Helen Morrison, M.D., is a forensic psychiatrist currently residing in Chicago, Illinois. She is best known for her efforts to understand the psychology of serial killers, and has personally interviewed about 80 of them. Forensics or forensic science is the application of science to questions which are of interest to the legal system. ... Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that studies and treats mental and emotional disorders (see mental illness). ... Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles) and the largest inland city in the country, with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ... Psychology (ancient Greek: psyche = soul and logos = word) is the study of behaviour, mind and thought. ... Serial killers are individuals who have a history of multiple slayings of victims who were usually unknown to them beforehand. ...

The focus of her research has been to find common personality traits between serial killers. She has published about 125 academic papers and a book, My Life Among the Serial Killers : Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderers.

Dr. Morrison's method of interviewing the killers, developed over thirty years, requires lengthy interviews; at least several hours in one sitting. The strategy is built on her belief that serial killers are adept at learning to mimic emotional human behavior, but that it is an act which they can only keep up for a limited amount of time. She typically interviews subjects over many years, long after their trials are over.

From such discussions, Morrison posits the following observations:

• Serial killers do not possess a concrete personality; rather, their minds tend to be a collection of disparate roles and facades they shift at will.
• While such killers are often charming in person, their charm wears off if one interrogates them for several hours without a break. This is caused by strain - because their charm and personality are artificial, they cannot keep it up forever.
• Once their personality constructs break down, serial killers fall into a bestial state. In this state, they lack any trace of humanity, and are nothing but urges and, occasionally, anger.
• Serial killers are able to avoid the moral consequences of their actions because their minds are too divided and disassociated to actually bring everything together.
• By examining additional cases from a cross-cultural and cross-historical sample, she claims that when serial killers receive enough psychiatric help (professional or otherwise) to fully comprehend their actions, they invariably commit suicide.

Although Morrison has discovered common traits shared by serial killers, she has been unable to discover any common psychological background. She finds no evidence to support profiling of serial killers by the FBI, which, she claims, is notoriously inaccurate. She has made successful predictions about several serial killers prior to arrest, but explains the reasoning behind her predictions as utterly simple, and not based on psychology. In psychology, personality is a collection of emotion, thought, and behavior patterns unique to a person. ... Morality is a complex system of general principles and particular judgments based on cultural, religious, and philosophical concepts and beliefs, by which an individual determines whether his or her actions are right or wrong. ... Suicide (from Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the act of intentionally ending ones own life. ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ...

Morrison's theory of serial killing is controversial, if novel; she believes that serial killers have a genetic impulse to kill. The problem, as critics note, is that she makes this leap without any biological evidence. Her reasoning goes like this: there's a nature vs. nurture debate over why people act certain ways. Since she could find no evidence that serial killers were nurtured in any particular manner, she concludes that there must be a natural - or genetic - explanation. Genetics (from the Greek genno γεννώ= give birth) is the science of genes, heredity, and the variation of organisms. ... The deepest visible-light image of the universe, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. ... Nurture is usually defined as the process of caring for and teaching a child as they grow. ...

The implications of these theories are likewise controversial, and, ironically, come under attack from both liberals and conservatives.

Morrison believes that most serial killers are innocent by reason of insanity, since they can't comprehend the evilness of their actions. A genetic component to this argument furthers the legal argument, by claiming they are not responsible for their actions. In the United States, this would mean such people would have to be found not guilty by reason of insanity, then placed in a mental hospital. In criminal law, an acquittal is the legal result of a verdict of not guilty, or some similar end of the proceeding that terminates it with prejudice without a verdict of guilty being entered against the accused. ... Insanity (sometimes, madness) is a semi-permanent severe disorder of the mind, typically as a result of mental illness. ... A hospital today is an institution for professional health care provided in part by physicians and nurses. ...

Also, critics take issue with her characterization of the serial killers she interviewed. They claim she's implying that such people are not "true human beings," or may even lack a soul. For the mathematical concept, see characterization (mathematics). ... The soul according to many religious and philosophical traditions, is the ethereal substance — spirit (Hebrew:rooah or nefesh) — particular to a unique living being. ...

Morrison testified as a defense expert witness in the trial of John Wayne Gacy. Gacy's body was dedicated to science by his family, and his brain resides in Morrison's basement. John Wayne Gacy John Wayne Gacy (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American serial killer. ...