https://academic.oup.com/jaac/article-pdf/18/1/127/39534263/jaac_v18_1_127.pdf

Neurotic Distortion of the Creative Process by Lawrence S. Kubie

Investigates situations that were perceived as stressful by Swedish police officers and the kind of support and help they had received in connection with that. A total of 162 respondents took part in the study. Results show that most of the traumatic experiences reported by police officers occurred early on in their careers. The traumatic experiences often remained in their memories in the form of visual, tactile, and olfactory sensations. A variety of stress reactions were described in connection with these experiences. As regards ways of working through the traumatic experiences, more than half reported that it helped them to talk about the event with their colleagues. Only a few had been offered debriefing or professional help in connection with the event. A notable finding is that the majority of the officers did not receive any support at all from their superiors in connection with the event.

The phenomenology of traumatic experiences in police work

A hopeless stutterer, taunted by his schoolmates, Mizoguchi feels utterly alone until he becomes an acolyte at a famous temple in Kyoto But he quickly becomes obsessed with the temple's beauty, and cannot live in peace as long as it exists

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

Background Single homicide committed by women is rare. Serial killing is very infrequent, and the perpetrators are usually white, intelligent males with sadistic tendencies. Serial killing by women has, however, also been described.

Aim To conduct a review of published literature on female serial killers and consider its usefulness in assessing a presenting case.

Method A literature review was conducted, after searching EMBASE, MEDLINE and PsycINFO. The presenting clinical case is described in detail in the context of the literature findings.

Results The literature search revealed few relevant publications. Attempts to categorize the phenomenon of female serial killing according to patterns of and motives for the homicides have been made by some authors. The most common motive identified was material gain or similar extrinsic gratification while the ‘hedonistic’ sadistic or sexual serial killer seems to be extremely rare in women. There is no consistent theory of serial killing by women, but psychopathic personality traits and abusive childhood experiences have consistently been observed. The authors' case did not fit the description of a ‘typical’ female serial killer.

Discussion In such unusual circumstances as serial killing by a woman, detailed individual case formulation is required to make sense of the psychopathology in each case. Publication of cases in scientific journals should be encouraged to advance our understanding of this phenomenon. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Female serial killing: review and case report

The author notes an increased interest in the concept of "evil" in the fields of psychiatry and psychology. In particular, there is some interest in defining and testifying about evil. It is argued that evil can never be scientifically defined because it is an illusory moral concept, it does not exist in nature, and its origins and connotations are inextricably linked to religion and mythology. Any attempt to study violent or deviant behavior under the rubric of this term will be fraught with bias and moralistic judgments. Embracing the term "evil" into the lexicon and practice of psychiatry will contribute to the stigmatization of mental illness, diminish the credibility of forensic psychiatry, and corrupt forensic treatment efforts.

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The recurrence of an illusion: the concept of "evil" in forensic psychiatry.

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.

Child serial murder-psychodynamics: closely watched shadows.

The author discusses a traumatic event and its impact on the individual, emphasizing the reemergence of earlier traumas. The importance of dealing with these developmental conflicts is emphasized and clinical examples are presented.

Police Shootings: Psychoanalytic Viewpoints

Pathography is Freud’ s term for the psychoanalytic study of an artist’ s life and interpretation based on the relationship between the work and his or her life. One is concerned with the nature of the creative work, the interpretation of the work of art, and the “ aesthetic encounter.” In the earliest stages of psychoanalysis, the model of pathography emphasized conflict and repetition— classical Freudian theory. Freud’ s analysis of Leonardo Da Vinci is an example of this approach. Later models of psychoanalytic interpretation take as a context the work of art “ conceived as autonomous and constituted by its own internal relations.” A more advanced idea was the exploration of the artistic product and the interaction with the audience— the viewer. Art engages us in complex, cognitive, and affective mental activities similar to our own dream states. As psychoanalysis has evolved so have these three approaches to interpretative aesthetics (Freud, 1910; Freud, 1900). Spitz has summarized these perspectives: “ From the point of view of society and culture . . . the work of art serves as a highly valued transformation of narcissistic instinctual energy into products that have a life of their own and that derive added and continuous overlays of meaning from their successive cultural contexts” (1985). The understanding of pathography has moved from the fictive approach of Freud in his analysis of Leonardo, to the later documentary approach as it relates particularly to the analysis of Michelangelo, to the thematic approach as applied by Wolfenstein (1966). All of these approaches are utilized, for example, in studying Magritte’ s artistic work in the context of his early parental loss and the “ psychic splitting” that played a major role in the development of his aesthetic perspective. We thus come to examine the creative process 1 beginning

Psychoanalysis and creativity: beyond Freud and Waelder.

ALTHOUGH hypnosis has received an ever greater utilization in forensic psychiatry, growing opposition seems to be mounting. The opposition is both legal and psychiatric/psychological. The conflictual tension and attention is indicated by the fact that an entire issue of The International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Vol. 27, 1979, has been devoted to this conflict. Another professional journal, The American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, has been publishing an increasing number of articles on forensic hypnosis. A new association, founded in 1976, The Society for Investigative and Forensic Hypnosis, is now active and publishes its own journal. The conflict can be summarized in a variety of ways. For example, it can be demonstrated that hypnosis has been the key factoror variable-in solving criminal cases. Reiser, in his text, Handbook of Investigative Hypnosis (1980), documents how hypnosis has been valuable in helping to solve hundreds of criminal cases. The Supreme Court of New Jersey, in a 5 to 2 decision, favored admission of induced testimony under six guidelines:

Ronald N. Turco

Papers

Child serial murder-psychodynamics: closely watched shadows.

Police Shootings: Psychoanalytic Viewpoints

Psychoanalysis and creativity: beyond Freud and Waelder.

Hypnosis: Complications—An Illustrative Clinical Example

Mask and steel: Mishima--when life imitates art.