Sexual Murder: Catathymic and Compulsive Homicides

Louis B. Schlesinger9780849311307, 0849311306

Forensic psychologist and author Louis B. Schlesinger delves deep into the minds of sexual murderers. It is a place where few dare to tread, but a necessary journey if we are to understand the motivations behind their inconceivable actions. Culminating nearly 30 years of experience analyzing sexually motivated homicides, Sexual Murder: Catathymic and Compulsive Homicides makes this complex phenomenon fully comprehensible.The author provides a strong foundation by first exploring the psychopathology of sexual homicide within the context of nonsexual homicide. He also discusses forensic assessment of the sexual murderer, theories of crime, and systems of homicide classification. The remaining chapters explore the two types of sexual murders: catathymic, caused by a breakthrough of underlying sexual conflicts, and compulsive, in which a fusion of sex and aggression results in a powerful internal drive that pushes the offender to seek out victims to kill – and the killing itself is sexually gratifying. Presenting both forms of sexual murder from a clinical-descriptive perspective, the book provides historical background and examines both planned and unplanned homicides for each. Finally, it considers prediction, disposition, and possibilities for preventing sexual murder.Providing a fresh approach to an old crime, Sexual Murder: Catathymic and Compulsive Homicides brings intriguing theories and detailed analyses to life. Through a variety of illustrative case examples from the author’s vast experience, this amazing book will broaden your view of sexual murder and alter many preconceived ideas.

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Table of contents :
Sexual Murder: Catathymic and Compulsive Homicides……Page 1
Copyright Info
……Page 3
Foreword……Page 5
Acknowledgments……Page 8
The Author……Page 9
Introduction……Page 10
Table of Contents
……Page 13
01: Understanding Sexual Murder: Problems and Approaches……Page 19
The Problem of Definition and Terms……Page 20
Many Seemingly Sexual Murders Are Not Sexually Motivated……Page 21
Many Sexual Homicides Are Not Overtly Sexual……Page 23
Distinction between a Sexual Murder and Murder Associated with Sexual Behavior Is Often Blurred……Page 24
Absence of National Crime Statistics on Sexual Murder……Page 25
Practical Impediments to Research……Page 27
Phenomenological-Descriptive vs. Statistical Approaches……Page 29
The First Case of Murder: Forensic vs. Clinical Psychological Approaches……Page 30
Incidence of Crime and Homicide……Page 34
Historical Patterns……Page 35
Additional Findings……Page 36
Victimology: Dynamics of Victim and Offender……Page 37
Comment……Page 41
Background……Page 44
Psychological Testing……Page 53
Rorschach Test……Page 55
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)……Page 58
Projective Drawings……Page 62
Bender–Gestalt……Page 75
Personality Inventories……Page 76
Intellectual, Cognitive, and Neuropsychological Assessment……Page 77
Neurodiagnostic and Biological Testing……Page 78
Narcoanalysis……Page 79
Deception Syndromes……Page 80
Malingering……Page 81
Ganser’s Syndrome……Page 84
Rationalization, Justi.cation, and Direct Lying……Page 85
Eyewitness (and Earwitness) Identi.cation……Page 86
Polygraph Findings……Page 87
False Confessions……Page 88
Biological Theories……Page 89
Psychological Theories……Page 90
Sociological Theories……Page 92
Classification of Homicide……Page 93
Organic Disorders……Page 97
Toxic States……Page 99
Paranoid Disorders and Homicide……Page 100
Motivational Spectrum in the Classification of Homicide……Page 106
Social and Environmentally Stimulated Homicides……Page 107
Situational Homicides……Page 110
Impulsive Offenders Who Commit Homicide……Page 117
Catathymic and Compulsive Homicides……Page 122
Sexual Murder in Context……Page 123
Hans W. Maier: The Concept of Catathymia……Page 125
Fredric Wertham and the Catathymic Crisis……Page 132
Comment……Page 143
A Subtype of Episodic Dyscontrol……Page 144
The Role of Inadequacy……Page 147
The Role of Organicity……Page 149
Presence of Dissociation……Page 150
Revitch and Schlesinger’s Catathymic Process: Acute Catathymic Homicides……Page 152
Sexual Inadequacy……Page 153
Displaced Matricide……Page 161
Sexual Matricide……Page 169
Differential Diagnosis……Page 171
Comment……Page 173
06: Chronic Catathymic Homicides……Page 175
Literary Illustrations of Catathymia……Page 178
Meloy’s Psychodynamic Contributions……Page 182
The Predominance of Depression……Page 185
Catathymia with a Predominant Obsession……Page 193
Stalking and Catathymic Homicide……Page 195
Catathymic Mass Murder……Page 202
Comment……Page 206
07: Compulsive Homicides in Historical Context……Page 208
Compulsive, Sexual, or Serial Murder?……Page 210
Premodern Examples of Compulsive Homicide……Page 211
Krafft-Ebing’s Psychopathia Sexualis……Page 214
Compulsive Homicides in the First Half of the 20th Century……Page 219
Examples from the Latter Half of the 20th Century……Page 224
The Study of Compulsive Homicide in the Modern Era……Page 230
Influence of Investigative Profiling……Page 238
Crime Scene and Personality Patterns……Page 240
Need for More Research……Page 241
Comment……Page 243
08: Planned Compulsive Homicides……Page 245
Sadism……Page 246
Psychodynamic View of Sadism……Page 247
Other Views of Sadism……Page 248
Some Empirical Findings……Page 250
Fantasy……Page 263
Sexually Aggressive Fantasies……Page 264
Fantasy and the Ritualistic Offender……Page 270
Compulsion to Kill……Page 273
Killer Partners……Page 279
Killers’ Romantic Partners……Page 281
Comment……Page 282
Personality as an Intervening Variable……Page 283
Descriptions of Compulsive Murderers Who Do Not Plan……Page 286
The Disorganized Murderer……Page 287
Hazelwood and Warren’s Impulsive Offender……Page 289
Adolescent Offenders……Page 290
Nonrecognition of the Sexual Aspect of Crimes……Page 291
Compulsion Spontaneously Released by Circumstances……Page 293
Breakthrough of Compulsion with Just Slight Stimulation……Page 299
Compulsion Released by Substances……Page 300
Unplanned Signature Murders……Page 302
Acute Catathymic and Unplanned Compulsive Homicides……Page 305
Chronic Catathymic and Planned Compulsive Homicides……Page 309
Social Theories……Page 313
Psychological Theories……Page 314
Biological Theories……Page 316
A Look to the Future……Page 318
10: Prediction and Disposition……Page 320
Predicting Sexual Murder……Page 322
Prediction Based on the Motivational Spectrum……Page 324
Prediction Based on Ominous Signs……Page 326
Childhood Abuse……Page 329
Inappropriate Maternal (Sexual) Conduct……Page 330
Pathological Lying and Manipulation……Page 332
Sadistic Fantasy with a Compulsion to Act……Page 334
Animal Cruelty, Particularly toward Cats……Page 336
Need to Control and Dominate Others……Page 337
Repetitive Firesetting……Page 339
Voyeurism, Fetishism, and Sexual Burglary……Page 340
Unprovoked Attacks on Females, Associated with Generalized Misogynous Emotions……Page 342
Evidence of Ritualistic (Signature) Behavior……Page 345
Immediate Triggers for a Compulsive Murder……Page 346
Disposition and Intervention……Page 347
Comment……Page 350
References……Page 353
Back Cover
……Page 388
LinkToy : )~……Page 0