As per recent psychological profiling and other developments, serial killers seem to be universally suffering from social anxiety. However, this isn't the sole psychological condition that brands a serial killer but is normally considered common among such persons. Other contributing factors are inborn sadism towards animals and also the inability to bear societal pressure.
A famous historic example is the case of Elizabeth Bathory, a noblewoman who had several slave girls and attendants sadistically tortured for her amusement. Some say she believed that their blood would indefinitely sustain her youth. Modern analysts speculate that she perhaps suffered from an extreme case of social anxiety, while they also admit the impossibility of going in-depth into the complex psyche of history's most prolific serial killers. Utter cruelty to others with an aim to indulge her fancy of eternal youth by exploiting high social status shows a malignant narcissism. All this led people to dub her as the "Blood countess".
Social anxiety is quite common even in the modern day. In fact, everyone is believed to have experienced this at one point or the other which does not in any way mean that everyone is a potential serial killer. We have already clearly established that social anxiety is not the only contributing factor although all serial killers indeed do suffer deeply from it. Experts are undecided on whether historic serial killers such as Bathory or Jack the Ripper suffered from this condition since fear of society is relatively a new theory.
We must remember that our understanding of social anxiety and its actual manifestation in various serial killers differs considerably. Human psyche is a complex thing. The key to understanding those variations is to identify with what other factor or factors does the social anxiety combine. In the case of Bathory it was perhaps the case of an narcissistic and vain obsession over her appearance not so much because her actual appearance concerned her but her appearance in comparison to other aristocrats of her time.
In spite of the obscurity surrounding Jack the Ripper's identity and therefore his psychological profile, some have hazarded the assumption that Ripper also suffered from a form of social anxiety. Perhaps he had low self-esteem or an inferiority complex which deterred him from approaching respectable women. Perhaps because he considered prostitutes inferior and sub-human he had a superior air of confidence in being able to lure them into their own demise without alarming them.
Serial killing is an extreme reaction to the feeling of powerlessness amidst social power structures. Perhaps in their heinous act of torturing and murdering unsuspecting victims of the society, they are seeking to gain control and power over their lives. It is a sort of a twisted identity crisis where they are trying to figure out their place in the hierarchy of life in a way completely incomprehensible to the average person.
A famous historic example is the case of Elizabeth Bathory, a noblewoman who had several slave girls and attendants sadistically tortured for her amusement. Some say she believed that their blood would indefinitely sustain her youth. Modern analysts speculate that she perhaps suffered from an extreme case of social anxiety, while they also admit the impossibility of going in-depth into the complex psyche of history's most prolific serial killers. Utter cruelty to others with an aim to indulge her fancy of eternal youth by exploiting high social status shows a malignant narcissism. All this led people to dub her as the "Blood countess".
Social anxiety is quite common even in the modern day. In fact, everyone is believed to have experienced this at one point or the other which does not in any way mean that everyone is a potential serial killer. We have already clearly established that social anxiety is not the only contributing factor although all serial killers indeed do suffer deeply from it. Experts are undecided on whether historic serial killers such as Bathory or Jack the Ripper suffered from this condition since fear of society is relatively a new theory.
We must remember that our understanding of social anxiety and its actual manifestation in various serial killers differs considerably. Human psyche is a complex thing. The key to understanding those variations is to identify with what other factor or factors does the social anxiety combine. In the case of Bathory it was perhaps the case of an narcissistic and vain obsession over her appearance not so much because her actual appearance concerned her but her appearance in comparison to other aristocrats of her time.
In spite of the obscurity surrounding Jack the Ripper's identity and therefore his psychological profile, some have hazarded the assumption that Ripper also suffered from a form of social anxiety. Perhaps he had low self-esteem or an inferiority complex which deterred him from approaching respectable women. Perhaps because he considered prostitutes inferior and sub-human he had a superior air of confidence in being able to lure them into their own demise without alarming them.
Serial killing is an extreme reaction to the feeling of powerlessness amidst social power structures. Perhaps in their heinous act of torturing and murdering unsuspecting victims of the society, they are seeking to gain control and power over their lives. It is a sort of a twisted identity crisis where they are trying to figure out their place in the hierarchy of life in a way completely incomprehensible to the average person.
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