Dennis Rader, like most serial killers, is a psychopath. Psychopaths are human beings that do not feel emotions, and often times kill in order to seek out excitement, lust, or other such emotions. They believe killing will help them to feel. Oftentimes, psychopaths are results of nurture, with traumatic relationships early in life causing them to be damaged emotionally. An example of how this could occur would be if the father of Rader had been abusive. However, in the BTK Killer's case he was more a result of nature.
With no recorded traumatic experiences from his childhood, it might just be that Rader was born with a defected thalamus, causing him to feel no emotion whatsoever. This is ultimately a very likely answer, as the thalamus has been recently linked to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). A defected thalamus would explain his obsessive desire that he had for some of his victims, when the Orbital-Frontal Cortex (OFC) sends "worry signals" to the thalamus, the brain has a pseudo braking system to prevent the thalamus from becoming hyperactive. However, if the thalamus is defected, it will ignore the braking system altogether, causing the mindless, random actions that are associated with OCD. In Rader's case, his compulsive behavior is best exemplified by his later murders. He became obsessed with each of his victims, stalking their daily lives, finding out the minute details of their routines. He worked months on these cases, and showed extreme perfectionism in an attempt to work out the best and most efficient way to perform the kill.
The most likely answer to the Dennis Rader question is that he is compulsive, however, there are other aspects of his behavior that belong under narcissistic behavior. Rader, if he has Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), then there was an opportunity that he was pampered by his parents when he was a developing child. However, this might not be so because he does not begin to show his own desire for fame until late in his killing spree. After the murder of the Otero family, in fact, Rader was so terrified of publicity that he waited a long time, despite his deepest desires, to kill again. But this fear of being caught slowly went away with each successful kill. There are two reasons to believe that Rader has a mild case of narcissism. The first, was his reaction to the release of the 30th anniversary Otero murder article in the Wichita Paper, that was partnered with the release of the novel about the BTK Killer. Rader was excited by the new releases, however he was infuriated that he was not being credited with the story, and that it was not being told accurately. In response, he started his drops, telling the story in a broken way, with eye witness accounts, and pictures of the actual act to tell the whole story. The second reason that Rader may have narcissism, is his unexpected confession and admittance without remorse at the trial. He wanted to tell his story his way, so that the whole world knew what he had done. He craved the attention of the world.
In another sense, Rader could be viewed as a sociopath. Again, sociopathy could be associated with the thalamus being defected, if it is, then emotional stimuli are not being properly distributed throughout the brain; resulting in under reactions from gruesome events. An example of Rader's sociopathy again would be the lack of remorse he showed in his court confession. This is the biggest red flag for identifying sociopaths in society, if there is no emotion or remorse than there is most likely something going on in the brain.
From a Freudian perspective: Dennis Rader is the result of suppression. In other words, the animal instinct inside Rader drove him insane, and urged him to do extreme actions in an attempt to satisfy his hunger to be animalistic. This is a nature explanation for Rader's gruesome acts.
From a nurture standpoint, one must start at childhood. Since the Rader's were adamantly religious, Rader must have spent a lot of time in mass. This could prove suffocating to a young man, making him feel trapped by dogma. His feelings of being inferior, or controlled by his religious structure, may have created a desire within him for control. With a defected thalamus to go along with his feeling of inferiority, he relied heavily on his amygdala for his emotional feelings, which may have caused his sexual feelings of control. Mixed with his obsessive behavior it helped his sexual fantasies to consume him.
With no recorded traumatic experiences from his childhood, it might just be that Rader was born with a defected thalamus, causing him to feel no emotion whatsoever. This is ultimately a very likely answer, as the thalamus has been recently linked to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). A defected thalamus would explain his obsessive desire that he had for some of his victims, when the Orbital-Frontal Cortex (OFC) sends "worry signals" to the thalamus, the brain has a pseudo braking system to prevent the thalamus from becoming hyperactive. However, if the thalamus is defected, it will ignore the braking system altogether, causing the mindless, random actions that are associated with OCD. In Rader's case, his compulsive behavior is best exemplified by his later murders. He became obsessed with each of his victims, stalking their daily lives, finding out the minute details of their routines. He worked months on these cases, and showed extreme perfectionism in an attempt to work out the best and most efficient way to perform the kill.
The most likely answer to the Dennis Rader question is that he is compulsive, however, there are other aspects of his behavior that belong under narcissistic behavior. Rader, if he has Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), then there was an opportunity that he was pampered by his parents when he was a developing child. However, this might not be so because he does not begin to show his own desire for fame until late in his killing spree. After the murder of the Otero family, in fact, Rader was so terrified of publicity that he waited a long time, despite his deepest desires, to kill again. But this fear of being caught slowly went away with each successful kill. There are two reasons to believe that Rader has a mild case of narcissism. The first, was his reaction to the release of the 30th anniversary Otero murder article in the Wichita Paper, that was partnered with the release of the novel about the BTK Killer. Rader was excited by the new releases, however he was infuriated that he was not being credited with the story, and that it was not being told accurately. In response, he started his drops, telling the story in a broken way, with eye witness accounts, and pictures of the actual act to tell the whole story. The second reason that Rader may have narcissism, is his unexpected confession and admittance without remorse at the trial. He wanted to tell his story his way, so that the whole world knew what he had done. He craved the attention of the world.
In another sense, Rader could be viewed as a sociopath. Again, sociopathy could be associated with the thalamus being defected, if it is, then emotional stimuli are not being properly distributed throughout the brain; resulting in under reactions from gruesome events. An example of Rader's sociopathy again would be the lack of remorse he showed in his court confession. This is the biggest red flag for identifying sociopaths in society, if there is no emotion or remorse than there is most likely something going on in the brain.
From a Freudian perspective: Dennis Rader is the result of suppression. In other words, the animal instinct inside Rader drove him insane, and urged him to do extreme actions in an attempt to satisfy his hunger to be animalistic. This is a nature explanation for Rader's gruesome acts.
From a nurture standpoint, one must start at childhood. Since the Rader's were adamantly religious, Rader must have spent a lot of time in mass. This could prove suffocating to a young man, making him feel trapped by dogma. His feelings of being inferior, or controlled by his religious structure, may have created a desire within him for control. With a defected thalamus to go along with his feeling of inferiority, he relied heavily on his amygdala for his emotional feelings, which may have caused his sexual feelings of control. Mixed with his obsessive behavior it helped his sexual fantasies to consume him.