Object relations and defense mechanisms of a psychopathic serial sexual homicide perpetrator: a TAT analysis.
The case of a 24-year-old African American man who committed serial sexual homicide and who met criteria (Hare, 1991) for psychopathy is presented. His Thematic Apperception Test (Murray, 1943) responses were used to code key aspects of personality organization--object relations and defense mechanisms--via the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale (Westen, Lohr, Silk, & Kerber, 1989) and the Defense Mechanisms Manual (Cramer, 1991), respectively. Severe object relations pathology and a reliance on the defense mechanism of immature projection and immature denial are noted. Findings are relatively consistent with previous psychodynamic Rorschach studies of psychopathic sexual homicide perpetrators (Gacono, Meloy, & Bridges, 2000; Meloy, Gacono, & Kenney, 1994).
Porcerelli
J H
JH
Department of Family Medicine, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI 48235, USA. jporcer@med.wayne.edu
Abramsky
M F
MF
Hibbard
S
S
Kamoo
R
R
D000328:Adult; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D006708:Homicide / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009769:Object Attachment; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000523:psychology*; D012924:Social Conditions; D013803:Thematic Apperception Test