Narcissism and Murder
Bibliography for these articles:
http://samvak.tripod.com/serialkillers.html
http://samvak.tripod.com/objectrelations.html
Psychoanal Rev 2001 Dec;88(6):771-91 Related Articles, Links
Phallic narcissism, anal sadism, and oral discord: the case of Yukio
Mishima, Part I.
Piven J.
Thus far I have explored Mishima's traumatic childhood and the experiences
leading him toward misogyny, phallic narcissism, and the drive to murder his
own weakness and sexual vulnerability. Mishima suffered the extraordinary
trauma of being separated from his parents and sequestered to the sickroom
of a psychotic grandmother for the first twelve years of his life. Intense
rage over abandonment and impingement engendered a disgust for femininity
and the need to escape feminine messiness through homosexual pursuits.
Mishima's entrenched feelings of shame and weakness gave rise to phallic
narcissistic tendencies, as he idealized powerful men and eventually strove
to become a powerful and beautiful male. In pursuing this erotic masculine
image Mishima continued to fantasize about murdering his weak and shameful
self-image, and commingled this sadistic impulse with fantasies of sexual
merger with murdered love objects. Finally Mishima was the murderer
erotically eradicating his sexual vulnerability as both subject and object.
His suicide was a repetition of this erotic sadistic fantasy. In a further
article I will continue the discussion by examining Mishima's fantasies of
murdering beautiful and abandoning love objects. I will also address the
complex nature of his ritual suicide as fantasy of rebirth, sexual merger,
the murder of toxic introjects, and escape from death, decay, and regression
to helpless infancy.
Publication Types:
a.. Biography
b.. Historical Article
Personal Name as Subject:
a.. Mishima Y
PMID: 11980029 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Psychoanal Rev 2002 Feb;89(1):49-77 Related Articles, Links
Narcissistic revenge and suicide: the case of Yukio Mishima. Part II.
Piven J.
Publication Types:
a.. Biography
b.. Historical Article
Personal Name as Subject:
a.. Mishima Y
PMID: 12058562 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Bull Menninger Clin 2002 Winter;66(1):1-18 Related Articles, Links
The narcissistic exoskeleton: the defensive organization of the rage-type
murderer.
Cartwright D.
School of Psychology, University of Durban-Westville, Durban, South Africa.
duncanc@pixie.udw.ac.za
After outlining the characteristics of rage-type murder, the author reviews
possible psychodynamic explanations of the predisposing personality and the
act itself. He argues that more recent contributions, using an object
relations perspective, best account for the complexity of the internal world
of these offenders. Using a single case to illustrate observations drawn
from his work with nine offenders, the author sets out to develop an
understanding of the defensive organization present in these apparently
normal murderers. He isolates a defensive system comprising a set of split
object relations that correspond with a split between internal and external
reality, which he calls the "narcissistic exoskeleton." Projective and
introjective processes that support the defensive organization are
discussed. It is suggested that such a profile typifies a particular kind of
stable borderline personality organization.
PMID: 11999101 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
J Forensic Sci 2002 Mar;47(2):395-8 Related Articles, Links
Spousal homicide and the subsequent staging of a sexual homicide at a
distant location.
Meloy JR.
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, USA.
jrmeloy@cts.com
The case of a 63-year-old man who killed his 52-year-old wife and then
staged a sexual homicide at a distant location is reported. A review of all
evidence, a forensic psychological interview, and psychological testing
indicated that the murder was the result of a narcissistic rage reaction
during which the subject beat his wife to death with a paint can, a clothing
iron, and a rock. He then drove her body to a field 87.3 miles away, and
positioned it in a manner that exposed her breasts and her underwear. He
turned himself into the police two days later. There is no controlled
empirical research on staging, although this single case supports the
criminal investigative theory that staging exists, and is done to
deliberately mislead homicide investigations (Douglas et al., 1992).
PMID: 11908617 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Behav Res Ther 2002 Mar;40(3):209-16 Related Articles, Links
Prisoners of hate.
Beck AT.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104,
USA. becka@landru.cpr.upenn.edu
The terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2001
as well as domestic terrorism in the United States and elsewhere in the
world has prompted an analysis of the psychology of the terrorist. The
perpetrators' profound sense of being wronged--their values undermined by
foreign powers or a corrupt domestic power structure--has cried out for
revolution and revenge. The fanatic ideology of the perpetrators has
provided the matrix for a progressively more malevolent representation of
the oppressors: the Image of the Enemy. Retribution against the Enemy in the
form of mass murder of anonymous civilians becomes an imperative. The
counterpart of the image of the Enemy is the idealized collective self-image
of members of the movement, faction, or cult. The group narcissism of the
white supremacists in the United States, the Aum Shinrikyo in Japan, and the
Islamic extremists enhance their collective self-image as pure, righteous,
and united. While the foot soldiers, as in any war, gain glory through
martyrdom, the instigators and leaders have their own personal narcissistic
goals (power and prestige) and plan. For the extremist Islamists the
ultimate goal has been overthrow of the moderate Islamic governments; for
the domestic terrorists, destabilization of the national government and
reinstitution of the traditional values.
PMID: 11863233 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
J Am Acad Psychoanal 2001 Summer;29(2):331-8 Related Articles, Links
Child serial murder-psychodynamics: closely watched shadows.
Turco R.
There is a malignant transformation in object relations resulting in an
identification with an omnipotent and cruel object resulting in an identity
transformation. If the tension, desperation, and dissociation increase,
serial murder becomes spree murder. The presence of pathological narcissism
and psychopathic tendencies are of diagnostic significance in understanding
the murderer's personality functioning and motivation to kill. Meloy (1988)
considered the degree of sadism and aggression combined with narcissistic
qualities to reflect the "malignancy" of the psychopathic disturbance where
gratification (of aggression) occurs in the service of narcissistic
functioning--that is, cruelty toward others in the form of a triumphant
victory over a rejecting object. Meloy also believes that dissociation is
ubiquitious in the psychopath. The initial murder of the serial murderer may
reflect a "new identity." The pathological object-relations of narcissism
and the malignant narcissism are important diagnostic indicators in the
personality functioning of serial killers and the occurrence of these
phenomena is a significant factor in the formation of the personalities of
serial killers, their inner motivations, and their pattern of commission.
PMID: 11685995 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Eur Psychiatry 2000 Jun;15 Suppl 1:15-21 Related Articles, Links
Envy manifestations and personality disorders.
Habimana E, Masse L.
Department of psychology, Universite du Quebec a Trois-Rivieres, C.P.500,
Trois rivieres, Quebec, Canada G9A5H7.
Personality disorders are frequently associated with socially unacceptable
behaviours that might not be always considered deviant. On the other hand,
envy has been linked with various forms of maladjustment such as
interpersonal conflicts, low self-esteem, depression, anxiety,
aggressiveness, and even criminal behaviour such as vandalism and even
murder. According to the DSM-IV, none of the personality disorders, except
the narcissistic personality, is formally associated with envy.
Nevertheless, this "deadly sin" is so omnipresent in human relationships
that it cannot be restricted only to the narcissistic personalities. Most
scholars recognise that people would deny that they envy someone else since
envy is socially considered as highly undesirable; verbal reports are
expected to be biased. To circumvent this difficulty, a projective
questionnaire is proposed. We constructed two questionnaires: a direct
version (DV) and an indirect version (IV). The sample consisted of 786
students from high school and university. Results suggest that the indirect
version provides a more accurate assessment of envy.
PMID: 11520469 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Crisis 2000;21(3):122-5 Related Articles, Links
Double suicide and homicide-suicide in Switzerland.
Haenel T, Elsasser PN.
University of Basel, Switzerland.
Double suicide and homicide-suicide are infrequent and are different in
psychopathology from that of a single suicide. However, precipitating
factors for double suicide and homicide-suicide are similar to these found
in single suicide. Depression, borderline disturbances, and narcissistic
neuroses in combination with stressors such as physical illness, isolation,
and social losses can lead to homicide-suicide. Epidemiological studies
indicate that double suicide and homicide-suicide are influenced by
ethnicity and cultural and social background. This study explores the
situation in Switzerland between 1928-48 and 1971-1990.
PMID: 11265838 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Arch Kriminol 1999 Jul-Aug;204(1-2):1-11 Related Articles, Links
[Malignant narcissism and sexual homicide--exemplified by the Jack
Unterweger case]
[Article in German]
Haller R.
Krankenhaus Maria Ebene.
With the syndrome of malignant narcissism, which is characterised by
narcissistic personality disorder, anti-social behaviour, sadism and a
marked tendency to paranoid reactions, Kernberg (1985, 1996) describes an
independent form of pathological narcissism. According to Stone (1996) this
is found in many mass-murderers and serial killers. On the basis of the
example of Jack Unterweger the connection between malignant narcissism and
sexual offence is discussed as to psychodynamic development, personality
structure and psychopathology. Unterweger, who was convicted to lifelong
imprisonment in 1976 for sadistic sexual murder, became a wellknown writer
in prison and was released prematurely in 1990 as the Austria case of
successful rehabilitation. As stated in the sentence passed against him he
killed 11 prostitutes in Europe and the USA within the next 18 months, but
never pleaded guilty. Psychiatric examination revealed numerous elements of
malignant narcissism and the constellation of his development and life was
typical of serial offenders.
PMID: 10489586 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 1997;25(4):485-96 Related Articles, Links
Genocide in Bosnia: the case of Dr. Radovan Karadzic.
Dekleva KB, Post JM.
University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, TX, USA.
From 1992 to 1995 the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina experienced a war of
genocidal proportions between the Bosnian Serbs, the Bosnian Croats, and the
Bosnian Muslims. The international Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia has indicted Dr. Radovan Karadzic--former President of the
Bosnian Serb Republic, psychiatrist, and poet--as a suspected war criminal
for his role in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Karadzic
remains enigmatic and poorly understood. Psychological profiling highlights
in Karadzic's case the complex coalescence of the psychology of a genocide
perpetrator with that of a charismatic narcissistic political leader. Such a
profile may possess usefulness in forensic psychiatric investigations and
legal proceedings.
Publication Types:
a.. Biography
b.. Historical Article
Personal Name as Subject:
a.. Karadzic R
PMID: 9460036 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Acta Paedopsychiatr 1993;56(1):47-51 Related Articles, Links
Sororicide in preteen girls. A case report and literature review.
Adam BS, Livingston R.
Turning Point Children's Unit, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences,
Little Rock 72202.
All means of exploring the psychological and environmental antecedents of
murder by a child should be used toward preventing lethal outcomes in
future. The authors present the case of a ten year old girl who killed her
sister with details of the sisters' relationship, the perpetrator's
psychological characteristics and the family situation. Sibling-rivalry,
family stressors, and the perpetrator's compulsive and narcissistic traits
and preoccupation with a violent television fantasy are discussed. A
literature review and suggestions for future research are provided.
Publication Types:
a.. Review
b.. Review, Tutorial
PMID: 8517161 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Hosp Community Psychiatry 1991 Oct;42(10):1044-8 Related Articles,
Links
Comment in:
a.. Hosp Community Psychiatry. 1992 Mar;43(3):285.
Homicidal maniacs and narcissistic parasites: stigmatization of mentally ill
persons in the movies.
Hyler SE, Gabbard GO, Schneider I.
New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York 10032.
The portrayal of mentally ill persons in movies and television programs has
an important and underestimated influence on public perceptions of their
condition and care. Movie stereotypes that contribute to the stigmatization
of mentally ill persons include the mental patient as rebellious free
spirit, homicidal maniac, seductress, enlightened member of society,
narcissistic parasite, and zoo specimen. The authors suggest that mental
health professionals can fight this source of stigma by increasing their
collaboration with patient advocacy groups in monitoring negative portrayals
of mentally ill people, using public information campaigns such as Mental
Illness Awareness Week to call attention to the process of stigmatization,
and supporting accurate dramatic and documentary depictions of mental
illness.
Publication Types:
a.. Review
b.. Review, Tutorial
PMID: 1959896 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Psychoanal Q 1991 Jul;60(3):426-49 Related Articles, Links
Aspects of a dilemma of middle age: whether or not to place aged, failing
parents in a nursing home.
Halpert E.
A middle-aged person's involvement in making a decision about whether or not
to institutionalize an aged parent whose physical and/or mental capacities
have failed inevitably arouses intense feelings, memories, fantasies, and
conflicts. Fantasies that equate putting the parent in a nursing home with
abandonment and murder, as well as the narcissistic threat posed by seeing
one's own future in a parent's deterioration, are common. The conflicts
aroused may upset long-standing psychological balances. This paper explores
ego, superego, id, and reality issues that are aroused as they were seen in
the psychoanalysis and psychotherapy of several patients involved in making
this decision. The importance of looking for the unique aspects of the
conflicts set off in each individual facing this dilemma is stressed, as is
the potential for countertransference responses.
PMID: 1924605 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Bull Menninger Clin 1989 Nov;53(6):477-92 Related Articles, Links
Unrequited love and the wish to kill. Diagnosis and treatment of borderline
erotomania.
Meloy JR.
The author hypothesizes that erotomania, or de Clerambault's syndrome,
occurs in two forms: the clinically accepted delusional erotomania, in which
patients believe that another person is in love with them; and borderline
erotomania, in which no delusion is present, yet an extreme disorder of
attachment is apparent in the pursuit of, and in the potential for violence
toward, the unrequited love object. The author reviews the empirical
literature concerning erotomania and then develops an object relations
understanding of the disorder, focusing on the presence of narcissistic,
hysterical, paranoid, and psychopathic traits in the erotomanic individual.
PMID: 2819290 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Psychiatr Clin North Am 1989 Sep;12(3):643-51 Related Articles, Links
Murder.
Stone MH.
Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York.
Kernberg's concept of the malignant narcissist defines a realm of pathologic
personality characterized by the coexistence of marked narcissistic and
antisocial traits. This realm comprises what may be seen as a continuum of
cases: persons at one end whose inhumanity and propensity toward evil are of
modest proportions; at the other, persons manifesting extreme degrees of
these qualities. The author has used the biographies of notorious murderers
in constructing a scale of malignant narcissism. This scale should aid in
defining more clearly the limits of amenability to psychotherapy.
Publication Types:
a.. Review
b.. Review, Tutorial
PMID: 2678024 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Ann Med Psychol (Paris) 1987 Apr;145(4):329-39 Related Articles, Links
[Object loss in criminologic psychiatry or passion according to Werther]
[Article in French]
Benezech M.
Psychiatre-criminologique. Service Medico-Psychologique Regional desPrisons,
Maison d'Arret, Gradignan.
The author's aim is to objectivate the importance of the psychoanalytical
concept of "object-loss" in the "criminogenous" passional process, as
described by De Greeff. To illustrate his claim, he proceeds to the
criminological analysis of Werther, a novel of great psychological realism,
by Goethe. He them studies the personality of criminal driven by passion,
where borderline and narcissistic features prevail. The object relation with
the victim is usually of a narcissistic pregenital type. Any serious threat
to this object relation creates a dangerous situation which can resolve in
murder, frequently followed by the murderer's suicide. The author finally
states that the so-called "passional" crime is not the only form of
suicide/homicide, the psychopathology of which involves object-loss. This
kind of acting is in fact also observed in melancholia, psychoses and
prepsychotic states, depressions with jealousy, borderlines and the actors
of "accompanied suicides".
Publication Types:
a.. Biography
b.. Historical Article
Personal Name as Subject:
a.. Goethe JW
PMID: 3314619 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Adolesc Psychiatry 1987;14:271-96 Related Articles, Links
John Wesley Hardin, adolescent killer: the emergence of a narcissistic
behavior disorder.
Marohn RC.
Publication Types:
a.. Biography
b.. Historical Article
Personal Name as Subject:
a.. Hardin JW
PMID: 3303984 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Schweiz Arch Neurol Neurochir Psychiatr 1981;129(2):283-96 Related
Articles, Links
[Total fusion with an object and its destruction]
[Article in German]
Battegay R.
On the basis of four partly narcissistic-neurotic, partly narcissistically
disturbed borderline-patients who are very severely disturbed in their self-
and in their object-representation the author explains how total
fusion-tendencies may become fatal for the object, if this wants to separate
itself even just a bit. The object turns then abruptly from a "good" into a
"bad" one. In a fifth example it is described how, in deep and especially in
the endogenous depression, the fusion-tendency with a near object may lead
to an expanded suicide. The danger, which should not be underestimated, for
near related persons of these heavily narcissistically disturbed,
respectively - in the depression - emptied human beings is underlined.
Forensic viewpoints which follow the destruction of the object because of a
total fusion-tendency are discussed.
PMID: 7323775 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Ann Med Psychol (Paris) 1977 Dec;2(5):821-38 Related Articles, Links
[For a clinical approach to impulsion phobias]
[Article in French]
Delage M, Dumouchel A, Poirier G, Tristan M.
Having first recalled the problems involved in classifying impulsion
phobias, (problems which have been experienced in the course of all the work
done on this subject), the authors report, from a strictly clinical
viewpoint, on a series of studies of patients whose problems are very
different but who all show the symptoms of impulsion phobia. They next
setout a phenomenological approach to the problem, with emphasis on the
products of the patient's imagination, his passive fascination with the
image of a terrifying act constituting the object of the phobia, the
external world in relation to the subject, and the ambiguity of dependance
on others which is mirrored by aggressiveness. Lastly, the subject's entire
existence is put symbolically at stake, and the phobia is seen to spring
from his narcissistic relationship with the external world at a deeper level
than that of any oedipian relationships. The first stage in the treatment
is, indeed, to build up this narcissistic relationship, and later treatment
will be varied according to the patient's fundamental needs.
PMID: 610492 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Arch Gen Psychiatry 1974 Dec;31(6):807-11 Related Articles, Links
Narcissistic rage and the problem of combat aggression.
Fox RP.
PMID: 4441248 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
J Am Psychoanal Assoc 1972 Jul;20(3):451-75 Related Articles, Links
A dream of the Marquis de Sade: psychoanalytic reflections on narcissistic
trauma, decompensation, and the reconstitution of a delusional self.
Bach S, Schwartz L.
Publication Types:
a.. Biography
b.. Historical Article
Personal Name as Subject:
a.. De Sade F
PMID: 4561132 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Z Psychosom Med Psychoanal 1983;29(3):209-33 Related Articles, Links
[Critical views on narcissism theories]
[Article in German]
Battegay R.
After having given an overview about the different definitions of the Self,
I have defined it as the seat of narcissism which furnishes the instances of
Ego, Id and Super-Ego as well as to the body this narcissistic investment or
information which gives the individual the feeling that the different
instances and his body are belonging to his own and giving him throughout
his life a feeling of continuity. Otto F. Kernberg describes, contrary to
Heinz Kohut, the primarily pathological nature of narcissism of individuals
having an Ego prone to fragmentation and very rigid defense mechanisms, e.g.
splitting, projective identification, blind rage, hostility etc. The
pathological narcissism results out of an early pathological
object-relationship and of an Ego prone to fragmentation with a consecutive
disturbance of the development of the Self. From these borderline
personalities with their pathology of narcissism I differentiate the
narcissistic neuroses--called by Kohut narcissistic personality disorders or
behavior disorders--in individuals with a strong Ego, which are due to a
lack--or more rarely to a surplus--of warmth-, stimulation- and
cognition-experiences in early childhood. They have a tendency of undergoing
more than usual a fusion with a Self-object, mirror transferences and
developing a grandiose Self in their fantasy as compensations or defense
mechanisms. The schizoid personalities are intermediate forms, which show a
rigid defense, however do not have like the borderline-personalities the
tendency to occasional break-throughs of the primary process. Whereas in the
treatment of narcissistically disturbed borderline conditions early
interpretations of the rigid archaic defense mechanisms and furthering
reality testing are necessary, in narcissistic neuroses primarily the
building up of a consistent Self and then a working through of the named
narcissistic compensations and defense mechanisms are necessary.
PMID: 6613364 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Psychoanal Rev 1992 Fall;79(3):361-79 Related Articles, Links
Sadomasochism and complementarity in the interaction of the narcissistic and
borderline personality type.
Finell JS.
The narcissist and borderline personality types complement one another's
defensive style providing needed defensive externalization of disavowed and
split-off feelings. One is exploitative, grandiose, and dominant, forever
seeking admiration and exhibiting an aggrandized self; the other experiences
humiliation, neediness, helplessness, and terror of aloneness. They form a
powerful complementary dyad wherein each identifies with disavowed emotional
experiences displayed in the other. They can coexist for lengths of time,
defensively discharging unwanted feelings. In the first case presented
above, the transference was split initially, with the masoborderline patient
being victimized and humiliated by her sadonarcissistic lover. In the second
case, a male sadonarcissist enacted disavowed feelings through relationships
with masoborderline women. In both cases, defensive enactment was fed by a
complementary, intense, and symbiotic relationship. Complementary dynamics
can be subtle and difficult to analyze. They involve defensive
identification that draws on projection, enactment, and externalization--all
difficult defenses to analyze. Enactment rather than remembering is inimical
to the development of insight into transference and genetic connections and
must be worked through for the analysis to progress. More than the usual
analytic patience and resolve is needed to work through the difficult
entrapments caused by these dynamics.
PMID: 1438630 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Int J Psychoanal Psychother 1977;6:289-314 Related Articles, Links
Alienation: character neuroses and narcissistic disorders.
Giovacchini PL.
Various defensive adaptations are described that patients with structural
defects involving the self-representation (character neurotics) use to adapt
to the external world, often achieving an organization sufficiently stable
to lead to considerable success. Externalization rather than projection is u
sed. The differences between these two psychic processes are important for
our understanding of character neurotics. Projection signifies placing
impulses or parts of the self into external objects whereas externalization
involves creating or finding a reality to support the defences, including
projecting. The patient externalizes his infantile traumatic environment to
construct a current world after his early environment which he finds both
threatening and familar. Clinical material illustrates how the process of
externalization operating within the transference context may lead to
special technical problems. One type of character neurotic demonstrates a
special type of externalization which supports overcompensatory feelings of
self-aggrandizement, which are in effect, narcissistic defenses. To varying
degrees, all character neurotics have some narcissistic defenses.
Countertransference problems are also discussed.
PMID: 914441 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
J Pers Assess 1993 Apr;60(2):346-61 Related Articles, Links
A Rorschach study of narcissism, defense, and aggression in borderline,
narcissistic, and cluster C personality disorders.
Hilsenroth MJ, Hibbard SR, Nash MR, Handler L.
Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville 37996-0900.
We examined the differences between narcissism, mode of defense, and level
of aggression on the Rorschach. We also investigated differences in
borderline, narcissistic, and Cluster C personality disorders by examining
responses to Rorschach content variables. The Lerner Defense Scale (P.
Lerner & H. Lerner, 1980), the aggressive content section of the Holt (1977)
method for assessing primary process manifestations, a modified version of
Exner's (1986a) Egocentricity Index, Wagner's (1965) exhibitionistic M
score, and grandiosity were scored on the Rorschach protocols of 17
borderline, 17 narcissistic, and 17 Cluster C personality disorders.
Borderlines were found to employ primitive defensive structures to a greater
degree and severity, show more intense and overall aggression as well as
more responses on the three forms of aggression in the Holt method, and have
higher levels of grandiosity. Narcissists evinced significantly higher
levels of egocentricity than borderlines and higher levels of idealization
than the Cluster C group. Convergent validity was found on the measures of
defense and aggression, which showed a strong relationship between primitive
aggression and primitive defense.
PMID: 8473970 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Psychiatr Clin North Am 1994 Dec;17(4):811-26 Related Articles, Links
Dracula. Disorders of the self and borderline personality organization.
Raines JM, Raines LC, Singer M.
Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia.
It has been proposed that Bram Stoker's novel Dracula can best be understood
as a dramatic, hyperbolic, and fantastic expression of themes consistent
with contemporary psychoanalytic conceptions of borderline personality
disorder organization. Such an understanding may, in turn, shed further
light on the nature of the intrapsychic world and experiences of borderline
patients. Excerpts from the novel can be used to support the
conceptualization of recent contributions to object relations theory and the
understanding of borderline personality organization. It is uncanny how
consistent Dracula's characteristics are to the generally seen complaints of
patients suffering from this disorder.
Publication Types:
a.. Review
b.. Review, Tutorial
PMID: 7877904 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Am J Psychiatry 1981 Jan;138(1):46-50 Related Articles, Links
The borderline-narcissistic personality disorder continuum.
Adler G.
The author describes the usefulness of conceptualizing patients with
borderline and narcissistic personality disorders along a continuum, using
three main developmental lines. A clinical example demonstrates progression,
during psychotherapy, from the borderline end of the continuum to the
narcissistic personality disorder end.
PMID: 7446781 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
J Pers Assess 2001 Aug;77(1):87-104 Related Articles, Links
Object relations and defense mechanisms of a psychopathic serial sexual
homicide perpetrator: a TAT analysis.
Porcerelli JH, Abramsky MF, Hibbard S, Kamoo R.
Department of Family Medicine, Wayne State University School of Medicine,
Detroit, MI 48235, USA. jporcer@med.wayne.edu
The case of a 24-year-old African American man who committed serial sexual
homicide and who met criteria (Hare, 1991) for psychopathy is presented. His
Thematic Apperception Test (Murray, 1943) responses were used to code key
aspects of personality organization--object relations and defense
mechanisms--via the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale (Westen,
Lohr, Silk, & Kerber, 1989) and the Defense Mechanisms Manual (Cramer,
1991), respectively. Severe object relations pathology and a reliance on the
defense mechanism of immature projection and immature denial are noted.
Findings are relatively consistent with previous psychodynamic Rorschach
studies of psychopathic sexual homicide perpetrators (Gacono, Meloy, &
Bridges, 2000; Meloy, Gacono, & Kenney, 1994).
J Pers Assess 1996 Oct;67(2):294-304 Related Articles, Links
Primitive defenses, object relations, and symptom clusters in borderline
psychopathology.
Greene LR.
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center West Haven, Connecticut,
USA.
In this study, I examined associations between selected defense mechanisms
and characteristic object relations in borderline personality disorder and
the role of these variables in predicting symptomatic expression. A
canonical correlation analysis was performed on self-report questionnaire
data collected on 53 borderline patients. Two significant correlations of
moderate magnitude were obtained; the first set of canonical variables
offered evidence supportive of Kernberg's notions of a reciprocal relation
between splitting mechanisms and pathognomonic object ties in borderline
pathology, and the second set supported the view of a differentiation
between borderline and narcissistic defenses. Regression analyses suggested
that unique combinations of defense and object relations underlie specific
symptomatic expression.
PMID: 8828190 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Int J Psychoanal Psychother 1980-81;8:363-74 Related Articles, Links
Some comments on the treatment of the borderline personality.
Petty TA.
A discussion of "Some Clinical Manifestations of Structural Defects in a
Borderline Personality," by Alan Krohn, M. D. Because the borderline patient
presents the gamut of symptomatology and therapeutic responses, diagnosis
and treatment have been problems since the beginning of psychoanalysis. With
her key conceptualization of the "as if" personality, Helene Deutsch, in the
1930s (1942), stimulated the clarification of both the diagnostic and
therapeutic problems. The primitive ego defenses were delineated by Klein
(1946), and Mahler's studies (1968) of symbiosis, separation, and
individuation provided the developmental framework for the growing
understanding of these conditions. Since then, many have contributed, none
more than Kernberg (1975). He has proposed limiting the term borderline to a
relatively specific, more or less stable personality with typical symptom
constellations, defensive operations, pathology of internal object
relations, and instinctual vicissitudes. These conditions dictate a
modification of therapeutic technique practiced by many but formulated by
Kernberg, Masterson (1972, 1976), Boyer (1977), and others. Essential to the
implementation of this modified technique is the understanding of the
defensive operations and the pathology of the internal object relations.
Particular emphasis is given to two defensive operations, splitting and
projective identification, and to aspects of the other concepts especially
pertinent to the therapy of the borderline. The work of Kernberg has been
drawn on extensively.
PMID: 7429717 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Int J Group Psychother 1989 Oct;39(4):499-516 Related Articles, Links
Hostility in group psychotherapy.
Gans JS.
To run a psychodynamic group therapeutically, the leader must understand the
meanings and functions of hostility. Fundamental to this task is the
leader's awareness of his or her bias toward hostility as a constructive or
destructive feeling and willingness to serve as a lightening rod for it.
This paper discusses the sources of hostility during different stages of
group development. The therapeutic handling of hostility is discussed under
the following topics: theoretical considerations, defensive functions, and
communicative functions. Case examples illustrate the proper handling of
contractual violations, scapegoating, and narcissistic injury.
Countertransference reactions to anger and rage in the group are discussed.
PMID: 2599708 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
J Pers Assess 1983 Apr;47(2):120-33 Related Articles, Links
Borderline psychopathology as displayed on psychological tests.
Berg M.
Despite the surge of interest in borderline psychopathology in psychiatric
quarters, contributions from the perspective of psychological testing have
been few. A brief delineation of the range of borderline psychopathology is
offered. Broad trends in the test performance of patients within the
borderline range are described with regard to: intelligence and cognitive
operations, thought and language, reality testing, organization of affect,
configuration of defenses, structure of the object world, dynamics and the
interpersonal aspects of the test process.
PMID: 6854513 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Am J Psychoanal 1991 Dec;51(4):413-32 Related Articles, Links
Developmental, structural, and clinical approach to narcissistic and
antisocial personalities.
Svrakic DM, McCallum K, Milan P.
Washington University Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, St. Louis,
MO 63110.
The conception of personality disorders (PDs) as distinct units of mental
disorders is neither precise nor useful. At least some PDs, classified as
separate units, reflect different behavioral expression of the same
personality deviation. In this article we describe structural,
developmental, and clinical continuum between relatively distinct entities
of antisocial PD and narcissistic PD. The two disorders represent different
endpoints sharing a borderline level of personality organization and
pathological narcissism. We propose a spectrum relation for antisocial and
narcissistic PD because the disorders tend to co-occur in the same
individual and to run in the same family more often than expected by chance.
Publication Types:
a.. Review
b.. Review, Tutorial
PMID: 1799203 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Int J Psychoanal 1997 Aug;78 ( Pt 4):733-53 Related Articles, Links
Retaking the first steps towards symbolisation. A 6-year-old emerges from
adhesive identification.
Haudenschild TR.
The author begins by reviewing, mainly with reference to the ideas of Bion,
the development of the sense of identity and the transition from primitive
modes of object-relating involving adhesive identification to more advanced
forms. The major part of the paper comprises a clinical account of a
three-year period in the analysis of an initially 6-year-old borderline
girl, who communicated with the analyst mainly in drawings. The development
of the patient's capacity for symbolisation and of her level of
communication is illustrated by examples of her productions from different
phases of her therapy. The author contends that if the analyst can accept
and symbolise the primitive relationship, the analysand can develop his or
her own symbolisation capacity based on the introjection of a comprehensive
object. After two years of analysis the patient is shown to have acquired an
ability to contain her own emotions when she draws a volcano to represent
her rage. Later, after a significant dream in which a man appears for the fi
rst time, she is seen relating on a more advanced level, having given up her
adhesive defence, although the necessary process of mourning for the
primitive object is stated to be still in progress.
PMID: 9306186 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Psychiatry 1989 May;52(2):218-36 Related Articles, Links
Levels of adaptation and narcissistic psychopathology.
Wilson A.
Graduate Faculty, Division of Clinical Psychology, New School for Social
Research, New York.
Why, one might reasonably query, do some narcissistic characters serve time
as seemingly successful presidents of corporations while others serve time
as seemingly impaired inpatients on psychiatric units? I will offer some
observations on this unusual clinical phenomenon and suggest that it is
useful to distinguish between two clinical presentations of narcissistic
character psychopathology, which I will call, for the sake of expedience,
Level 1 and Level 2. I will then examine 1) how an understanding of the
dimensions of empathic abilities, paranoia, levels of depression,
grandiosity, and defensive uses of denial and disavowal can lend a broad
explanatory range to the understanding of these levels, and 2) how we can
assess both successful and unsuccessful adaptation to the outer world and
the inner world in narcissistic disorders. Moreover, it is important to
distinguish between being well adapted and being emotionally healthy, which
are quite different in meaning and intent. I use the term Level 1 to refer
to the more poorly adapted presentation, and the term Level 2 to refer to
the more successfully adapted narcissistic presentation. Characteristics of
Level 1 narcissistic pathology dispose a patient to an adaptation that is
similar to the description of the narcissistic patient who is often
described as borderline; characteristics of Level 2 narcissistic pathology
dispose a patient to a high-flying and superficially successful adaptation
in which the patient can competently navigate the occupational and social
demands of an external world despite the presence of severe object
relational impairments. While a difference in adaptation is highlighted,
emotional well-being is not within the exclusive province of either's
characteristic adaptive skills.
PMID: 2734421 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Am J Psychoanal 1993 Mar;53(1):19-34 Related Articles, Links
Object relations issues in the treatment of the preoedipal character.
Kavaler-Adler S.
Object Relations Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, Brooklyn
Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, NY.
It was through tolerance of Ms. D.'s infantile rage (i.e., rage against
reality and its limits) that the analyst was able to open up a dialogue with
the patient that could lead to a developmental mourning process. The same
was true for the borderline character, Ms. A.! The interpersonal dialogue
between analyst and analysand, which had both empathic and interpretive
functions, allowed Ms. D. to reactivate her capacities for an intrapsychic
dialectic gained during infancy. In her case, as well as in that of Ms. A.,
the initiation of an internal dialectic allowed for a mourning process to
unfold. It is proposed that this internal dialectic is evidence of the
existence of the psychic structure necessary to promote both mourning and
the mutuality of interpersonal dialogue. The inability to mourn, generally
seen in narcissistic and borderline characters, can be seen, therefore, not
only as a failure in psychic structure formation, but also as a failure in
psychic structure function that is due to intrapsychic defense.
PMID: 8476126 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Jpn J Psychiatry Neurol 1987 Dec;41(4):619-28 Related Articles, Links
The narcissism and death of Yukio Mishima--from the object relational point
of view.
Ushijima S.
Department of Psychiatry, Fukuoka University School of Medicine, Japan.
The author discussed the life and work of Yukio Mishima from the object
relational point of view. First, he described his brief life history,
pointing out the four big identity crises in his life as his fierce
struggles against the suicidal wishes were likely to enlarge within himself.
Then, he suggested that Mishima had been in the state of part object
relationship throughout his life. Thirdly, the important role of the body or
bodies in his fantastic and real life was discussed as a manifestation of
not merely autoerotic activities but also disturbances of the core of
identity. Finally, the fragility of the intermediate area of experience
which was thought to have eventually led him to the last action, the
seppuku, was examined.
Publication Types:
a.. Biography
b.. Historical Article
Personal Name as Subject:
a.. Mishima Y
PMID: 3330995 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
J Am Psychoanal Assoc 1991;39(2):363-75 Related Articles, Links
Sadomasochism in the neuroses conceived of as a pathological compromise
formation.
Rothstein A.
Masochistic phenomena in adults are discussed as derivatives of conscious
and/or unconscious fantasies. These masochistic fantasies are always
associated with conscious and/or unconscious narcissistic and sadistic
fantasies. These fantasies, like all fantasies in adults, are conceived of
as compromise formations. After a selected review of the literature,
analytic data are presented to highlight the clinical advantages of a
contemporary elaboration of the structural hypothesis for the understanding
of sadomasochistic and sadonarcissistic phenomena.
PMID: 1856438 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
J Am Psychoanal Assoc 1991;39(2):333-62 Related Articles, Links
Sadomasochism, sexual excitement, and perversion.
Kernberg OF.
New York Hospital, Cornell Medical Center, White Plains 10605.
Sadomasochism, an ingredient of infantile sexuality, is an essential part of
normal sexual functioning and love relations, and of the very nature of
sexual excitement. Sadomasochistic elements are also present in all sexual
perversions. Sadomasochism starts out as the potential for erotic masochism
in both sexes, and represents a very early capacity to link aggression with
the libidinal elements of sexual excitement. Sexual excitement may be
considered a basic affect that overcomes primitive splitting of love and
hatred. Erotic desire is a more mature form of sexual excitement.
Psychoanalytic exploration makes it possible to uncover the unconscious
components of sexual excitement: wishes for symbiotic fusion and for
aggressive penetration and intermingling; bisexual identifications; the
desire to transgress oedipal prohibitions and the secretiveness of the
primal scene, and to violate the boundaries of a teasing and withholding
object. The relation between these wishes and the development of erotic
idealization processes in both sexes is explored in the context of a
critical review of the pertinent psychoanalytic literature.
PMID: 1856437 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Int J Psychoanal 1985;66 ( Pt 1):47-73 Related Articles, Links
Defensive anality and anal narcissism.
Shengold L.
This paper aims at demonstrating a currently beleaguered assumption: the
central importance, the continuing vitality, and the appropriate complexity
of Freud's theory of the drives and of his idea of the primacy of the body
ego. It is not enough to consider man a thinking machine or a social being;
his animal nature must be given a central place in psychology. The paper
postulates that 'anal or sphincter defensiveness' is one of the precursors
of the repression barrier. Anality has been comparatively neglected in
recent psychoanalytic literature, and so has its explorer, Karl Abraham. The
paper's thesis is that there is a special defensive importance to anal
erogeneity and libido, and to those aspects of ego and superego that are
functionally operative (as the 'sadistic-anal organization' (Freud, 1917))
during the so-called 'sadistic-anal' developmental phase. Any of the psychic
danger situations can evoke regression to manifestations of 'anal
narcissim'--an attempt to master overwhelming feeling by a kind of emotional
sphincter action, narrowing down the world to the controllable and the
predictable. The basic assumption here is Fliess's idea that the attainment
of anal sphincter control functions--with, as-it-were, 'psychic
resonance'--as a means to master primal (murderous, cannibalistic) affect.
For optimal psychic development, a proper balance must be attained between
anal control of, and anal expression of, instinctual derivatives--especially
of affect laden with aggression.
PMID: 4066168 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Psychoanal Study Child 1975;30:161-80 Related Articles, Links
The phallic-narcissistic phase. A differentiation between preoedipal and
oedipal aspects of phallic development.
Edgcumbe R, Burgner M.
PMID: 1197506 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Int J Psychoanal 1985;66 ( Pt 2):143-56 Related Articles, Links
Narcissism: its structures, systems and affects.
Parkin A.
The growth of object relationships may be studied along either the
developmental line of the discharge-object or that of the reflexive-object.
The former is the well-known line of development from the need-satisfying
object to the constant object and is a study of id-ego relationships. The
developmental line of the reflexive-object, on the other hand, follows the
history of the introjects and is a study of either ego-superego or ego-ego
ideal relationships. It is the latter which constitutes the study of
narcissism. The development of the ideal ego out of the ego nuclei leads
eventually to the child's struggle to maintain a sense of omnipotence and to
the narcissistic crisis. Out of this struggle the introjection of the
idealized mother occurs which, as the ego ideal, continues the systemic line
of development of narcissism. Various narcissistic states and affects such
as shame, humiliation, depression, grandiosity, pomposity, arrogance,
adoration and enthralment are the result of either hypercathexis of the
introjects of the ego ideal (or of persisting remnants of the ideal ego) and
the resulting conflict with the ego, or hypocathexis of the introjects and
resulting dormancy of the system ego ideal.
PMID: 4019039 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol 2002 Oct;46(5):532-54 Related
Articles, Links
Psychological profiling of sexual murders: an empirical model.
Kocsis RN, Cooksey RW, Irwin HJ.
School of Marketing and Management, University of New England, Armidale, NSW
2351, Australia. richard_kocsis@hotmail.com
Psychological profiling represents the investigative technique of analyzing
crime behaviors for the identification of probable offender characteristics.
Profiling has progressively been incorporated into police procedures despite
a surprising lack of empirical research to support its validity. Indeed, in
the study of sexual murder for the purpose of profiling, very few
quantitative, academically reviewed studies exist. This article reports on
the results of a 4-year study into Australian sexual murders for the
development of psychological profiling. The study involved 85 cases of
sexual murder sampled from all Australian police jurisdictions. The
statistical procedure of multidimensional scaling was employed. This
analysis produced a five-cluster model of sexual murder behavior. First, a
central cluster of behaviors was identified that represents common behaviors
to all patterns of sexual murder. Next, four distinct outlying
patterns--predator, fury, perversion, and rape--were identified that each
demonstrated distinct offense styles. Further analysis of these patterns
also identified distinct offender characteristics that allow for the use of
empirically robust offender profiles in future sexual murder investigations.
PMID: 12365142 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Ann Med Psychol (Paris) 1995 Oct;153(8):501-11 Related Articles, Links
[Some medico-psychological perspectives on sexual homicides. Three cases]
[Article in French]
Benezech M.
Secteur de psychiatrie en milieu penitentiaire de Bordeaux et Laboratoire de
psychiatrie (Professeur J. Tignol) de l'Universite de Bordeaux II.
While sexual murders are widely reported in the media, there are almost no
reports on these major crimes in the French medico-psychological literature.
After a brief historical and legal overview, the author discusses the
forensic definition of sexual homicides, parent-to-child transmission of
sexual violence, the distinction between paraphilic and non-paraphilic
sexual offenders, criminal affects, and the classification of aggressors in
violent homicides. He confirms that particularly violent murderers may be
divided into two psychiatric and behavioral categories. Next, the six main
causes of sexual homicide are presented together with three clinical
observations of such cases: 1) one with homosexual connotations; 2) another
through hate for women; 3) and a third where rage was not specifically
directed. Finally, the author concludes that there should be systematic
criminologic research in France into sexual murders.
Publication Types:
a.. Review
b.. Review, Tutorial
PMID: 8561394 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
J Forensic Sci 1997 Mar;42(2):326-9 Related Articles, Links
Predatory violence during mass murder.
Meloy JR.
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, USA.
A case of mass murder by a 35-year old male is reported. Following a week of
separation from his spouse and temporary loss of custody of his son, the
subject went to his wife's worksite and murdered her and the store manager,
wounded a passerby in a car, and murdered a police officer arriving on the
scene. Weapons used were a .32 caliber revolver, a 9-mm pistol, a 7.62-mm
assault rifle, and a .50-caliber rifle. The fact pattern of the case is
shown to be quite consistent with a predatory mode of aggression-violence
that is planned, purposeful, emotionless, and not preceded by autonomic
arousal. The forensic importance of considering mode of violence, whether
predatory or affective, independently of psychiatric diagnosis, is
emphasized.
PMID: 9068195 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Med Pregl 1994;47(11-12):407-8 Related Articles, Links
[Homicide and sexual psychopathology]
[Article in Serbo-Croatian (Roman)]
Misic-Pavkov G, Kapamadzija B.
Institut za neurologiju, psihijatriju i mentalno zdravlje, Novi Sad.
Using data of forensic-psychiatric archive of the Institute for Neurology,
Psychiatry and Mental Health in Novi Sad, 61 homicides were processed; in
all cases victims and the murderers were of different sexes and were not
blood kinships. By psychopathological analysis of the sample it was not
possible to determine a unique profile of "sexual homicide". Considering the
personality of the murderer, the degree of victimization and the importance
of alcohol as a constelative factor, three categories of homicide connected
with sexual life in the broadest sense were established and any degree of
generalization in the practice of forensic-psychiatric theory and practice
is impossible.
PMID: 7476699 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Issues Ment Health Nurs 1995 Jul-Aug;16(4):315-26 Related Articles,
Links
Women who kill: the impact of abuse.
Grant CA.
Only 12% of all homicides in the United States are committed by women
(Browne & Williams, 1989; Jones, 1981), and the majority of these women are
killing their abusive and violent partners. The woman who has killed her
partner is now a criminal defendant, which adds a very complicated dimension
to her plight. The battered woman who kills her assaulter is additionally
handicapped by a legal system that lacks consensus concerning the proper
legal response to her case. Maguigan (1991) estimates that there are about
750 men killed each year by wives, girlfriends, and lovers, and argues that
the female homicide defendant is almost always a battered woman. When a
battered woman becomes a defendant in a criminal case it becomes crucial for
the introduction of psychological information about the dynamics of her
circumstances to be presented in a court of law so that her actions can be
understood by those judging her behavior. Nurses, particularly psychiatric
nurses, may be in critical positions as expert witnesses, therapists, and
crisis counselors to assist the battered woman and her legal representative
in developing a comprehensive understanding of her response to her violent
partner. Psychiatric nurses are well aware of violence against women, and
this article provides another level of understanding of the effects of
violence and trauma on a woman who kills in response to violence.
PMID: 7615379 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
J Forensic Sci 2000 May;45(3):698-701 Related Articles, Links
Anger experience, styles of anger expression, sadistic personality disorder,
and psychopathy in juvenile sexual homicide offenders.
Myers WC, Monaco L.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Florida, Gainesville 32610-0256,
USA.
Sexual homicide by juveniles is a rare phenomenon, and information regarding
the psychological and behavioral characteristics of this group is limited.
No studies exist which have investigated anger experience and styles of
anger expression, and the relationship between anger, sadistic personality
disorder, and psychopathy, in this type of youthful offender. These areas
were explored by evaluating 14 juvenile sexual homicide offenders through
clinical assessment, the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI), the
Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (SNAP), the Revised
Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R), and review of correctional records.
Descriptive information for the STAXI scales and internal consistency data
are presented. Trait Anger was significantly higher than State Anger for the
youth, but still comparable to adolescent norms. The difference between
Anger-In and Anger-Out scale scores was not significant. Unexpectedly, Anger
Control scale scores were significantly higher than Anger Out scale scores,
clinically consistent with efforts by some of these boys to resist sadistic
impulses. Those four (31%) participants who met criteria for sadistic
personality had significantly higher Anger-Out scale scores than those
without the disorder, and were also higher on Trait Anger to a marginally
significant degree. Psychopathy was significantly negatively associated with
Anger Control. This study is intended to contribute to the scant literature
on juvenile sexual homicide, and lends some support to the validity and
utility of sadistic personality disorder as a diagnosis in younger forensic
populations. The findings did not support the contention that this form of
violence is necessarily an outgrowth of excessive anger.
PMID: 10855983 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
J Forensic Sci 1997 Jan;42(1):49-60 Related Articles, Links
Antisocial personality disorder, sexual sadism, malignant narcissism, and
serial murder.
Geberth VJ, Turco RN.
This paper examines the research on serial murder and its relationship to
antisocial personality disorder and sexual sadism. The concept of malignant
narcissism is also discussed. Case studies of serial killers are examined
regarding the nature of sexual violation and crime scene behavior.
Publication Types:
a.. Review
b.. Review of Reported Cases
PMID: 8988574 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]