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John Wayne Gacy Mental Disorder: Introduction
John Wayne Gacy was a serial killer and rapist who committed 33 murders from 1972 to 1978. He was also known as the killer clown only because he committed his crimes while dressed like a clown. That was his alter ego. His victims were teenage males whose bodies he buried in his basement. Before the trial, he was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), which can result from his childhood abuse.
In 1980, Gacy was sentenced to death and spent fourteen years on death row before he was finally executed in 1994. Understanding the nature of psychopathy is crucial, as it helps identify serial killers and prevent them from committing a crime (Amirante & Broderick, 2011).
John Wayne Gacy Psychology: Reasons for Becoming a Psychopath
Certainly, the mental status of Gacy cannot be considered normal, especially taking into account the events that happened to him in his childhood. His father being a psychopath, tortured and insulted all members of the family and, particularly, his son Gacy, thereby depriving him of even a small portion of positivism in life. Therefore, Gacy grew up accumulating hatred toward life and everything in it. Thus, he made the lives of other people near him as hard as his own.
Apparently, he thought they were responsible for all his miseries. The rage from getting hit by a swing when being molested by his fathers friend and his lack of appreciation from his family played a crucial role in his actions. Gacy obviously enjoyed torturing his victims, as he thought he was retaliating against the world for his suffering. Later, in his teenage years, he had episodes of losing consciousness, which was probably the consequence of the swing hit (Amirante & Broderick, 2011).
There is a theory that his brain was damaged after the hit in a way that he lost the ability to think reasonably and to interact socially with people, which made him a misfit. Additionally, all his perceptions of the world can be seen in his clownish paintings (Moffitt, 1993).
Although Gacy was eventually declared sane by the jury who sentenced him to death, many psychologists who interviewed him thought otherwise. For example, Thomas Eliseo described Gacy as an intelligent man who apparently suffered from borderline schizophrenia. This diagnosis was the most probable, as other psychiatrists also claimed that Gacy was suffering from this particular disorder and adding several other mental impairments along with the ASPD. Therefore, it was argued that Gacy, while committing his crimes, was even incapable of understanding that his actions were wrong (Amirante & Broderick, 2011).
Another theory is that every human can sometimes experience inappropriate sexual desires and fury. However, the overwhelming majority has a natural ability to control these desires and feel responsible for them, whereas serial killers, maniacs, and psychopaths lack this ability and sometimes allow these feelings to control them. Moreover, once they taste it and do not feel guilty, they become addicted, and these desires become even stronger. That is why the more people serial killers have murdered, the more frequently they begin to do it, and no one has ever stopped doing it (Lynam, 1996).
According to the interviews with Gacy, it is evident that although he behaved normally and did not look insane, he had a mental problem that urged him to commit crimes such as murder and rape, being fully aware of the consequences. He was rational and confident in the choices he made. Being a psychopath, he was good at manipulating and luring his victims. He killed them, understanding how society would react when they found out but still indifferent to the consequences. Psychopathy can be caused by painful or challenging events that happen in life, and Gacy had plenty of such events in his life (DeLisi & Piquero, 2011).
John Wayne Gacy Diagnosis: Anomie (Social Class) Theory
Many psychological theories can either directly or indirectly apply to Gacys case. All these theories try to explain the incentives for serial killers to commit murders, describe their psychological profile, discover the reasons why they do what they do, and develop strategies to prevent these murders from happening. These theories include but are not limited to the Social Structure Theory, Cultural Deviance Theory, Strain Theory, Neutralization Theory, Social Control Theory, Labeling Theory, Anomie Theory, and many others (Siegmunt & Wetzels, 2015).
Anomie Theory claims that societal inequity and the feeling of injustice can urge people to commit crimes. For example, lower-class people feel a strain as their financial situation does not allow them to get what they need. Therefore, they sometimes begin violating the law in order to achieve equality. This theory also includes three derived theories. The first derived theory, called Institutional Anomie Theory, claims that an institutional arrangement with an economy where the economy can dominate without the limitations of such social institutions as a family will probably increase criminal activity.
The second derived theory, called Relative Deprivation Theory, states that the division between lower and upper classes causes feelings of suspicion and envy, which in turn, cause criminal behavior. The third derived theory, General Strain Theory, states that people who experience frequent stressors or strains become upset, which can be an incentive to commit a crime (Siegmunt & Wetzels, 2015).
Thus, John Wayne Gacy is a perfect example of Anomie Theory. He grew up in a strict family. He wanted to be approved by his father but had a very bad relationship with him. He had problems with health, such as a head injury from a swing and problems with his heart. He was also bisexual and could not reveal that because of his father. Thus, adverse childhood experiences and feeling abandoned and unappreciated were the main reasons Gacy became a serial killer (Siegmunt & Wetzels, 2015).
John Wayne Gacy Psychology: Sigmund Freuds Theories
Sigmund Freuds psychoanalytic theories include the ego, superego, id, psychosexual stages, the life and death instinct, and the unconscious mind. According to Freud, the superego is a particular part of the personality responsible for internalizing ideals and providing standards for future aspirations and judgment. Since Gacy suffered from ASPD, he simply did not have the superego and, as a result, did not feel remorse toward the murders and the victims families (Boothby, 2014).
As for the unconscious mind, Freud claims that it is a reservoir of the most unacceptable wishes, thoughts, memories, and feelings. In Gacys case, he collected them from his childhood. Therefore, all those negative memories and feelings of his unhappy and abusive childhood are reflected in his ego and murders (Boothby, 2014).
In Freuds opinion, the id is a reservoir of psychic energy on a subconscious level that strives to satisfy aggressive and sexual urges. After his first victim, Gacy realized that sexually assaulting and then killing men gave him pleasure. Therefore, he continued killing to satisfy his id (Boothby, 2014).
According to Freud, the death instinct compels people to behave aggressively, seek thrills, and engage in destructive and risky situations that can lead to death. Gacy sought thrills when he satisfied his desire to rape and kill young males. The death instinct urged Gacy to continue committing crimes even though he knew about the consequences (Boothby, 2014).
John Wayne Gacy Mental Disorder: Prevention and Intervention
In order to prevent serial killers from committing crimes, it is crucial to discover the reasons why they act in that way. Thus, the intervention would consist of three main stages. First, it is necessary to scrutinize all possible incentives that can provoke people to kill others. Second, it is crucial to learn how to identify potential serial killers. For this purpose, people should undergo an extended psychiatric examination once a couple of years. Third, when potential psychopaths are identified, they must be put under close supervision, provided with a special therapy to control their behavior, and in complex cases, isolated from society.
Thus, in Gacys case, if such interventions had then been put into practice, he would not have been released from prison in the first place, and almost all his murders would have been avoided (DeLisi & Piquero, 2011).
John Wayne Gacy Diagnosis: Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be mentioned that John Gacy suffered from ASPD due to his difficult childhood and probably a head injury. Many psychological theories can be applied to his case and explain his behavior, the most prominent of which are Anomie or Social Class Theory and Sigmund Freuds psychoanalytic theories. The prevention and intervention methods include research on psychopaths traits, their identification, and therapies that help them control their behavior or, in difficult cases, isolation from society.
References
Amirante, S. L., & Broderick, D. (2011). John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster. New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing.
Boothby, R. (2014). Death and desire (RLE: Lacan): Psychoanalytic theory in Lacans return to Freud. Abington, England: Routledge.
DeLisi, M., & Piquero, A. R. (2011). New frontiers in criminal careers research, 20002011: A state-of-the-art review. Journal of Criminal Justice, 39(4), 289-301.
Lynam, D. R. (1996). Early identification of chronic offenders: Who is the fledgling psychopath? Psychological Bulletin, 120(2), 209-234.
Moffitt, T. E. (1993). Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: A developmental taxonomy. Psychological Review, 100(4), 674-701.
Siegmunt, O., & Wetzels, P. (2015). Institutional anomie theory: An empirical test. Sociological Studies, 4(4), 78-87.
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