Ed Gein

8 Pages 2065 Words

acquire, store, and retrieve any knowledge and use it. He started reading medical dictionaries and female anatomical texts that lead to a first time interest in women since as a child Gein’s mother insisted he remain unmarried, and
forced in him the belief that women betray and leads families to separation. His new found interest and acquired anatomy data lead to many sexually explicit necrophiliac activities.

Gein had a difficult time in making self-reliant decisions. His mother Augusta was very intrusive and domineering with an authoritarian parenting style. She expected the utmost respect and obedience from her children. Augusta refused any questioning which discouraged open communication and esteem development. This typical authoritarian-like parenting usually yields easily upset, moody children with poor communication skills. Gein’s father was equally ineffective in creating an independent, stable child. His father was permissive and indifferent to him similar to permissive-indifferent style parenting. Gein’s father set minimal limits and provided little attention, interest and emotional support. In addition to the other developmental defects, poor social skills were added to Gein’s personality as a result of his father’s aloofness.

According to Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages of life theory, individuals have to pass through eight developmental stages successively to function adequately as an adult. There are four stages that occur in childhood. Gein’s disruption may suggest that his conflicts began in the second stage, early childhood. This stage experienced by children within the ages of 1-3 years is also called the autonomy versus shame and doubt stage. In this particular phase the child learn to exercise will, make choices, and utilize sel...