THE ABSENCE OF THE PATERNAL ARCHETYPE AND THE DOMINION OF THE SHADOW: A JUNGIAN READING OF JEFFREY DAHMER'S PSYCHE

Abstract

This article examines the case of Jeffrey Dahmer through the lens of Carl Gustav Jung’s Analytical Psychology, emphasizing how the absence of the Symbolic Father—understood as the structuring principle that offers boundaries, orientation, and psychic organization—and the non-integration of the Shadow contributed to a fragmented psyche marked by destructive impulses. The analysis highlights a family environment characterized by emotional neglect, parental conflict, maternal instability, and paternal absence, which, combined with possible genetic predispositions, environmental influences, and emotional vulnerabilities, created fertile ground for the emergence of unintegrated unconscious contents. Dahmer’s behaviors—necrophilia, cannibalism, and attempts at “zombification”—are symbolically interpreted through cultural and mythological frameworks. Tupinambá anthropophagy and Yanomami mortuary rituals provide metaphoric insight into his pursuit of total fusion and control over the other. The Greek myth of Orpheus illuminates the link between love, death, and the desire to preserve the lost object, whereas the Itã of Exu—an orixá who disrupts silence and reveals repressed tensions—illustrates how unconscious material erupts chaotically when symbolic mediation is absent. The article also revisits diagnostic hypotheses discussed in the psychiatric literature, including Antisocial Personality Disorder, depressive symptoms, alcoholism, and possible Asperger traits, exploring how these elements intersect with symbolic, affective, and unconscious dynamics. The goal is not to justify the crimes but to understand how failures of emotional bonding, impaired symbolization, and unintegrated shadow aspects can culminate in extreme forms of violence.