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"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it" - Toni Morrison
Short psychological descriptions of murder methods
This will probably be part one of several. I thought it might be interesting to sum them up for you in a couple sentences.
Drowning: Drowning is often about control. You have the ability to bring that person back from the brink of death and then push them back over the edge. Killers who use this method often crave some sort of power that they lack in everyday life.
Stabbing: Stabbing is often a crime of passion. People who use this method usually haven’t planned the murder. However, equally as often, stabbing can be a sexual crime. Men who are sexually impotent may stab their victims because subconsciously, they are penetrating them.
Asphyxiation: This one is similar to drowning in regards to the power aspect. It also has a strong sexual component. Some consensual partners may use choking as a way to increase pleasure, and some killers take this to an extreme.
Shooting: The psychology of a shooting is across the board. It’s by far the choice of professional murders. It’s usually the choice for people who don’t have an extreme anger or connection to their victims, it’s impersonal. Shooting someone can also be the method chosen simply for effectiveness.
Poison: This is the most common method used by women. It’s a very calculated, and often long term commitment to murder. Some killers who use poison do it slowly over a period of time in order to make the victim seem sick, and people are less likely to ask questions when they pass. Due to it’s planned nature, it’s not a crime of passion generally. It is often used to kill someone to obtain assets.
Bludgeoning: This method shows a lot of anger usually. It takes a lot of adrenaline or strength to beat someone to death, and it’s most commonly used in an unplanned murder. People who bludgeon their victims usually have a strong bond to their victim that they feel has been broken. It’s also a common method used by children who kill because they have a harder time accessing weapons.
“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
Back in college, Sanket and I would hang out in bars and try to talk to women but I was horrible at it.
Nobody would talk to me for more than thirty seconds and every woman would laugh at all his jokes for what seemed like hours.
Even decades later I think they are still laughing at his jokes. One time he turned to me,
“the girls are getting bored when you talk. Your stories go on too long. From now on, you need to leave out every other sentence when you tell a story.”
We were both undergrads in Computer Science. I haven’t seen him since but that’s the most important writing (and communicating) advice I ever got.
