Don't Touch Me I'll Kill You"I am not a mechanism, an assembly of various sections. And it is not because the mechanism is working wrongly that I am ill. I am ill because of wounds to the soul." D.H. LawrenceA lot of articles have been written on the importance of touch for human development and the positive effects of touch, but there's a much darker side to the equation that comes about from lack of touch as a child. In childcare facilities that were understaffed, children who did not receive care and affection did not live past their first year of life. The long term effects of not having human contact can result in violent behavior, alienation and depression. "Contact that transpires in the first moments, hours and months of a child's life will be largely responsible for the difference between a human life characterized by a persistent undercurrent of lack and desperation and one based on a sense of security and belonging," Mariana Caplan, PHD To Touch is to Live.This article will take a look at the connection of lack of touch and serial killers. It will explore numerous studies on touch and how the findings of these studies seem to parallel actions and motivations of killers. As far as I'm aware no studies have been done on killers and lack of touch, they have instead focused on the angles of abuse, chronic bedwetting and animal torture. Lack of touch is a fourth criterion that should be seriously considered.Serial killers have found a way to obtain intimate touch. "You feel the last bit of breath leaving their body. You're looking into their eyes. A person in that situation is God"-Ted Bundy. In death, in the struggle of one being at their hands, they are permitted to touch, something they may never have been allowed growing up. According to neuropsychologist and author of Body Pleasure and the Origins of Violence, James Prescott, if a child is not touched they are at risk for incomplete development of the brain pathways and systems that mediate pleasure. Adults who have difficulty experiencing pleasure states are more easily frustrated, more prone to depression and violence and more vulnerable to drug or alcohol abuse and addiction. In tests on monkeys where touch was deprived, they sometimes became pathologically violent. In fact most children would prefer abuse over neglect. Violent contact is craved as a form of touch over complete isolation. It's not mere coincidence that serial killers don't experience fear the way the rest of society understands it. They don't get sweaty palms, rapid heartbeat. The emotions we feel that stop us from harming others, serial killers don't feel. "Because of the damage of the two sensory systems for primary socialization pain and pleasure, they could have impaired pain perception the consequences of which are socialization problems and violent tendencies," Phyllis Davis The Power of Touch.According to Ashley Montague, author of Touching: The Human Significance of The Skin 1971 "neglected individuals grow up feeling unwanted by the world and are often repulsed by touch or affection. They become hardened and may harbor deep feelings of rage and resentment at their parents or the world." Usually the anger or unresolved feelings are directed towards the mother. While the mother lives, there is a hope the mother might one day love them, but when the mother dies, that's when those feelings of rejection and abandonment can wreak havoc with the psyche and violent tendencies can turn outward. It's interesting to note that serial killer Richard Otto Macek stole his mother's panties and chewed on the crotch and killer John Wayne Gacy kept his mother's panties hidden in a paper bag, bringing them out to caress for comfort.The result of being neglected, while a person won't consciously crave attention, he or she can often grow up without the ability to trust, to have intimacy with others and an inability to empathize with oneself and others. In the serial killer this can translate into a grandiose view of himself as number one and at other times viewing himself as nothing.Montague notes that piercings and razor blades are a way for a person to find a way to "touch" themselves. Serial murderer Albert Fish was found with 29 needles between his scrotum and rectum.Phyllis Davis in her book The Power of Touch states "If children in their first six years do not receive adequate TLC then we can predict a number of things about them as adultsthey may not be able to feel any emotion deeply. Deprived of physical and emotional closeness they might develop an extraordinary need for affection later in life that would be next to impossible to fulfill (unfulfilled the need often manifests itself as violence). "I have no particular desire to live. I have no particular desire to be killed. It is a matter of indifference to me. I do not think I am altogether right." --Albert FishWhile both men and women suffer from lack of touch, men tend to become violent offenders. According to the FBI, there are no known female serial killers (as dictated by their definition of motivation to kill) because women turn the pain inwards on themselves often manifesting in drug and alcohol abuse and prostitution. Men however, can become societies' most violent criminals taking out their sufferings, their stunted development on others. Human touch is not only comforting, it can be a matter of life or death.
Women Serial Killers
Killer Touch
