Category: Analysis

Joyce was 24 years old when baby Jeff was born. According to her, it was not planned to get pregnant so soon after she got married to Lionel. But Lionel has said that his birth control method was foolproof. It happened after two months of marriage anyway and unfortunately it wasn’t an easy pregnancy. Joyce said it was filled with nausea, pain and bed rest. Her doctor prescribed her medication for anxiety that made it a bit more bearable. Joyce said that Lionel demanded sex constantly near the end of her pregnancy and it caused her to go into premature labor. She was rushed into the hospital and after the emergency delivery, she woke up alone. No recognition of the birth of their son or the labor.

Lionel too has said it wasn’t an easy pregnancy. Everything seemed to bother her, every single noise or odor. This so afflicted her nerves that she began to develop uncontrollable muscle spasms, which distressed her even more. She would get some type of seizures. During these, her eyes would bulge like a frightening animal and she would begin to salivate, literally frothing at the mouth. Joyce has denied she had these seizures. But according to Lionel she got injections of barbiturates and morphine to help her relax. The doctor could not find any medical reason for these attacks. He said they were rooted in Joyce’s mental state.

Joyce grew up with an alcoholic father. According to the Shrine, Joyce often had said she felt helpless and lonely as a child but did not know why. She knew the emotion of abandonment very early. In the Silent Victims, Joyce also writes she has been abused by him.

On May 21, 1960 Jeff was finally born. When Lionel first saw his son, he was sleeping quietly. When he was allowed to go home, Joyce held him gently in her arms. The first few days there was a happiness that settled over Lionel and Joyce. Joyce kept a scrapbook about Jeff where all his first achievements were lovingly recorded. But the feeling of happiness only lasted for a short time. Joyce stopped pretty fast with breast feeding. It made her nervous and she dreaded it terribly. Brian Masters wrote that this abrupt change may have felt like a rejection or distance to the baby.

According to the book Serial Killers: the method and madness of monsters, the most common factor attributed to serial killer is the likely absence of infant bonding. “An infant that is denied human touch and affection develops a sense of only itself – it becomes completely oblivious to others. This is necessary for the infant to survive but can become a destructive trait in adulthood.”

Jeff himself has said he later in his life learned that Joyce had mental problems and that there were times she was gone a lot. But that she was never mean or unkind to him and she actually could be very comforting. He overheard his aunt saying that after he was born, Joyce had suffered a severe case of post partum depression and had to be hospitalized. He said he didn’t know at the time what it was but that he still felt responsible for it, like he had done something to cause her illness. Joyce writes in The Silent Victims she mourned the loss of her dreams, of her life, of her pride. She felt like she and Lionel became a recreation of her own family.

Around 1970 Joyce’s fragile health collapsed. She had been steadily increasing her consumption of drugs. Eventually she was taken to a hospital, where she spent a month in a mental ward. The Shrine says Jeff’s response to this was classic. He blamed himself for his mother’s illness. He had known for as long as he could remember that she had been depressed following his birth, and that he had therefore caused her illness. He also must have caused every relapse. He could not articulate his pain, for fear of tipping his mother over the edge again. He had to keep himself to himself, say little and do less, to protect her, to keep a little calm in the house. The more she saw of him the worse it would be for her. Jeff quite simply felt he did not belong and that if he were to belong he would only do harm. The fact that Jeff had not been troublesome or demanding as an infant ought not to earn suprise. The child who does not ask for attention, wheter or not because he has learnt not to expect it, betrays as inner deadness which can be mistaken for goodness and sweetness of character.

Joyce writes that as Jeff grew older he began to turn inward, became more and more withdrawn and introspective which mystified and disturbed her greatly. She also says that Jeff did came home drunk when he was a teenager and he did seem to spend an inordinate amount of time alone. When she decided to leave to Wisconsin, Joyce says she asked Jeff to come with her and David but that he decided to stay so he could attend the University. He said he could handle it and she should go ahead. Afterwards they spend some holidays together. They were not the warm, loving encounters she had hoped for but she made the best of it, having him for the holidays made a difference to her. Joyce said she felt compelled to stay in touch with Jeff. But he refused to answer.

When Jeff was assigned to group therapy by the terms of his probation, it was noted that Jeff seemed to be very uncomfortable in talking about his mother. In the reports of his probation officer Donna Chester, it was reported that on March 25, 91 Joyce had called him and they talked to each other for the first time in 5 years. She knows he was gay and had no problem accepting it. In the report it said, he was happy.

Joyce was reflective in The Silent Victims. She asked herself how she could be so careless that Jeff felt so insignificant in their lives. She felt like she should have done something earlier, should have known something was up and should have tried harder. Since Joyce had a dad who was an alcoholic, she admits she saw the signs with Jeff and asks herself why she never did anything to help him.

She writes, “I now realize how damaging the constant arguments, anger and physical confrontations were on the boys, especially Jeff. Although I was rarely angry with Jeff, he was constantly subjected to a barrage of fury and anger directed toward Lionel and he toward me. It must have been extremely frightening and paralyzing to him, it surely drove him off to spend more time alone, drove him further into himself.” “I am aware now that my own difficult childhood prefaced my children’s. I, after all, had learned my parenting skills from my parents. I never actually took the necessary steps to unlearn what came naturally to me. And my boys suffered because of it.” “Little did I or anyone else know that the ‘baggage’ Lionel and I were carrying would be so devastating to one quiet, lonely, withdrawn, little boy.”

After Jeff got arrested, it seemed the bond between him and his mom finally got better. They were talking and writing each other. Joyce visited him in jail often as she could and Jeff told her his whole story. He, almost desperately, wanted to make sure she knew he didn’t want the victims to suffer. That he wasn’t mean. To me, this is Jeff in some way wanting to have his mom’s approval, to not disappoint her even more. After this heavy conversation, it seemed mother and son established a comfortable routine. They finally seemed to have the relationship they always wanted but couldn’t find. Despite the circumstances. But unfortunately it wouldn’t last long.. A prison warden called Joyce to tell her the devastating news that Jeff had been killed.

My personal opinion:
I know some dislike Joyce a lot and I respect that, I can understand it. I have disliked Joyce a lot for a long time too but after going deeper into their relationship and realizing, most of the stuff we know about Joyce, comes from Lionel.. it has changed my views. Yes she obviously has made some huge mistakes. But I do believe towards the end of her life she was more self aware of it and even admitted it. I think she cared deeply about Jeff but had too much issues of her own to properly show it. Moms with PPD often dont get taken seriously, especially back in these days. I think this had a big influence on Joyce bonding experiences with Jeff and ultimately Jeff’s feelings of neglect and loneliness. It’s so important for babies to bond with their moms. She also supposedly had BPD. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for Jeff growing up with a mom that was dealing with some severe mental health problems. But Lionel deserves to be held responsible for Jeff’s neglect in his childhood as much as Joyce. Lionel should have been more present and protecting Jeff. They both should have paid more attention to him but were too busy with each other. They both failed the little boy that was already lost but still had a chance to be saved.

Jeff Dahmer, was according to the Psych Reports, diagnosed with Schizotypal Personality Disorder.

A little background info:
This type of personality disorder falls under the cluster A of personality disorders. The STPD diagnostic criteria for DSM-5 consist of:

• ideas of reference
• odd beliefs of magical thinking
• unusual perceptual experiences and bodily illusions
• odd thinking and speech
• suspiciousness or paranoid ideation
• inappropriate or constricted affect
• behavior or appearance that is odd, eccentric or peculiar
• lack of close friends of confidants, other than first degree relatives
• excessive social anxiety that doesn’t diminish with familiarity and tends to be associated with paranoid beliefs.

Five of nine criteria are required for a diagnosis of STPD.

STPD remained significantly associated with bipolar I and II disorder, PTSD, BPD and NPD. Twin studies have provided evidence that STPD is determined by both familial-genetic and unique environmental factors. A number of forms of psychological trauma and chronic stress have been associated with STPD. Over half of patients with STPD have had > 1 episode of major depressive disorder and 30 to 50% of them have major depressive disorder when schizotypal personality disorder is diagnosed. These patients often also have a substance use disorder. 

People with STPD often come across as aloof, flat or emotionally distant, and are preoccupied with fantasy and daydreaming. People with this disorder may ignore ordinary social conventions (for example, not make eye contact), and because they do not understand usual social cues, they may interact with others inappropriately or stiffly. They are very uncomfortable relating to people. They interact with people if they have to but prefer not to because they feel like they are different and do not belong. However, they may say their lack of relationships makes them unhappy. Signs and symptoms of schizotypal personality disorder, such as increased interest in solitary activities or a high level of social anxiety, may be seen in the teen years. The child may be an underperformer in school or appear socially out of step with peers, which may result in teasing or bullying.

Now let’s look at Jeff and some of his behavior that could be related to his STPD:

• If we look at his childhood there are obvious signs he kept to himself. He didn’t have many friends, he didn’t interact a lot with other kids at a young age. There were two incidents that are mentioned in The Shrine that could have “started” his STPD. The incident with the tadpoles, where the teacher gave Jeff’s present to her, to another kid he thought of as a friend. He killed the tadpoles with motor oil when he found out. This could have been a trigger for him to be suspicious of people who are kind to him. The other incident is with a choking game he played with the other kids. When it was Jeff’s turn to choke a kid, the kid ran to the teacher to tattle on him. Another betrayal in his early life that could have started his paranoid and suspicious beliefs.
• In his teens we can see some of the behavior that is odd and peculiar. The things he did that were seen as Doing a Dahmer. I know this was also a way to hide his true self, his dark thoughts he was already having but it could also be related to early signs of STPD if you think about it.
• He obviously never had any close relationships besides his parents and grandmother. Not that he was particularly close to his parents but yeah.
• His paranoid beliefs also can be seen in his alarm system he bought but never fully installed. He might have thought just to look of it might scare people away if they wanted to break in. 
• Examples of his odd thinking of beliefs can be seen in him thinking the yellow eye contacts could give him the same power as The Emperor in Star Wars. Jeff seemed to be obsessed with obtaining a certain power or control over people. 
• His idea of creating a Shrine. The Shrine he was building was for remembering the physical appearance of his victims but also another way for him to get some sort of power. 
• Jeff mentioned often it was like he was possessed by an evil force that gave him these compulsions he could not get rid of. He truly thought he was Evil.
• Another odd or magical belief could be him thinking that wearing a victim’s face or eating their body parts would make them one with him. That they would continue to live on inside of him 
• Some people mistake Jeff for being a psychopath because of his lack of expressing or showing emotion. But this is also a typical sign of STPD. Dr. Norman Goldfrab mentioned: His voice was devoid of emotional shading of life and that Jeff was “suspicious of the motives of others, a classic schizoid trait.” Dr Evelyn Rosen’s has said that Jeff had a “schizoid personality disorder with paranoid features.” And added a dire prognostication: “Jeff is not psychotic, but not much is needed to push him and alcohol serves this purpose.”
• Schizoid personality disorder is also a personality disorder often mentioned in The Shrine but Jeff was never officially diagnosed with it according to the Pscyh Reports. The symptoms between STPD and Schizoid Personality Disorder do show similarities
• While people with schizotypal personality disorder may experience brief psychotic episodes with delusions or hallucinations, the episodes are not as frequent, prolonged or intense as in schizophrenia. It is possible, if we believe Tracy Edwards story, that Jeff might have experienced at that time a brief psychotic episode. 
• Jeff’s crimes were based on his bizarre fantasies. His whole life was focused on chasing the ultimate fantasy he had of the perfect orgasm and control.

A study has shown that people with Stpd have more chances of having olfactory identification impairment which can explain how it was possible that Jeff lived in a small apartment with rotting bodies and cutting open to viscera without getting sick of the smell himself.

These are the first few signs of his STPD that I came up with. I am open to feedback and things you might know about him that could relate to his STPD. Just to be clear, I am not an expert on personality disorders. During my study I had only one short term on mental health conditions, so my own knowledge is limited. The things I mentioned with Jeff’s behavior related to STPD is how I see it. I just found it weird how little this disorder is mentioned in Jeff’s case.