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 Introduction

Theodore Robert Bundy was born on November 24, 1946 in Burlington, Vermont. He graduated
with a degree in psychology from the University of Washington, in 1972, two years before his
first official murder. In 1974, the year of his first confirmed murder, he moved to Utah to get a
law degree from the University of Utah Law School. He confessed, to have committed 30
homicides in seven states of America, before his execution on the Florida Electric Chair in 1989.
On 24th of January, 1989 he was executed. Furthermore, he was regarded as a psychopath.

Summary of Symptoms

Ted Bundy’s symptoms were inclusive of distrustfulness, defective MAOA gene, which causes
hyper sexuality and violent impulses. Moreover, he suffered from identity crisis, antisocialism,
over-fantasizing, and narcissism and was susceptible to dual identity possession. He had an
obsessive nature which caused him to overreact, in addition to this, he was a liar and a
manipulator, who provided contradictory information to people, in order to manipulate them for
his own benefit. Also, he confessed to practice necrophilia.

Bio-psychosocial Assessment

In Ted’s case, nature and nurture, both hand in hand affected him. Ted had an abnormal brain
chemistry, which led towards a deficiency of MAOA gene, which ultimately caused hyper
sexuality and violent impulses. Moreover, his childhood marred with turbulent events, which
combined with his MAOA deficiency, resulted in a killer cocktail.

He was born through an unwedded mother. His grandparents told him that they were his parents
and his actual mother is his sister, to protect his mother’s reputation. At an early age, he was
entangled in a domestic conspiracy, as his family’s true identity was hidden from him. Thus, his
identity was never determined, as a result he grew resentful and distrustful of the people who

should’ve inspired absolute trust. After some years, his mother married a man named Johnny
Culpepper Bundy. He had four step-siblings from Johnny, who took away parental attention
from him, which resulted in his isolation and antisocialism. In his isolation, he took refuge in his
fantasy, where he wasn’t a victim of the circumstances. He became one of the troubled youths
and started shoplifting and breaking into cars, while having a good reputation at school.
Ironically, he was succeeding at school, was popular, had a lot of friends and good grades. He
relished appearing as a socialite, while committing crimes. This paradoxical identity led him
towards serial killings and psychopathy. Due to his successful life at school and his charming
personality, he fell prey to narcissism.

The identity crisis of his youth and the impotence of his personality made him susceptible to dual
identity possession. Despite his social success, he remained insecure, as he couldn’t detach form
from the grim facts of his life, yet he desired power, in the form of wealth, love and prestige. He
attained all of them, but soon his first girlfriend, whom he adored so much, ended the
relationship which devastated him. His obsessive nature caused him to over react and he dropped
out of Law College. At 27, he murdered 21 year old, Linda Ann Healy, his first known homicide
victim, as a revenge for his unrequited love, unrequited parents and unrequited life. He practiced
necrophilia after killing women. He was also seen manipulating others with contradictory
information for furthering his goals, i.e. killing them.

Besides that, when he was being tried, for committing murders, in the courts of different states.
His knowledge of law fed into his narcissism, even to that extent, that he decided to advocate his
own case by becoming is own lawyer. Furthermore, he was in complete denial of his
psychopathy and the crimes he committed.

DSM Diagnosis

Psychopathic antisocial behavior/Antisocial Personality Disorder: Some of the most

recognizable traits were, viewing others as a pawn in his chess game, master manipulator, desire
control/power, sexual gratification in his choices, enjoyed having an audience, calculated
predatory aggression, strategic planning, feeling that some other entity is operating inside of him,
etc. This is how the DSM classifies people who have a history of illegal behaviors, deceit,
impulsivity, failure to plan ahead, aggressiveness, reckless disregard for safety, irresponsibility
and lack of remorse. Such person is usually a criminal psychopath or sociopath, like Ted, with
repetitive crimes. They display low empathy and low connection with others. Their behavior
usually results in crimes against others. (Puder, 2019)

DSM 5 Antisocial Disorder: Ted Bundy would fall more in line with a DSM 5 antisocial
disorder leaning more towards primary psychopathy. With this disorder, you must be 18 years or
older and have committed conduct disorder before age 15. Also prevalent is a pervasive pattern
of disregard for the rights of others since the age of 15 and psychopathic manifestations.
Additionally, they must meet 3 or more of the behaviors like, fail to conform to lawful behaviors,
deceitfulness, impulsivity, aggressiveness, reckless disregard for the safety of others and lack of
remorse.

Nearly all of these traits were displayed in Ted Bundy’s pattern of behavior. Even when he was
young he showed predatory aggression when he set up tiger traps at camp and injured a young
girl. Although he prayed with people before his death, Ted Bundy’s memorable quote, “I am in
the enviable position of not having to feel any guilt,” showed he was wired with some primary
psychopathy. (Puder, 2019)

Hearing Voices: Ted Bundy often referenced hearing voices that told him to do bad things.
However, it is not believed he had schizophrenia. Occasionally antisocials will use this as a way
to avoid responsibility for their behaviors. We call it MBD: minimize, blame and deny. (Puder,
2019)

Facets of FFM: The five facets of FFM are inclusive of extraversion (vs. introversion),
agreeableness (vs. antagonism), conscientiousness (vs. disinhibition), neuroticism (vs. emotional
stability), and intellect or openness (vs. closedness to experience). Bundy’s FFM profile was the
consistently low ratings on all six facets of antagonism, indicating that the clinicians saw him as
manipulative, deceitful, mistrustful, arrogant and callous. However, consistent with the reports of
Bundy’s success in political endeavors, the clinicians also rated him highly in the domain of
extraversion, describing him as assertive, active, and thrill-seeking although also extremely low
in the extraversion facet of warmth. Bundy was described as being particularly low on all the
facets of neuroticism, with the exception of angry hostility. This indicates that he was seen as
relatively free from experiencing negative emotions such as anxiety, depression, and self-
consciousness, but also as having great difficulty controlling his anger. Perhaps the most
noteworthy finding from the FFM ratings was his generally high ratings on the domain of
conscientiousness. In contrast with the impulsive, under-controlled behavior that one would
typically expect from an antisocial criminal, Bundy was described as being Describing Ted
Bundy’s Personality 5 competent, orderly, achievement oriented and deliberate. Perhaps it was
his characteristic style of careful planning and deliberate execution that enabled Bundy to avoid
capture and arrest for so many years.

Bipolar Disorder: According to the Salt Lake City newspaper Deseret News, an investigator
had told Lewis that in the middle of a normal conversation, Bundy suddenly "became weird on
me . . . did a metamorphosis, a bit of a body and facial change, and . . . almost an odor emitted
from him." Lewis reportedly noted that he could "switch from euphoria and compulsive talking
to anger followed by long periods of sullen silence," and showed examples of a wide range of
Bundy's doodles. (GAINSBURG, 2019)

Machiavellianism: Machiavellianism overlaps with narcissism and antisocial disorders. They

are more likely to deceive and manipulate others for their own personal gain. They see people as
objects for use and manipulation. They will have normal amounts of empathy unless they have
traits of psychopathy. In viewing Ted Bundy, it is highly probable that he displayed high
Machiavellianism with traits of psychopathy and narcissism—thus having all the dark triad.
(Puder, 2019)

Treatment

There is no cure for psychopathy. No pill can instill empathy, no vaccine can prevent murder in
cold blood, and no amount of talk therapy can change an uncaring mind. For all intents and
purposes, psychopaths are lost to the normal social world.

Psychopathy is a personality disorder, not a mental illness. There is no "cure" for psychopaths,
and they will never be able to change. If they are in prison, psychopaths can be managed with
reward-based treatment. (Dodgson, 2018) Furthermore, rewarding them with their favorite
things, i.e. food, clothes, etc. is considered to be the best course to manage them, as their
narcissism would be satisfied by a reward based treatment.

Summary

This individual had an uneasy childhood, believing his grandparents to be his own parents and
his real mother to be his sister. He was a victim of deceit at a very young age. A few years later,
when he started residing in his step-father’s house with his four step-siblings, he was ignored by
his parents, as his siblings took their attention away from him. Due to lack of attention of his
parents, he became antisocial. Moreover, one day he saw his birth certificate, in which in the
place of his father’s name, it was written ‘unknown’. This came as a big shock for a young kid,
but later Ted denied it, saying that it was normal.

Ted Bundy was a smart, attractive and successful law student, but ironically he secretly indulged
himself in criminal activities. This amalgamation of binaries led him to dual personality disorder
along with narcissism and Machiavellianism, as he was succeeding socially and achieving his
goals of prestige, wealth and love. But when his girlfriend left him, he killed a 21 year old girl to
take out his frustration on his unfair life. This led towards numerous murders of young women,
including a 12 year old girl, lacking empathy. He confessed of practicing necrophilia and blamed
it all on porn.

Henceforth, it can be said that the amalgamation of his grim childhood with his unrequited love
of youth, brought forth his dark side, which made young women suffer from terror and face
death. As a conspiracy theory, it is said that he has killed hundreds of women instead of just 30,
as he confessed. He manipulated women, with his charming looks and enchanting rhetoric, to
help him, and when they agree, he abducted them and ultimately fulfill his evil desires and put
the blame on the voices in his head, which enforced him to do so.

He was almost become, somewhat, a celebrity during his trials and some of his trials went on air,
live, via the presence of media in the court. The public was appalled by his audacity to kill
several women and then, not even feel guilty. To the masses, his trials seem like a famous reality
show, whose popularity, due to their hatred towards him, was growing day by day. Thus, the day
of his execution was celebrated by hundreds of people, as he was the most wanted and infamous
criminal of America.
 References

Dodgson, L. (2018). Psychopaths cannot be cured — here's why. BUSINESS INSIDER.

Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/psychopaths-cannot-be-cured-heres-
why-2018-2

GAINSBURG, M. (2019). So, Exactly Which Mental Health Disorders Did Ted Bundy Have,
Anyway? WOMEN'SHEALTH. Retrieved from
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a27346043/ted-bundy-mental-health-disorders-
antisocial-behavior-personality/

Puder, D. D. (2019). The Dark Triad (Psychopathy, Narcissism, Machiavellianism), sexually

violent predators, Ted Bundy, and porn. PSYCHIATRY & PSYCHOTHERAPY
PODCAST. Retrieved from https://psychiatrypodcast.com/psychiatry-psychotherapy-
podcast/2019/2/5/the-dark-triad-psychopathy-narcissism-machiavellianism-sexually-
violent-predators-ted-bundy-and-porn