Speaker A
And ironically, I have a high IQ. I didn't know that till I was locked up the first time for murder. I always thought I was a little missing up here, a little short, because I was always called stupid.
Ed Kemper reveals his high IQ and how a ninth-grade art teacher helped him start thinking critically.
Key Takeaways
- Ed Kemper has a high IQ despite his early self-doubt and negative labels.
- Critical thinking was not innate to Kemper but developed through education.
- A single influential teacher can significantly impact cognitive development.
- Self-awareness about mental functioning can come late and change self-perception.
- IQ alone does not determine behavior or thinking style.
What the video covers
- Ed Kemper states he has a high IQ, which he only discovered after being incarcerated for murder.
- He initially believed he was mentally slow due to being called stupid and slow by others.
- Kemper describes his early thinking as rote, memory-based, and lacking self-faith.
- He admits to having no active mental interaction or individuality in his thought process.
- A ninth-grade art teacher challenged him to think critically and not tolerate non-thinking.
- This teacher's influence was a pivotal and difficult experience that sparked mental change.
- Kemper felt his mind's gears were rusty and barely functioning before this intervention.
- The video highlights the contrast between Kemper’s self-perception and his actual intellectual ability.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
I called slow. Don't you think when you do things? That was the problem. I wasn't thinking when I did things. I just did by rote. I did by memory. I did by example, and I had absolutely no faith in myself.
Speaker A
At all, I had no interaction going on in my own mind. I was not a thinker. I was not an individual. I had a teacher in the ninth grade who changed all that. He made me think. He would not tolerate
Speaker A
my not thinking. He was an art teacher, and it was a devastating experience for me because there were gears in my head that were just rusty, and they were barely moving or not at all. And that's when I found out that's what the state
Speaker A
of my mind's functioning was. I didn't think.
Topics:Ed KemperIQhigh IQtrue crimeserial killercritical thinkingeducation impactmental healthself-awarenessHorror Hub
