Ed Gein - The Mind of a Monster | True Crime Documentary
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- Опубліковано 9 вер 2024
- What made a mild-mannered loner from small town America turn into Ed Gein, the Butcher of Plainfield - a graverobber, murderer and ghoulish collector of female body parts - the inspiration for Norman Bates, Leatherface and countless other horror film demons.
In this documentary Prof Yorston, Neuropsychiatrist, uses his skills from assessing serious criminals for over 30 years to explore the life of Ed Gein, trying to understand why he committed some of the most horrifying crimes of the 20th century and re-evaluating some of the myths and sensationalist claims made about him over the years.
Finding Out More:
There are lots of books about Ed Gein of varying quality. If you want to read his original psychiatric evaluation from 1957 and a transcript of his confession, they are reprinted in The Ed Gein File: A Psycho's Confession and Case Documents by John Borowski. However, it does contain some extremely graphic crime photographs as well. It is available through my Amazon store page: amzn.to/3KlzKNU
Copyright Disclaimer:
The primary purpose of this video is educational. I have tried to use material in the public domain or with Creative Commons Non-attribution licences wherever possible. Where attribution is required, I have listed this below. I believe that any copyright material used falls under the remit of Fair Use, but if any content owners would like to dispute this, I will not hesitate to immediately remove that content. It is not my intention to infringe on content ownership in any way. If you happen to find your art or images in the video, please let me know and I will be glad to credit you.
Images:
Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Wellcome Collection
Video produced by Graeme Yorston and Martin Gale.
I've read three or four books on Gein. I could have saved my time by just watching this.
Glad it was helpful!
Fascinating takes on these events. We are used to analysis done by journalists looking for a shocking résumé recounting snippets of third party studies, not by someone directly in the field. I can't wait for others to be analyzed with the same different outlook.
Thank you - one of the problems is getting access to the original clinical documents - they have to be already in the public domain for me to be able to comment.
Yes, exactly. I like this pov too.
In my twenties I worked as an aide on a psychiatric ward and was always suspicious of a schizophrenic diagnosis since it was so widely used. Thank you for verifying my skepticism. The human mind has left us sometimes in awe and sometimes in revulsion. Is God playing with us?
The diagnosis is more carefully applied nowadays.
Haha no God is not playing with us. If you are going to use God and Christianity as a reference, would want to consult the source material, that being the Bible. The Bible very specifically teaching how creation is fallen because of sin. Satan being the prince of evil and earth. And Jesus having conquered all evil through his death and resurrection. If anything, I would much more readily ask as you asked but change the word, is satan playing with us? to which I’d say yes. The enemy seeks our destruction, and does it in every way imagineable, and unimagineable.
In this case I think it’s pertinent to blame the parents. What is so shocking to me is his ghastly mother probably lived out her life convinced she was a perfect human being, but in fact she was a true monster.
Very true.
That could be true for us all.
Parents Suck
Thank for challenging the stigma around mental health doctor ✌️💕🌻
I've spent my life career trying to do this,
Absolutely incredible and really fascinating. I don’t know if to feel sorry for him, or just really dislike him. It’s horror with a big dollop of sadness for the small boy lost.
Thank you
Thank Jay-Leigh - I was hoping for people to be able to see behind the monster into the person with all his vulnerabilities, imperfect though he was.
Feeling sorry for him doesn’t have to take away from the ability to feel sorry for his victims aswell. I defenitely feel sorry for him. A person isn’t only his/her actions
I couldn't agree more.
@@professorgraemeyorston I personally don’t believe we are born bad. Circumstances of birth into a situation can often be one of the many layers of reasons. To know the monster we need and must look into the mind. I’m not condoning anyone’s action of course not. But what triggered it will always continue to fascinate me.
He was a product of his upbringing- Ed wasn't evil or a monster - he had mental illness, plus his social situation etc etc ...... he didn't want or desire to kill, in his head he just needed the skin - there's a lot or misinformation and sensationalism due to many factors that made this so macabre - his mother was a nut - I think he may well have wanted to be a woman -
The outbursts of sudden laughter as a child in school is something that could be associated with early onset schizophrenia. Gein's story is both extreme and fascinating. His mother could be described as a good mother in some ways but as in all of life too much of a good thing is a bad thing. The great American novelist Cormac McCarthy was at least partly inspired by this grim story when he wrote "Child of God". Social isolation is seldom healthy as the mind can become fixated on a narrow range of internal "stories" that block off many other avenues of thought. By the way I am always fascinated by other peoples bookshelves and find yours very interesting.
Thank you, I haven't read Child of God - too busy with the others on the shelf!
...I burst out laughing randomly. And I show indications of schizophrenia. Yet I refuse to believe I have it and I am in denial. I don't think I do.
The laughter has to be odd and associated with things that don't seem very funny, random things like a seagull flying past, a pattern of sunlight on the floor, a fluttering moth. Not what a writer once described as "the atom of delight". Seeing the amusement in things others miss is not the same thing though it could appear to be so.@@Bvddy.H0lly
The sudden laughter doesn't nessesery mean that it was anything wrong with him.
Maybe he was a deep thinker. Seeing the comedy in life. Things other people are so used to that they are blind to the absurdity.
Thank you for this! I'm a huge True Crime, documentary and medical history follower. Serial killers' psyche are my revolving "car reck". PLEASE do more of these high profile cases. 👍
I will definitely be doing more videos on serial killers - any suggestions for who I should do first?
Bob Berdella
So pleased to have found your channel. Your narration draws in and keeps my attention and are fun+easy to watch! 😊
Thank you.
I was in grade school in Wisconsin when Ed. Gein was so in the news. We made jokes.
What did Ed Gein eat?
Lady Fingers!
We had to make jokes. It was too terrible.
I started to understand what makes people nuts in cold long northern Wisconsin winters.
Dark humour is a great way of processing troubling facts.
Great video. Very high quality content. Thank you 🙏
Thank you.
Great as ALWAYS ❤❤❤
Thanks again!
What a terrible upbringing, which certainly contributed to these terrible acts. The reaction of most of us is to simply label someone else as being 'evil', and that puts the problem 'over there' and away from ourselves. I do think evil exists, but it's complicated. May I ask, If you or I had had to endure such an abusive and warped upbringing, how would have turned out? I don't think we'd all end up like Ed Gein, but maybe a few of us would? I guess it partly depends upon what underlying vulnerabilities we had, and how we personally would deal with the opportunities to act out our damaged thinking.
Oh for a kinder world! Thanks for your work of psychiatry and efforts to help humanity.
You make a good point, what makes people act in this way is a combination of genes, upbringing and life experiences.
She was already in his head, shes probably the "outside force"
She occupied his life, even in school he would laugh probably hearing her, like an introject in systems.
She certainly dominated his thoughts.
Ty for your amazing documentary , Ed Gein is always a interesting character to know more about !
Glad you enjoyed it
Just found your channel & I love 💕 it! Thank you for all your hard work!
Welcome aboard!!
WOW the deal with this man goes absolutely deep... And I mean it goes really DEEP 😵💫in the psyche 😳 that I think a lot of psych doctors couldn't comprehend 🤔 but then again that is my opinion 🤭 my perspective out of 7 billion.
👍 Thank you
Thank you, we are all one out of 7 billion, but we all count!
I like serial killers, and criminal cases in general, but I can't see Ed Gein as a true criminal. I think he was more of a lost soul, but a lost soul that was "created" by abuse for long years. His behaviour was not pardonable, nevertheless.
I know what you mean, but there was still an element of choice in what he did.
@@professorgraemeyorston Yes, we can always make choices. But was he as free in his mind, like most of us, to make them?
Best regards from Lisbon, across the "pond" in Portugal. Excellent channel.
Thank you for this content
It's sad what shame and self hatred can do to innocent children
How they personify it and it hinders their true self and apparent self and demonic self
It's emotional and physical suicide it's really sad and such a painful obstruction of reality
Thank you for this documentary
Speaking on the part in which you say people thought his behavior changed when there was a full moon, I've heard people who work in nursing homes say there's a change in behavior in the dementia residents, that their dementia becomes worse when there's a full moon, that they become more agitated and animated, do you think that's true, and if so, what might be the connection?
Great content. I'm binging now and subbed.
Welcome aboard!
New subscriber here, thank you for your hard work and interesting content! Keep up the awesome videos
Thanks, welcome aboard, let me know if there are any topics you are interested in.
@@professorgraemeyorstone serial killer mind is an interesting topic to cover. The wide spectrum of narcissism, psychopathy, and sociopathy and the differences of each
Thanks, I will try to cover those.
People have chipped souvenirs from his headstone.
I think it has had to replaced at least once as people have taken the whole thing!
Among the" countless other film demons" was Buffalo Bill from Silence of the lambs.
He was indeed.
It looked like there was a book on cannabis in the bookshelf behind you. What is your opinion on the use of cannabis and other psychoactive substances for mental health care?
Good eyesight! It's a complex subject where the politics gets in the way of the science. I think cannabinoids have enormous therapeutic potential for some people but the high-THC products that people buy today have a risk of causing psychosis.
@@professorgraemeyorston This is a very good answer. Low THC non-smoke products may be of genuine assistance to some for certain conditions. Dependency and frequent longings for the product have to be managed carefully, though. And combusted smoke drawn into the lungs is NEVER a proper treatment. Other delivery systems for mild THC doses should always be prescribed.
How would a psychiatrist differentiate between schizoid personality disorder and autism?
The short answer is with difficulty. Most psychiatric diagnoses are different to medical diagnoses in that we do not understand the causes and how they lead to symptoms and there is a lot of overlap between diagnoses. We do it by trying to take very detailed histories from patients and their families and seeing people over a long period of time.
My understanding is that schizophrenia is due in part to variations in the dopamine pathway in the brain. There are non-invasive techniques such as PET and functional MRI scanning available. Has anyone ever done studies with these techniques in subjects with psychiatric illnesses? Is there much work being done on genetic variations linked to patients with severe psychiatric illnesses? Wondering if a particular DNA variant could lead to greater or lesser production of enzymes that may have a knock-on effect making one more susceptible .
A huge amount of research is going on into the genetics and neurobiology of mental illness - but it just keeps getting more complicated.
I've often wondered same. It seems that there's a measure of control with schizoid people, who simply shun companionship and intimacy. Autists seem more driven to be the way they are; almost fetishy. There seems little choice with autists, while schizoid people seem more like a personality type than a true illness.
Can people like Ed Gein ever totally heal with psychiatric help?
Fantastic question! No easy answer - those with mental illnesses can be treated, those with personality disorders are a lot harder to change.
Schizophrenia- yes cause he was medicated by the hospital.
I noticed that very very few people ever change.
I am in my fifth and whenever I meet someone from the past, old schoolmates and such, they always show the same pattern of behaviour.
The man could sew like a Boss though.
I do believe that he killed only 2 people. He had no reason to lie about it unless his mind was just so far gone that he had no recollection at all of committing other murders. But I doubt it
What his brother's death - it was very suspicious.
The random bursts of laughter. I do that. I start laughing and giggling to myself for no apparent reason. I also see things and hear things. I also taste and smell things that aren't there. I feel like there is someone in the window watching me. In fact, i have seen a figure watching me. And I started panicking. I was asked why I am freaking out. To which I replied "I'm not."
I've been told it is schizophrenia but I refuse to believe that and have been in denial for 2 months. I have yet to get it checked out and have been expressing symptoms of it since I was young. Since I was young, I thought people were quietly talking about me and laughing at me. It is distressing and makes me feel bad and nervous. I have also had thoughts of harming myself with kitchen tools since I was young too, as well as feeling like I am being watched through cameras.
Does anyone think I should get it evaluated? Is it of concern?
I can't give medical advice, but if you are concerned then you should consider talking to a doctor.
@@professorgraemeyorston Yeah. Keep getting told that. Eventually I'll try. Mental health is difficult.
He looks like Till Lindemann. The singer in Rammstein.
This story for some reason made me think of Jim Gordon, the all-star rock drummer of the 70s, who killed his mother in a schizophrenic frenzy made worse by cocaine and alcohol. Like many of these historical figures with mental illness, he died in prison.
He was like an early Jeffry Dahmer
Not so prolific, but still shocking.
Nothing like Dahmer. Zero similarities
❤ Hello doc,
Thank you for this interesting film.
I wonder more about us, humans fascination with killers. I heard that this world we live in is dependent on murder.
We actually need killers like Ed to function together.
They are our spiritual food.
Is it possible that Ed Gein knew this? Or that he was taken advantage of to be used to serve the public a much needed horror story?
Merry Christmas by the way.
Do you ever wonder who the real he Jesus is?
The one exposed and mocked and crusified?
There is a school of thought that suggests that we need psychopaths, but I think Gein was ill rather than psychopathic.
@@professorgraemeyorston . What do you mean?
Would the world stand without Ed?
I think it would be a loss.
Obviously there are some folks with schizotypal personality disorder who do not display such bizarre behaviors. Could there also be a dual diagnosis to include psychopathy.
3:23 His mother had a “dense stroke”? Is that a Britishism? I’ve never heard a stroke described as “dense” before. Maybe I’m just an ig’nant American.
It might be - it means a large stroke affecting multiple systems with very slow or minimal recovery of function.
👍👍
goodness gracious. never knew that’s who inspired those horror movies. terrible!
The truth is more shocking than the fiction.
Is schizotypal personality disorder produced by psychological factors, a harsh upbringing, in this case poor mothering, or is it due to an underlying brain malfunction? Just curious as to what the current thinking is on the cause.
Genetic factors impacting on brain function - but how it affects the individual often comes down to life experiences.
Thank you
Digging up corpses here seems to be awfully easy. Were bodies just buried in pine boxes? And having to dig up the entire area to expose most of the coffin, to get the lid off, six feet down (that's a lot of dirt), then to carry up the rotting corpse, refilling the hole, by one man, in a single evening, seems far-fetched.
Someone must have noted the exhumation. It had to have been a sloppy job, with marks & footprints everywhere, possibly signs of the body having been dragged. And no one noticed? Then to have the same thing happen not too long afterwards. I don't know. This seems almost impossible to accomplish.
How far away from the cemeteries were the nearest inhabitants? And you wouldn't have that much time. Five or six hours maybe. And if you had to bring your own light source, you might have easily attracted attention. No wonder Gein thought he was charmed.
The investigators were sceptical of his claims at first and felt he must have had an accomplice.
@@professorgraemeyorstonwhat do you think doc?
What do you believe?
Is there some hidden truth behind this man?
Didn't he do everything as it's presented to us?
Good old evangelical mamma! No hate like Christian love! Really screws with a young persons mind.
I think any kind of closed mind extremism is damaging for a child's development.
What she did to those boys is not Christian love. Is it worse than the love he got from his alcoholic father?
You are stereo typing Christians. It seems odd. Very unscientific. Some Christians do absolutely horrible things and others do not. Why the stereo typing?
And you think the beatings from his father had nothing to do with it?
ummm no that woman was not a christian. The way she treated her son goes against every thing the Bible teaches about loving your children. Yes many terrible parents have claimed to be Christian. And no, they are not.
Beyond revolting. Was he disturbed from birth or did his mother's influence twist his brain? Regardless, a very disturbed man.
I think his mother had a lot to do with it.
@@professorgraemeyorston I do too. Love your channel, binging to get caught up!
Just making things out of skin and bones- he had to be insane
Clearly "insane" in the everyday sense of the world - but many people who are crazy in this way do not necessarily have a mental illness.
@@professorgraemeyorston Thank you for clarifying!
I imagine it was believed that only someone mentally ill could commit these crimes.
His doctors thought of him as having a mental illness - it's just that the names of illnesses have changed over time.
Why was this edited?
14:08 I always wondered what was wrong with me, now I know, according to this I'm schizophrenic 😮
Hey at least he , wasn't TWO ,faced, get it?? This is what to much Marijuana will do, happy Thanksgiving, don't, partake of , Mary Hogan
I am afraid I have a relationship with a person of his mindset. There is something I would like to ask you about this topic but he may read it here...
I can't give out personal advice - but if you are seriously in a relationship with someone as warped as Ed Gein then you need to think very carefully about how to keep yourself and others safe - talk to someone and get help.
@@professorgraemeyorston thank u i am just trying to speak to him less and less
Good video:)
The real question, what was wrong with Eds mother.
Yes, that kind of religious fanaticism was once applauded, but any kind of fanaticism can be dangerous.
now we finally know where Jack the Ripper went!
half kidding. he does seem similar. ☠️
again?
❤❤❤❤❤
Domineering Religious MOTHER sounds common HE had 0 Friends O Social life Not sure if he celebrated Christmas
He was totally isolated and exposed to his mother's jaundiced view of the world.
Mmmm. The Ilse Koch tattooed skin comment may be historically inaccurate?
What about Soap and lampshades?
Augusta was the real Psycho and Monster
She was a bitter woman but she didn't kill anyone.
Ultimate mommys boy like ted bundy?
Yah let’s blame the woman. Typical of psychiatriy. Don’t mention the alcoholic violent father.
I believe I did mention his father.
@@professorgraemeyorston You did. The two parents together were a disaster at least for little Eddie, perhaps also for his brother. We just don't know much about the brither.
@@farmalmta 'Violent Alcoholic' isn't supported by any outside sources. 97% of what's out there on Ed's parents is sensationalized, overblown and simply reguritated over & over.
Janet get back in your box with pointless comments.
@@WQ59BInv so his parents were normal and ed gein hanged bernice like a fucking deer??????????? you gotta be fucking kidding me with your shit if his parents were normal why did he fucking murder two innocent women ???? your full of shit and dont tell me about your book because i smell the bullshit from here
He had Jeffrey Dahmer syndrome 😢
Well his mother did him no favors. Sad.
SKINNED. SONG BY BLIND MELON