H. Holmes Psychology

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Uguer Sperti 7 Honors psych America’s first documented serial killer Herman Webster Mudgett otherwise known as H. H. Holmes was America’s first documented serial killer. Holmes was estimated to have killed over 200 men and woman in his career. At an early age Holmes was exceedingly smart. Holmes took on an interest in medicine and human anatomy at a young age as well. During Holmes’s collage career he stole dead bodies from the school morgue and used them in various insurance scams. He later went to Chicago and owned a pharmacy, previously owned by an employer that went missing days after he bought it from her. Using the income from the pharmacy he built a “castle of horrors” with stores on the first floor and trap doors, gas chambers, dead ends and two large kilns in the basement for cremating his victims’ bodies. Holmes’s behavior can be analyzed through the five perspectives of psychology. In phycology the psychoanalytical perspective focuses on the unconscious mind, and past…show more content…
Holmes had high self-esteem we know this because he believed he would never get caught, and when he did he thought he could get off free. Although he admitted to killing 27 people the cops knew he had killed more which made Holmes believe he was great at what he did. Killing the people made Holmes feel powerful therefore his self-esteem raised dramatically. H.H. Holmes was Americas first documented serial killer, Holmes killed over 200 people but he only admitted to killing 27 of them. Holmes’s trouble began at an early age, he was severely bullied. Holmes’s behavior can be analyzed using the five perspectives of psychology which are biopsychological, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic and psychoanalytical. Was Holmes an intelligent mastermind or was he just criminally insane? Work cited N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015 N.p., n.d. Web Sperti, K.Powerpoint.Bolingbrook, IL

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