The violent true believer as a "lone wolf" - psychoanalytic perspectives on terrorism

The existing research on lone wolf terrorists and case experience are reviewed and interpreted through the lens of psychoanalytic theory. A number of characteristics of the lone wolf are enumerated: a personal grievance and moral outrage; the framing of an ideology; failure to affiliate with an extremist group; dependence on a virtual community found on the Internet; the thwarting of occupational goals; radicalization fueled by changes in thinking and emotion - including cognitive rigidity, clandestine excitement, contempt, and disgust - regardless of the particular ideology; the failure of sexual pair bonding and the sexualization of violence; the nexus of psychopathology and ideology; greater creativity and innovation than terrorist groups; and predatory violence sanctioned by moral (superego) authority. A concluding psychoanalytic formulation is offered.

Seeing, mirroring, desiring: the impact of the analyst's pregnant body on the patient's body image

The paper explores the impact of the analyst's pregnant body on the course of two analyses, a young man, and a young woman, specifically focusing on how each patient's visual perception and affective experience of being with the analyst's pregnant body affected their own body image and subjective experience of their body. The pre-verbal or 'subsymbolic' material evoked in the analyses contributed to a greater understanding of the patients' developmental experiences in infancy and adolescence, which had resulted in both carrying a profoundly distorted body image into adulthood. The analyst's pregnancy offered a therapeutic window in which a shift in the patient's body image could be initiated. Clinical material is presented in detail with reference to the psychoanalytic literature on the pregnant analyst, and that of the development of the body image, particularly focusing on the role of visual communication and the face. The author proposes a theory of psychic change, drawing on Bucci's multiple code theory, in which the patients' unconscious or 'subsymbolic' awareness of her pregnancy, which were manifest in their bodily responses, feeling states and dreams, as well as in the analyst s countertransference, could gradually be verbalized and understood within the transference. Thus visual perception, or 'external seeing', could gradually become 'internal seeing', or insight into unconscious phantasies, leading to a shift in the patients internal object world towards a less persecutory state and more realistic appraisal of their body image.

Locks, keys, and security of mind: psychodynamic approaches to forensic psychiatry

In this article, we discuss psychological approaches to the understanding of acts of violence and, specifically, psychodynamic approaches to both formulation and treatment. We suggest that the key theoretical paradigm of a psychodynamic approach involves the exploration and elaboration of the meaning of a violent act for the offender and describe the relevance of this approach for both legal assessments and clinical services in secure residential care. We argue that a psychodynamic approach can improve the quality of assessments of both psychopathology and risk and inform effective therapeutic interventions in hard-to-treat patients.

Hippocampal volume reduction in schizophrenia: effects of genetic risk and pregnancy and birth complications

BACKGROUND

Hippocampal volume reduction has been repeatedly demonstrated in schizophrenia. The relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to this is unclear.

METHODS

To address this question, we compared volumetric measurements of the left and right hippocampus, obtained using stereological methods from brain MRI scans, from two groups of patients with schizophrenia as well as healthy controls (n = 26). Patients (n = 27) in the first group, had no family history of schizophrenia and had experienced severe pregnancy and birth complications (PBCs). The second group comprised of patients (n = 21) without a history of severe PBCs from families multiply affected with schizophrenia.

RESULTS

Reduction of the left hippocampal volume was associated with the diagnosis of schizophrenia but was present only in patients with a history of severe PBCs; in this group the smaller hippocampal volume, the earlier the onset of psychosis.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that environmental factors, in this case severe PBCs, make a significant contribution to hippocampal abnormalities in schizophrenia.