"The perfect normal person is rare in our civilization"

Charles Manson is in fact one of the most widely known serial killers of our time. He can easily be considered the boogey man of society. Many people still to this day fear him and his past, yet now an old man in a prison cell, one may wonder what created such a monster.

In learning about personality I thought that it would be interesting to apply some of the concepts that we have learned from the text and in class to a certain individual. I have no idea why in the end I chose Charles Manson. I think maybe it is because of his tragic life before the murders, a life that most people don't know about.

Mason was the illegitimate son of Kathleen Maddox, a 16-year-old prostitute. Manson had no contact what so ever with his father (ATWL.com). The first thing to point out is Alfred Adler's point of view on Birth Order. Adler believed that the order in which you were born influenced your personality. Manson was the first born. Adler says that the first born may become authoritarian or strict. Feels power is his right. The first is usually a problem child, a neurotic, criminal, drunkard, and a perve

Ainsworth and her colleagues developed three types of parent-child relationships. Manson undoubtedly would fit into the last category : Avoidant relationships. In this type of a relationship the mother doesn't respond to her child's needs, the baby is neglected. It therefor develops a sense of worthlessness and possible anger towards authoritative figures (Burger 162-163).

Manson's life continued to be one crime after another. He was arrested for several instances where he stole cars and committed robberies. In prison he attacked another prisoner with a razor blade and continued to sodomize him (Bugliosi 67). Freud may have seen this as frustration of the libido. Which in turn, causes aggression. This may also explain the act of sodomization against the other prisoner (Burger 153).

Burger, Jerry M. Personality fifth Ed. Stamford, CT. Wadsworth, 2000

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Approximate Word count = 1028
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)