The intent of this article is to analyze Jeffrey Dahmer's anomalies, disorders, and compulsions while providing a brief background of what his life was like before, during and after his attacks, how they struggle with their personal identity led to the killing, dismemberment of bodies and cannibalism of 17 men/boys. Using psychoanalytic theory and trait theory we will delve deeper into his personality and see it in new perspectives, pertinently addressing how the theory explains his personality. While carrying aspects of his conscious and unconscious self and seeing deficits in his personality traits. Examining him further and his diagnosis which ended as borderline personality disorder as Dahmer went to the extremes of abnormal behavior. Then suggesting two therapies: cognitive and psychoanalytic that could have helped Dahmer manage his violent thoughts which were then transformed into actions and helped realize his life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay Jeffrey Dahmer was an American sex criminal and serial killer who ended up killing 17 boys/men between the years of 1978 to 1991 before getting 16 lives in prison, over 900 years. Dahmer was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to mother Joyce Dahmer who was usually bedridden due to illness and father Lionel Dahmer who was still in college pursuing a degree in chemistry. At the age of four he underwent double hernia surgery which his father said played a part in his future actions. Growing up, his parents did not have a healthy marriage and fought constantly, causing “extreme tension” so severe that Dahmer would typically leave the house and run to the river for hours at a time. At age 6, parents let Dahmer name his new little brother, David. The family then moved to Bath, Ohio in 1968. Dahmer quickly became fascinated with animal bones and how they "fit together." So he started collecting them and looked for them wherever he went; he dismembered the bodies of road victims and other dead animals and placed them in plastic bags and jars and hid them. They. At the age of 14 Dahmer began to have sexual fantasies that included violence and submission, but rather with men. He also began drinking heavily as a teenager, only deepening his violent thoughts. His grades in high school were average and he was always known as a quiet and shy boy. Once Dahmer graduated from high school, his parents divorced and he left home. Only a few weeks after moving in, Dahmer attracted his first victim: Steven Hicks. They drank a few beers together but Dahmer wouldn't let Hicks leave; hitting him with a dumbbell and then strangling him to death. Next with the victim's body, Dahmer would live out his sexual fantasies immediately after dissecting the body and eventually burning the bones in acid leaving little to no evidence. After his first attack, Dahmer went to Ohio State University for about 3 months before dropping out and joining the Army as a combat medic, which he soon failed as he was kicked out due to "bad behavior and alcohol problems ". When he returned, his father urged him to go live in Wisconsin with his grandmother, where he was arrested a couple of times there for indecent exposure and public masturbation. His second attack occurred in 1987, and soon after they became more frequent, with the same ritual and adding photographs and canabillisum. It was finally in July 1991 that Dahmer was arrested by a victim who fortunately escaped. He then confessed everythingto the police, showing all the evidence including body parts, photographs and graves. During the trial Dahmer pleaded guilty by virtue of insanity but was denied guilty but same on all counts and sentenced to 16 life terms in prison. On November 28, 1994, Dahmer was beaten to death by a cellmate and in court his body was chosen to be cremated instead of being given to research. Sigmund Freud, an Australian neurologist and founder of psychoanalytic theory developed the personality theory that truly explains Jeffrey Dahmer's abnormal behaviors. The approach discusses the theory by arguing that human behavior is the result of interactions between the three levels of the psyche: Id, Ego and Superego. The id is the first to develop, which is also the biological component of the personality; it includes our natural instincts without thinking about what is morally right or wrong. The id is the most selfish part of the personality, the one that only cares about satisfying oneself, the id functions according to the pleasure principle which is the idea that all one's needs must be satisfied immediately while neglecting those of others. The second part of Freud's psychoanalytic approach is the Superego, which manifests itself in all three levels of our consciousness. The superego is the part of someone who is always concerned with what is socially acceptable. It pushes us to obtain and maintain the ego ideal which is the vision of what is right and our conscience which is the vision of what is wrong. We learn what is right and wrong from our environment, parents and teachers. The final part of Freud's psychoanalytic theory is that the ego operates in the preconscious and conscious mind. The ego is the part of the personality that makes decisions, where it decides whether to lean more on the ego or the id and must face the consequences of the decision. He manages to work with the reality principle which is the realistic way of satisfying one's needs (id) while trying to consider what is socially acceptable (superego). Trait theory is another concept that can be applied to Jeffrey Dahmer's behavior. Trait theory defines personality based on characteristics of their behavior that are common and repetitive. Trait theory holds that personality develops through consistent, pattern-like behaviors that interact with each other. Robert McCrae and Paul Costa developed the Big Five personality traits after analyzing Raymond Cattell's theories and putting them into a large short list of categories that help explain one's personality by describing it. The five categories consist of: Openness, i.e. whether new experiences and ideas are appreciated. Neuroticism which is the tendency to frequently experience unpleasant emotions, in other words, emotional stability. Consciousness is whether the individual is attentive or distracted, how hard he works, and how he strives or does not strive for success. Extroversion determines whether you enjoy the company of others and whether you like to seek stimulation and excitement. Agreeableness is the tendency to be compassionate and loving towards others, others trust and appreciate them highly and show the same response. Jeffrey Dahmer's personality behaviors are linked to both psychoanalytic theory (Freud) and Big Five trait theory (Robert McCrae and Paolo Costa). Dahmer was someone who could not overcome the id, he never got to the ego or superego stage as he only cared about pleasing and satisfying his own needs without thinking about what would be morally correct. Dahmer would feel no remorse after killing his victims, but would actually continue to do so because it felt good. There was no superego or ego stopping himof acting selfishly and thinking about how his actions were beyond evil. Raping and killing his victims satisfied him without worrying about whether the action was morally right or wrong. The id is consistent throughout Dahmer's life and is completely unaffected by logical reasoning. When the ego cannot handle the id, the person has selfishly abnormal thoughts that are then acted out, such as how Dahmer would strangle his victims and chop up their bodies with an ax and be able to go to the I work the next day without showing any signs of remorse or guilt. Dahmer stated that he had "sexual fantasies about having full control" when he was a teenager and that one day he decided to turn those fantasies into a reality.reality. Trait theory shows many characteristics of Dahmer's personality, even from his childhood. Dahmer was very open, he was very curious and imaginative, every time he delved into what he would do with his victims, he even got to the point of cannibalism, where Dahmer was curious enough to see what his victims would taste like, Dahmer had the idea unusual to eat the flesh of one of his victims after tearing it into pieces, and so he did. Dahmer had very low agreeableness, he was more focused on his own needs even if they conflicted with the needs or desires of others. Dahmer would force innocent men back to his apartment where he would drug them, rape them, and then kill them. Even as a teenager, classmates always described Dahmer as antisocial, non-talkative, and dark; these behaviors only worsened as adults, causing criminal mentalities that soon turned into actions. Therapies that would help Jeffrey Dahmer live a more fulfilling life would be cognitive behavioral therapy which helps the individual reduce symptoms by changing the way they view expressions, emotions, and life. opinions. The cognitive approach would be beneficial to someone like Jeffrey Dahmer as it would give him completely new ways of thinking and acting so that he wouldn't have to compulsively attack and kill his victims. Dahmer had no sense of reality and did not see that there was a problem with his actions, cognitive therapy would help him establish a sense of right and wrong by having realistic goals and interpretations of a situation. The therapist will directly tell Dahmer that his actions were out of line and wrong, a reality check as some like to call it. Dahmer and the therapist met once a week for about two hours, but to make the process quicker and more realistic in different environments, the therapist gave him homework such as: practicing coping strategies and trying new skills; so that he can apply his new skills in natural, everyday environments. Another therapy that would help Jeffrey Dahmer would be psychodynamic therapy, in which the individual attempts to relate their personality to the interaction of conflicting impulses within the individual, some of these are what the individual does not can consciously recognize. Dahmer would be able to talk freely about his emotions, impulses and anger while the therapist interprets all these behaviors trying to understand where the root of the problem lies, self-realization. Psychodynamic theory involves the Id, Ego, and Superego that Dahmer had struggled with as his Id would take over and perform valiantly selfish acts of danger and harm to others. The psychoanalytic therapist interprets the patient's involuntary choice of words that may have escaped the past as transference. In Dahmer's case, one of the reasons he killed the men he would have pleasure with is because his father was homophobic and always.