Evil in Our Stories #3

Qu'est-ce que c'est (What is it?)

Serial killers and psychopaths are nothing new in our storytelling, having theoretically started in fairytales such as Blue Beard, but more on that later. Before the 1900’s Jack the Ripper engrossed England and this story has been so mysterious no one is sure what is true or false about it. The psycho-killer villain particularly took off with Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho which won the Golden Globe in 1961 . Other important examples to note are Dexter, American Psycho, A Clockwork Orange, Sweeny Todd, Seven, and video games L.A. Noir and Heavy Rain.

Before we continue, let’s define psycho-killer by breaking the word down to psychopath and serial killer according to storytelling media. These definitions are not applicable to reality but this will be explored further later. In media, psychopaths: “are typically depicted as charming, intriguing, dishonest, guiltless, and in some cases, downright terrifying… ‘Psychopathy tends to be used as a label for people we do not like, cannot understand, or construe evil’… psychopaths are ‘born,’ not ‘made.’” Serial killer, again according to media is: “someone who commits multiple murders, out of some kind of mental or sexual compulsion, in separate incidents with at least a few days in between killings.” Together we have one of audience’s favorite monsters—a charming and intriguing, typically male, characters who murders without remorse.

Hello Darkness Our Old Friend

“What makes a psycho-killer different is that they don’t have the same restraints as the rest of society and it is fascinating to those who have said restraints.” Joel Silbermann, a blogger for the LA Times interviewed writers, producers, actors, doctors and academics about why readers and audiences like these villains. “What I found to be the best response was from Michael Weithorn, the creator and producer of Weird Loners and The King of Queens”– “On some unconscious level we fantasize about being freed from the shackles of our superegos and going full-on id. When we see someone act in their own interest to an extreme degree, unconcerned about laws, rules and social mores, deep down we wish we could do that too.” Weithorn is not alone, Matt Nix, the creator and producer of Burn Notice and Complications said, “we all have a sense for what would be possible if we were freed from the constraints of guilt, fear and shame.” Much like the gangster, the psycho-killer has the fantasy and taboo element to make them appealing to read about or watch; rather than embody the fantasy of control; the psycho-killer embodies the fantasy of complete animal-like freedom from all moral and social restraints.

To explore this further, the superego and id should be explained. Sigmund Freud, the psychologist behind this theory, in his book An Outline of Psycho-Analysis describes the id as: “The power of the id expresses the true purpose of the individual organism’s life. This consists in the satisfaction of its innate needs, no such purpose as that of keeping itself alive or of protecting itself from dangers… can be attributed to the id… the needs of the id are called instincts… influence of heredity.” In simpler terms the id is the animal-like, raw desires. This is the part of our psychology, according to Freud, that if left out of control leads to things such as rape, murders, and so on. Superego on the other hand is: “the influence… of what is taken over from other people,” or simply, superego is the societal-based morals our psychology restricts ourselves with. Ego is the middleman trying to satisfy the id, raw desires, without compromising superego’s social morals. According to Freud’s theory, psycho-killers don’t have the superego to restrain their id’s desires and as disturbing as their actions are, there is something almost liberating about their different psychology. They don’t feel the same pressures to have self-control or be politically correct and that is something that audiences can relate to wanting for themselves. While it is important that these restraints are in place, it is a normal feeling to find society to be overly controlling and to want to feel free from it even for a short time. The psycho-killer embodies this want in the audience and pushes it to its darkest consequences.

An example of how this desire is presented to the audience, let’s look at Sweeny Todd, specifically the song "Epiphany" which is featured in both the Broadway and movie versions of this story. The narrative centers on Sweeny Todd, formally known a Benjamin Barker, who was framed and banished by a judge in 1800s London. When he returns to find that his entire life is gone and he is unable to enact his revenge on the judge, he fully rejects all control society has over him. This song is his full acceptance of the psycho-killer with in; the final lyrics: “and my Lucy lies in ashes! And I’ll never see my girl again! But the work waits! I’m alive at last! And I’m full of joy!” He exclaims how even his past grief of his lost wife will be set aside for his id that is now liberated. While most of the audience would never go on a killing spree in the face of liberation, the fantasy of having no reservations to express and to have no guilt, is something relatable. For example, someone who works in retail can relate to wanting to just let go and stand up to a rude customer or unfair management—to forget the superego and just let their emotions out.

You’re Killing Us

Psycho-killers are often featured in scary stories around the campfire, urban legends or the internet equivalent, Creepy-Pastas. These stories reinforce the idea to lock your homes at night or be wary of strangers. These cautionary tales are perhaps the most valuable use of the trope, because in reality the world is a dangerous place. Storytellers have been teaching these lessons since the original fables, which by definition are “a short story to teach a moral lesson.” Blue Beard is a fable that, in short, tells the tale of a rich man with a blue beard who seeks a wife. He finds one and uses charm and convincing to secure their nuptials. His bride ends up going to a part of his house he warned her not to go to, where she finds a room full of his slaughtered ex-wives! She finds a way to kill (in apparent self-defense) her husband and lived contently. Denise M. Osborne argues in her academic essay "Bluebeard and its Multiple Layers of Meaning," “Although fairy tales can have different interpretations, most of these approaches seem to have something in common: the view that fairy tales are a symbolic representation of reality…many women have lived the Bluebeard story: Still very young and naive, they have married someone destructive in their lives. And, although they could see that the beard is blue, they might have spent much time saying: His beard isn’t really so blue.” Bluebeard is a scary psychopath is scary in order to teach a lesson. That lesson holds true for even today’s women.

Occasionally our cautionary tales comes from real events and the origins of some of society’s behaviors can be explained through them. From 1962-1964, The Boston Strangler terrorized the public. He was “a smooth-talking man, in his late twenties, who went door-to-door looking for young women. If a young woman answered the door, he would introduce himself as a talent scout from a modeling agency looking for new models.” In modern-contemporary times the general public knows to be wary of modeling offers. In 1984 Ronald O’Bryan poisoned Halloween candy, which was given to his own children and four other local kids and is why it’s a custom to check all Halloween candy for tampering before enjoying the sweet treats. These real accounts spur urban legends that keep the cautionary lesson alive in a society—keeping important safe practices active.

Not All Psychopaths Are Serial Killers

The problem with the glamorized psycho-killers in media is that they may inspire copycats and that they leave the wrong impression on real psychology. It’s greatly debated whether or not violent media actually inspires more violence—according to debate.org, 42% of people asked if violent movies influence real life voted yes, while 58% voted no. The two sides of the argument typically are: violent people were violent to begin with and they would have committed violent crimes without outside inspiration. Others support the idea that media inspires the violence in people who are already troubled but may not have enacted violence were they not exposed to violent content. There are several supposed cases of people confessing that their violent acts are inspired off of film or video games but there is no way to prove their claims. Perhaps the most well-known case was of Sarah Edmondson and Ben Durras who copied the film Natural Born Killers—a movie about lovers on a crime spree. In 1995 Sarah and Ben both killed one person each during two separate robberies. The similar ground seems to be that the criminals, with or without the inspiration, were unhinged to begin with—except that is a dangerous thing to assume—to connect the mentally ill with criminal and violent.

Pop-psychology has the general population believing that psychopathy is common, easily diagnosable personality disorder and is synonymous with being a super intelligent killer—but none of those supposed facts are true. So being that psycho is probably the most important traits of our beloved psycho-killers, let’s look at the real facts. Any personality disorder is rare, an estimate of 0.6% to 1% of the population has anti-social personality disorder—the arguably closest diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition to psychopathy; comparatively 6.7% of the population has Major Depressive Disorder and 3.1% having Generalized Anxiety Disorder. As for intelligence, “Empirical studies…have shown no intelligence differences between psychopaths and non-psychopaths,” regardless media loves to make them seem like psychopaths are geniuses. As for being killers, according to Paul Babiak, Ph.D and several colleges: “Many psychopaths are not violent…they exist in all lines of work, from executive to blue-collar professions. However, psychopathy often is misread, misdiagnosed, and minimized.”

So what are the traits of a real psychopath? To answer that we need to look at what it means to have Anti-Social Personality Disorder. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition the criteria are: either being egocentric or having goals based on personal gratification, being noncompliant to lawful or culturally normative ethics and behaviors, lacking empathy or being incapable of intimacy, being manipulative, deceitful, callous, and hostile towards others, and also being irresponsible, impulsive and a risk-taker. These traits have to be consistent over a long period of time and through various situations but also have to not be explained by their upbringing or drug abuse. If the person in question is under 18, they cannot be diagnosed with this personality disorder, rather they are considered for Conduct Disorder. So out of all the famous media psycho-killers who fit the criteria? I am going to agree with Erika Engelhaupt in her article "The Most (and Least) Realistic Movie Psychopaths Ever" and say Anton Chigurh from the novel and movie No Country for Old Men. Throughout the story, he goes by his own rules in complete disregard of the society he is in. His lack of emotions and his lack of human connection means he is the perfect hit man for the drug cartel in the story. As for someone who doesn’t fit the criteria yet still is given the psycho-killer title is the king of psychos himself, Norman Bates from the classic film Psycho. Due to being delusional and having hallucinations, he is more of a candidate for a schizophrenic disorder than psychopathy.

Here lies the danger, the misrepresentation of mental illness in media can be damaging to the audience’s understanding of the mentally ill in the real world. This misrepresentation occurs with many mental illnesses and is damaging towards the efforts of improving mental health and its awareness; “The worst stereotypes come out in such depictions: mentally ill individuals as incompetent, dangerous, slovenly, undeserving,” says Stephen Hinshaw, a professor of psychology at the University of California–Berkeley. “The portrayals serve to distance 'them' from the rest of 'us.’” The portrayals seen in popular TV, cinema or literature make sufferers of disorders seem like their almost non-human.

Conclusion

Being non-human is the central theme of our three narrative evils—that it's humans like you and me that are capable of being monstrous. According to Kevin Alexander Boon, writer of "Monsters and the Monstrous: Myths and Metaphors of Enduring Evil" says, “…monstrous imply a boundary space between human and non-human” and while he was referencing zombies, I argue that it applies all three of our focuses. Zombies, criminals, and psychopaths they all appear to be human, yet they aren’t humane. So why are our best villain tropes our own kind? I defer to Jeff Kinley from The Huffington Post: “We mortals have always had a subconscious fascination with ourselves. An ever-present, underlying quest to know who we really are. After all, what could be more frightening than to discover mankind’s worst nightmare turns out not to be aliens or giant insects—but our own flesh and blood: neighbors, moms, dads, sons and daughters? Our own flesh! The grave truth is that the monster is indeed “us.” The idea that our fears can be anywhere is terrifying and makes for a fantastic story to tell. Storytellers are bond to use these narratives and their hidden lessons for generations to come.

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