Ted Bundy: A Lost Resource Term Paper

Meg Anders, who uses the alias of Elizabeth Kendall in her book entitled The Phantom Prince, provides an insider's look at Bundy's nature, the face he showed to the world and the occasional private tears he shed in her presence. Other books, such as True Crime, published by Time Warner, give an overview of the facts that have already appeared in numerous articles in the press.

I do not include details from Bundy's last interview, granted to the extreme evangelist, James Dobson, for several reasons. Bundy, in his self-fabricated personality, appeared to love the limelight and was a charismatic, charming personality. Bundy used the interview with Dobson to blame pornography for his deeds, still unable to track within himself the psychological demons that led him to do what he did. From serving as his own attorney and playing legal games with the Court, to planning elaborate cat-and-mouse prison escapes, Bundy was a brilliant actor. Watching violent pornography may have provided Bundy with ideas about how to perform his vicious acts, but the self-professed pornography "addiction" was simply another symptom of the pain Bundy carried with him from childhood, and it provided the evangelist with fuel to further his own personal beliefs. In fact, Bundy's demeanor during that interview was one of a polished, skilled and sophisticated performer, pulling the wool over the eyes of his curious followers just one more time, and giving his fans what they wanted. Again, Bundy was lost in the roles he created, and he played them to the hilt. The personality that he had painstakingly crafted for himself was debonair and smooth, and he was loath to abandon that personality, even when his life was literally on the line. This interview clarified, again, that the true cause of Bundy's mental illness was buried so deeply in his psyche that it was never excavated.

The only obvious mention of Bundy's state of mind when he made the decisions to murder his victims was when he told his girlfriend, in a conversation he later refuted, about the force that overtook him when he went on a killing spree.I am inspired to learn what cutting edge conclusions the field of criminology has uncovered about dissociative personality disorders and childhood post-traumatic stress disorders, and their consequences in connection with the profiling of murderers. New therapies using ancient techniques are now addressing the damage done to our physiological and electromagnetic bodies as children, and are discovering effective methods for healing from early childhood trauma. People who would have otherwise been morally and emotionally crippled throughout their lives are being helped to become productive citizens.

Ted Bundy was brilliant and vivacious, and did show a great deal of compassion and love. The positive aspects of his personality showed through his selfless work on the suicide hotlines, saving a little girl from drowning and chasing a purse snatcher. His final words expressed love to his family and friends, and, according to his former girlfriend, he loved and cared for her deeply.

His hidden demons and their consequences presented a puzzle that would have been worth solving had he been allowed to live.

References

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http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/week6.htm

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Swiss Criminal Profiling Scientific Research Site, Basel Law School, http://www.criminalprofiling.ch/character.html

Whitfield, Charles L., M.D. The Truth About Mental Illness: choices for healing Health Communications, Florida: 2004......