Forensic psychiatrist explains Harold Shipman's motives in 大象传媒
ONE documentary
What
drove serial killer Harold Shipman?
In
Harold Shipman - Measuring Evil (Friday, 10.35pm, 大象传媒 ONE),
forensic psychiatrist Professor Jeremy Coid gives a fascinating
insight into the mind of the most prolific serial killer Britain
has ever known.
Since
being convicted Shipman has never spoken in public but Professor
Coid has built up a profile of the killer, offering an explanation
of how an admired and respected GP became addicted to murder.
Coid
believes Shipman displays characteristics of a compulsive killer
- "Often these individuals are depressed, they have bouts of
tension and anxiety and this often builds to quite unbearable intensity
and they feel driven to actually kill."
He
goes on to explain that there is a narcissistic quality to Shipman's
personality, which triggered a fatal chain of events.
"To
feel good about himself he needs his patients to regard him as the
perfect doctor," Coid says.
"He
(feels the need) to work harder than other doctors and the harder
he works the more he stirs up the conflict and the tension within
him and the more he feels drained, angry, resentful and increasingly
murderous towards the patients in his care."
At
times Shipman displayed traits of a split personality, a result
of the false persona he created for himself of the perfect doctor.
Relatives
of some of his victims recall him being cold and distant immediately
after the death of his victim.
Coid
recognises the significance of this behavioural swing from the charming
GP who persuaded his patients to accept lethal injections - "(His)
mask had slipped at this point and they see what聮s really behind
it - somebody for whom the victim is no more than an object."
Shipman's
split personality also allowed him to deny what he'd done and to
continue functioning as a GP - "I'm quite sure that he will
have reassured himself that the death he inflicts is not a painful
death, they looked as though they've had a peaceful death.
"But
behind the mask would be the true murderous individual, impossible
to live with."
Coid
suggests that Shipman would "fall apart" if he ever came
to accept what he'd done.
Terrifyingly,
Shipman soon became addicted to the buzz of killing.
"There's
a clear pattern of escalation, reminiscent of an addict," observes
Coid, "you can see an element of tolerance where he seems to
need to increase the 'dose' of his killing behaviour to get the
same effect."
More
than 500 families are waiting to find out whether their loved one
was a victim of serial killer Harold Shipman.
For
the past year the Shipman Inquiry has been trying to establish how
many patients the former GP murdered during his 20 year career.
The
大象传媒 has had exclusive and unprecedented access to the Inquiry process.
Measuring
Evil follows some of these families in their attempts to discover
what happened to their loved ones and asks why a once much admired
GP would take the lives of so many.
Harold
Shipman - Measuring Evil, Friday 19 July, 10.35pm, 大象传媒 ONE
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