Freudian Excuse/Real Life: Difference between revisions

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* The [[Freudian Excuse]] has been used by defendants in real-life court cases, although nowhere near as often (or as successfully) as fiction make it out to be.

** It's not really a legal defense, except as a set-up for some form of insanity plea. No matter how much you explain your actions ("I'm only a murderer because daddy beat me" as analogue to "I'm only a thief because I have no money"), explanations don't form a legal ''excuse''.

* Another famous serial killer, John Wayne Gacy, ''may'' have played this straight. His father was not only domineering and abusive, but frequently humiliated him in front of the neighborhood kids because of his more effeminate interests. It got worse when he ''tried'' to engage in more typical boyish behaviors and discovered that he had a debilitating heart condition that prevented him from doing so, making him feel like even more of an outcast. People have theorized that all this may have made him bitter and angry at the world and humanity to the point that he stopped trying to repress his then emerging paraphilic urges. That said, there's no way to tell for sure that he would have ended up differently even ''if'' he'd had a normal childhood.