"Secrets in the Cellar": My thoughts

Last night, I finished reading, "Secrets in the Cellar", by John Glatt, and it has had my brain churning ever since. When this story broke, it shocked the world and it still shocks me because of the horror that one man can inflict on others.

I have always believed that we all have a darker side to us, but most of us can keep that in check throughout our lives. But one has to wonder if such evil is not the result of childhood circumstances but rather something built into some individuals. 

Because of my own therapy over the years, I have learned that our childhoods can and do have a bearing as to how we turn out later in life. However, I am not so sure with men like Josef Fritzl, Charles Manson, and many of the other serial rapists and murderers. There HAS to be a glitch in their mental wiring some place.

We live in a world today where diagnoses run rampant, there is a name for about every affliction on earth. The way I see it, is there is one diagnoses that doesn't get used in the medical field...and that goes beyond insane, straight to "evil". 

With people that show no emotion, have no remorse for the things they have done, something is incredibly wrong. I truly believe that it heads far past being an narcissist, that the person isn't really a person at all. They lack the very thing that makes us human...compassion, empathy, love, etc.

The Josef Fritzl case, as well as many others, intrigue me even though I know that I will never be able to comprehend what drives people to do the things they do. Yet I read on, learn more about the mind...and law, and the survivors. 

I did a brief search online this morning to learn more about what became of Elisabeth Fritzl and her children, and there's little to find. I wish them well, and hope that they all can have some semblance of a normal life.

Thanks for reading!