Post by pendleton on Sept 5, 2014 12:43:36 GMT
The thefts, the odd collection of items selected for theft and, sometimes, just moving items to new locations sounds somewhat similar to Kleptomania. From Wikipedia:
Kleptomania is the inability to refrain from the urge to steal items for reasons other than personal use or financial gain. First described in 1816, kleptomania is classified in psychiatry as an impulse control disorder. Alternatively, some of the main characteristics of the disorder, which consist of recurring intrusion feelings, an inability to resist the urge to steal, and a release of pressure following the theft, suggest that kleptomania could be an obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder, although this is disputed.
Pyromania, another impulse disorder, has many ties to kleptomania. Many pyromaniacs begin fires alongside petty stealing which often appears similar to kleptomania.
Stealing frequently becomes an obsession. Although people know they could get caught and marked for life, they find it hard to give up the habit. Major symptoms include a person’s decreased resistance to steal objects unnecessarily, feeling entitled to own them at any cost. According to Dr Paralikar, "if a person does get away with stealing like this, the heart-rate is known to increase, close to an adrenaline rush after committing a crime and getting away with it".
Many serial killers start out as serial fire starters or pyromaniacs. One classic example is David Berkowitz. He began starting fires in vacant lots as an adolescent. At the age of 21 Berkowitz began to keep meticulous records of the fires he started. Those records indicated that Berkowitz was responsible for 1,488 fires and fire alarms. He then went on to shoot 6 neighbourhood dogs, send threatening letters to his neighbors and finally shooting and killing six people. Berkowitz too wouldn't take full responsibility for his actions. He invented the notion that a talking dog instructed him to kill.