Journal de Etica y Cine

Volumen 16 | Nº 1 - March 2026

Ed Gein, unfriendly neighbor

Jorge Bafico

Universidad de la República, Uruguay

Abstract

The case of Ed Gein raises questions about the link between psychosis and criminal acts. Following his mother’s death, a delusion emerged centered on becoming a woman by constructing a female body from human remains. Although some behaviors may suggest perverse traits, clinical analysis situates them within a psychotic structure. His crimes can be understood as an attempt to manage the unregulated jouissance characteristic of psychosis, in the context of a push-toward-the-woman linked to the absence of phallic regulation.

Keywords: Psychosis | perversion | jouissance | Ed Gein

This article is, for the time being, only available in Spanish: Ed Gein, vecino poco amigable

NOTAS

Creators and parents in the Frankenstein myth Frankenstein | James Whale | 1931 Eduardo Laso
A Melancholic Monster: A Psychoanalytic Analysis of Coppola’s Dracula Bram Stoker’s Dracula | Francis Ford Coppola | 1992 Tomás Gaete Altamirano
Promethean ethics in Oppenheimer’s film: risk, uncertainty, and ambivalence Oppenheimer | Christopher Nolan | 2023 Serapio Estanislao Cazana Canchis
Black Swan: blemish of the self in the mirror’s double Black Swan | Aronofsky | 2010) Ignacio Roldán Martínez
Frankenstein in the Feminine. Variations of the Monstrous Bride of Frankenstein | James Whale | 1935) - Frankenstein Created Woman | Terence Fisher | 1967 - Poor Things | Yorgos Lanthimos | 2023 Hilen OttoneLucía Amatriain
Weaving together ethics and praxis Cinema as a simulator for holistic training in Health Sciences Enrique RichardMelisa Eileen Richard Contreras
Science fiction: film, politics, and education on alien invasion Invasion of the Body Snatchers | Don Siegel | 1956 - Arrival | Denis Villeneuve | 2016 Brito Alvarado, Xavier Sedeño-Valdellos, Ana
AI, accelerationism, and eroticism: An ethical-psychoanalytic reading through film Her | Spike Jonze | 2013 Aldana Argüello ValenzuelaRut Fidel

Etica y Cine (Ethics & Films) is a Peer Reviewed Quarterly Journal Edited by
Department of Psychoanalysis and Department of Deontology, School of Psychology, National University of Cordoba, Argentina
Department of Psychology, Ethics and Human Rights, School of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
With the collaboration of:
Center for Medical Ethics (CME), Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway
Under the auspicious of:
The International Network of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics.

Ed Gein, unfriendly neighbor

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