Jeffrey Dahmer: Chemistry and Grace

From the chemical storm of his birth to the scandal of his redemption, Dahmer’s story forces us to confront the limits of science, morality, and forgiveness.

Art courtesy of NEW WORLD UNDERGROUND

After long putting it off due to the overwhelming sensory overload I experienced when the first episode premiered, I finally sat down and watched DAHMER on Netflix in its entirety.

First, apart from the two topics I want to address here, I’ll say this: the show is fantastically well done and has my full endorsement, both as a lifelong student of serial killers and as a Christian. The creators did a tremendous job not only in showing the brutality of Dahmer’s crimes but also in depicting the social fallout and addressing many of the adjacent issues surrounding the story.

The Chemical

The first topic I want to consider is what might be called the embryonic beginnings of Jeffrey Dahmer. It is well documented that his mother was on a multitude of medications during pregnancy, with some accounts citing as many as 26 pills a day.

There is some discrepancy over whether this number referred to 26 different medications (not impossible in America) or simply 26 pills in total. Sources vary, and like much serial killer trivia, it should be taken with caution.

What we do know for certain is that Joyce Dahmer was prescribed and took several significant drugs during her pregnancy. Chief among them was Phenobarbital, reportedly in alarmingly high doses, according to Jeffrey’s father.

Excessive in utero exposure to Phenobarbital is associated with serious odds of long-term neurodevelopmental and cognitive effects, particularly in relation to speech, intelligence, and overall development. If one were to attribute a single chemical cause to Jeffrey Dahmer’s anomalies, this would be the most likely candidate.

Reduced verbal intelligence, for example, seems consistent with Dahmer’s own difficulties. His “awkwardness” in high school may have stemmed from this, and even in adulthood, listening to his prison recordings, he often struggled to articulate himself clearly. His halting attempts to explain his thoughts could be seen as evidence of the cognitive consequences of prenatal drug exposure.

And that’s only one drug. Factor in the other documented injectable barbiturates, most likely Nembutal and Amytal, the common prescriptions of the time, as well as injected morphine, and then the possible “26 pills a day” on top of those, and you have a storm of artificial chemicals coursing through the body of a woman carrying a child.

It is impossible to ignore this set of circumstances when considering the case of Jeffrey Dahmer.

The Spiritual

The second topic is one that many people dislike engaging with: Jeffrey Dahmer’s conversion after his conviction.

The general consensus within Christianity is that a child is born innocent, and the world corrupts. This is the foundation of the doctrine of innocence.

Dahmer’s conversion is a hard pill to swallow for many Christians and non-Christians alike, but it illustrates a larger point of contention: Who deserves to stand in what Jung beautifully called “the alms of kindness” at the core of the Christian faith?

People are quick to condemn the worst among us as beyond redemption. They are quick to forget their Christian obligation to forgive whenever forgiveness clashes with their moral intuitions.

But if the word of Christ is to be obeyed as it was commanded, forgiveness must extend even to “the worst of the worst.” To recoil from the idea that someone like Dahmer could find God, redemption, and absolution is to raise a difficult question: is forgiveness conditional, or is it absolute?

If it is conditional, then forgiveness risks becoming trivial, a matter of convenience, extended only to those who offend within tolerable limits. If it is absolute, then the scandal of grace must be acknowledged: it can reach even into the darkest places of human history.

That tension is uncomfortable, but it is central to the faith. If Christianity means anything at all in the moral sphere, it is that no one, however monstrous, stands entirely outside the possibility of redemption.

DAHMER is available to watch on Netflix now.