Ed Gein: Social Learning Analysis

Introduction

Serial killers are a statistically small, but concerning problem of modern society. While few in number, serial killers are able to put significant stress on their local communities, affecting individuals both emotionally and physically (Wester & Reyes, 2021). For this reason, it is important to gain a better understanding of people who go against commonly understood social practices, norms, and morals. A number of different theories exist in order to explain the emergence of aberrant behaviors, none of which can be seen as definitive in explaining the causes of criminal acts. Some researchers focus on examining the effects of trauma, while others use the lens of learned behaviors, parenting, experience, and education.

By combining many different methods, investigators and criminal psychologists obtain a set of tools necessary to engage in crime and other types of anti-social actions. For the purposes of this work, the life and infamy of a specific killer will be further examined – Ed Gein, the “Butcher of Plainfield”. More specifically, the social learning theory will be applied to the early life and childhood of the man, with the goal of better understanding the motivations behind Gein’s crimes. The theory places increased importance on one’s observation of others, and the impact of action-response in formulating behaviors (Horsburgh & Ippolito, 2018). First, a short description of the man’s life will be provided. Then, his childhood will be examined as it relates to feelings of alienation, uniqueness, and his complicated feelings toward women. Applying this method while understanding its strengths and limitations is conducive to the two primary aims of the work – understanding the boundaries of social learning as the angle of analysis and gaining a better understanding of Ed Gein.

Biography

Edward Theodore Gein, or Ed Gein for short, was born in the small town of Plainfield in 1906. Despite the local community being considerably small, the man’s actions spread far beyond its boundaries in their notoriety, spanning widespread discussion and outrage. Gein’s childhood was difficult, living in a family of 4, including his alcoholic father, a controlling mother, and an older brother. According to most sources, the father was a timid man who could not hold down a steady job. Gein’s mother Augusta was the de-facto leader of the house, being noted as both extremely religious and verbally abusive to other family members (“Who was Ed Gein? Everything you need to know”). Young Ed grew up as a socially awkward, isolated child, much because of the actions of his mother and the remoteness of their family home. Augusta regularly preached to her children, discussing morbid topics of death, immortality, evil, and sins. Her teachings have undoubtedly shaped Gein’s understanding of the world, as parents fulfill the primary role in a child’s socialization. Without access to any other sources of knowledge or experience, Ed hung to every word of his mother.

Despite his family situation, Ed Gein still attended school, where he was noted as possessing strange mannerisms. He did not make any friends and was often bullied by other children. In terms of academic performance, Gein was relatively well-accomplished. Combining all of these factors into one person, it is possible to see a portrait of a man with an unstable support system, a lack of social skills, an unhealthy dependence on his mother figure, and a misshapen perception of others. All of these problems disallowed Ed Gein from properly socializing with others and integrating into society on a fundamental level. The reverence Gein held for his mother continued to be integral to his life. He continued to live in a secluded area without holding down a job or forming relationships.

Crimes

Ed Gein is infamous for a number of different immoral acts, although he was only formally charged with murder. Gein was apprehended under suspicion for the disappearance of Bernice Worden, a hardware store owner. Gein was her last client for the day, leading the investigation to immediately suspect him. Upon searching his property, the Sheriff’s Department found the mutilated body of the woman displayed in Gein’s home, along with an array of various other body parts. When arrested and questioned, the man has admitted to digging up recent graves and exhuming bodies – finding body parts to use for his own amusement. A number of clothing articles, decorations, and other types of objects made out of human remains were documented in the culprit’s house, incriminating Gein in grave desecration (Wetmore, 2021). It is possible to trace the man’s fascination with dead bodies to his upbringing, where the teachings of his religious mother would often discuss topics of death and dying. Early exposure to such themes and ideas contributed to Gein developing a peculiar attitude toward things others may find repulsive. Aside from an increased focus on death and its role in man’s life, it can also be said that Gein did not place value on the lives of other people.

Childhood Environment and Crime

As mentioned previously, it is likely that Ed Gein’s childhood environment was responsible for his antisocial behavior and his crimes. While it is impossible to shift the blame from the individual completely, the effects of the man’s background have to be taken into account. According to research on the topic, parenting styles have a strong correlation with both adolescent and adult criminality. Children who grew up in unstable homes and experienced physical, emotional, or sexual abuse are more likely to commit crimes later in life (Simons & Sutton, 2021). Therefore, Ed Gein’s parents bear partial responsibility for his crimes. Other issues of social adaptation, such as an inability to form emotional bonds with people, self-isolation, and a lack of empathy can also be explained by improper parenting (Tehrani & Yamini, 2020). Both Gein’s mother and father were not properly taking care of their children. The father could not support the financial or emotional needs of his two sons, while the mother was abusive toward them. According to most sources, she was fanatically religious and particular about her views on the world. Augusta Gein considered men to be pathetic and women promiscuous. The only person free of contempt and judgment was Augusta herself, who portrayed herself as the only source of support and love in Gein’s world. Ed Gein is reported to have believed her every word and adopted the woman’s perspective on the word. According to modern research, both parents and peers are an important part of socialization, one that is responsible for the development of a child’s identity (Nelson et al., 2018). Through interaction with others, a child begins to understand themselves, their surroundings, and the people around them. Therefore, Augusta Gein’s overwhelming control of her children’s socialization denied them the ability to develop fully. This problem was most prevalent in Ed and not his brother Henry, as the latter grew skeptical of his mother’s worldview.

Growing up isolated both mentally and physically, Ed Gein could not learn more about the world, or understand it on a deeper level, instead seeing it through a highly specific lens. Even attending school for a few years was not enough. Connecting all of the factors mentioned above with Gein’s murders reveals a number of interesting factors. First, it is necessary to note the man’s obsession with women and women’s bodies. He has studied a considerable amount of material concerning female anatomy, reading books and other resources. In the same vein, all of his victims were women, and the bodies that he stole from the graveyard were female as well. The violence inflicted on women and women’s bodies by Gein was fetishistic in nature, focusing on specific body parts or aiming to create clothing out of women’s skin.

Second, is necessary to empathize that all of the women Gein targeted resembled his mother. This is difficult to wave off as a simple coincidence, as the man took action deliberately, pre-planning his acts in advance and paying great attention to his practice of mutilating bodies. Therefore, it can be assumed that the decision to target women who resemble Ed’s mother was either conscious or unconscious. The first option can be ruled out since there are a lot of records, biographies, and evidence to suggest that the man worshipped his mother (Woods, 1995). Because of this, the next logical assumption to make is that Ed Gein harbored an unconscious malice toward his mother, or toward people that resembled her. A desire to inflict harm on his mother was likely a result of his strict and unstable upbringing as well. Alternatively, killing women who resemble Augusta Gein could have been connected with the extreme religious teachings that Ed Gein was exposed to.

Effect of Experiences on Behavior

According to social learning theory, children learn about acceptable and unacceptable types of behavior by watching others. In this way, the experiences and actions of people around the individual, and their social circle, can determine how the individual grows up. Social learning is often used to analyze criminals and understand the underlying causes of their extreme behaviors (Akers, 2019). What is important to note, however, is that the takeaways that an individual makes from observing the actions of others can vary significantly depending on their developmental level and mood (Vélez & Gweon, 2020). In the case of Ed Gein, the social influences were few and far between, making the role of key figures in his life, such as his mother, even more prominent. His father was an alcoholic who was unable to find secure employment. By watching his example, Gein understood that living without a stable source of income or engaging in various morally questionable acts is permissible. Gein’s mother placed herself on a pedestal while decrying other women as sinful. By living in this perspective and not having the capacity to change it, Gein developed a particularly inaccurate perception of the female gender.

It is possible to say, similarly to before, that the fascination with death that his mother fostered acted as a source of normalizing death-focused activities. At the same time, the religious teachings of Augusta Gein provided a reason for Ed to consider his actions to be insignificant or morally justified. Another angle that can be taken in analyzing Gein’s murders is that he understood the lack of consequences for his actions. One story that prominently features in most discussions considering Gein’s early life is a house fire in which his brother died. It is a known fact that Ed’s older brother was often at odds with the family matriarch, while also being concerned about young Ed’s fascination with her. Gein’s brother died under unclear circumstances, with the cause of death being stated as asphyxiation. Despite this verdict, the presence of head trauma on the body of the man may have indicated other types of struggle or even a different cause of death. If one considers Ed Gein as the killer of his own older brother, then it is also possible to retroactively make other murders easier to understand. Gein got away with killing in the past, receiving no punishment or retribution for his actions. Therefore, the act of killing other people became normalized.

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Analysis

The attempted type of analysis found success in providing a deeper and more interconnected framework of understanding for Gein’s actions, connecting them with his rocky early life and the moral philosophies of his mother. This perspective can be useful in forming a deeper understanding of murderers and serial killers, while also creating a base layer of expectation for how to approach the subject of social learning in criminality.

While this type of analysis can be helpful in providing a framework for understanding Gein’s crimes, it is not a full or comprehensive way to read his character. In particular, it does not explain how the man tolerated or even enjoyed extreme violence. In addition, the normalization of murder in the eyes of young Gein hinges primarily on the assertion that the mysterious death of his brother was in reality another murder. Without the capacity to clearly assert that, it is difficult to make a connection between childhood experience and learned behaviors.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be said that Ed Gein was a controversial and highly influential figure in pop culture and history. Despite living in a small town, he has managed to take his community by storm, terrorizing countless families and directly harming at least two women. His life story was full of suffering and loss, and the trauma of losing family members at an early age has likely had a profound effect on young Ed. Focusing on death and the macabre, he chose to decorate his house with human remains and create shrines for his deceased mother. Gein did not place any importance on the lives of others, excluding himself. He did not form genuine connections with anyone in his community, being unable to become truly connected to anybody even until his death.

References

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Horsburgh, J., & Ippolito, K. (2018). A skill to be worked at: Using social learning theory to explore the process of learning from role models in clinical settings. BMC Medical Education, 18(1). Web.

Nelson, S. C., Syed, M., Tran, A. G., Hu, A. W., & Lee, R. M. (2018). Pathways to ethnic-racial identity development and psychological adjustment: The differential associations of cultural socialization by parents and peers. Developmental Psychology, 54(11), 2166-2180. Web.

Simons, L. G., & Sutton, T. E. (2021). The long arm of parenting: How parenting styles influence crime and the pathways that explain this effect. Criminology, 59(3), 520-544. Web.

Tehrani, H. D., & Yamini, S. (2020). Parenting practices, self-control and anti-social behaviors: Meta-analytic structural equation modeling. Journal of Criminal Justice, 68, 101687. Web.

Vélez, N., & Gweon, H. (2020). Learning from other minds: An optimistic critique of reinforcement learning models of social learning. Web.

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Wetmore, K. J. (2021). Eaters of the dead: Myths and realities of cannibal monsters. Reaktion Books.

Who was ed Gein? Everything you need to know. (n.d.). Famous People in the World.

Woods, P. A. (1995). Ed gein – psycho! St. Martin’s Griffin.