Analysis of Jeffrey Epstein's Behavior through Psychological Theory When society is forced to struggle with cases of unimaginable evil committed against the most vulnerable members of the public, it naturally ignites questions about what mix of things could provoke such deviance. Jeffrey Epstein's crimes depict one of the most horrifying events of widespread child sexual exploitation in modern history. For this wealthy financier, it took decades of running one of the largest sex trafficking operations, where he abused dozens of underage girls by using his wealth, power, elite connections, and facade of honour. Among the many tough questions this terrible Epstein case raises are what kinds of psychological factors combined might lead to such …show more content…
Sarah Ransome's book, “Silenced No More: Surviving My Journey to Hell and Back” details her own terrible experience as a victim and paints a frightening picture of Epstein's desire to use the youngest girls who show signs of puberty sexually. Ransome shows how Epstein carefully recorded the measurements and puberty stages of his underage victims along with instructions for grooming to enable abuse (Ransome, 2021). The revelations of his sexual exploits and actions indicate that Epstein was aroused exclusively by the hidden physical features of the development of sexual maturity in girls under the age of 18. Despite being convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution from a minor after investigators identified more than 36 underage victims in Florida, Epstein secured a secret plea deal from prosecutors in which he only served 13 months in county jail with a work release of about 12 hours per day. It was not until 2019 that the federal prosecutors were able to get new charges of sex trafficking filed against Epstein, which ultimately brought him to trial (Levine, …show more content…
Applying the Psychodynamic Theory Having this disturbing background information as a background for Epstein's downfall into unlawful and unacceptable wrongdoing, we can now look at how the psychodynamic approach to human motivation could reveal the root of pathological factors that fueled the unimaginable acts. This psychological theory is based on the assumption that human nature and personality result from the complex interaction between the three components of the unconscious mind, which are the id, ego and superego (Pelz & Overstreet, 2022). The id stands for the most primitive, instinctual drives like thirst, hunger, aggression, and, most important of all, libidinal sexual desire. Primally amoral, the id works solely through the pleasure principle and that is, the impulses are to be satisfied immediately without any moral considerations or social constraints (Pelz & Overstreet,
One of the most shocking cases involving victims of crime failed by the criminal justice system is the Jimmy Savile scandal that was uncovered in 2012, a year after his death. Jimmy Saville was renown as a famous television, DJ and radio personality and a highly respected man for his charity work within the UK. Nevertheless, he was also one of the UK’s most famous sexual predators and paedophiles who had many victims. His victims included women as well as up to 1,000 young girls and boys, the age range of victims were as low as 5 all the way up to 75, over a 50-year period. He led this lifestyle by abusing his power, and taking advantage of his celebrity status, to feed his
Based on this information Katz makes the claim that senseless crimes can exert strong sensual attraction, though crime can make sense still from a materialistic standpoint (Frank, 1989). In the case of Ted Bundy, his crimes ostensibly were senseless and without reward, however, through violent pornography it is clear he was seduced into committing the violence he perpetrated, and that his materialistic reward, though not monetary, was merely the thrill of perpetrating his violent fantasies upon others. In this manner, the “Seductions of Crime” applies to the case of Ted
Knight, Zelda G. "Sexually Motivated Serial Killers And The Psychology Of Aggression And "Evil" Within A Contemporary Psychoanalytical Perspective." Journal Of Sexual Aggression 13.1 (2007): 21-35. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. Web. 1 May 2014.
Offenders are able to identify weaknesses in a child’s personality or life circumstances and then exploit them. There can be many different characteristics a Child Molester or Pedophile uses for their selection process. The characteristics are the foll...
Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 to Jewish Galician parents in the Moravian town of Pribor in the Austrian Empire (“Sigmund Freud” n. pag). During his education in the medical field, Freud decided to mix the career fields of medicine and philosophy to become a psychologist (“Sigmund Freud” n. pag). During his research as a psychologist, he conceived the Structural Model Theory, which he discussed in his essay Beyond the Pleasure Principle. The theory states that the human psyche is divided into three main parts: the id, ego, and super-ego (“Id, Ego, and Super-ego” n. pag). He concluded that the id was the desire for destruction, violence and sex; the ego was responsible for intellect and dealing with reality; and the super-ego was a person’s sense of right and wrong and moral standards (Hamilton, n. pag). Freud argued that a healthy individual will have developed the strongest ego to keep the id and super-ego in check (“Id, Ego, and Super-ego” n. p...
The psychoanalytic perspective grew out of subsequent psychoanalytic theories (1901, 1924, and 1940) following decades of interactions with clients with the use of an innovative procedure developed by Sigmund Freud that required lengthy verbal interactions with patients during which Freud probed deep into their lives. In a nutshell, the psychoanalytic perspective looked to explain personality, motivation, and psychological disorders by focussing on the influence of early childhood experiences, on unconscious motives and conflicts, and on the methods people use to cope with their sexual and aggressive urges. The Biological perspective on the other hand looks at the physiological bases of behaviour in humans and animals. It proposes that an organism’s functioning can be described in terms of the bodily structures and biochemical processes that cause behaviour. This paper attempts to examine the similarities and differences between the psychoanalytic perspective and the biological perspective with the key focus on the core assumptions and features of these perspectives as well as their individual strengths and weaknesses.
In addition to Freud’s stages of development his best-known concepts are those of the id, ego, and superego (Crain, p. 268). The id personality called ‘the unconscious” is the personality that focuses on maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain through reflexes and drives such as hunger or bladder tensions (Crain, pp. 268-269). The id concept is impulsive, chaotic and unrealistic.
In Sigmund Freud's observation, humans are mainly ambitious by sexual and aggressive instincts, and search for boundless enjoyment of all needs. However, the continuous pursuit of gratification driven by the identification, or unconscious, directly conflicts with our society as the uncontrolled happiness. Sigmund Freud believed that inherent sexual and aggressive power prevented from being expressed would cause our "society to be miserable and the forfeiture of contentment." Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic view of personality theory is based on the perception that greatly of human behavior is determi...
Destiny has been a debated topic for some time. Everyone loves to believe that the destiny of a person is already set once he has been born, others think it’s like a roulette, once it starts spinning it lands on a square that benefits only a select few lucky people; however contrary to these beliefs, destiny works in a different way. “Destiny is not a matter of chance, It is a matter of choice.” Is what a wise man once said. The truth is that destiny does not really exist, if enough hard work is put in, people can reach anywhere.
Childhood sexual abuse has been and continues to be a major issue in American society. Victims of such trauma can illustrate both short-term and long-term side effects, stemming from the damage endured during childhood. In severe cases, unresolved trauma of sexual abuse can have dire consequences. One of the most infamous and publicized case (cases) that illustrated these dire consequences was the Menendez murders of 1989.
Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson are two theorists that “believed the major determinants of personality are not conscious…[and] are the result of conflict through the various stages of development” (Cloninger 2013). Both theorists described different stages a person goes through during development. Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development were greatly influenced by Freud’s psychosexual stages of development. “Erikson’s theory builds on that of Freud, presuming hat biology provides the motivation of personality through the psychosexual stages that Freud outlined. However biological sexual energy is not the only consideration.” (Cloninger 2013). Rather than focusing on a person’s libido, also known as the person’s sexual-psychic energy, as the driving force behind personality, Erikson described how social influences could have an affect on a person’s personality.
Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory was based on the belief that human personality is made up of three components: the id, ego and superego. These three components are arranged in a hierarchy order with the id at the basal end, the ego in the middle and the super ego at the pinnacle. The id at the base, seeks instantaneous pleasure and fulfillment, driven by the pleasure principle. The id wants what it wants, when it wants it regardless of whether or not it is possible to satisfy that particular want or need. The presence or logic of reality or societal behavior has no effect on the id. For example, if an infant is thirsty and sees a bottle of water, he will take the bottle and drink even if it belonged to someone else and he did not have permission to drink, all that matters is that the needs have been met.
“Psychological - or more strictly speaking, psychoanalytic -investigation shows that the deepest essence of human nature, which are similar in all men and which aim at the satisfaction of certain needs... [are] self-preservation, aggression, need for love, and the impulse to attain pleasure and avoid pain...” At its simplest form, this quote perfectly explains Sigmund Freud’s theory on human nature. Human beings, according to Freud, are in a constant state of conflict within themselves; trying to satisfy their animalistic instincts, while also maintaining a socially appropriate life. Freud termed these animalistic tendencies that we have, the Id. The Id is essentially our unconscious mind, it is the part of us that has been there since the day we were born and is what drives our life’s needs and desires. The Id simply aims to satisfy our sexual or aggressive urges immediately, without taking into account any further implications. On the other hand, Freud used the term, the Superego, to describe man’s conscience and sense of morality. It is the Superego’s job to keep the Id in check by combatting the desire to satisfy urges with the feeling of guilt or anxiety. Finally, the Ego, is the conscious representation of the constant battle between the Superego and the Id. It must work to satisfy human’s instinctual tendencies while taking into account their conscience and doing what is rational and acceptable. Freud argues that these internal process that are constantly at work in our mind are what shape humans to do the things that they do. Thus, he believes, the goal of human nature is to satisfy our basic aggressive and sexual desires while adhering to cultural and social standards.
From a Freudian perspective, human development is based on psychosexual theory (Wedding & Corsini, 2014). Psychosexual theory indicates that maturation of the sex drives underlies stages of personality development (Shaffer et al., 2010). It was Freud’s perspective that there are three components of personality (the id, ego, and superego) that become integrated into his five stage theoretical model. The id was the biological or drive component that is innate from birth. The sole purpose of the Id is satiate an individual’s internal drives (Wedding & Corsini, 2014). The ego is the conscious portion of our personality that mediates between our id and superego. Throughout development the ego reflects the child’s emerging ability to...
Personality is an individual’s characteristic pattern of feeling, thinking and acting. Psychodynamic theories of personality view human behavior as a dynamic interaction between the conscious mind and unconscious mind, including associated motives and conflicts (Myers & Dewall, pg# 572, 2015). These theories focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences. Psychodynamic theories are descended from Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis, which is his ideology of personality and the associated treatment techniques. Psychoanalysis attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts. This theory also includes the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions. He proposed that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality. Freud’s historically significant psychoanalytic theory became part of the human cultural legacy.