Re: Augusta Gein, the woman who drove a man Psycho

On Apr 29, 3:10 pm, catherine yronwode <c...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Michael Snyder wrote:

"catherine yronwode" <c...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:46348982.F4FB35B8@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"d...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" wrote:

Augusta Gein, the woman who drove a man Psycho
By
Denise Noe

[snip]

"Just Say No" can turn into its own dangerous form of obsession as
shown by the peculiarly one-track mind of Augusta Gein.

Augusta Gein never killed anyone.

What's your point, Cat?

My point is that Ed Gein was probably psychologically disturbed due to
genetic factors. I advocate for nature over nurture in most of these
cases of mentally ill killers who come from mentally ill families.

(Denise) I believe genetic factors often play a role in human behavior
and misbehaviors. We are, after all, biological organisms. However, I
don't know of any real indication that it was much of a factor in this
case or similar cases. The one study I know of in Denmark found there
was a correlation between genetics and crimes EXCEPT those of
violence.



As
anyone knows who has read about the case knows, although his mother was
peculiar and socially maladjusted, the more mentally imbalanced of his
parents was actually his alcoholic, violent father, not his religiously
obsessive mother.

(Denise) In reading Harold Schechter's "Deviant," I got exactly the
opposite impression. Both parents were pretty poor but Augusta appears
the more seriously disturbed and obsessive of the two. Also, Ed was
far closer to his mother than he ever was to his father.



The article painted a picture of the social extension of his mother's
anti-sexual beliefs somehow causing the son to become a grave-robber and
a killer, and even mentions "smother-mothering" as a factor, when it is
obvious that the mother had no violent tendencies, but the *father* did.
Had Ed Gein only followed in his mother's foosteps -- had her mental
illness been the only factor -- he would not have killed.>>

(Denise) True. Rather, the seeds sown by the mother -- and to some
extent fertilized by the father -- created a type of mental illness
that led to his horrible crimes.

In my opinion, fixing the sole blame on the mother's social oddness when
her son became a violent killer is unreasonable because it is obvious to
me that a combination of genetically-mediated factors -- the mother's
obsessiveness PLUS the father's violence -- is what led Ed Gein's mental
illness to take the peculiar form that it did.

cat yronwode

(Denise) One thing that strikes me is how often I read or hear about a
particular parental combination: the drunken dad and the religiously
fanatic mom. It seems to me that this may be a very common
combination and I wonder what the reason for it could be. Do these
groups just attract each other? Do women tend to grab onto a fervent
religiousity to cope with the problems caused by their husbands'
drinking? Or do Bible-bangers drive their husbands to drink?


.