Psychological Analysis:
Psychosocial development: Robert Pickton was a serial killer that murdered many women in British Columbia in the early 80’s to the early 2000’s. Although he was only convicted for 6 murders, he confessed to brutally murdering over 49 women. Robert Pickton's behavior can be analysed through psychosocial development theory which was which was developed by Erik Erikson. Erickson proposed a theory that stated that “Human behaviour can also be understood through the experiences a person encounters during his/her development.” When relating this theory to Pickton we should first address his childhood. Pickton did not have a wholesome and happy childhood like most other kids. Pickton’s childhood was mostly spent in a slaughter house. Everyday he would witness the violent and grisly killing of pigs from his farm. He also seemed to have gained some resentment towards his mother because of she “had slaughtered a pet calf he had raised himself when he was a boy.”(Toronto Star) This violent behaviour may have been the main causes of Pickton’s killing spree. As…show more content… This experience may have caused him to think that it was fine to kill people, especially people he deemed to be ‘lower’ than him like women who did prostitution,drugs,etc. He is known to have run some of his victims remains through a meat mincer just like he would with the pigs on his farm. This is an indication that he lumped all victims into one category and thought it was ‘normal’ to kill them.
Conclusively, it is interesting to analyse Picton through Erikson’s psychosocial development theory. His experiences in his youth certainly may have caused him to be stuck at a psychological development stage and become one of Canada’s most notorious serial
