WHAT MAKES A SERIAL KILLER WANT TO KILL SERIAL
WHAT MAKES A SERIAL KILLER WANT TO KILL MANUAL

вЂњWe have a tendency, that is exacerbated by the justice system, of thinking about people as inhabiting different categories-as if you go shopping for people in different aisles of a supermarket,вЂќ said Gibney. This understanding is what compelled Gibney to make a film about her. Lewis approaches each interview with empathy, even when speaking with societyвЂ™s most dangerous people-as if she could have ended up on the opposite side of the conversation had she experienced a different upbringing.

WHAT MAKES A SERIAL KILLER WANT TO KILL MANUAL

Her testimony and controversial diagnosis were criticized and dismissed today, though, dissociative identity disorder is an accepted condition listed in the American Psychiatric AssociationвЂ™s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In 1990, after witnessing Shawcross dissociate during her interviews, Lewis testified on behalf of the defense that Shawcross suffered from the condition. (She also found out that he had a cyst pressing on his temporal lobe, as well as scarring on his frontal lobes-possibly caused by abuse.)Д¬hildren who undergo such traumatic abuse often dissociate as a survival mechanism-sometimes triggering dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder).

WHAT MAKES A SERIAL KILLER WANT TO KILL SERIAL

In speaking to Arthur Shawcross-the serial killer dubbed the Genesee River Killer, who did unspeakable things to sex workers in the Rochester area in the late вЂ™80s-Lewis determined that he suffered horrific sexual abuse by family members. Her decades of research have led her to believe that people are not born murderers, but are made to murder by a cocktail of traits. But it felt to me as though she were copying me,вЂќ said Lewis, noting that by the time the film premiered in 1991, вЂњI had been doing this for years.вЂќ The comparison is apt-when Lewis saw the film, she noticed such a similarity that she suspected the actor might have researched her. Lewis has been described as the real-life version of Clarice Starling, the insightful FBI agent-in-training and serial-killer tracker played by Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs. вЂњI wish I had known that before he died, but I didnвЂ™t,вЂќ said Lewis regretfully. If only Lewis had been able to share her more accurate diagnosis with Bundy himself. In the film, now available, Lewis carefully takes viewers through her captivating findings-making the ultimate argument that serial killers are more useful to society alive and behind bars than dead. In the 31 years since BundyвЂ™s execution, Lewis has uncovered evidence that the serial killer actually suffered significant childhood trauma, and has rediagnosed him-a journey documented in Crazy, Not Insane. вЂњI drew pictures of the brain, and the frontal lobes, and the limbic system, and tried very hard to give him some insight into his loss of control.вЂќ вЂњI was able to talk with him about urges in the deepest part of his brain and about the way the frontal lobes are supposed to rein in these kinds of impulses-and that, for some reason, his brain was not doing that,вЂќ said Lewis.

She and her team of experts determined that Bundy was not psychotic, as he had been diagnosed by other psychiatrists instead, based on his significant mood swings, they believed he suffered from bipolar disorder.

The murdererвЂ™s defense team had called her in three years earlier to evaluate him. It was really grim.вЂќД«y that point Lewis had already met with Bundy several times. вЂњWhile we were in the room talking, with his attorney Polly Nelson, the secretary to the warden came in to ask Ted who he wanted to see the night before he was executed and what he wanted for dinnerвЂ¦. вЂњIt made me queasy,вЂќ Lewis remembered in an interview with Vanity Fair.

But the timing of this particular conversation-the day before his execution-was creepy, even to her. Sitting face-to-face with a serial killer was nothing new for her: Lewis had spent her career as a clinical psychiatrist talking to murderers in maximum security prisons and in death row halls, trying to understand what made them kill. Dorothy Lewis to Florida State Prison for a visit.

What makes a serial killer want to kill