The Psychology of Serial Killers presentation 5-2-26

 


This was a lecture style  presentation with the noted speaker Dr. Rachel Toles held at the Byham theatre in Pittsburgh on May 2 that I attended with my wife. 
My wife and I are both rather familiar with the subject of serial killers having read books, documentaries, etc and we were looking forward to this and I really wanted to like it.
I was disappointed. 
She obviously was very knowledgable on the subject and has a great resume for books, speaking and movie consultation but this presentation was little more than a rehash of documentaries we've seen before. 
She jumps into the what factors 'create' a serial killer and she presents these 9.


She then uses these 9 points to  discuss 3 headliners - Jeffrey Dhamer, Ted Bundy and Aileen Wuornos and apply these 9 to those 3. 
She mentions briefly Dennis Rader, the BTK killer. 
She took some questions from the audience in a Q & A session which was interesting and silly at the same time as the audience asks some stupid questions having a renowned expert on stage. 
But that was it. 
She didn't mention any current serial killers like the Giglo beach murders or any real insight that was unique that we couldn't have gotten from binge watching Mindhunters, ID Discovery and Netflix shows.
Before the presentation, she had a paragraph showing on screen about serial killers and presenting questions like...Why are serial killers mostly white males? ( and others that escape me) implying they would be talked about. They weren't. 
Here are some questions I would have like to have addressed...
With the increase of available violent imagery in social media along with the support for aberrant beliefs, is the increase of serial killers likely? ( Think incels, chat rooms + a steady diet of violent porn ).
Why is it that some individuals can have these 9 points and they DON'T end up serial killers? 
Serial  killers often talk about the build up, the drive to want to kill. What does that look like? How does that show itself in a killers life? Anxiety, bad dreams, agitation, depression, etc ? 
 Is there any evidence, any true therapy case studies of someone who came to a therapist with  all the symptoms, the fantasies, etc realized that something was wrong and got help before they killed someone ? 



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