity re: his later conversion. God can forgive anything. Just my opinion.
Nor do I have any reason to doubt his father, who corroborated it; he seemed like a thoroughly decent person. I think this was as much a tragedy for Jeffrey and his family as it was for the victims, and I hope something WAS learned from his testimony (but probably not).
I haven't read widely on ASPD, but as I understand it, the lack of empathy is related to a deficiency in the mirror neurons which are responsible for empathy.... If mirror neurons are damaged or failed to develop properly due to a combination of genetics, development, and environment, can different socialization make up for the deficits in these neurons or modify their expression? I have no idea - do you know of any research in this area?
I don’t know of any studies in this area, but it would be fascinating to read. From what I studied in grad school—admittedly awhile ago, and under the DSM-IV, ASPD, as well as the rest of the personality disorders, are developed as a result of learned behavior in early childhood. I think that it’s only recently that evidence has been found about genetic links to some of them.
I don't get the idea that he lacked empathy. It's just that his compulsion was too strong to resist. Think of any other sexual fetish -- one for feet, for instance. Men will go to ridiculous lengths to feed that fetish, often ending up in jail for stealing shoes, even murdering women to get them, etc. It just so happens that Dahmer's was for a "passive" partner.
That's not defacto evidence that "lack of empathy" is part of the picture; having empathy just wasn't enough to avert it.
I wonder if, in this age of online dating, he couldn't have been matched up with someone who was also into passivity, only on the receptive end? Or even made do with some of these new bionic (life-like) robots. He didn't get off on killing people and didn't even want to kill anyone; he just didn't want them being active sexual partners or leaving him before he was ready for it.
Probably off topic. But I think a good first step is to get the phrase "children are more resilient than we think" out of our lexicon. I'm appalled at the things I've seen a few parents do or say then brush it off with oh he's fine. Kids get over it.
It would be really nice if the basics of child rearing and early childhood psychology could be a required topic in all high school health classes. If these kids who were raised neglected or abused could get enough education on the subject to be aware that there's another way, we might start to see a turn.
I used to worry endlessly about my daughter and her separation anxiety from me. Her mom just disappeared from her life when she was young and even though she had my sister, mom and others for the time I was single she had a real hard time when I had to go away. Everytime I go to the hotel in Moscow I had to call her on the phone let her know everything was alright. After awhile I met my second wife and she was a great mom but me leaving was still stressful for her. I worried that all that anxiety would affect her in relationships as an adult. I think in one way it has, she's been with the same guy now for 11 years and they have a good marriage. The sun rises and sets on her and the daughter in his eyes. Her husband lost his father to cancer when he was 12. I think these 2 learned to value those things in life that can go away so quickly and unexpectedly. They learned to value other people
I wonder if J Dahmer was ever valued by anyone. You wonder why some people act as they do. I bet if you look into the past you'll know why.
I don't get the idea that he lacked empathy. It's just that his compulsion was too strong to resist. Think of any other sexual fetish -- one for feet, for instance. Men will go to ridiculous lengths to feed that fetish, often ending up in jail for stealing shoes, even murdering women to get them, etc. It just so happens that Dahmer's was for a "passive" partner.
That's not defacto evidence that "lack of empathy" is part of the picture; having empathy just wasn't enough to avert it.
A paraphilia isn't sufficient to explain why Dahmer did what he did; neither are antisocial personality traits. Ditto with a man with a foot fetish that murdered women to get them. Lack of empathy means the person sees other human beings as a means to an end - whether financial, political, sexual, or whatever. If Dahmer felt empathy for his victims, he wouldn't have killed them for his own gratification. Empathy is the ability to identify with what someone else is going through. If Dahmer felt empathy for his victims, he wouldn't have killed them: they were objects to him rather than people and had value only insofar as they fed his own needs.
I wonder if, in this age of online dating, he couldn't have been matched up with someone who was also into passivity, only on the receptive end? Or even made do with some of these new bionic (life-like) robots. He didn't get off on killing people and didn't even want to kill anyone; he just didn't want them being active sexual partners or leaving him before he was ready for it.
He sounded much more disturbed than someone who could have managed his compulsions. There seems to be a lot of confusion about which mental disorders he actually suffered from, and there are many papers, research articles, and court testimonies discussing the assumption that he had--or may have had--Borderline personality disorder, Bipolar I with identity disturbance, Personality Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, with Schizoid, Antisocial, and Schizotypal traits, etc. This paper even states that he did not have Anti Social personality disorder since he did not show "inflated self-appraisal and superficial charm" of the most severely antisocial types. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc...=rep1&type=pdf
Women who faced difficult pregnancies in that era were prescribed barbiturates, morphine and thalidamide, and his mother was prescribed these with BOTH pregnancies. SHe also suffered from post partum depression. STOP with the mother shaming and blaming, that's just a total cop out. Her other son turned out fine.
My mother had 6 children in this era and I never ever heard of her or any other woman taking barbiturates or morphine while pregnant! Who does that! Come on. I did hear of some women being given thalidomide and that cause missing limbs on the fetuses. I saw Jeffrey's father being interviewed on TV a long time back and he was a decent guy. The mother in my opinion was disturbed and I think Jeffrey was more sensitive to her mental problems than his brother and took it even harder. All kids are different, duh. Yes I do blame the mother.
Think of any other sexual fetish -- one for feet, for insMen will go to ridiculous lengths to feed that fetish, often ending up in jail for stealing shoes, even murdering women to get them, etc. It just so happens that Dahmer's was for a "passive" partner.
That's not defacto evidence that "lack of empathy" is part of the picture; having empathy just wasn't enough to avert it.
I wonder if, in this age of online dating, he couldn't have been matched up with someone who was also into passivity, only on the receptive end? Or even made do with some of these new bionic (life-like) robots. He didn't get off on killing people and didn't even want to kill anyone; he just didn't want them being active sexual partners or leaving him before he was ready for it.
Foot fetish , passive dating partners and online dating sites? If you're suggesting S&M it wouldn't have done it for Dahmer.
He's a murdering, cannibalistic sex offender who
showered with corpses and body parts. Everything he did up until arrest points to lack of empathy.
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