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emorykarpinski0
- March 12, 2023
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An expert has explained why some women are attracted to murderers like Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and Chris Watts despite their horrific, violent crimes.
Dr Sohom Das, 44, is a forensic psychiatrist based in , as well as a content creator, making videos about mental health topics for his channel .
In a recent video, he addressed why some women are drawn to men who commit the most violent crimes, putting forward several explanations – from childhood trauma to a condition called hybristophilia.
Explaining the complexities of why some women are drawn to violent criminals in his video, Dr Das explains: ‘I’ve mentioned Ted Bundy, but there are also other high profile murderers, including Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, and then Night Stalker Richard Ramirez, who was sent letters and gifts from women all over the world.
‘To me, the Dahmer case is extremely shocking, because these pure, kind hearted women managed to look past the cannibalism…the sex offending, the dismembering, they even looked past his own sexuality and they still swiped right.’
Despite being convicted of committing numerous murders, Jeffrey Dahmer (pictured in court in 1991) was sent fan mail and proposals while in jail
The psychiatrist also referenced the more recent case of Chris Watts, who murdered his pregnant wife Shanann, and their two daughters Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, in 2018.
He says: ‘Chris Watts received love letters and photos from female admirers…One even sent a photo of herself in a bikini to Chris Watts in prison.’
Looking at possible reasons for this, the first factor Dr Das cites is psychosis.
1.Psychosis
He describes a case in which a women experiencing psychosis believed she was communicating telepathically with a criminal, and that they were in a relationship, despite the two never having met.
In these cases, he says, the women are ‘mentally unwell…they’re not making a rational choice.’
He adds: ‘And also, this is an extremely rare presentation so we can just sort of put it off to the side…I just wanted to give it an honourable mention.’
2.History of trauma
A more common explanation, according to Dr Das, is a history of trauma.
He explains: ‘So they’ve either been physically sexually and or emotionally abused by a partner or by their parents [and] they want to repeat this kind of cycle, either subconsciously or intentionally.
‘And so unfortunately, these women tend to gravitate towards what’s familiar instead of what’s safe.And we see this phenomenon in victims of abuse.
‘Sometimes they become abusers themselves, and…tragically some young girls who witnessed domestic violence as a child…pick abusive partners when they become adults themselves, partly because they it’s ingrained in them to see violence as a way of conflict resolution.’
He explains that ironically, these women feel safe in their relationships with killers, because even though they are violent offenders, they are behind bars, allowing the women to ‘actually control and dominate the relationship, maybe for the first time ever’.
Despite being convicted for a string of murders in the 1970s, serial killer Ted Bundy (pictured) had groupies, and even tied the knot while he was on death row awaiting execution
Dr Sohom Das (pictured) is a London-based forensic psychiatrist who also makes YouTube content on his channel A Psych for Sore Minds
Despite being imprisoned after being found guilty of the murder of his pregnant wife and their two young daughters, Chris Watts (pictured) has received mail from fans – including photos of women in bikinis
3.Saviour complex
There are other cases in which women ‘feel that they could save or transform the prisoner or the killer’, seeing it as a challenge.
4.Idealised relationship
A further psychological aspect cited by the psychiatrist is that ‘some of these women have this kind of notion of a perfect relationship’.
By being in a relationship with someone in prison, they ‘don’t have to endure the day to day issues that are actually involved in most relationships’.
He explains: ‘They don’t have to go through the mundane stuff.There’s no laundry to do. There’s no need to cook for him. There’s no smelly socks left on the staircase.’
5. Hybristophilia
The final element Dr Das touched on was a condition known as hybristophilia.
He explains: ‘I think it’s very fair to say that some of these women do this because they…crave attention or fame.In extreme cases, this is a phenomenon called hybristophilia, wsa otherwise known as Bonnie and Clyde syndrome.’
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS femail" data-version="2" id="mol-df9bbff0-a634-11ed-bfed-37135cebd81e" website a psychiatrist – here's why women fall in love with murderers
