Here is a bit of a long quote from the book I have already mentioned – Ann Rule’s Dead by Sunset. It is the testimony of Dr. Ron Turco, a psychiatrist who specialized in constructing psychological profiles for law enforcement investigators. Here, he is giving testimony about making such a profile of Brad Cunningham who was charged (and ultimately convicted of) with his ex-wife’s brutal murder in 1986. NOTE: In my opinion (and I am right!) no one is qualified to be a pastor or counselor who has not carefully read Dead by Sunset or by some other means of study become proficient in understanding the things Turco is describing here. Brad Cunningham was and is (life term in Oregon State Penitentiary) a remarkably cruel malignant narcissist who was so diabolically “gifted” at charming his targets that one must wonder if the serpent from Eden was the source of these evil gifts.

Here then is the quote. Note carefully what Turco says about the true self and the false self and then how exposure of the true self energizes and drives the malignant narcissist to punish, destroy, and even murder anyone exposing what he/she really is.

“Outward appearances are not very helpful,” Turco said. “At least, in the everyday behavior observed by strangers. This is what we call a ‘false self.’ The individual projects an image of what he is really not. It’s only in the intimate situation that you find what he is really about. That’s the so-called true self that is hidden.” Turco cited Dr. Jeffrey McDonald, the Green Beret doctor convicted of killing his wife and small daughters, as an example of an individual who projected the false self. “His public image was exemplary,” he said. Shinn reminded Turco and the jury of Brad Cunningham’s many achievements— his athletic stardom, his intelligence, his business career where literally millions of dollars were under his control, his love relationships with any number of beautiful, successful women. “It’s totally contradictory that he could do something like this [ie, savagely murder his ex-wife],” the prosecutor remarked.

“Not at all,” Turco said. “The ‘I-5 Killer’ [Randy Woodfield] fits the profile you just gave of Mr. Cunningham. He was a football player, well liked, had lots of girlfriends, very smooth, very social.” “That’s [Randy] Woodfield?” “Yes. Ted Bundy is another person who would fit that category. . . . We did the profile of Mr. Woodfield in 1980– 81. . . . It’s not unusual. That’s a typical pattern. It’s one of the reasons why these people surreptitiously murder. Why not just get a divorce? Why not just leave town? But these people maintain a facade— an image. In order to do so, these people have to destroy someone who can show that they don’t meet that image. They’re destroying the ‘evidence,’ so to speak. That’s one of the reasons they always profess to be innocent. In a sense, they even believe . . . that they had the right to do what they did. . . . It’s a narcissistic presentation . . . malignant narcissism.”

Rule, Ann. Dead by Sunset (pp. 416-417). Simon & Schuster, Inc.. Kindle Edition.