When I read what Donald Trump said, it immediately made me think of comments by Ted Bundy.
From today’s New York Times:
“Ownership is very important,” Mr. Trump said as he discussed, with a real estate mogul’s eye, the landmass of Greenland….
When asked why he needed to possess the territory, he said: “Because that’s what I feel is psychologically needed for success. I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can’t do, whether you’re talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document.”
From the Wikipedia page about Ted Bundy:
Possession proved to be an important motive for rape and murder as well. Sexual assault, [Bundy] said, fulfilled his need to “totally possess” his victims. At first, Bundy killed his victims “as a matter of expediency … to eliminate the possibility of [being] caught”; but later, murder became part of the “adventure”. “The ultimate possession was, in fact, the taking of the life”, he said. “And then … the physical possession of the remains.”
And further elaboration:
“[Bundy] said that after a while, murder is not just a crime of lust or violence”, [FBI Special Agent] Hagmaier related. “It becomes possession. They are part of you … [the victim] becomes a part of you, and you [two] are forever one … and the grounds where you kill them or leave them become sacred to you, and you will always be drawn back to them.”
When one covets this much, it is no longer possible to recognize the humanity of others.
Maria Yang, MD 