Introduction
Psychopaths, as per prevalent ideas, are defective in their interpretation of social cues related to fear and anxiety. As a result, psychopathic individuals ignore indications that would normally prompt them to refrain from an offensive stance. The examination of the mental disease may incorporate a variety of characteristics, including manifestations, attitudes, causes (genetic, biological, interpersonal, and cognitive), trajectory, advancement, classification, therapies, and solutions (Masten et al., 2021). Psychopathology is thus concerned with examining issues regarding mental health: how to comprehend, categorize, and resolve them. This essay aims to address psychopathology through the lenses of distress and disability while focusing on the crime event of El Paso, The Night Stalker, who was convicted of committing thirteen murders in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The abrupt and unprecedented transformation from absolutely normal to psychopathic behavior by persons who lacked psychopathological precepts and possessed a well-defined behavioral function has always been one of the most horrifying issues in investigative psychopathology. It has sparked a protracted controversy over the millennia between physicians and constitutional experts in an endeavor to unravel the inexplicable implausibility and volatility of this behavior. For example, the murders of the 13 individuals in El Paso caught the mainstream media’s attention and sparked divided attention among criminal psychologists about the nature of the killings. The attempt to seek psychopathological methodologies to account for such an act is not simply a reaction to the need to quell instinctual concerns by eradicating monstrous beings. Thus, this is considered especially heinous because of the catastrophic violence directed at family members or those who are psychologically substantial to the aggressor. The families and relatives of the victims were left in psychological distress and trauma following what happened to their loved ones. According to mainstream opinion, these individuals cannot possess the behavioral or human features of those deemed normal.
Additionally, there is a need to situate this specific version of crime inside a good judicial process that strives for a just assessment of the offense with the apparent clarity of the law. Monomania, temporary insanity, ethical lunacy, raptus, short circuit response, recurrent dyscontrol, marginal disorder, and severe transient mania have all been used to describe the disease at various periods. Thus, this shows the challenge inherent in identifying a psychopathological illness that starts and ends with the offense. Thus, this element precludes a synchronic methodology to the problem concerning a bizarre conduct occurrence that serves as the aggregation point, the breaking point, of ontological and psychopathological dynamism.
Psychopathology through the Lens of Distress
Over the years, humanitarian programs addressing the emotional suffering of murder and ethnic cleansing have exploded in popularity. Distress has become a common analogy for individual and interpersonal misery in many countries, including a spectrum of negative emotions and physical sensations (Linardon et al., 2020). These experiences or feelings are attributed to unpleasant environmental factors in most situations. As a result, responsibility for pain is frequently placed outside the individual. The cognitive load might assist us in reacting and adapting to a circumstance (Linardon et al., 2020). However, severe or chronic can hurt our physical, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being. Therefore, this is the point at which tension develops into anguish.
Each culture gives its people recognizable distress dialects via which they might express their anguish. If people can comprehend this communication, which may be vocal or non-verbal, physically or emotionally, they can make more effective actions. The burgeoning field of distress research reveals that many persons with psychiatric conditions for various diseases exhibit interpersonal, cognitive, and body-based symptoms due to anxiety (Linardon et al., 2020). These people’s sensations and functional limitations may resemble those of non-stress diseases. They may also overlap conventional diagnostic classifications, resulting in many victims receiving treatments and therapies that do not handle the distress’ causes or implications. Distress has been linked to many adverse consequences, including personality disruption, damaged interpersonal connections, substance misuse, binge eating, increased risk of suicide, and greater assault.
For instance, extremely traumatic events, particularly those occurring during childhood, can even more profoundly affect an adult’s life. They profoundly affect a person’s personality and life decisions, prompting researchers to investigate the link connecting childhood abuse and criminal conduct (Linardon et al., 2020). A child who is genetically predisposed to violent behavior does not inevitably become a felon. Therefore, this was the case of El Paso, who, as a child, underwent hash floggings at the hands of his father. Such traumatic events were some factors that led to him committing the heinous acts. Nonetheless, genetics mold an individual with contextual influences such as traumatic childhood encounters. Traumas in one’s personal life might affect one’s development choices (Linardon et al., 2020). The link between heredity, social setting, and serious misconduct exists to various degrees in different criminals.
Psychopathology through the Lens of Disability
A disability can be defined as an inclusive word encompassing disorders, physical functioning, and participation constraints. Thus, impairment is a multidimensional problem that reflects the combination of an individual’s physical characteristics and the qualities of the social context they live in. The biomedical framework views disorder as one or more physiological abnormalities in the human body (Dębska et al., 2020). The social approach views disability as a result of impediments to social and societal engagement (Dębska et al., 2020). Disorder, according to the biomedical paradigm, is caused by one or more physical imperfections in the particular body. The psychosocial developmental approach has become a frequently utilized model for explaining the likelihood of developing childhood mental health disorders in both disabled and typically developing children. The traumatic experiences that El Paso experienced in the hands of the father must have escalated in him into a mental disorder, thus affecting his social life.
Health conditions have a multifaceted chain reaction affecting growth, combining with other risk variables or offsetting constructive variables, resulting in various expression patterns for individuals with impairments. As such, developmental psychopathology considers evolutionary heterogeneity, taking into account biological and social risk and promoter factors that influence growth (Dębska et al., 2020). Maladaptive behavior has been defined within the growth psychopathology viewpoint due to a collapse in an individual’s normal acclimation patterns to the sense. Thus, this emphasizes that the Night Stalker gained personal attributes through his interaction with his external environment constructed around his father.
While mental diseases have been linked to some of the most heinous murderers in American history, it’s critical to remember that most patients suffering from these disorders do not engage in violence. These examples of mental diseases reflect a small percentage of those diagnosed, and the overwhelming majority of those diagnosed do not participate in criminal behavior, particularly when provided with appropriate therapy and psychological benefits. Typically, criminologists evaluate the psychological implications of delinquency following a violent attack, burglary, or homicide (Pettersson et al., 2020). A sociopathic personality disorder is a mental illness in which an individual has a long-standing practice of deceiving, undermining, or abusing the dignity of others without guilt. El Paso’s cognitive disability frequently resulted in conflicting behaviors that were often unlawful.
Historically referred to as psychopathy, this mental disease is marked by a complete disdain for the feelings of others. Individuals with APD may lie, act violently, or violate the law without remorse (Pettersson et al., 2020). For instance, how El Paso, The Night Stalker, carried out the murder of the thirteen victims clearly shows that due to his childhood experiences, he had developed antisocial personality behavior (APD). Therefore, in viewing psychopathology through the lens of disability, it is evident that
Conclusion
The rapid and widespread transition from perfectly normal to psychopathic conduct by individuals who lacked psychopathological norms but exhibited a well-defined cognitive activity has always been one of the most frightening concerns in research psychopathology. In many nations, distress has become a colloquial term for personal and interpersonal sorrow, encompassing a range of negative feelings and physical symptoms. These experiences or feelings are ascribed to unpleasant environmental conditions in most cases. As a result, the individual is typically absolved of blame for their sorrow. Cognitive load may aid us in reacting to and adapting to a situation. A youngster who is genetically prone to violent conduct does not imply that they will grow up to be a felon. Consider the case of Richard, The Night Stalker, an El Paso, Texas murderer who was charged with the murders of thirteen people in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Richard had a difficult childhood, including cruel canings at the hands of his father.
There is a correlation between inheritance, social environment, and major misbehavior to varying degrees among different criminals. Additionally, the different components that contribute to serial killer conduct are examined through the lenses of disability, heredity, context, stress, and character. Apart from shared personality characteristics, serial killers are distinct individuals fashioned by their remarkable encounters, situations, and attitudes. It remains to be seen if genetic examinations such as brain imaging or psychological research to assess serial killer inclinations would prove revolutionary in criminology and crime control.
References
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