|
Abstract
|
A defense witness discusses the case of a convicted murderer who was a dull normal constitutional psychopath. Clinical analysis reveals plausible relations between long-standing father hostility and the circumstances precipitating the murder of a stranger who criticized the subject. There was no attempt to hide the crime, nor was there any remorse for the victim. Despite the criminal's indifference to his own fate, he might unconsciously have been seeking punishment to ease life-long guilt feelings. Although the pathological trend was apparent in childhood, it might not have become dangerous in a simple environment. Weak control disintegrated in the army where companions led him to alcoholic and sexual excesses, between periods of uninhibited killing of strangers. Being unable to control impulses, he was dishonorably discharged. Neither military nor civil law grants immunities to psychopaths as is done in the case of psychotics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)
|