Entry #1: The Fighting Forms
An introduction to The Dahmer Diaries and what prompted my new Substack.
IN THE FALL OF 2022, I WROTE a short astrological analysis of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
The article included a cursory analysis of Dahmer’s birth chart. But I also wanted to explore more complicated cultural responses to Dahmer, and the bizarre Dahmer ‘Renaissance’ that exploded as a new generation of individuals became curious about his life, crimes, and victims.
True, much of this newfound curiosity relates directly to Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series Dahmer, but as I told the editors at Substack in a recent interview, a larger cycle seems to be playing out. More specifically:
I sensed a direct correlation between Jeffrey Dahmer’s obsessive desire to consume his victims and the closing phase of the United State’s Pluto return…it’s no coincidence that Dahmer is reasserting himself into our collective imagination. He mirrors our country’s conspicuous consumption and sense of entitlement. The racial and homophobic bigotry underlining Dahmer’s trajectory is what gave the Netflix series an extra Plutonian bite.
The Rabbit Hole
Researching Dahmer for the article created a domino effect in my psyche. Initially, I traveled back in time and tried to recall my reactions to Dahmer’s arrest and ensuing court case when it dominated the media in a surreal manner during the summer of 1991.
Like many gay men, a good chunk of my psychic force in the early 90s was spent maneuvering around the HIV/AIDS crisis while maintaining some semblance of an active social and sexual life.
The last thing I wanted to scrutinize was details about a gay serial killer who had annihilated the lives of 17 men. Men that were mostly gay. Men like myself (I was the age of several of Dahmer’s victims back in the early 90s). Men who had accepted an invitation back to a stranger’s apartment for a sexual evening. But then never returned to those who loved them.
Through my research, I became spellbound by the slew of psychologists who diagnosed Dahmer before and after his arrest, primarily those called by the defense and prosecuting attorneys during his insanity trial.
Surprisingly, there was no cohesive, mutually agreed-upon diagnosis. He was borderline. He was psychopathic. He was schizotypical. He was on the spectrum. And he had a rare schizo-cluster condition. The lack of agreement among medical professionals was damning and embarrassing and highlighted the ultra-subjective world of psycho-therapeutic analysis.
As an astrologer, I had my own techniques for interpreting Dahmer’s life. And after writing my initial essay, I considered writing a non-fiction book that would include an in-depth astro-diagnosis of Dahmer’s life, complete with key life events and the astrological transits that accompanied them. But in the end, I chose not to.
Why?
Fantasy and the Imagination
If medical science could not comprehend Dahmer, I decided that perhaps art could.
To comprehend Dahmer is to pay tremendous credence to the power of fantasy and what happens in a person’s life when fantasy obliterates Freud’s reality principle—the ballast that civilized humans situate their lives around.
Therefore, I decided to write a fictional book. A novel whose structure would involve writing a parallel history. A book that would step away from rationality and drift into the realm of the heart.
As an artist, I could not understand that within the volumes of research, retellings, and analysis on Dahmer’s life and crimes, not once did I come across any chronicler’s effort to interpret the most prominent display of actual art in Dahmer’s life. A piece of art that completely dominated the wall of Dahmer’s squalid Milwaukee apartment.
That piece of art was a humongous framed poster of Franz Marc’s 1914 expressionist painting Fighting Forms. The painting that opens this diary entry.
Next time I’ll discuss Franz Marc’s explosive painting in detail and illustrate how it became an entryway into the heart of my new book.
See you then,
Terrific. A difficult subject to warm up to. But this is superb: "If medical science could not comprehend Dahmer, I decided that perhaps art could."
This sounds like a fascinating and slightly troubling project, but I've no doubt your unique take as a writer will bring something illuminating to light. Looking forward to this.