Jack the Ripper and Doctor-Identification

Abstract

It is possible that Jack the Ripper can be understood in terms of doctor-identification borne of one or more terrifying experiences he may have had with doctors during his childhood. The fantasies acted out by this primitive murderer are similar to the fantasies experienced by people who have been surgically traumatized as children. The evidence suggests that the activities of Jack the Ripper resemble the acting-out of a horror story in which he, as the main character, played to the population of London as an actor plays to his audience, through the need to discharge anxiety and regain some kind of emotional balance. When his depredations failed to achieve the desired results for him, the Ripper probably committed suicide.