“The dead won’t bother you, it’s the living you have to worry about”- John Wayne Gacy. In Alice Sebold’s book, The Lovely Bones, there is a hidden killer psychology that hasn’t been highlighted. Mr. Harvey is a fictional serial killer in the book and has killed multiple young girls for pleasure purposes. John Wayne Gacy has killed numerous young men to feed his insecure sexual desires on boys. These desires stem from his homophobic and painful childhood trauma. Childhood trauma applies to the psychoanalytical perspective of psychology and is common in many serial killers. Psychoanalytic theory is when childhood memories/trauma can influence behavior in the future. Introductory psychology can help us uncover what led serial killers to kill in …show more content…
During his imprisonment, his father died and he felt tremendous guilt for it. Upon learning of his father’s death, caused by liver failure, he believed his father died from the shame of Gacy’s sexual need and harassment of men (Gieseke, Winston). He grew more violent towards male inmates and repressed his sexual desires for males even further. After 18 months in prison, he attempted to restart his life but failed, brutally raping and murdering 33 young men. A majority of Gacy’s crimes are clearly sexually motivated throughout his murders; restraining, torturing, and raping his victims (John Wayne Gacy Confesses to Dozens of …show more content…
This led to his diagnosis: ASPD (Anti-social personality disorder). ASPD is a challenging personality disorder that is impulsive and often involved in criminal behavior. People with this disorder will not care for others’ feelings and pain from other people will not affect them “Anti-Social Personality Disorder”. This disorder is the reason Gacy can commit such violent crimes against people. He developed this disorder due to him consistently trying to hide his homosexuality from the world. Gacy has suffered a lot in his early life by trying to hide his true self, living in a false reality drove him insane. He wanted to rid of his homosexuality, but it never left him; he was sentenced to death in 1980 after being on death row. He was caught for all his murders and executed by lethal