Cruelty, Violence, and Murder

The line that separates those who kill from those who only think about it and those who injure themselves is often thinner than we imagine. Convicted murderers, their sentences commuted to life in prison when England abolished the death penalty, are some of the subjects of world-renowned psycho-therapist Arthur Hyatt-Williams' in-depth psychological study of what makes people kill. Dr. Hyatt-Williams found that constellations of undigested fantasies and emotions associated with death in some form dominate the unconscious of murderous individuals. Applying the theories and techniques of Melanie Klein, Herbert Rosenfeld, Hanna Segal, and above all Wilfred Bion, he sought to expand the sufferers' repertoires beyond acting out by facilitating the beginnings of a mourning process. His work has been an ongoing research project on the role of death in the unconscious. Its hallmarks include an absence of dogma, abiding faith in the potential for patients' reparation, and devotion to psychoanalytic truth.