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Touched by evil: Fritzl, Filyaw and Reiser
By swivelchair | May 9, 2008
When this happens, we are all touched by evil.
Josef Fritzl, Vincent Filyaw, and Hans Reiser. Three monsters, who committed atrocities as instrumentalities — as the means to an end, not as the end in and of themselves. One, to shut up his daughter so she wouldn’t rat him out for incest. Two, to get revenge, and maybe a little fame, on authorities who were after him once his stepdaughter ratted him out for incest. And three, an ex husband who didn’t want to pay child support. All three, when caught in the glare of public horror, claimed victimhood. Not one could keep their trap shut.
All three demonstrate that evil is wired in the same way.
We know about Herr Fritzl, the monster who kept his daughter in a cellar dungeon for 24 years, impregnated her at least 6 times, and kept some of the children, the ones who lived, in the cellar dungeon as well. The evil details of his life have been splashed all over the press.
What is his excuse?He’s not a monster, he’s a victim.
Fritzl explains, “I couldn’t help myself, I was addicted to incest”. He blames the Nazis, his mother, and maybe himself just a tinsy bit. Then, he goes on to say, after raping his little girl, he claims he needed to keep her in his dungeon so she wouldn’t hang out with the wrong crowd once she turned 18.
Sensing that story doesn’t sit well, he also claims that he knew he would have to imprison her so she wouldn’t rat him out to the authorities. (That story makes sense). So he kept up the torture for 24 years to protect himself. The cellar prison wasn’t something he wanted, he claims, it was something he had to do to reach his result — being free from imprisonment himself for raping his daughter.
Mr. Filyaw was raping his pre-teen step daughter, when the girl came forward to a teacher with the abuse. The authorities came after him, and that angered him. In his interview, he explains that he was very “close” with this step daughter, and referred to her as “his little housewife.” He was angry — not because he denies raping her — but because the authorities went around talking to everyone else but not to him. He claims he’s a victim.
So what did Mr. Filyaw do ? He ran off and built an underground bunker in the woods — and grabbed a 9th grader as a hostage, as revenge. He chained the little girl by the neck, and raped her for a few weeks. He watched TV reports and was pleased at the commotion he caused, particularly watching the police scurrying around.
So, why would someone angry about being accused of child-rape go out and rape a child? Three reasons:
First, to demonstrate he was not a child rapist. (The interview is, if you can stomach it, a fascinating look into the mind of a psychopath. No, it doesn’t make sense to us. Yes, it makes perfect sense to him.)
Second, for revenge against the police who were looking for him. He wanted to prove his superiority by his survivalist/commando skills by making a bunker and living in the woods without a trace.
Third, — what he really wanted — fame. Mr. Filyaw was using his survivalist-in-the-woods prowess as material for a movie script, which he would sell and make him rich and famous.
I blogged about Vincent Filyaw before. Click here to take a look at the video (about 9 minutes) and my comments (March 19 blog entry) from the NBC dateline show “Into the Woods”. (NBC did a great job of presenting this as a web site — videos, interviews, documents. )
I don’t mean to harp on these horrific cases, as many, many other acts equally as bad or worse are unreported — the Fritzl case is sensationalized because the family is white, European, and middle class. That does not make it any the less horrific. But one more middle class white guy seems to fit the mold: Hans Reiser.
About two weeks ago, in a court room in Oakland, California, Mr. Reiser was found guilty of the first degree murder of his ex wife, the mother of his children. This was after a long trial, in which Mr. Reiser — a well known technology entrepreneur — testified on his own behalf.
Big mistake. Normally, in the US, people charged with a crime don’t testify — so they can’t say anything which could be used against themselves. But Mr. Reiser — apparently concerned with his image — couldn’t stay away from the witness stand. (Here’s the Wired report). While on the stand, he tried to endear himself as a compulsive geek. But it’s the same thing: a horrific act, done as a means to an end (here, to get rid of an ex wife and child support payments). Just like the other middle class wife murderers described in my Superbowl Sunday Domestic Violence post (see the comments by forensic psychologist Jeremiah Dwyer, of Postcards from the Id, at the end of that post, very interesting about men who batter).
These aren’t cases of anosognosia , where the person lacks the wiring to know they’re ill, like the Unibomber, Dr. Kaczynski. In that case, although the crime and damage to the victims was horrific, I can also have some understanding that a diseased brain was involved.
We know psychopaths are biologically incapable of compassion towards another human being. If you parse that behavior into components, you can associate that with biology. Really what we have is a lack of affiliative behavior, as well as pedophilia (at least for Fritzl and Filyaw). Let’s review:
For affiliative behavior, more and more vasopressin seems to be involved. Vasopressin is a hormone involved in affiliative behavior — prairie voles who have brains which detect vasopressin mate for life and live in tight knit groups. Mountain voles, who lack proper vasopressin receptors, have no bonding with their mates. People with vasopressin receptors encoded by a short form of a gene (the gene called, “AVPR1a”) may be “ruthless”. It may be that with the short-form gene, vasopressin receptors are not as numerous, or are expressed only in particular parts of the brain.
Where you have otherwise intelligent, socially organized people, there may be just one component of the brain disconnected or unplugged. Generally, white matter connects different parts of the brain. White matter can be disconnected, it can be weakened or burnt out by alcohol. (Here’s a link to my previous “white matter” posts. )
When it is wired in a weird way, white matter may also be involved in pedophilia. As stated in Wikipedia,
* * *
In November 2007, the Toronto based Centre for Addiction and Mental Health published a study in the Journal of Psychiatry Research showing that child molesters with pedophilia suffer from a “significant lack of white matter connecting six different areas of the brain all known to play a role in sexual arousal.”[1][2]
There is more to it.
The last behavioral component is power. The two (Fritzl and Filyaw) who are sexually inclined use sex to get that power rush. This isn’t emotionally attached sex. This is, “Let’s pretend I’m the master and you’re the slave” sex. Or, in Fritzl’s case, maybe I’m the mortician, you’re the corpse (as has been reported). Power is what it’s all about. Even Mr. Reiser married a woman who was totally dependent on him, at least initially — a Russian bride (who was a doctor in Russia, trying to get her US licenses in place). Once she attained some degree of power in the US, Mr. Reiser apparently wasn’t interested — he could no longer automatically get what he wanted from her, I’m guessing.
And a power rush is, at least in part, a dopamine rush.
I suppose when you can’t feel love (vasopressin), you love power (dopamine).
And so, we have the neural correlates, at least in part, of evil: improper vasopressin, overtaken by dopamine, and white matter faulty wiring.
I’m sure there’s more.
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Topics: Authoritarianism, Bonding, Lying and cheating, Narcissisim, Punishment, hate, psychopath |
