Jim Jones grew up in extreme poverty, of which he was very ashamed.

His father was an alcoholic and did not spend any quality time with him. His mother was ambitious and never home. Furthermore, his mother was cold and harsh. Neighbors say that he was never kissed or hugged by either parent.

By all accounts he was neglected and his formative years were filled with the shame of poverty and loneliness. His mental problems are example of nurture. When he was a child, parents didn't care about him, so he created his "circle of friends".
He felt like an outcast.

Jim Jones lacked good role models and came from a dysfunctional family. According to "Jim Jones and Narcissistic Personality" by Gary Maynard, Jim Jones was self centered, required excessive admiration, lacked empathy, had a sense of importance, showed arrogance and was envious of others. This points to a Narcissistic Personality Disorder or NPD.

After some time he lost his belief in God, because there was too much poverty and inequality around him so he said that the God is not existing. This influenced his life and changed his views on this life.

Because of this views, his wife left him, thus she did believe that God exist and she couldn't live with the human, who says he's not. He even said to his wife, that if she will continue to pray for God, he will commit a suicide.

His son, Stephen, didn't really respect his father because Jones was taking drugs. As a teen, Stephen even tried to commit a suicide with Jim's drugs.

My opinion about Jim Jones actions to create his own temple where he could control his people in many cities, Jones's influence over his congregation created paranoia and ending with 900+ dead persons.

With his speeches, he made his people to sell their homes and put all money in the Temple. Jones had so much respect from his people, that even when he said, that he is reincarnation of Jesus, Buddha and others, his people believed him and continued to put all money they had in the Temple.

He had denial mechanism. He thought, that he is doing right things, but all his right things led to Jonestown massacre.

Psychoanalytical perspective says, most of all things he was doing were unconscious. As Sigmund Freud said "our dreams are getaway of unconscious." Also, he said, that our childhood have major effect on us. His childhood was really horrible and it affected him as he grew up.

WORKS CITED

• Maynard, Gary. "Jim Jones and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2016.
• Wunrow, Rose. "The Psychological Massacre: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple: An Investigation." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2016.