Serial Killer Observation Essay, Research Paper

Charles Manson is in fact one of the most widely known serial killers of our

time. He can easily be considered the boogey man of society. Many people still

to this day fear him and his past, yet now an old man in a prison cell, one may

wonder what created such a monster. In learning about personality I thought that

it would be interesting to apply some of the concepts that we have learned from

the text and in class to a certain individual. I have no idea why in the end I

chose Charles Manson. I think maybe it is because of his tragic life before the

murders, a life that most people don`t know about. Mason was the illegitimate

son of Kathleen Maddox, a 16-year-old prostitute. Manson had no contact what so

ever with his father (ATWL.com). The first thing to point out is Alfred Adler`s

point of view on Birth Order. Adler believed that the order in which you were

born influenced your personality. Manson was the first born. Adler says that the

first born may become authoritarian or strict. Feels power is his right. The

first is usually a problem child, a neurotic, criminal, drunkard, and a pervert.

Knowing Manson`s future in crime it is interesting how Adler`s theory fits in

(Stein). Another thing is that Manson never had any sort of a relation ship with

his mother or his father. His mother would often take off and leave him with

strangers. Once she even traded him for a pitcher of beer at a local pub (Bugliosi

20-22). Ainsworth and her colleagues developed three types of parent-child

relationships. Manson undoubtedly would fit into the last category : Avoidant

relationships. In this type of a relationship the mother doesn`t respond to her

child`s needs, the baby is neglected. It therefor develops a sense of

worthlessness and possible anger towards authoritative figures (Burger 162-163).

According to Erikson one can either develop a sense of basic trust or a sense of

basic mistrust. If the mother is avoidant as in Manson`s case the child will

most likely develop a sense of mistrust. This will lead to a life of

estrangement and withdrawal (Burger 117). Manson`s life continued to be one

crime after another. He was arrested for several instances where he stole cars

and committed robberies. In prison he attacked another prisoner with a razor

blade and continued to sodomize him (Bugliosi 67). Freud may have seen this as

frustration of the libido. Which in turn, causes aggression. This may also

explain the act of sodomization against the other prisoner (Burger 153). Karen

Horney would most likely have seen Charles Manson as one who Moves against

people. It is way that she believed a group of people handled their anxiety. To

act aggressively may help deal with a poor home environment. They compensate for

feelings of inadequacy by pushing other individuals around (Burger 125-125).

During the summer of love Manson appealed to those who where like him in many

ways. In fact many of the girls that became familiar with Manson saw him as a

Father figure. Most of them, if not all developed sexual relationships with

Manson. He was known as the father of the cult (Bugliosi 111-125). Freud may

have seen something a bit like the Oedipus complex here. The Oedipus complex is

named after a mythological figure who knowingly married his mother. Although

they were not biologically related, Freud may have argued that they were in need

of the father figure in their lives (Donadio). One could also say that Manson

ruled in an authoritarian manner. During the years in his cult he convinced

other members that he was godlike. He also made them go on a horrible killing

spree. According to Erich Fromm this is the tendency to ⌠fuse one`s self

with somebody or something outside of oneself in order to acquire the strength

which the individual self is lacking■ (Fromm, p.163). ⌠I believe

Evilness and self-loss are as real as are goodness and aliveness. They are the

secondary potentialities of man if he chooses not to realize his primary

potentialities■ (Fromm 145-152). Fromm believed that exceptionally is a

man born as a saint or as a criminal. He thought that most of us have

dispositions for good and for evil, although the respective weight of these

dispositions varies with individuals. Hence, out fate is largely determined by

those influences which mold and form the given dispositions. He believed that

the family is the most important influence. But that the family itself is mainly

an agent of society, the transmission belt for those values and norms which a

society wants to impress upon its members. Hence, the most important factor for

the development of the individual is the structure and the values of the society

into which he has been born (Fromm 165-166). Knowing what Manson was born into,

Fromm`s words may give a reasonable explanation to Manson`s personality and why

he became the man that he is today. I don`t believe that his early life gave him

any excuse for the crimes that he committed but I thought that applying some

neo-Freudian ideas to an individual would be interesting.

Buglisio, Vincent, with Curt Gentry. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the

Manson Murders. New York, Bantam Books, 1995. Burger, Jerry M. Personality fifth

Ed. Stamford, CT. Wadsworth, 2000 Donadio, James J. The Unofficial Online Home

of Sigmund Freud. Available: http://talk.to/freud. 3/14/00 Fromm, Erich. Beyond

the Chains of Illusions. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1962. Good, Sandra.

Access Freud. Available: http://www.atwa.com 3/14/00 Stein, Harry T. Ph.D.

Adlerian overview of Birth Order Characteristics. Available: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hstein/birthord.htm.

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