‘Tell me anyhow.’
‘Perhaps, despite Pierre’s status, he was no longer needy enough for her. Rich, successful men, those with partners, even children, are perceived to have it all, but many are still looking for more, and in some ways, because of their drive, are needier than most.’
‘But in your report you said the killings are emotionally based, and obsessional.’
‘They are, but the needier the victims, the more dependent they are on her. It’s a game of balance and control. She seeks them out, men ripe for manipulation and control.’
‘What’s id, ego and super-ego?’
‘Freudian theory.’
‘Which is what?’
‘The id is the unorganised part of the personality, which contains our basic instinctual drives and is present from birth. As humans, if we were to depend on the id alone, we wouldn’t be able to operate as social animals. If you’re hungry, for example, walk into a room and see someone else eating, you simply take their food. The ego is the one in the centre. It seeks to please the id, but in a way that will be beneficial in the long term, rather than bring grief in the short term. It acts as a mediator between the id and the super-ego.’
‘Kate, I’m still lost.’
‘Let’s say you need to urinate.’
He looked at the queue for the toilet cubicle. ‘I wish you hadn’t mentioned that.’
‘If you were relying on the id, you would urinate here, just as a baby would wet their nappy, responding to the desires and needs of id. But you’re not a baby. You have learned through your super-ego that socially you should urinate in a bathroom. The super-ego knows this, but the id still wants to urinate. The ego acts as a mediator between the two. It tells the id to wait. Are you with me so far?’
‘I think so, but my id is getting impatient. I’ll be back in a few minutes.’ He stood up to take his place in the toilet queue.
While he was gone, Kate turned to look out of the window again, the blue sky bright above the clouds. Her mind drifted to past holidays with Declan and Charlie. An unexpected pang of sadness hit her hard. Perhaps it was a good thing, going away for a couple of days, leaving the normal structures and routines of life. Her mother used to say everything happened for a reason – a constant willingness on her part to accept certain things without question. Kate saw things differently: she invariably wanted to know why, and there wasn’t always an easy answer. She was relieved to see Adam return to his seat beside her.
‘You were talking about Mr Freud.’
‘Glad you’re still interested!’
‘I’m like a sponge, Kate. I love learning new stuff.’
She laughed, but continued, ‘I guess you could say the super-ego reflects the internalisation of cultural rules, mainly taught by parents, the father, according to Freud, but it also takes on the influence of non-parental figures, educators, teachers, people we see as role models.’
‘All good so far.’
‘Anyhow, things have moved on since Freud’s theory of division. The id, the ego and the super-ego are still relevant today, but the model has been updated and revised, incorporating other elements, such as neurobiology, early attachment and environmental data.’
‘You’re getting a bit technical for me. How is this relevant to our killer?’
‘Within neurobiology, we know the brain develops at a massive rate from babyhood to fully developed maturity at the age of twenty-five, and certain stages are identified. We have the development of our use of language, helping our role as social animals, and also the progression of the frontal lobes, providing higher functions, giving us the ability to plan, to hold off being impulsive, and, interestingly, the area of the brain known as the temporal gyrus.’
‘What does that do?’
‘It stores autobiographical memory. Negative interference, severe trauma in childhood, can adversely affect how the mind develops. If a child experiences trauma at an early point, the temporal gyrus doesn’t develop as it should, and the child will have difficulty establishing a coherent sense of self.’
‘They get fucked up.’
‘Not a term I would use but yes, and if the damage occurs very early on, it can be devastating. I don’t suppose you’ve heard of Tronick’s Still Face experiment?’