Serial Killers/Criminal psychology

[King_Oni]

I'm curious now, why Victorian lunatic asylums? Is there something in particular about them that sets them apart from other asylums? I don't know much about asylums; outside of Hollywood movies.

Ive always found the more crude methods and theories to be more fascinating. Also more cringeworthy and fit for a horrormovie, lol.

 

[Vanilla]

Ive always found the more crude methods and theories to be more fascinating. Also more cringeworthy and fit for a horrormovie, lol.

Ah, I see. I'm assuming many unethical practises were involved then. The idea of an asylums always makes me feel uneasy, though I can appreciate the curiosity in them.

 

[King_Oni]

Ah, I see. I'm assuming many unethical practises were involved then. The idea of an asylums always makes me feel uneasy, though I can appreciate the curiosity in them.

Well, they make me uneasy as well in that I rather not end there. But I guess it's the same as seeing a documentary about prison. Not the ideal place I'd like to be, lol.

Unethical by whom? By the current zeitgeist, they were very much so. Lobotomy always was a sensitive issue (see what I did there, lol).

It's also interesting to see how far we've come in terms of psychology and science. But that doesn't have to go that far back; look at the first DSM and compare it to the current iteration. It's a world of difference already.

 

[Vanilla]

Oh yes, prison seems just as bad a place to end up. You hear all sorts of stories; corrupt guards, prison politics; I'd be worried of making it through the night. Of course, a womens' prison probably doesn't get as bad. I once worked for a guy, who claimed he was friends with a someone who knew the inner workings of a jail. Told me about how prison guards would often look the other way, and allow certain inmates to be mistreated by cell mates, for having commited certain crimes (ie. Pedophillia).

Ha! Yes...lobotomy is a scary thought, but yes, we have come a long way.

 

[Graelwyn]

I'm curious now, why Victorian lunatic asylums? Is there something in particular about them that sets them apart from other asylums? I don't know much about asylums; outside of Hollywood movies.

I think part of it is the really large and old buildings they were housed in, but also the history of the treatment and view of mental illnesses, I suppose. I am in interested in other time periods in general anyway and I looked around a derelict Victorian asylum as part of one of my other past special interests (paranormal, lol). So that is what started it all off. I ended up researching the history of the place, photos, the original minute books in the archives.

 

[Vanilla]

Oh wow. So you've really done your research then!

Interest in paranormal? Related to the asylums?

 

[Graelwyn]

Oh wow. So you've really done your research then!

Interest in paranormal? Related to the asylums?

The interest in the paranormal predated the interest in asylums and led me to go exploring a Victorian asylum with my ex partner quite late at night, because it had just been left with unlocked doors. It had a clock tower, a laundry, a vast, long, red brick main building and then a private wing covered in ivy, which was where most of the goings on were centred. We went there on and off for about two years, had a whole team of 'ghost hunters' join us at one point. But that is what started my interest in the actual asylums. There are not really that many left now, quite a few have been pulled down or converted into homes, including the one I used to explore. Of course, probably the most notorious old asylum was Bedlam.

 

[Vanilla]

The interest in the paranormal predated the interest in asylums and led me to go exploring a Victorian asylum with my ex partner quite late at night, because it had just been left with unlocked doors. It had a clock tower, a laundry, a vast, long, red brick main building and then a private wing covered in ivy, which was where most of the goings on were centred. We went there on and off for about two years, had a whole team of 'ghost hunters' join us at one point. But that is what started my interest in the actual asylums. There are not really that many left now, quite a few have been pulled down or converted into homes, including the one I used to explore. Of course, probably the most notorious old asylum was Bedlam.

Wow! That's rather interesting. Was it scary? Did you ever see/ find anything?

 

[Graelwyn]

Wow! That's rather interesting. Was it scary? Did you ever see/ find anything?

Enough that I can no longer remain a sceptic, put it that way. I have had some bad reaction in topics on the subject of the paranormal on another forum, so tend not to really post details too often anymore, but yes, I experienced a lot, as did my very cynical and sceptical aspie ex.

 

[Vanilla]

Enough that I can no longer remain a sceptic, put it that way. I have had some bad reaction in topics on the subject of the paranormal on another forum, so tend not to really post details too often anymore, but yes, I experienced a lot, as did my very cynical and sceptical aspie ex.

Well, if you're ever interested in sharing, feel free to PM (private message) me

 

[Sarsaparilla]

Enough that I can no longer remain a sceptic, put it that way. I have had some bad reaction in topics on the subject of the paranormal on another forum, so tend not to really post details too often anymore, but yes, I experienced a lot, as did my very cynical and sceptical aspie ex.

I was a patient on an old-fashioned ward in a Victorian asylum in London in 2000, and I had an overwhelming sense of feeling the past (if that makes any sense), and the women who had been in the ward I was on in earlier times and the horrific things that must have happened, so it doesn't surprise me you had paranormal experiences. I can understand the fascination.

If you like fiction, I'd recommend Goldcord Asylum about a woman with Asperger's who gets locked up in an asylum in Victorian England. The author is an Aspie. I thought it was very good.

 

[Graelwyn]

I was a patient on an old-fashioned ward in a Victorian asylum in London in 2000, and I had an overwhelming sense of feeling the past (if that makes any sense), and the women who had been in the ward I was on in earlier times and the horrific things that must have happened, so it doesn't surprise me you had paranormal experiences. I can understand the fascination.

If you like fiction, I'd recommend Goldcord Asylum about a woman with Asperger's who gets locked up in an asylum in Victorian England. The author is an Aspie. I thought it was very good.

I shall definitely look for that book, it sounds to be something I would enjoy.
And I totally understand the feeling of the past as I have experienced that throughout my life when in places with a history.
I sometimes get intense pains in my head if I go into somewhere that is very old.

 

[Ellylldan]

I got very curious about serial killers many years ago, after reading the novel of John Fowles "The Collector". It was so interesting to "watch" the protagonist turn into serial killer. And right this, the "beginning", is the most fascinating part for me.
Actually this has never become (yet?) an active special interest as I always had some more dominant obsession going on. I still didn't do any research about it, but it's always around, in a passive form..

 

[JCPHN]

My obsession with serial killers, and deviant/harmful psychologies in general is almost overwhelming. It's definitely an addiction, I can't go more than a few days without exploring down those lines. It definitely contributed to the eventual breakdown of my marriage, haha. My ex just found it too depressing that I was always reading and thinking about that sort of thing.

 

[AGXStarseed]

I've read about many criminals when I was younger, including Britain's most notorious criminal Charles Bronson.

In terms of serial killers, the one that disturbs me the most is Peter Sutcliffe. For those of you who don't know, Peter Sutcliffe was a man from West Yorkshire in England who - between 1969 and 1980 - attacked 20 women; murdering 13 of them, of whom the youngest was 16-year old Jayne McDonald.
Sutcliffe's brutality in his attacks (which including mutilating the bodies of some of his victims with a knife) earned him the nickname "The Yorkshire Ripper".

He eventually pleaded guilty to the attacks and murders after been arrested in 1981, although tried to defend himself by saying that God had told him to do it and pleaded not guilty to murder on grounds of diminished responsibility, owing to a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia.
Needless to say, his defense was dismissed and he was imprisoned.

During his time behind bars, several other criminals have attacked or even tried to murder him - with an attack from criminal Ian Kay in 1997 blinding him in his left eye.
Charles Bronson even said that Sutcliffe is one of the few criminals who makes even his stomach turn, stating "The man is not human. He didn’t just kill those girls, he butchered them, abused them and hacked their breasts and genitals like a mad man.
The evil b*****d doesn’t deserve to still be breathing, let along living off taxpayer’s money. It makes my blood run cold."

In 2010, a High Court ruling stated - after a failed appeal from Sutcliffe to reduce his time behind bars - that Sutcliffe will continue to serve a whole life sentence; meaning that unless exceptional circumstances arise, the Yorkshire Ripper will remain behind bars until he dies.

 

[Kouzai]

I have always been fascinated with serial killers, ritual murders, asylums, paranormal occurrences, shifts in mind states, and how perception subtly different from person to person.

My first serial killer interest (and remains to this day) is Jack the Ripper but I find the human sacrifices used in religious times like then Druids of Britain and Ireland for instance, to be equally fascinating. I find the idea that humans were biologically built to sin interesting.

I like seeing and reading about how different people see the world. Probably why I love psychology in general.

 

[Adder1234]

Anyone who thinks in a way that isn't considered normal interests me, whether they are good or bad. Which isn't to say that I have any compassion or sympathy for them, I'm just intrigued by them.

 

[AGXStarseed]

Books, TV shows and Movies have often had some pretty creepy interpretations of killers and why they do the deeds they do.
Here's a good few:

 

[Aura Todd]

I suppose my interest in Victorian lunatic asylums is similarly gruesome and maybe a little strange, heh.

Unless you knew one in a past life?

 

[Mia]

More than fascinated with people who break the ethical codes of conduct in life. Mainly because I never have. I would be too frightened to, somehow it's simply wrong in every way to do so.

Have continuously wondered why throughout my life and have never heard any clear answers, as every serial killer is a compendium of many life experiences, influences, brutality and abuse. Or not. Some, experienced perfectly normal even affluent childhoods. Which is again a puzzle as to why they do what they do.

Parts of an infants brain appear as darkened areas during MRI's when parents overabuse alcohol and or drugs, or if there is birth trauma, or if the umbilical cord is cut and tied off too quickly. Sometimes the birth trauma damage leads in the teenage years to a lack of ethical or moral behavior, as in fetal alcohol syndrome. Many inmates in prisons show indications, even physical similarities of this syndrome. Which may in some way be connected to this and a loss or lack of understanding of right and wrong.