Real Case Of Charles Manson Sociopathy

Real Case of Charles Manson Sociopathy

Introduction

The case we are going to deal with is that of Charles Manson, in order to understand and explain the events from a sociological point we must take into account the three essential aspects, childhood, culture and associations.

Charles Manson was born on November 12, 1934, in Cincinnati, United States. He was the son of a young sixteen -year -old teenager named Kathleer Maddox, who had a great criminal record in addition to an alcohol addiction problem. And from Walker Scott, a colonel who did not accept paternity and therefore Manson never came to know.

During her childhood, the mother was sentenced to prison sentence for the crime of robbery, causing Manson to have to go to her uncles’ house. His stay there was not pleasant, he constantly lied, he always blamed others for all the bad actions that he committed and should be the center of attention, so there were already early indications of his behavior. Because of this, Manson was taken to a homeless school school, where he later escaped to return to the maternal home, but his mother rejected him.

Developing

Manson’s first arrest was at thirteen, robbing a food store by armed. After this incident, Manson was locked in a reformatory where four days later he escaped with another boy. His childhood and the family context that he lived derives from the fact that the process of socialization in Manson was not the ideal, since he learned ideas, values and attitudes through his family surrounded by conflict and chaos, as a result of the crime of his mother, the lack of appreciation of his father and the abandonment of home.

So it is concluded that his childhood was marked by crime and lack of attachment.

In addition, according to Cooley, to build our self-identity we need the self of the mirror, that is, the result of our interactions with others because the self is born from an idea that the person has about the image that others have of him. In the case of Manson, we find that his self-identity is based on hostile perceptions of his image, he feels rejected by all his family members. First, for his father from the moment he was born, after his uncles who do not want to take care of him and finally for his mother, who rejected him when he tried to return to his home. Manson had during his childhood a bad image of him, as a despicable, replaceable and hated being.

It is also remarkable to mention Mead, since for the creation of the self uses the term the other signifiers to refer to those individuals who have a greater influence on the development of the self. That person for Manson was his mother, the same woman who committed numerous criminal acts influencing Manson’s way of being, in such a way that he made him see crime as a common and appropriate event. Perhaps for this reason, Manson began at a very early age to commit crimes to get into the world of crime.

Even if we apply Goffman’s theory, which considers that in our daily activities we try to broadcast ideas about who we are, we can say that Manson found its place in crime. Caused criminal actions to define and create certain appearances to convince himself that this was his place, not to feel disoriented in his identity.

When he was imprisoned for the first time (at age 20), Manson became a student of the courses in prisons based on the book How to Win Friends and Influence People (how to win friends and influence others), the first manual manualof self-help written by Dale Carnegie. Within this work the rules were simple, not criticizing or condemning others, smiling, listening, making others feel important, dramatizing your own ideology, asking once to order … Manson to recruit hippies, especially girls, who were looking for answers and guides during the summer of love (festival and hippies concentration) of San Francisco, a city where the family was born during 1967.

During this stage of Manson it is important to highlight the concept of culture. Culture is the set of customs, knowledge and behaviors learned and socially transmitted, including the ideas and values of a group of individuals. During the sixties and seventies, through the summer festival of love, the birth of a counterculture was created to that established at that time, enhancing the values of non -violent anarchy, pacifism, sexual revolution, concern for the environment andThe rejection of capitalism. This counterculture was disseminated through the music especially of The Beatles where their music sent messages so that society changed its way of thinking, acting and feeling, a group that strongly influenced Manson too.

Manson before such a cultural revolution, took the occasion and quickly established himself as a guru that, thanks to his power of persuasion, would soon have his first group of followers. Receiving the name of the Manson family.

As one of his victims recounts, Dianne Lake, Manson was affectionate and gentle, as he learned with the book How to Win Friends and Influence People. In such a way that his followers felt that the group led by Manson could identify himself as a home. A home where they could express their revolutionary thoughts, work together to obtain food and even create a subculture. A subculture with a set of norms, values and knowledge different from the dominant culture.

Dianne was physically assaulted by Manson for the first time when a year of her entry to the family had not yet been completed. One morning Mason went to the kitchen with signs of annoyance in the mouth. Dianne hated seeing him unhappy and his instinct was trying to distract him by asking him if he could help him with something and if he wanted to eat. The leader’s reaction was to hit his face with his hand, do you think he wants something to eat ?! he answered. The next day, Manson crossed her in the courtyard of the house and reaffirmed: you needed to do so, little. You never had any man to teach you when to talk or when to be quiet. The man is the head of the house, you will have to learn that to be a good woman.

Manson during this time began to establish its norms and sanctions within the group that led. The norms are behavior guidelines established by a society, while the sanctions are punishments that apply to behavior related to a social norm. Manson established norms such as that the woman should be submissive to the man to be able to have greater control of the group, since the majority were women. And negative sanctions, such as wearing blows and insults if they did not comply with the provisions.

According to Dianne, as the months passed and the group was enlarged, Manson’s iconic figure accumulated greater power. His words and the way to connect with each family member transformed him into a being as addictive as venerated.

He had the mysterious ability to read people, to know the weaknesses of people and their needs. And he was able to become that person they needed to be. You were totally ecstatic by who he was. Because he filled your needs. And all that was part of his scam. That was part of his ability to catch people.

In this period the groups and associations are emphasized, Manson really caught those people ingeniously with an excellent treatment so that little by little it became a primary group, so that people knew each other intimately, as individual personalities. Having informal, intimate, personal and total social contacts, where their fears, hopes are entrusted, they share his experiences, they chat with the intention of fully and blindly trusting him as the father of the family.

In addition, he intended that the group members think that the leadership he had was expressive, where he exercises taking into account the well -being of the collective. The leader does not seek to meet the objectives of the most diligent way, but he takes into account and cares about the mood of the team members. Rewarding and penalizing the members of the group, according to the contribution of each of them to the fulfillment of the objectives. He even supports the one who is going through a bad time, strives to keep the group together and try to eliminate any internal tension. However, behind that disguise he used authoritarian leadership, directly assuming decision making and asks the subordinates of him to quench the tasks assigned to them, without questioning anything.

The first year passed and the joy and feeling of home was already part of the past for most members. Even so, the devotion to Manson’s word remained intact. Aware of the tension between the family and the difficulties of the group to self-ability, Manson entered a spiral of mystical delirium and the need for isolation to be able to sustain his leadership, that he would drive several months later to the multiple murders. When he took us to the desert, he told us that he had had an acid trip in which he felt that he was crucified as Christ. I think that was the beginning. He really thought he was a messiah on earth. He thought he was Christ coming again. And that began to fill his head.

With these facts we concluded that Manson was losing control and had to maintain his leadership because he really thought he was the only one who could manage that situation. To the point that the daily life of the family had been transformed into choosing the adequate words, movements and actions not to make Manson angry.

After capturing the members, forming a family as a primary group and a subculture with their own norms and sanctions where he was the leader, he could not let that union be broken. All this caused Manson to start delirious about the duty that he had to assume in life based on religion, so he began to manipulate the members to such an extent that they also thought it was a messiah with a mission that mission that missionly had to comply.

Manson made a prophetic theory, which he had already mentioned in several of his songs, and that seemed to be reaching his culminating point, a racial war between black and black. He started talking about a racial war that was going to happen soon. He learned that when he was in prison. He thought that blacks were going to win and that we were going to have to hide. But since blacks could not conserve power, because he considered that they were inferior, then Manson would be the world’s leader. Over time Charles Manson impatient, as he saw that black individuals did not move, he decided to advance the racial war by committing a series of murders in which they would leave evidence in the crime scene to instill the Black Panthers Panthers.

Even Manson thought his his theory with the output of the Beatles white album reaffirmed. The family leader interpreted that God was sending him a message through the British band of the moment and described the apocalypse of the racial war with the name of one of the album’s songs, Helter Skelter. Dianne said she was crazy. She made us listen to the album from behind, several times a day. He made us listen to all the songs and assured us that they were sending a message.

After having ensured that the group members were aware of his prophetic theory instilled the motto of killing or being killed, initiating his modus operandi to carry out the mission. The last group activity before the murders was a knife attack training session. Manson gave each family member a white weapon and instructed them on how to attack the enemy: ‘Nail, push the knife and pull up’.

Manson after this last activity, knew perfectly who would be able to carry out his guidelines for the way they carried out the activity, that is, if they did with enthusiasm, concentration and dedication. Looking for members who assumed their madness.

Manson chose a select group for spooky missions that the leader described as training to overcome fear. For the rest of the family members, they were techniques for crimes that used to commit such as car or food robberies in supermarkets. But on August 8, 1969 everything changed, during the night actress Sharon Tate, wife of the film director Roman Polanski, and who was two weeks after giving birth to her first child, died for 16 stabbed in Los Angeles. 

Next to her, four more people were also killed. In addition, on the walls the word pig ’was written with the blood of the victims and on the ground an alleged footprint of Pata de Pantera was printed with paint, as if it were a fact committed by members of the black panthers. The next night, on August 9, the supermarket executive Leno La Bianca and his wife Rosemary were killed in similar circumstances. Rosemary’s body had 41 white weapon wounds, while Leno’s, 12, and had written in the abdomen the word War. In the kitchen refrigerator, with blood, it was read: Helter Skelter.

After the two most terrifying and satanic murders of the time, the members returned to the home where they counted on their participation. They told him in an excited and proud way, boasting that they had done it for Charlie. At that moment, family members went from being civilized people to murderers with eagerness for more crimes.

Manson recovered the power he had, but this time with unstoppable impetus. He was fascinated to have the domain and let his narcissism shine, excited him the simple fact that he devised the plans and the members obeyed him in a submissive way. Because of this, he created a list of names, some celebrities, so that they were killed.

In 1971, the family and Manson were captured and made available, where Charles Manson was finally sentenced to life imprisonment. The true and disturbing questions are, was Manson really just a lunatic? Who is able to indoctrinate civilized people and turn them into murderers? What leads to young minors to perform such acts? To what extent does a murderer idolize?

To answer the first question we take into account that it is true that Manson fantasized about the origin of the need to kill, until he believes that he was chosen, but what is behind that fantasy? There really is a thirst for power, feeling as the leader of the world and the firmness of achieving it, did not matter the means to achieve it while achieving it. In fact, he took advantage of all the circumstances, of the context, of culture, of society and even of naivety that a rebel teenager can have. In addition, if it was only a lunatic he would have participated in the crimes to reinforce his arrival at the top of power, but he did not do it because his concept of leader is just sending and not executing.

Answering the second question, we must focus on that Manson is characterized by obvious sociopathic features. It has lack of empathy, however, it knows how to hide it and appear that it has it, it has a great egocentrism using other people to obtain benefit from them, manipulation is their best weapon and has a charm and ease of word that makes it successful, appearing to be reliable. Manson is an intelligent being full of charisma and persuasion skills. Therefore, it is not surprising that you have sufficient capacity to get the darkest side of people. He also took advantage of the unconditionality of his members to perform criminal acts without staining his hands, believing that he would be exculpated by responsibility.

The third issue is somewhat disturbing, most members were minor teenage girls, the same who committed the atrocious murders with cruelty and evil. It carries a long process instilling crime as a necessary and common event, however, Manson managed to vanish the innocence of the girls. He supported mostly on psychological manipulation to achieve it, offered the girls an emotional stability and a home to take refuge. In such a way that they saw him as a reference, and to compensate for everything he did for them they gave him an unconditional love. In addition, adolescence is a stage of rebellion and debauche.

conclusion

And the last question has a lot to do with the third question. Even after being convicted, he has a large number of followers generating admiration, especially in young people. Charles Manson has managed to create some contexts that can be interpreted as justifications of criminal conduct, making it positively valued and is a reason for devotion or even falling in love. Young people can consider the option to empathize with people who break with all minimum social norms to ensure coexistence. This can cause a big problem at the criminological level, although Manson died, his figure may continue to present in his fans. And as a consequence, there may be new crimes to recall the venerated and admired creator, Charles Manson.

We are probably talking about one of the most iconic murderers of the twentieth century.