Running Head: Psychological Effects on the Abnormal Individual.

Necrophilia: And It’s Psychological Effects on the Individual
Shamara Mills

The College of New Rochelle-Rosa Parks Campus
Human Sexuality PSY502 ARDA
Research Paper
Instructor: Nunez

Abstract
Necrophilia is a type of paraphilia listed in the DSM 5th edition in which the person has a sexual attraction to corpse. In this study I will examine the psychological effects of this disorder on the abnormal individual. I will take a look into different types of abnormal individuals and their personal behaviors. Some of the abnormal individuals I will discuss in this study are: Serial killers, teens with necrophilia fetishes, men who occupation is working with the dead. I will give insight into their personal thoughts reflecting their actions of the sexual disorder. I will also discuss different forms of clinical treatments associated with the disorder,

Necrophilia, a Greek word that means “love of the dead” is one of the rarest of known paraphilia’s, in which a person has sexual contact or attraction with a corpse. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th edition, necrophilia is listed under sexual disorders that are uncommon. However, despite how disgusting the phenomenon is its practice more often than we like to accept as a society.
There are two major forms of necrophilia sexual and nonsexual. A necropile likes to just be in the presence of a corpse, while others actually engaged in sexual intercourse or fondling on the corpse and they are called necrophiliac. Cases of necrophilia date all the way back to 400 BC in Ancient Egypt. Necrophilia was practiced during those times as a spiritual means of communication with the dead. Evidence of necrophilia practices are shown in artifacts of the Moche Civilization of South America. Usually, in most cases found of necrophilia the person has professional dealings with the dead daily such as Embalmer, Coroner, Cemetery worker, Funeral director and assistant.
The necrophile which is usually a man always show similar characteristics of one another. They often have poor self-esteem and are usually afraid of rejection. They usually have also lost a significant person to them. At this point they develop an obsessive fascination of the corpse usually because he desires a sexual partner that can’t reject him. Studies show that majority of nercophiles fail at making sexual connections with the living so they tend to choose a corpse as they mate in a means of having control.
Although. Almost all societies view necrophilia as being a taboo many groups and publications have fought for the legalization of necrophilia acts. The act is referred to as “The NecroErotic”. The Necro Erotic tries to justify their actions by arguing that “all human rights cease the moment a person draws their last breath”. However, to the abnormal individual the sexual urges and arousal they get from the corpse is indeed nothing less than appropriate in their eyes.
There are many different medical treatments for necrophilia. Treatment is not usually giving to the patient until their urges become problematic. Many people suffering from necrophilia learn to simply live life with their fetish and never act on their urges. Once the patient becomes involved in the dysfunctional acts of the disorder they are treated with psychotherapy and medication depending on how advance the condition is. Hypnosis, Drug therapy, Behavior therapy and Psychoanalysis are just a few of the general treatments used to treat necrophilia. Depending on the level of dysfunction usually bought on by guilt and shame will determine if you go to inpatient or an outpatient form of therapy. They also have 12 steps programs available for the necrophile that are designed to help them with their social skills and their sexual addictions.
According to Dr. Philip Resnick and Dr. Jonathan Rosman, there are three main types of what they call “true” necrophilia. The use of corpse already dead for sexual pleasure they refer to as regular necrophilia. Necrophilia fantasy is when you envision the acts but don’t act on them. Necrophilia homicide is murder to obtain a corpse. They did a study of 122 cases (88 from world literature and 34 from unpublished cases), majority of the people fit into the regular necrophilia category with more than half of them working with the dead in some aspect. Rosman and Resnick reported this as their findings of samples of necrophilacs: 68% were motivated by a desire for an unresisting and unrejecting partner, 21% by a want for reunion with a lost partner, 15% by sexual attraction to dead people, 15% by a desire for comfort or to overcome feelings of isolation, 11% by a desire to remedy low self-esteem by expressing power over a corpse (p. 159).
Many serial killers who engaged in necrophilia had a lot of comparison. All of the serial killers who engaged in necrophilia were men. Majority of the men were loners as children and were sexually deviant. The serial killers who engaged in necrophilia never killed their relatives. They also showed a lack of empathy in their actions.
So many serial killers practice acts of necrophilia, from their distort obsession of female body parts to actual sexual intercourse. Ed Kemper, Andrei Chikatilo, Jeffery Dahmer, and Ted Bundy are just a few of the documented serial killers known for practicing necrophilia. However, Jeffery Dahmer and Theodore Robert “Ted” Bundy are perhaps the most notorious of the serial killers who practice necrophilia. Jeffery Dahmer was 18 years old when he committed his first murder to a hitch hiker he picked up named Steven Hicks. Jeffery Dahmer who as a teen showed signs of isolation and alcoholism went on to later be indicted on 17 murder charges from 1978 to 1991. He used his victims as youthful submissive sexual partners. Dahmer killed and dismembered his victims keeping their heads or other body parts as souvenirs. Jeffery was found guilty on 15 counts of murder and sentences to 15 life terms in jail where he later was beaten to death by an inmate named Christopher Scarver.
Jeffery Dahmer’s father Lionel Dahmer wrote a book called “A Father’s Story” where he gives insight into his son’s path of destruction. Jeffery’s childhood was like most kids a bit of turmoil but nothing that you think would make someone into a serial killer. Jeffery was a loner who had a very prestige’s dad. His mother was dealing with some demons from her past due to her father’s alcoholism so she didn’t pay that much attention to him. Jeffery at a very young age was fascinated by dead animals and he began to collect them for what he called his own cemetery. As years went on he began to isolate himself more and developed an alcohol addiction. Over the next several years he faced charges ranging from disorderly conduct, indecent exposure, public intoxication, child molestation and murder. Jeffery’s bizarre behavior and isolation turned him into becoming what we know him as today a psychopathic serial killer.
Ted Bundy didn’t look like your average serial killer. His victims all young women estimated range were 26 to 100 women. He usually used the same tactic of hitting the victim over the head with a crow bar he had hidden in his car. He would then strangle his victim to death. Bundy would spend hours with the corpse applying makeup and having sex with their corpse until putrefaction made him leave the remains. He would go back to corpse he buried prior and have sex with their decomposing bodies repeatedly. Ted unlike Dahmer who had various victims from all races had his own typical type. Ted’s victims were usually young white, slender, single women, who wore business attire with long brown or blonde hair parted in the middle. Ted was executed January 24, 1989.
Jeffery Dahmer felt a huge amount of guilt because of what he had done to all his victims. He even went on to say during an interview, “it’s hard to believe that a human being could have done what I’ve done, but I know that I did it”. Dahmer case had psychiatrists in a constant battle as they tried to prove how legally responsible he was on his actions. Dahmer was found legally sane and convicted on all his charges. Ted Bundy on the other hand went on to say in his last interview before is execution that he came from a great two parent home with four brothers and sisters. He referred to his home as a good Christian home and didn’t want his parents to be held accountable for his actions. He blamed is interest in pornography for having a major contribution in his violent and erotic behavior. Ted picked up on his obsession to pornography when he was 12 or 13 years old. The violent pictures in the books of women being murdered and tortured turned him on and that is where his compulsive behavior started. Ted Bundy and Jeffery Dahmer were just two of the many serial killers that were labeled as necrophillacs.
Although, 90% of necrophiliac are men there are cases involving woman too. Alisa Massaro an 18 year old who allegedly had a necrophilia fetish had three way sex on top of two male corpses that her and her sexual partners lured in her Illinois home and strangled. Alias boyfriend 24 years old Joshua Miner piled the two lifeless bodies of 22 year old Eric Glover and Terrence Rankins together. Once he put them together he then placed a sheet over them so he and his girlfriend could lie on top of them together. The four teens later engaged in sexual acts on top of corpse. The motive was to rob and dismember the two young men and keep their teeth for souvenirs according to Chief Mike Trafton. After they killed Glover and Rankins the four teens continued to party playing video games. Alexander Grunke and his twin brother Nicholas Grunke and their friend Dustin Radke were arrested and charged with digging up the grave of Laura Tennessean at the St. Charles Catholic Cemetery in Cassville. Radke confessed that they planned to have sex with the corpse. Radke told authorities that he was asked to dig up the grave and take the corpse back to his house in a pre- selected location behind it by Nicholas Grunke. The three men were formally charged with attempted third degree assault and attempted theft. If the men were convicted they would face more than five years each.
Chin Chean a 47 year old man was caught by Cambodia police and arrested after digging up a grave to have sex with a corpse and falling asleep. Chin attended the 17 year old girl’s funeral the day prior to him digging up her grave. He told police that once he got the coffin open it was too small to engage in sex with the corpse. Then he fell asleep on the body and that is where villagers saw his foot sticking out the grave and told the deceased girls family. No one was certain weather Chin knew the girl prior or not but he was said to have usual behavior and might be on drugs.
In the funeral industry there are many reported cases of necrophilia because the necrophile or necrophillac works hand and hand with the corpse. They rarely ever report necrophillac actions that take place in the work place because of a fear of bad publicity. Let’s be honest who trust them with their loved ones if they knew of the erotic disturbing activities taken place inside. Karen Greenlee was one of the many necrophiliacs I found while doing my research.
Karen Greenlee and 22 year old embalmer were caught in 1979 with a corpse of a 33 year old man she was supposed to be taking to a cemetery. Once Karen got the body of the 33 year old man she took him to the next county where she engaged in sex with his corpse. After she was done she wrote a four page letter confessing to her actions. In the letter she called herself a “morgue rat” and also confessed to her Tylenol with codeine addiction. Karen was arrested and charged in Sacramento where she stole the body from. She got 11 days and jail and had to pay a fine of $255 for stealing the hearse. During that time there were no laws against necrophilia in California today it is a felony to mess with a corpse.
Karen went on to later have an interview with Jim Morton and became famous for her necrophilia acts. During the interview she revealed some very unpleasant information about herself. She told Jim how she liked very young cute men in their early twenties especially who was dying of AIDS. She also tells Jim during her interview that she loves the smell of the dead and she finds the bllod attractive. She also states during her interview that she always have been attracted to necrophilia all her life. She uses to have funeral services for her dead pets. She confessed to being caught a lot of times. However, she was one of the many people how engaged in the disturbing acts. Karen told Jim of many different inappropriate acts that were not natural that took place behind the doors of the mortuary. Karen was a very sick person and she was also featured in a seminal book Apocalypse Culture.
For the abnormal individual necrophilia gives them the feeling of refreshment in a pleasurable sense. They feel as if it’s not rape because the person is no longer alive to have any form of say so. There are no actually laws forbidding it however society finds it reprehensible. Necrophilia is wrong because it’s nonconsensual. A corpse is an inanimate object meaning it can’t experience pleasure or pain or have a desire for it.

References http://www.darwincentral.org http://www.en.m.wikipedia.org http://www.dsm5.org Rosman,J. & Resnick, P. (1989). Necrophilia: An analysis of 122 cases involving necrophilic acts and fantasies. Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 17(2), 153-163
De River, p. (1958). Crime and the criminal psychopath. Springfield,III: C.C. Thomas