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Psychoanalysis, Violence and Rage-Type Murder

Murdering Minds

• By Duncan Cartwright

• Price: $29.95 $26.96
• Binding: Paperback (also available in Hardback)
• Pages: 216
• Published by: Routledge
• Publication Date: 10th October 2002
• ISBN: 978-1-58391-202-7

About the Book

What turns an apparently 'normal' individual into a killer?
Many people who commit "rage type" murders have no history of violence. Using psychoanalytic theory and a number of case studies, this book isolates key psychological factors that appear to help explain why such acts of extreme violence occur.
Starting from a psychoanalytic standpoint, Psychoanalysis, Violence and Rage-Type Murder argues for a pluralistic approach to understanding aggression, and claims that the origins of aggression have no single source or cause. Drawing broadly on psychological, criminological and psychoanalytic research the author outlines the clinical features of the act and explores the possible role that psychopathology and personality might play in the build up to murder. These observations raise a number of questions about the so-called 'normality' of the individual alongside the capacity to commit murder, and how we might understand the stability of such offenders. Psychoanalysis, Violence and Rage-Type Murder will be of great interest to psychotherapists, forensic psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, psychologists, criminologists and health care workers.

Table of Contents

Peter Fonagy, Foreword. Introduction. Part I: Aggression and Violence in Psychoanalysis. Aggression, Rage and Violence. Seven Intrapsychic Dimensions of Violence. Part II: Investigating Rage-Type Murder. The Act. Explosive Violence, Mental Illness and Personality. Formulations of Rage-Type Murder: Past and Recent Contributions. Part III: Intrapsychic Dimensions of Rage-Type Murder. The Narcissistic Exoskeleton: The Defensive Organization of the Rage-Type Murder. Representational Capacity Internal Objects and Situational Factors. Trauma Phantasy/Fantasy and Sexuality. The Act Revisited. Some Thoughts on Assessment Treatment and Prevention. Bibliography.