The Mass Killer’s Search for Validation through Infamy, Media Attention and Transcendence

Abstract

This chapter examines the mass killer’s fractured self-concept. The emergence of a mass killer involves the interplay of psychological and sociological factors. By examining the personal histories of many multiple murderers, a common theme of severe psychological and social developmental interruption emerges. Derailed identity-formation and psychosocial development is a characteristic shared by all of the killers in this study. I contend that certain pre-dispositional factors result in the killer having a pathologically fragmented identity, which is the catalyst for fantasy progression. As a result of such impediment, the killer becomes consumed with one or more fantasy themes, which ultimately underlie his crimes. Fantasies may include imagined reactions of peers, or the general public’s reaction and imagined media attention. These fantasies commonly portray a transcendent image, which resolves, transforms or otherwise alters the meaning of the mass killing. These fantasy themes are an impetus for homicide. The analytical importance of these fantasies points to a transcendent fantasy theory of mass killing.