Interview: Jeffrey Dahmer and The Creation of Monsters

In my monthly guest interview on Ivan Alfaro's podcast (From Pain to Gain) and youtube channel (Leaving the Rat Cage), we're diving into another insightful discussion about Jeffrey Dahmer, the creation of monsters, addiction, how we harm people, and what we can do about it.

We walk through this topic using Ivan's C.A.G.E. framework which stands for Complacency, Atrophy, Guilt, and Escape. 

Episode Synopsis & Discussion Topics

"Jason and Ivan talk about how everyone contributes towards making monsters like Jeffrey, from the village [society], to parents, to addicts in many different aspects of life including negative news & sexuality. We speak not only about the observation of these societal dynamics which is valuable simply to be aware of, but how one can be delivered from them with the decision to. We also share some of our own journeys in fighting through this lopsided monster-friendly framework, to the framework that Jesus created for us to live in freedom."

Here's a list of the ideas we hit on throughout our conversation.

• Jeffrey Dahmer's motivations for why he did what he did. 
• Objectification of people into objects for our personal pursuits.
• Our preference for the negative.
• Control and power.
• Compulsive behavior and addiction.
• Expecting that virtue is not an automatic progression for individuals.
• The restraint of evil.
• Having a co-warrior spouse.
• Having a framework for good and evil and the resilience that comes with it.
• Recognizing our foolishness and failure to foster transformative communities.
• Low versus high anthropology.
• Hiding our sin and brokenness.
• Two ways we harm people: actively and passively.
• How judgment affects us and how Christ's redemption frees us from human judgment.
• Cain & Abel. Destroying the ideal and lashing out against God.
• Repentance: Trapped in a cycle of guilt and shame. 
• From CAGE to COFFIN.
• Unconfessed and unforgiven anger.
• Containing evil: Uncontrollable compulsion and appropriate constraints on the effects of sin.
• What we place as supreme in our life shapes how we see and live.
• The contrast between living in heaven and hell (on earth).
• The source of life, and the toxic alternatives we pursue.
• Living in victory.

Watch This Discussion

Click here to watch this conversation directly on Youtube here or using the embed below.

Additional Resources

• Watch: Inside the Mind of Jeffrey Dahmer: Serial Killer’s Chilling Jailhouse Interview
• Read: Are You Ready To Face Your Greatest Fears Head On?
• Quote: "Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one's first feeling, 'Thank God, even they aren't quite so bad as that,' or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies are as bad as possible? If it is the second then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black. Finally we shall insist on seeing everything -- God and our friends and ourselves included -- as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity"