Our Macabre Fascination With the Human Predator
Throughout history, humans have committed horrific crimes, which seem to reflect a primordial and animalistic behavior in human survival. But what exactly makes someone a serial killer? Are they the product of bad genes, environmental factors, or something even worse?
What is it that triggers someone to follow a path of violence and committing horrible crimes? Is it possible to unravel the mind of a serial killer and unlinking the many narrow alleys of their entangled labyrinth?
Honestly, I have no concrete answer for what drives these ‘celebrity monsters’ as Prof. Scott Bonn refers to them in his article “What Drives Our Curious Fascination With Serial Killers?” on his blog of Psychology Today.
Reading his article, among others, I tried to find a clear/logic explanation for my personal fascination with these human predators. I have to admit that it was not easy to do so due to the fact that this ‘little voice’ in my head kept saying, “It is wrong to feel this fascination for these ‘actors’ playing one of the most horrifying roles!” I cannot say otherwise then Prof. Bonn being absolutely right about the fact that many of us are experiencing some form of guilt in the moment of expressing our fascination for these man and woman who are, apparently, feel a ‘powerful rush’ while running around in a violent and (un) controllable manner.
However, as I wrote Prof. Bonn in a Face Book comment, “I guess my personal interest would lie in having a brief opportunity of unraveling their way of thinking as well as trying to grasp the world in which these people apparently live. Does this breaking down of the glass walls in the labyrinth of their (insane) minds provide me a certain pleasure? Hum…I like solving complex puzzles and so, I think one can call it so. In this I would say that my fascination for these people, not their acts, lies in ‘cracking’ their ‘personal code’ what let me understand their motive.”
While trying to analyze my personal interest for these ‘humanoid predators’, this question of what it is that makes these killers so appealing to us, lay in front of me like an open and abandoned piece of dry desert. And, can we say, with some caution, that deep down inside of all of us a little serial killer…or two…is hiding? Perhaps we can divide ‘us’ into two main groups… group A are the people who are asking the question of “Why?” Their fascination lies in unraveling the mind of a (serial) killer from a psychological point of view. And group B is asking the question of “How?” what indeed sounds like a macabre fascination for these humanoid predators. Although they may look nothing like Jason Voorhees or Freddy Krueger, but I think there is a possibility a (serial) killer could spawn from group B, seeking the thrill behind the question of ‘How?’
The truth is that no one really knows, and despite the efforts of modern criminology to decode the brain of a typical serial killer, a concrete explanation has not reached yet. However, the one thing that is known is that many serial killers have suffered early childhood trauma, such as sexual or physical abuse.
The articles in this issue of The Next Truth could provide a clearer answer to some of these quest-ions but I have to put out a WARNING in advance. Some of the articles contain disturbing content and shocking photographs!
