From the back of Helter
Skelter, a bestselling true account of the Manson Murders of 1969:
"It began August 9 and 10,
1969, when seven people were shot, stabbed and bludgeoned to death in Los
Angeles. It ended when a nation watched in fascinated horror as the
killers were tried and convicted. But the real questions went unanswered.
How did Manson make his "family" kill for him? How could these young
men and women kill again and again without human feelings of any kind?
Did the murders go on even after Manson was in jail?"
---
One possible explanation
lies in the social psychological concept of deindividuation.
The textbook definition states deindividuation as the loss of self-awareness
and evaluation apprehension; occurs in group situations that foster anonymity
and draw attention away from the individual (Myers, 305). Through
drugs, sex, and psychological conditioning, Manson formed an extremely
cohesive, tight cult that followed him and his order. The group had
anonymity to a certain extent through their group identity, and the attention
was focused on Manson, not on the individual. Deindividuation can
help explain the reasoning behind why these people murdered under a group
identity.
