I have explained to people that he was raised believing his mother was his sister, only to hear them say, ‘So what.’ Like it’s no big deal. The hell it isn’t. A boy needs a mother, period. She’s his first female figure, and she’s the one who teaches him how good it feels to be gathered into feminine arms when he’s hurt or sad. If she treats herself with respect, and is treated with respect by the males in her environment [Bundy’s mother was NOT treated with respect, particularly by her father] the boy carries this powerful object lesson into adulthood. When a 3-yo child is exhibiting seriously screwed up behavior, it doesn’t take a shrink to see that the sister/mother routine is going horribly off the rails.
You are absolutely correct. It IS a big deal.
So too, for both girls and boys is the presence of the father figure.
It sounds like with Bundy, the father was long gone, but that, in my estimation, is not too terribly different from an abusive father, who may be present.
Yet another sad piece of evidence supporting the paramount importance of the stable, traditional nuclear family.