1. Please describe any background information about the person (occupation, family history, early life, etc), what could have possibly led this individual to behave as they did, please describe if they have history of trauma, what crimes are they famous for, and where they are today.
This paper talks about Jeffrey Dahmer, who is well known as a serial killer with serious psychopathological disorders. Given the gravity of his crimes, it is obvious that he had a serious drama and numerous problems in his early life and family history. It all began in 1966 when six-year old Dahmer experienced sexual abuse by a neighbor. From early childhood, Dahmer had no friends, because his family moved from place to place. Moreover, he had no psychological comfort in the family, since his parents constantly quarreled and then even divorced. In addition, at school Dahmer got his first conscious homosexual experience and got addicted to drinking alcohol. All these things were the important factors that negatively impacted Dahmer`s psyche.
2. Please define "psychopathology" according to Chapter 14 in your text book (was their behavior usual for the social context or era, was their behavior distressing to them, was their behavior distressing to others, and were they dangerous to themselves / others) . Explain why and give examples of their behavior to support your answer.
Dahmer`s Behavior was not usual for the social context. Jeffrey Dahmer was not just a serial killer, but also a mentally unhealthy person. His pathology manifested in each of his murders. He raped the victims` corpses and ate that. When finally the police arrested him, they found the remains of many bodies in the refrigerator and in different containers. This indicates an unhealthy Dahmer`s craving for violent serial killings. However, Dahmer was fully aware that his actions should have been condemned in the community and he did not deny his cruelty.
3. What diagnosis would you give the person that you are researching? Please describe diagnostic criteria and give examples of their behavior to support the diagnosis.
First, Dahmer was a sociopath. It is said that criminal sociopath does not consider human sacrifice in the conventional sense (Uelmen 3). Dahmer saw his victims as a some kind of mechanism, a means of satisfying his needs - sexual, physical, and self-assertion ones. It is important to note that all of his deviations have a rather strange sexual connotation. In fact, his propensity to copulate with males and subsequent necrophilia (mouth - is a non-verbal expression of human sexual temperament) show that these qualities were not inherited, but instilled from childhood in some traumatic manner. Dahmer`s history shows that he was a victim of abuse by a neighbor when he was six. It also happened after Dahmer`s operation in the area of the inguinal hernia. This may explain his unhealthy cravings for cutting the male bodies. Despite the fact that Dahmer denied him being raped, he might have been too young to remember it. Some scientists tend to say that Dahmer “had strong compulsions that led him to criminal behavior” (Cline 2). Nevertheless, this event could have been deposited in his subconscious and then manage his entire life.
4. Do you feel that these crimes could have been prevented? Why / Why not? Can this person be rehabilitated and be returned to society? Why / Why not?
In fact, after he was sentenced to fifteen life sentences, he could not be back to society. On the one hand, the court found him sane and mentally healthy (if may be said so). On the other hand, he committed his crimes knowingly and even confessed to all the crimes. Nevertheless, after the repeated expressions of necrophilia, Dahmer would always be a living threat to the civilian population.
However, it is possible to assume that these crimes could have been prevented. It might have been, if Dahmer had not experienced such dramatic events in his childhood. He was subjected to cruelty, did not receive the love of the parents and recognition from friends, so he had nowhere to take love and attention from. Therefore, these crimes became his exit.
5. If you were to provide mental health treatment, what 3 initial questions that you would ask him?
Given that Dahmer confessed to the crimes, there was a chance that he would have shared a lot of truth. As long as he was alive, of course.
Question 1. Why it was interesting for him as a child to collect the bodies of dead animals?
Question 2. What was the goal he pursued when he cut people into pieces and buried them or put in the fridge.
Question 3. What did / does he like to do most and what would he wanted to do if he had the opportunity to go free.
Works Cited
Cline, Meagan. "Psychopathology and Crime Causation: Insanity or Excuse?." Fidei et Veritatis: The Liberty University Journal of Graduate Research 1.1 (2016): 4.
Uelmen, Gerald F. "Psychiatrist, the Sociopath and the Courts: New Lines for an Old Battle, The." Loy. LAL Rev. 14 (1980): 1.
