A potential young murderer

Longitudinal study of six people who committed homicides or exhibited a potential for homicidal behavior was undertaken over a period of ten years. The data were obtained through psychiatric interviews, psychological testing, and examination of all available records. The material thus obtained was analyzed from the psychoanalytic point of view. Three specific points were identified as being common and applicable to a lesser or greater degree in all six cases studied. First, as children each of these six people suffered actual physical abuse perpetrated by their parents. Second, they actually saw during childhood violent and destructive behavior by their parents. Third, the sequelae of such exposure to violence interfered with the phase specific resolution of the basic conflicts of childhood, specifically Oedipus complex. These traumata of violence set up a predisposition for regression to the preoedipal levels of psychic organization and functioning. From the structural point of view, ego functions of impulse control were lacking due to profound states of regression whenever these patients experienced extreme anger, which in turn would precipitate homicidal behavior. None of the patients had childhood history of pyromania, enuresis, nor cruelty to animals. On the basis of the aforegoing material, one may conclude that in some instances it is possible to establish "homicidal proneness" as a clinical entity. Homicidal proneness can be anticipated in people who as children suffered from physical and emotional abuse, witnessed violence, and were sexually traumatized through incestuous experiences or their equivalents.