Pablo Escobar Was a Colombian Drug Lord

Introduction Pablo Escobar was a Colombian drug lord and a leader of the Medellin cartel. He was a very interesting individual. Throughout his life he committed a series of crimes. His crimes ranged from drug smuggling, kidnapping people, torturing people and killing people in cold blood. People throughout the years have called him the most ruthless drug lord ever. He had no pity on anyone. He ordered the murder of thousands of peoples lives over the time period when he got into the drug smuggling business. The killings would range from finishing someone one on one, to hiring people to kill for him, and finally killing hundreds of people at one time.

He was no ordinary murderer, he was very cold blooded. He did not care about the people whose life he ended. He killed men, women and even children. He murdered the people that were innocent and had nothing to do with him. He also killed people that betrayed him or tried hurting his family. He knew how to manipulate people into doing his bidding. He knew how to speak to people and he knew how to get under their skin. He would use threats and other psychological manipulation to get his way. He had a saying that stated “Plata o Plomo” which translates to; do you want to get money or do you want to get killed by me? Many people would choose to work for him in order to survive this nonsense. Even then he would still kill the people that were close to him. He would use kidnapping techniques to get millions out of the government.

Pablo was a man of his word, anything he would promise, he would fulfill. The weird thing about him though was that even though he killed thousands of people, he was still a devoted husband and father that would do everything and anything for his family. He was the type of person to be in the middle of something but he would drop it as soon as his small children needed him. I wanted to focus on the different theories that apply to Pablo and helps us understand why he was this type of person to begin with. Why did he become a drug lord? Did he feel anything or regrets when he killed these people? Why did he not hurt his family? What in his past made Pablo Escobar the ruthless killer that he was. Psychodynamic theory In order to understand why Pablo Escobar was the way he was, we need to pick at his brain. For starters, Pablo was a very smart individual. He was motivated and driven. He was also the type of person that was careful and tactical. The reason I state this is because when he sent his men to kill people, he made sure that there was no evidence tying him to the murders.. He did not want to taint his image while he was trying to run for congress. He wanted people to keep viewing him as a good person. This theory applies to Pablo because this man was driven both my external situations and his internal psyche.

Pablo grew up in a time when Columbia was going through a very violent period. He witnessed people being killed during the civil war in columbia. This can unconsciously affect him even though he might not be aware of it at the time. Another external issue that affected him as a child was that he grew up in poverty; his family had to struggle to survive.The book states that poverty is one of the risk factors that can lead to criminal behavior. Trying to meet one’s biological needs is what drives people to commit crimes. One of Pablo’s dreams was to get out of poverty. This is what motivated Pablo to strive to get money. He did whatever he had to do in order to gain it. Since poverty made him drop out of the university, he dedicated himself to becoming a criminal. He needed to get money in order to not be poor anymore. He would steal cars, tomb stones and other things to make a quick buck. This theory strength is the ability to describe what affected him the most and why he was made the way he was. This theory analyses the part of this mind that has his values and morals.

From evaluating Escobars actions, I can positively state that he fits freud’s different offenders category. The offender that Pablo fits is the “Weak Superego” offender. The reason why I believe he fits this category is because a person with a weak superego does not know right from wrong. They do not listen to authority figures and they do not have morals and values. Most importantly they are not affected by their conscience. They do stuff and do not feel regret whatsoever. For example, Pablo bombed and killed multiple people and all he stated was “This is what happens when you betray me”. He used this type of psychological manipulation to try to control colombia’s government. He knew that if they saw what he was capable of, then they could give him what he wants and let him take control over everything.

Psychodynamic theory focuses on the idea that people are biologically driven to get what they want and what they need. (Pg 12) Which fits Pablo perfectly. Everytime he wanted something that would benefit him, he would do everything to earn it. He did it in a way that he did not care whether people were in the way or not. He focused on meeting his needs before anyone else. This can be categorized as someone who is selfish and has a strong ID. He was similar to a kid, if he did not get his way he would take revenge on everyone. The last thing to touch on is that Pablo had a lack of self control. The reason is because he was money hungry. He was constantly finding new ways of getting it. He made a lot of blood shed for it and he would not stop at all. He was not satisfied with killing just one person, he continuously killed people for sport. He viewed people as pieces of meat. He did not value the human life at all. From what i’ve seen in documentaries about him, He would kill anyone at any given time.

Pablo did not care what you were to him, if you betrayed him he would instantly make you pay. The only people he did not hurt during his reign of terror was his family. He killed some of his loyal followers because he thought that they were working against him even though they were not. The psychodynamic theory helped the reader understand what external and internal situations caused pablo to act out in such a murderous way. The internal part of Pablo was that he fit into freud’s category of types of criminals. He had a weak superego and in his mind his ID was the most dominant part. For the external situation of his problem that he witnessed violence and that he had to deal with poverty. Personality theories A second theory that applies to Pablo Escobar is the Personality theory. The personality theory is used to describe a person’s personality traits and what shaped them to act the way they do. In the article; The Childhood of a cocaine King, it mentions what it was like for him growing up as a child.