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THE CRIMINAL MIND
There are many reasons why people kill, but regardless of the reasons, there are different
types of killers: Those who kill by reason of insanity, those exposed to social risks, those with a
predisposition to mental illnesses, and those whose personality and behavior change as a result of
brain injuries. Although our knowledge of abnormal behavior is still inadequate, scientists have
made great strides in discovering the causes. The mental health professionals chiefly look at
personality characteristics, personal discomfort (the experience of inner distress), and life
functioning (success in meeting society’s expectations for performance in work, school, and
social relationships). In this paper I will discuss the biological causes of psychological disorders,
social risk factors, and the predisposition to mental illness and will use as an example one of
Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories , “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
The biological causes of psychological disorders are the result of physiological
malfunctions—for example, of the nervous system or the endocrine glands—often stemming
from hereditary factors. There is growing evidence that genetic factors are involved in mental
disorders as diverse as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder (also called mood swings), depression,
paranoia, and anxiety disorders. That biochemistry of the nervous system is linked to some cases
of depression and schizophrenia. This biological predisposition called a diathesis must combine
with some kind of stressful circumstance before the predisposition to a mental disorder shows up
as behavior. Schizophrenic and paranoid individuals are prone to violence and suspicion of other
people they perceive as a threat. There is no doubt that the man on the street corner claiming to
be Jesus Christ or the woman insisting that aliens from outer space are trying to kill her is
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behaving abnormally. Both, the man who claims to be Jesus Christ and the woman who thinks
aliens are trying to kill her, exhibit signs of delusion and hallucinations (Morris, 450). Some
people, starting at some point early in early life, develop inflexible and maladaptive ways of
thinking and behaving so exaggerated and rigid, these cause serious distress to themselves or
trouble to others. For instance, a fourteen-year old boy who has been uncontrollable at home and
disruptive in school since early childhood, abuses alcohol and other drugs, frequently steals from
stores, and fires a semiautomatic pistol into the air while driving through the territory of a rival
gang as part of his initiation has shown signs of early psychopathology (Strupp and Hadley 427).
Another example is that of a forty- year old computer programmer who lives alone and feels
insecure when relating to others (Strupp and Hadley 427).
Not all people who kill due to psychological disorders. It is possible that the fourteenyear-old boy had been a “good kid” until he got involved with gang members who pressured him
to do things he knows are wrong (Strupp and Hadley 428). The same can be said of the computer
programmer. Being alone does not necessarily make him anxious. He simply prefers to be a
loner. Emotional problems result from a combination of biological risks, psychological stresses,
and social pressure and expectations. Several risk factors affect one another: personality styles,
poor health habits (smoking), and stress result in health problems such as cancer, and low
immune system, leaving the person vulnerable to other physical illnesses. The chemical
imbalance associated with depression could be caused by stressful life events. Just as biology
affects psychological experience, psychological experience can alter our biological functioning.
According to Aaron Beck, during childhood and adolescence, some people undergo wrenching
experiences such as the loss of a parent, severe difficulties in gaining parental or social approval,
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or humiliating criticism from teachers and other adults (436). Many social factors have been
linked to mood disorders, and difficulties in interpersonal relationships (Culbertson, 436).
Many psychologists have pointed out that much stress is generated by hassles, life’s petty
annoyances, irritations, and frustrations (DeLongis, Folkman, & Gruen, 397). Such seemingly
minor matters as having a zipper break, waiting in long lines, or having a petty argument with a
friend take their toll. DeLongis believes that big events matter so much because they trigger
numerous little hassles that eventually overwhelm us with stress. People who have recently
suffered a major traumatic event are more likely than other people to be plagued by minor
stressors or hassles (Pillow, Zautra, & Sandler, 399). “It is not the large traumatic events that
make the difference,” notes Lazarus, “but what happens day in and day out. Whether provoked
by major events or not” (399). Both major and minor events are stressful because they lead to
feelings of pressure, frustration, and conflict.
However, psychological problems also stem from injuries to the brain. For instance, the
section of the frontal lobe known as the primary motor cortex plays a key role in the behaviors
we associate with personality, including motivation, persistence, affect (emotional responses),
and even character (social and moral judgment). People with damage to the frontal lobe undergo
major personality changes. Once friendly considerate and a good worker, the person becomes
unstable, irritable, increasingly profane and irreverent, loses interest in work, may drift from job
to job, and become violent. Most psychologists agree that personality change—especially loss of
motivation and ability to concentrate—is the major outcome of frontal lobe damage. The frontal
lobes are involved in goal-directed behavior and the ability to lead a mature emotional life. When
adults suffer strokes or other traumas to the prefrontal cortex, their ability to make judgments is
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impaired. Impaired judgment increases the chance of misperceptions that can lead to violence,
and the potential to commit murder (Cohen & Raffal 60-61).
In his short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Edgar Allan Poe relates the story of a man who
could not tell the difference between appearance and reality. His sense of reality was grossly
distorted, but in his world he always questioned why he was perceived as a mad man. The
narrator states “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing” (279). He considered his disease an
advantage, rather than an impediment. The narrator says “The disease had sharpened my
senses—not destroyed—not dulled them” (279). He thought to have an acute sense of hearing, as
he mentions “I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in Hell. How,
then, am I mad? (279). Every time he questioned why he was perceived as mad, he went to prove
how brilliant he was by describing with minute details how he killed an old man because he had
an evil eye. But each time he tried to prove why the perception of him being mad was wrong, he
continued to detail when he killed the old man, where he killed the old man, and what instrument
he used to kill the old man. He described with great exhilaration when he heard the old man’s
heart beat fast, and breathe heavily, when he heard “the groan of mortal terror.”
He described his sadistic excitement seeing the old man suffering. He knew that
anticipation of knowing that something terrible was going to happen to him was worse than
death itself. He could not contain his excitement whenever he heard the old man’s heart beat like
the hands of a watch. He counted with the precision of a watch how many times his heart beat,
how long, how loud, how quickly. But in reality, it was not an actual watch but the watch he had
chosen in terms vigilance. How many nights would he watch the old man as he slept every night
at midnight when the world was silenced. The narrator says “Never before had I felt the extent of
my own powers” (280). He felt in control when he had the upper hand, when had carefully
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orchestrated every move he would take to kill the old man. Moreover, the narrator also says “I
was never kinder to the old man than the week before I killed him” (279). He claims he was kind
to the old man, yet the way he relished when the old man suffered the terror of not knowing what
was lurking in the dark is anything but love. He killed the old man with one blow, as he appeared
in the shadows, and the old man never knew he had killed him. He shrieked once—only once. In
the end he dismembered the old man’s body, and buried him beneath three planks of his
chambers. Although, it is only a short story, the events that took place in Edgar Allan Poe story
are so eerily similar to real life events one could say that Edgar Allan Poe had probably known of
a man in similar situation.
In her book, Guilty by Reason of Insanity: A Psychiatrist Explores the Minds of Killers,
Dorothy Otnow Lewis, M.D. cites various cases of people as young as fourteen who had brained
damage and committed crimes when they lost their sense of reality, but could not remember what
they did, because they completely blanked out. Dr. Otnow cites various cases of young people
who were physically abused to the extent that when she examined them, they still bared the
marks in their bodies, had damage to the brain due to blows, including mild retardation, IQs from
65 to 75. In her book, Dr. Otnow relates numerous cases of people convicted of crimes that could
have been avoided had these people been evaluated at some earlier point in their lives for
psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, and clinical depression. Dr. Otnow has evaluated
countless people in criminal prisons and delinquents who had some sort of brain damage that
prevented them from functioning in society (29-45).
One of the most poignant examples of what can go wrong when children are in the womb
or when they are physically abused is the case of Lee Anne whose mother was treated for
Syphilis when she was pregnant with Lee Anne—Syphilis, “that ancient scourge that attacks in
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utero organs of growing babies” (41). In addition, Lee Anne’s mother had also been
hypothyroid. As Dr. Otnow points out, “Here was a medical problem bound to put a lid on any
child’s intelligence. Lee Anne was not an auspicious start in life. Adding injury to insult, Lee
Anne was wrenched by forceps from her mother’s narrow pelvis, one clavicle had been fractured
and the soft bones of Lee Anne’s cranium had been squeezed together” (41). To make matters
worse, Lee Anne’s uncle physically abused her. She had marks all over her body. Dr. Otnow
evaluated Lee Anne when she was sentenced to death for killing her best friend, although Lee
Anne did not recall the incident
As I have been able to demonstrate, psychological disorders are a combination of
biological, psychological, and social risk factors. Schizophrenia, delusions, hallucinations are all
part of psychiatric disorders that if left untreated people suffering from these disorders can
become aggressive, violent and kill people at the command of voices instructing them to kill, as
was the case with Edgar Allan Poe’s character in his short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart.” I have
also been able to demonstrate how environment, nurturing, chemical imbalances, and brain
injuries can change the personality of a person so completely it is difficult to recognize the
person once known to be sweet, well-mannered, easy-going, and lovable turned to be the
opposite. As I discussed earlier, damage to certain parts of the brain, such as the frontal lobes,
can lead to major personality changes, such as paranoid, borderline, narcissistic, and antisocial
personalities, which makes the person insensitive, disregard for human life, impulsive, guarded,
manipulative, and prone to violence.
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Elizabeth Pena
Works Cited
Beck, Aaron. Depression: Clinical, experimental and theoretical aspects. New York: Harper,
1967.
Cohen A. and Raffal. “Attention and Feature Integration: Illusionary Conjunctions in a Patient
with a Parietal Lobe Lesion” Psychology Science 2: (1991) 106-110
Culbertson, F.M. “Depression and Gender: An International Review. American Psychologist 52:
(1997) 25-31
Lazarus, Delongis, et al. “Stress and Adaptional Outcomes” American Psychologist. 40: (1985)
770-779
Lewis, Dorothy O. Guilty By Reason of Insanity: A Psychiatrist Explores the Minds of Killers.
New York: The Ballantine Publishing Group, 1998.
Morris Charles G and Albert A. Maisto "12." Understanding Psychology. Ed. Leah Jewell. 6th
ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2003. 450.
Pillow, et al. “Major Life Events and Minor Stressors: Identifying Meditational Links in the
Stress Process” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 70: 381-394.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Literature An Introduction To Fiction. Poetry. Drama.
And Writing Ed. Joseph Terry. 5th ed. Pearson Longman, 2007. 279-282.
Strupp and Hadley. "A tripartite model o mental health and therapeutic outcomes with special
reference to negative effects on psychotherapy” American Psychological Association. 32
(1977): 187-196
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