The Psyche of David Berkowitz f.k.a. "The Son of Sam"

 

“What would your life be like if you weren’t constantly stressed due to conditions and challenges you face on a daily basis?”

 We all have experienced rage at some point, but our ability to lock it up is under control, whereas a serial killer's appetite to serve his beastly hunger is what sets them apart. 

Motivation is the force that initiates, guides and maintains "goal-oriented" behaviors.  It is what causes us to take action.  Evidence of a manifesting personality disorder acted out through behavior is some sort of underlying depression.

Most of us by now were at an age where we can remember that awful summer of 1977 when David Berkowitz, 
the .44 Caliber Serial Killer turned NYC upside down, having one of the biggest manhunts for his capture after killing six people and wounding seven in a year long rampage. 

 

It is known that Early childhood experiences have lasting emotional and psychological effects, as in the childhood of David Berkowitz.  Berkowitz was adopted by Nathan and Pearl Berkowitz only a few days after he was born.  He thought that the reason he was adopted was because his mother died in childbirth with him.  That guilt and anger about what turned out to be completely untrue may have begun his descent into madness.  

Although David admits to a mother and father who gave him lots of love, neighbors and family would say he was "somewhat troubled" with a lot of emotional and mental problems.  Some would say he was spoiled and quite anti-social.  He would just go beserk in the apartment, and they just couldn't control him.    

In fact, even when he met his birth mother at age 18, that still did not stop his decent into an insane serial murder. – See more at:  http://www.thefinertimes.com/Serial-Killers/the-mind-of-son-of-sam.html#sthash.55RSvdQa.dpuf.  She released the details of his illegitimate birth, which greatly disturbed him.  She had given him up days after he was born, confessing to an affair with a married real estate agent who threatened to abandon her if she kept the baby.

After his adoptive mother passed and his father took on a new wife who David disliked,  his feelings of paranoia and madness intensified.  Berkowitz was profiled as being a paranoid schizophrenic believing himself to be the victim of demonic possession and hearing voices to kill from his neighbor, Sam Car’s dog.  After failure with the military and a terrible sexual experience with a prostitute he began turning into the Son of Sam.

Berkowitz is currently serving a 365-year sentence after he plead guilty from a mental evaluation showing he was sane enough to stand trial.  Disturbingly, he showed no signs of remorse.

He later admitted in an interview with FBI veteran Robert Ressler in prison that he had pretended to be insane to get a lighter punishment and that he actually killed out of resentment towards his mother and contempt for women in general.

  

 On an interview with CBN.com:

"DAVID:  One thing that I found out about the devil is that you serve him and he uses you, and when he's done with you he throws you away.  You mean nothing to Satan".

 

The book Loving What Is by Byron Katie teaches how to experience the world around us without being affected by its negativity.  It makes you more self aware so that when a persistent problem shows up in your life, you are able to look at it in a whole new light.