[Object loss in criminologic psychiatry or passion according to Werther]

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".