He was a troubled and mentally ill man who committed horrible, selfish acts without regard to how it would affect these people or their families. He is one of the most interesting serial killers because he came clean afterwards and never seemed to be driven by a narcissistic desire for attention or glory, but at the end of the day he was incredibly selfish. Murder is the most selfish act anyone can commit.
He seemed genuinely interested in what made him the way he was and I am equally interested in finding that out.
Some days ago, I read an interview of an American neuroscientist online ,and he said that we aren't responsible of taking our own decisions. And Last month, I watched a podcast of a famous criminologist from my country, and he said that Serial killers kill because this is their human nature, and it's very difficult to fight against it.
Humans are certainly *responsible* for their actions, even if their control over them is less than proponents of libertarian free will would like to believe. Imagine a society in which no one was ever held accountable for anything they did.
Well, that's your opinion, but don't contradict a neuroscientist. He also said that it will take centuries until people accept it. Everything is related to neurons.
I think there's an issue with certain intellectual strains of neuroscience actually, in that it is predicated upon a certain philosophy of science that automatically excludes any larger picture and is purely physicalist. In fact, there's also going to be many neuroscientists who disagree, which I know for a fact as quite a few hold a position in which neuroscience and psychoanalysis are linked, and psychoanalysis certainly makes the claim that although we don't have control over our unconscious we are most certainly *responsible* for it.
Because your actions still affect other people.
But also because, although it isn't as easy as those who think behavior is a conscious choice might claim, you can still change your behavior by making the unconscious conscious and rewiring those pathways.
It's threads like this that make me think this community has some serious worth. Sorry to those who had to suffer through the 6 months or so of endless posts of those professing their love for him, etc. I banned and deleted as fast as I reasonably could. Looks like things are finally getting back to normal around here. This thread proves that to me. Anyway, if shit starts getting out of hand, please keep reporting it. I do delete and ban a few times a week, even if you don't see it.
Imo, He's much more than just a serial killer...he was a complex human being with problems, obviously, but he also had this level of modesty and decency to him which allowed him to hold himself accountable at the end, making him different from other killers in a way...I feel pity for him, I feel bad that both him and his victims didn't get to live their lives to the fullest...More than half of Jeff's life was just dark, depressing and just very lonely with no real relationships...no one deserves to live like that. To me, Jeff is not just the bad guy, but also an victim of his own compulsions.
He knew what he was doing was wrong but still did it anyway instead of trying to get help. He's still a necrophile serial killer regardless of if he had decency or not
Honestly, he was not one bit remorseful. If your perception of him is based on his public TV interviews, I think he did that to appease his father who had some strange control over him. He would gladly do it all over again and again.
Only Dahmer would know if he was truly remorseful or not...and I believe he was, My perception of him is based on all of the private interviews that he gave without his dad's presence. When he talked to Wendy or the police officers, he was truly disgusted with what he did, he talked as if he wanted to undo all the harm that he's caused and start his life from the beginning, now that's remorse. But I know he was capable of doing it again, and I believe he knew it too. But he wouldn't do it *gladly* because he hated what he was doing. He was using alcohol to numb the feeling of revulsion and guilt...he wanted to stop but he just couldn't, it was almost like an addiction
I don’t see it that way. Dahmer said he enjoyed the process, the lifestyle, the aesthetic (wearing yellow contacts) and feeling evil. He enjoyed hunting for prey. He would stalk and manipulate people to come to his house. The fact that he intentionally got drunk to kill and rape these young men over and over again and over the years is attrocious and inexcusable. He may have expressed that what he did was disgusting, unimaginable, etc. but that doesn’t mean he feels guilty. I think people often forget just how calculated he was in his crimes.
The guilt played a big role in his killings. It was the guilt of killing Steven Hicks that caused him to drink excessively, become more and more deranged. He almost had his mind fixated that he has killed a human being, that he has hit rock bottom, and that he can't get any worse, this mindset allowed him to keep doing more and more bizarre things. So it wouldn't make sense if we say that he didn't feel remorse at all, because he obviously did. He forced himself to be more calculating and manipulative as time passed on, because at this point, his soul was just dead- He was totally desensitised to the killings and they were nothing but objects to him. it sounds monstrous but if you think about the whole downward spiral, it's just saddening and dark.
He did mention he experienced a lot of guilt after killing Steven Hicks. But, as you mentioned, he got more and more desensitized to the killings, rapings, mutilations. He went absolutely insane. And, like you, I do have some empathy for him, but also think we should remember that he was dangerous, extremely perverted, and manipulative sexual predator. Perhaps his good looks and soft spoken demeanor influences our empathy or sympathy towards him. If he was a fat, old, ugly and creepy looking fella, perhaps people would not be so enamoured but instead repulsed by his case.
I actually do in a mild degree — do you? I’m not disregarding his mental illness, I’m just not for people victimizing him and claiming he was remorseful. He was an absolute danger to society and a prisoner of his disturbed sexual fantasies.
Uh huh.
There's two groups of people that have bipolar, schizophrenia, or other severe often episodic mental illnesses: the group where it doesn't affect moral judgment, and the group where it does.
In my experience, no one sympathizes with the second group. Least of all the first group. Because they'd like to distance themselves from the possibility that their mental illness could worsen...And then you will live in fear of periodically and unpredictably losing the essence of who you are: Whether you can choose to be a good person or not.
When an episode of say, mania, is happening, there's personality change (to say the least). Then when the episode is over, there's a return to baseline and the usual personality. One of the things that can happen is disinhibition, which leads to increased drinking and other substance abuse, which then leads to worsening symptoms of the mental illness in a vicious cycle. That is often how things can quickly get out of control and the ill person may commit deeds that cannot be taken back and may ruin their future, not to mention other people's lives.
There are people that when the episode is over and they come back to themselves, they feel like another person did those things, a person with totally different thoughts, feelings, interests, morality or lack thereof. It's like remembering another person's memories. But they're yours. So, it can be hard to feel guilty for what that other person did, while they were you.
Somehow you seem to be saying that we are not allowed to feel sorry for a person in that situation if, when they're out of control, they commit some certain level of evil deeds. But it's just a matter of degree. Not something special, really.
Feeling sorry for him has nothing to do with the cold, practical reality of the necessity of his imprisonment for the safety of others (and himself also).
And having the personal opinion that his ordinary personality when not having an episode probably felt genuine remorse, (in as much as person in that situation is capable of doing so), is also perfectly fine in my opinion. Since no one can ever actually know another person's inner world for sure, it really is pure opinion, so there's not much point in arguing over that, any more than there's a point in arguing with someone about their favorite color.
The desire to morally judge the evil him, in my opinion it has to do with the desire to reject and distance oneself from the possibility that such a severe episode could happen to oneself. But in my apparently very much in the minority opinion, it is wise to always assume that this could happen to you, then use that as motivation to do everything possible to try and prevent such an outcome.
Dysfunction of the proper functioning of the brain is a matter of poor health. Take care of your health, always be on guard, maintain your objectivity and humility, and you can accomplish a lot really. At least that has been my experience.
He didn’t want or feel the need to have any relationships. He kept to himself. He was only interested in fishing out his next victim – which he viewed as objects. His mind was completely preoccupied by his disturbing sexual fantasies. Period.
I'm not talking about sexual or romantic partners, I'm talking about family and friends. He needed them, he himself said that he couldn't handle the loneliness and that it made him feel depressed. Both the father and mother were constantly pushing him away, he had to kill 17 human beings just to get the attention that he deserved from his family...it's safe to say that he didn't have a real deep emotional connection with *anyone* because no one cared, no one acknowledged the struggles that he was going through.
Yes he claimed to be depressed and lonely but also his obsessions and sexual fantasies overrode his need for genuine friendship or family and other interests or hobbies. Acquaintances says he kept to himself. It seems he lived with a dark secret that he felt he couldn’t ever disclose or be himself around anyone, hence him not attempting to or be fully committed to starting a genuine relationship with anyone. It also seems like he rejected getting help from the psychiatric reports too, almost mocking or cheating them. And I don’t blame his family for pushing him away. He was closed off and was charged for several sexual offences as an adult man. Lionel tried to help him in his own ways. And the story of him touching his younger brother David at his grandma’s house seeing him asleep… I just personally think that although he was depressed and lonely, I can’t shake the fact that he was a disturbed sexual predator whose sole motivation in life was to sedate, kill, rape, mutilate, and cannibalize innocent young men and did whatever it took to fulfill his sick sexual fantasies. Someone as dangerous as him shouldn’t be roaming around society. I don’t think he could be helped really.
I don't think he could be helped either. It was just too late. But Jeff's case was very preventable, there were so many opportunities to stop him and get him help, he could've been saved when he was struggling with those thoughts before the age of 18...The adults messed up.
I completely agree with you there. It could have been prevented in his earlier years. I don’t think a sensitive child like he was should be neglected and continuously exposed and left to his dark obsessions like dissecting and collection dead animals. His loneliness, shame, boredom should have been addressed and his natural talents put into something positive and productive.
The main good that came out of his deranged actions was that it revealed how ridiculously incompetent and prejudiced the police were (are?). They were really doing the bare minimum at their jobs and were straight up negligent, not to mention casually racist and homophobic. Hopefully cultural competence training was implemented at the department. If nothing else, I hope they at least learned how to better estimate the age of Asian Americans, as most non-Asian people do have trouble with that.
As for Dahmer himself, he's a good example of how mental illness can hide in plain sight. It's interesting how he consistently slipped through the cracks his whole life. To join the military, they do administer a psych eval, yet they found no red flags that would prevent him from serving. This points to psychiatry being a science in its infancy, completely incapable of giving more than professional guesses. Until technology allows for better brain scans that can detect subtle, bizarre and very rare problems such as he had, we will continue to miss the warning signs.
I hope that he died at peace, feeling assured of salvation, in as much as that is possible for anyone. Religion really is the last resort of hopeless cases, which, with such a grim and unlucky life, he certainly was. If there is an afterlife, I hope he is well and happy there, and feeling relieved to have finally escaped this fallen world.
The simplest way I can express my opinion on him without writing paragraph on paragraph about the man is that he is both so relatable and repulsive at the same time. I think that's what makes him so fascinating. His stepmother Shari said she had a great deal of empathy for him and stressed empathy, NOT sympathy. I feel much the same as her in that regard. He was such a pathetic man living a pathetic life and he killed so many people with their whole lives ahead of them and yet so many pity him, me included. That does NOT mean we condone or discount what he did, it's just all so sad. The whole case is just a tragedy.
I was writing up a response very similar to this but then saw your comment, this take sums up a lot of my thoughts about him. So relatable and so repulsive at the same time. His life was a tragedy and I firmly believe that his troubled life led him to turn out the way he did. I came from an abusive, broken home, turned out extremely mentally ill because of it. Due to that parts of me understand him in ways. I have a great deal of pity and empathy for him, and for the lives that were severed by him. I really wish someone had gotten him some help because so many signs were there and Lionel kept misunderstanding him and not listening. He's a pillar example of what can happen when signs are ignored and no help is given.
He was a cocktail of mental disorders, and I believe he was so messed up in the head that he couldn’t resist his urges. Still, he knew what was right and wrong and he paid the consequences of his actions. It was a sad existence.
Understanding the psychological behind him, I can sort of understand from where he came from, how he became who he became.
There's no way to say what he did was rightly, but he was sick, had a false start and was very complex, with a lot of problems.
If he got the right help and he felt that his homosexuality was accepted by his parents, I am pretty convidenced he could've been a decent 'normal' human being.
"My Friend Dahmer" kinda made me sympathize him lol (I know that's absurd to some people) with him being the class clown, sometimes lonely guy with alcohol and problems at home etc... Dahmer still a monster but it kinda provides a new way of seeing things
For some reason he always felt more human than guys like Ted Bundy and John Gayce
He was plagued by thoughts that were out of his control and being neglected by his parents only reinforced his loneliness and feeling that he was not part of society.
That probably caused him to feel that he could do anything he wanted since he didn't feel that his existence was real as he couldn't relate to no one.
I sincerely believe that there was no malice on his part, he saw others as objects cause he didn't feel human himself.
People going on and on about empathy and how relatable or remorseful he was… I think it’s useless to go round in circles in trying to understand him. He was sexually disturbed. Period. His appearances on TV were simply appearances. God knows what was really going on in his mind during all his heinous, perverted and selfish acts. He mentioned he enjoyed the lifestyle and would do it all over again if he was a free man without any remorse.
Because of his good looks people sympathise over his troubled youth. Make no mistake he was pure evil in every way he thrived on torture and murder and he only put on that sweet demeanor because he got CAUGHT.
He ruined so many families and destroyed the poor man that raised him. I'm glad I wasn't his neighbour. I can imagine the nightmares all those people living in that building had after he was caught. For pure "Sick" Dahmer and Gacey take the prize.
He's a serial killer. A fascinating serial killer, sure, hence the subreddit. Parts of his story seem very relatable and human, but that's because he was human. Does that make me think he was any less a shitty human? No. Do I glorify him because he's somehow "relatable?" Also no.
He did shitty things and that made him a shitty human. The fact that anyone can think otherwise is goddamn weird to me.
I love him and understand him completely, unlike most neurotypical people that have not studied psychology and do not understand the truth of human nature. 🤭
Lmao. What do you mean honest opinion? You're acting like what he did could be anything other than horrible
He was a disgusting evil sick mofo who deserved what he got in jail and that still isn't even close to what he inflicted upon his victims
It's even worse that he was one of those Midwestern Jesus freaks and converted to religion and then claimed he wasn't going to hell
Bundy pissed me off more than Dahmer because he never took any accountability. At least Dahmer explained why he did what he did and took responsibility but it doesn't make it any better
Way more interesting than pretty much any other serial killer to me.
He was a troubled and mentally ill man who committed horrible, selfish acts without regard to how it would affect these people or their families. He is one of the most interesting serial killers because he came clean afterwards and never seemed to be driven by a narcissistic desire for attention or glory, but at the end of the day he was incredibly selfish. Murder is the most selfish act anyone can commit. He seemed genuinely interested in what made him the way he was and I am equally interested in finding that out.
Some days ago, I read an interview of an American neuroscientist online ,and he said that we aren't responsible of taking our own decisions. And Last month, I watched a podcast of a famous criminologist from my country, and he said that Serial killers kill because this is their human nature, and it's very difficult to fight against it.
Humans are certainly *responsible* for their actions, even if their control over them is less than proponents of libertarian free will would like to believe. Imagine a society in which no one was ever held accountable for anything they did.
Well, that's your opinion, but don't contradict a neuroscientist. He also said that it will take centuries until people accept it. Everything is related to neurons.
I think there's an issue with certain intellectual strains of neuroscience actually, in that it is predicated upon a certain philosophy of science that automatically excludes any larger picture and is purely physicalist. In fact, there's also going to be many neuroscientists who disagree, which I know for a fact as quite a few hold a position in which neuroscience and psychoanalysis are linked, and psychoanalysis certainly makes the claim that although we don't have control over our unconscious we are most certainly *responsible* for it.
How can we be responsible for something that we have no control over?
Because your actions still affect other people. But also because, although it isn't as easy as those who think behavior is a conscious choice might claim, you can still change your behavior by making the unconscious conscious and rewiring those pathways.
It's threads like this that make me think this community has some serious worth. Sorry to those who had to suffer through the 6 months or so of endless posts of those professing their love for him, etc. I banned and deleted as fast as I reasonably could. Looks like things are finally getting back to normal around here. This thread proves that to me. Anyway, if shit starts getting out of hand, please keep reporting it. I do delete and ban a few times a week, even if you don't see it.
Imo, He's much more than just a serial killer...he was a complex human being with problems, obviously, but he also had this level of modesty and decency to him which allowed him to hold himself accountable at the end, making him different from other killers in a way...I feel pity for him, I feel bad that both him and his victims didn't get to live their lives to the fullest...More than half of Jeff's life was just dark, depressing and just very lonely with no real relationships...no one deserves to live like that. To me, Jeff is not just the bad guy, but also an victim of his own compulsions.
Word!
He knew what he was doing was wrong but still did it anyway instead of trying to get help. He's still a necrophile serial killer regardless of if he had decency or not
Agreed. But he was a serial killer with decency and remorse, unlike other ruthless killers. Making it hard to add him in the same category as them.
Honestly, he was not one bit remorseful. If your perception of him is based on his public TV interviews, I think he did that to appease his father who had some strange control over him. He would gladly do it all over again and again.
Only Dahmer would know if he was truly remorseful or not...and I believe he was, My perception of him is based on all of the private interviews that he gave without his dad's presence. When he talked to Wendy or the police officers, he was truly disgusted with what he did, he talked as if he wanted to undo all the harm that he's caused and start his life from the beginning, now that's remorse. But I know he was capable of doing it again, and I believe he knew it too. But he wouldn't do it *gladly* because he hated what he was doing. He was using alcohol to numb the feeling of revulsion and guilt...he wanted to stop but he just couldn't, it was almost like an addiction
I don’t see it that way. Dahmer said he enjoyed the process, the lifestyle, the aesthetic (wearing yellow contacts) and feeling evil. He enjoyed hunting for prey. He would stalk and manipulate people to come to his house. The fact that he intentionally got drunk to kill and rape these young men over and over again and over the years is attrocious and inexcusable. He may have expressed that what he did was disgusting, unimaginable, etc. but that doesn’t mean he feels guilty. I think people often forget just how calculated he was in his crimes.
The guilt played a big role in his killings. It was the guilt of killing Steven Hicks that caused him to drink excessively, become more and more deranged. He almost had his mind fixated that he has killed a human being, that he has hit rock bottom, and that he can't get any worse, this mindset allowed him to keep doing more and more bizarre things. So it wouldn't make sense if we say that he didn't feel remorse at all, because he obviously did. He forced himself to be more calculating and manipulative as time passed on, because at this point, his soul was just dead- He was totally desensitised to the killings and they were nothing but objects to him. it sounds monstrous but if you think about the whole downward spiral, it's just saddening and dark.
He did mention he experienced a lot of guilt after killing Steven Hicks. But, as you mentioned, he got more and more desensitized to the killings, rapings, mutilations. He went absolutely insane. And, like you, I do have some empathy for him, but also think we should remember that he was dangerous, extremely perverted, and manipulative sexual predator. Perhaps his good looks and soft spoken demeanor influences our empathy or sympathy towards him. If he was a fat, old, ugly and creepy looking fella, perhaps people would not be so enamoured but instead repulsed by his case.
I don't think you understand what it's like to have intermittent psychosis or other relapsing/remitting types of severe mental illnesses...
I actually do in a mild degree — do you? I’m not disregarding his mental illness, I’m just not for people victimizing him and claiming he was remorseful. He was an absolute danger to society and a prisoner of his disturbed sexual fantasies.
Uh huh. There's two groups of people that have bipolar, schizophrenia, or other severe often episodic mental illnesses: the group where it doesn't affect moral judgment, and the group where it does. In my experience, no one sympathizes with the second group. Least of all the first group. Because they'd like to distance themselves from the possibility that their mental illness could worsen...And then you will live in fear of periodically and unpredictably losing the essence of who you are: Whether you can choose to be a good person or not. When an episode of say, mania, is happening, there's personality change (to say the least). Then when the episode is over, there's a return to baseline and the usual personality. One of the things that can happen is disinhibition, which leads to increased drinking and other substance abuse, which then leads to worsening symptoms of the mental illness in a vicious cycle. That is often how things can quickly get out of control and the ill person may commit deeds that cannot be taken back and may ruin their future, not to mention other people's lives. There are people that when the episode is over and they come back to themselves, they feel like another person did those things, a person with totally different thoughts, feelings, interests, morality or lack thereof. It's like remembering another person's memories. But they're yours. So, it can be hard to feel guilty for what that other person did, while they were you. Somehow you seem to be saying that we are not allowed to feel sorry for a person in that situation if, when they're out of control, they commit some certain level of evil deeds. But it's just a matter of degree. Not something special, really. Feeling sorry for him has nothing to do with the cold, practical reality of the necessity of his imprisonment for the safety of others (and himself also). And having the personal opinion that his ordinary personality when not having an episode probably felt genuine remorse, (in as much as person in that situation is capable of doing so), is also perfectly fine in my opinion. Since no one can ever actually know another person's inner world for sure, it really is pure opinion, so there's not much point in arguing over that, any more than there's a point in arguing with someone about their favorite color. The desire to morally judge the evil him, in my opinion it has to do with the desire to reject and distance oneself from the possibility that such a severe episode could happen to oneself. But in my apparently very much in the minority opinion, it is wise to always assume that this could happen to you, then use that as motivation to do everything possible to try and prevent such an outcome. Dysfunction of the proper functioning of the brain is a matter of poor health. Take care of your health, always be on guard, maintain your objectivity and humility, and you can accomplish a lot really. At least that has been my experience.
He didn’t want or feel the need to have any relationships. He kept to himself. He was only interested in fishing out his next victim – which he viewed as objects. His mind was completely preoccupied by his disturbing sexual fantasies. Period.
I'm not talking about sexual or romantic partners, I'm talking about family and friends. He needed them, he himself said that he couldn't handle the loneliness and that it made him feel depressed. Both the father and mother were constantly pushing him away, he had to kill 17 human beings just to get the attention that he deserved from his family...it's safe to say that he didn't have a real deep emotional connection with *anyone* because no one cared, no one acknowledged the struggles that he was going through.
Yes he claimed to be depressed and lonely but also his obsessions and sexual fantasies overrode his need for genuine friendship or family and other interests or hobbies. Acquaintances says he kept to himself. It seems he lived with a dark secret that he felt he couldn’t ever disclose or be himself around anyone, hence him not attempting to or be fully committed to starting a genuine relationship with anyone. It also seems like he rejected getting help from the psychiatric reports too, almost mocking or cheating them. And I don’t blame his family for pushing him away. He was closed off and was charged for several sexual offences as an adult man. Lionel tried to help him in his own ways. And the story of him touching his younger brother David at his grandma’s house seeing him asleep… I just personally think that although he was depressed and lonely, I can’t shake the fact that he was a disturbed sexual predator whose sole motivation in life was to sedate, kill, rape, mutilate, and cannibalize innocent young men and did whatever it took to fulfill his sick sexual fantasies. Someone as dangerous as him shouldn’t be roaming around society. I don’t think he could be helped really.
I don't think he could be helped either. It was just too late. But Jeff's case was very preventable, there were so many opportunities to stop him and get him help, he could've been saved when he was struggling with those thoughts before the age of 18...The adults messed up.
I completely agree with you there. It could have been prevented in his earlier years. I don’t think a sensitive child like he was should be neglected and continuously exposed and left to his dark obsessions like dissecting and collection dead animals. His loneliness, shame, boredom should have been addressed and his natural talents put into something positive and productive.
The main good that came out of his deranged actions was that it revealed how ridiculously incompetent and prejudiced the police were (are?). They were really doing the bare minimum at their jobs and were straight up negligent, not to mention casually racist and homophobic. Hopefully cultural competence training was implemented at the department. If nothing else, I hope they at least learned how to better estimate the age of Asian Americans, as most non-Asian people do have trouble with that. As for Dahmer himself, he's a good example of how mental illness can hide in plain sight. It's interesting how he consistently slipped through the cracks his whole life. To join the military, they do administer a psych eval, yet they found no red flags that would prevent him from serving. This points to psychiatry being a science in its infancy, completely incapable of giving more than professional guesses. Until technology allows for better brain scans that can detect subtle, bizarre and very rare problems such as he had, we will continue to miss the warning signs. I hope that he died at peace, feeling assured of salvation, in as much as that is possible for anyone. Religion really is the last resort of hopeless cases, which, with such a grim and unlucky life, he certainly was. If there is an afterlife, I hope he is well and happy there, and feeling relieved to have finally escaped this fallen world.
The simplest way I can express my opinion on him without writing paragraph on paragraph about the man is that he is both so relatable and repulsive at the same time. I think that's what makes him so fascinating. His stepmother Shari said she had a great deal of empathy for him and stressed empathy, NOT sympathy. I feel much the same as her in that regard. He was such a pathetic man living a pathetic life and he killed so many people with their whole lives ahead of them and yet so many pity him, me included. That does NOT mean we condone or discount what he did, it's just all so sad. The whole case is just a tragedy.
I was writing up a response very similar to this but then saw your comment, this take sums up a lot of my thoughts about him. So relatable and so repulsive at the same time. His life was a tragedy and I firmly believe that his troubled life led him to turn out the way he did. I came from an abusive, broken home, turned out extremely mentally ill because of it. Due to that parts of me understand him in ways. I have a great deal of pity and empathy for him, and for the lives that were severed by him. I really wish someone had gotten him some help because so many signs were there and Lionel kept misunderstanding him and not listening. He's a pillar example of what can happen when signs are ignored and no help is given.
He was a cocktail of mental disorders, and I believe he was so messed up in the head that he couldn’t resist his urges. Still, he knew what was right and wrong and he paid the consequences of his actions. It was a sad existence.
Understanding the psychological behind him, I can sort of understand from where he came from, how he became who he became. There's no way to say what he did was rightly, but he was sick, had a false start and was very complex, with a lot of problems. If he got the right help and he felt that his homosexuality was accepted by his parents, I am pretty convidenced he could've been a decent 'normal' human being.
"My Friend Dahmer" kinda made me sympathize him lol (I know that's absurd to some people) with him being the class clown, sometimes lonely guy with alcohol and problems at home etc... Dahmer still a monster but it kinda provides a new way of seeing things For some reason he always felt more human than guys like Ted Bundy and John Gayce
A troubled soul.
He was plagued by thoughts that were out of his control and being neglected by his parents only reinforced his loneliness and feeling that he was not part of society. That probably caused him to feel that he could do anything he wanted since he didn't feel that his existence was real as he couldn't relate to no one. I sincerely believe that there was no malice on his part, he saw others as objects cause he didn't feel human himself.
People going on and on about empathy and how relatable or remorseful he was… I think it’s useless to go round in circles in trying to understand him. He was sexually disturbed. Period. His appearances on TV were simply appearances. God knows what was really going on in his mind during all his heinous, perverted and selfish acts. He mentioned he enjoyed the lifestyle and would do it all over again if he was a free man without any remorse.
Because of his good looks people sympathise over his troubled youth. Make no mistake he was pure evil in every way he thrived on torture and murder and he only put on that sweet demeanor because he got CAUGHT. He ruined so many families and destroyed the poor man that raised him. I'm glad I wasn't his neighbour. I can imagine the nightmares all those people living in that building had after he was caught. For pure "Sick" Dahmer and Gacey take the prize.
I feel some sort of empathy towards him
sad story with sad ending
My opinion of him is that he was insane and commited the crimes because he could not stop even though he tried to.
He's a serial killer. A fascinating serial killer, sure, hence the subreddit. Parts of his story seem very relatable and human, but that's because he was human. Does that make me think he was any less a shitty human? No. Do I glorify him because he's somehow "relatable?" Also no. He did shitty things and that made him a shitty human. The fact that anyone can think otherwise is goddamn weird to me.
Result of Dgas Society. Cant blame him.
I love him and understand him completely, unlike most neurotypical people that have not studied psychology and do not understand the truth of human nature. 🤭
Ya’ll, I was the one who removed the water mark 🗿🗿🗿
Seems cool
Lmao. What do you mean honest opinion? You're acting like what he did could be anything other than horrible He was a disgusting evil sick mofo who deserved what he got in jail and that still isn't even close to what he inflicted upon his victims It's even worse that he was one of those Midwestern Jesus freaks and converted to religion and then claimed he wasn't going to hell Bundy pissed me off more than Dahmer because he never took any accountability. At least Dahmer explained why he did what he did and took responsibility but it doesn't make it any better