I have commented on this case in a previous post. At that time, there was no known prior history of violence attributed to van der Sloot. Holloway's body has never been recovered. No forensic evidence of homicide had, at least to my knowledge, been found. Since then, Joran confessed publicly and privately to several accidental versions of involvement in Holloway's death, but almost immediately denied the veracity of his own statements. His father, a judge in the Aruban legal system who may well have helped his son illegally cover up Natalee's death, suddenly collapsed and died while playing tennis last February. He was relatively young. Had the chronic stress of the Holloway case and his own possible illegal involvement taken its fatal toll?

Joran, while briefly re-arrested since Holloway's disappearance, has been free to travel around the globe, and was secretly videotaped recruiting young women in Thailand to work in the Netherlands as prostitutes. In addition, he is recently charged with attempting to sleezily extort 250,000 dollars from Natalee Holloway's mother in return for telling her the location of her daughter's remains and details of her death. Van der Sloot was in Lima participating in a poker tournament. He apparently fancies himself a player. There are recent reports that his alleged victim, Ms. Flores, won $5,000.00 that evening at the casino, all of which was missing from the horrific crime scene. Some sources suggest that the victim may have been slipped GHB or Rohypnol, so-called "date rape" drugs--something the Holloway family has long suspected happened to Natalee that night.

Gradually, an unmistakable, chilling and telling pattern appears to be emerging: Prostitution. Gambling. Extortion. Willfully concealing a young American woman's death. And quite conceivably, rape, robbery and multiple murder. A pervasive disregard for and violation of the rights of others. Repeated illegal activities. Deceitfulness. Skillful lying. Conning. Physical aggressiveness. Sadistic cruelty. Irresponsibility. Impulsivity. Grandiosity. Absence of empathy. Exploitation of others. Apparent total lack of remorse for having hurt, mistreated or stolen from someone. These possible symptoms and suspected evil deeds are all classic indications of sociopathy, psychopathy, dyssocial or antisocial personality disorder. Or what in cases like this might be more descriptively termed "psychopathic narcissism."

Little is known publicly about Joran's childhood and family history. He appears to have grown up in a middle to upper middle class, well-to-do family, the eldest of three sons. His father, Paulus, was a prominent lawyer. His mother, Anita, a school teacher. However, there have been unsubstantiated stories that in the year before meeting Natalee Holloway, Joran, then perhaps sixteen, pushed a classmate through a plate glass window, and was supposedly described by some who knew him as having "anger management" problems. From a forensic perspective, it would be important to learn whether the defendant did indeed have a history of physical aggression, fighting or assaults prior to the alleged crime or crimes. If Joran van der Sloot is the spoiled brat, the arrogant bully, the self-centered, manipulative, narcissistic, misogynistic murderer many make him out to be, and the killer he now admits to being, what might have made him so? Is he an embodiment of the proverbial "bad seed"? Evil incarnate? Demonic possession? Or was his presumably privileged, protected and permissive upbringing the primary root of his possible psychopathic narcissism?

Extremely negative, traumatic childhood experiences are typically part of the classic psychopath's family history. The severe childhood neglect, abandonment and abuse of Charles Manson is one obvious example. At this point, we have no way of knowing what type of psychological environment young Joran was exposed to early on, and have very limited information on the personalities and problems of his parents during that time. But we must remember, as Sigmund Freud made clear, that during the most crucial phases of personality development in childhood, profound damage or "fixation" can be done not only by getting too little love, attention, gratification of needs, but equally by receiving too much of these necessary positive influences. Children naturally need love, affection, support, attention and recognition. But they also need firm limit-setting, boundaries, appropriate and consistent consequences for bad behavior, discipline, and what developmental psychologists call "optimal frustration." Optimal frustration is how children learn to delay gratification, persevere at tasks, develop inner strength and independence, and adapt to what Freud referred to as the "reality principle."