Jeffrey Dahmer

Running Header: JEFFERY DAHMER: PARAPHILIAC

Jeffery Dahmer: Paraphiliac

Sandra Lattin

Psychology 410

June 2, 2010

Dr. David Zachary

Jeffery Dahmer: Paraphiliac

Jeffery Dahmer was born in May 21, 1960. His father was a chemical engineer while his mother was a homemaker. He also had a brother five years younger. His childhood years were characterized by constant fighting between his parents, a feat that would continue even after his death, as they would legally battle for his remains. His mother was constantly depressed and harboring suicidal feelings whereas his father had his concentration focused on research studies. From a young age, he was fascinated and pro-occupied with dead animals and their deteriorating remains. He kept a souvenir collection of most of them using a chemistry set his father had given him. The chemistry set was helpful to the young boy in dissolving and removing the skin of the decomposing creatures.

Werner Erhard and Associates v. Christopher Cox fo...

English: An American Lady butterfly against a clou...

Ohio State University

His father had done this in trust of invoking research qualities in his son given that he was a successful research chemist himself (Purcell & Arrigo, 2006).

The marital strife between his parents escalated as years progressed leading to a divorce while he was eighteen, all serving to alienate him during his formative and developmental years. This compounded further the fantasy world he had created over the years. Nonetheless, he was involved in regular activities such as playing the clarinet and tennis. At some point, he was writing for the school paper while also managing to earn descent grades. The notable down trend was instigated by alcoholism that made him drop from Ohio State University due to absenteeism. His father was the key in enrolling him to alcohol rehabilitation and later insisted he join the army to maintain the discipline.

As fate would have it, the alcoholism...