“Affective” Aggression

Meloy (1988, 1992) noted that sudden catathymic homicides are affective—as opposed to predatory—types of violence; in this sense, they parallel the concept of a “blitz” attack used by the FBI to describe some disorganized sexual murders (Ressler et al., 1988). Meloy (1992) delineated the acute catathymic homicide as an event marked by

intense autonomic arousal, overwhelming anger during the violence, the perception of the victim as an imminent threat to the ego structure of the perpetrator, a time limited behavioral sequence, and a goal of threat reduction and a return to intrapsychic homeostasis.

(p. 47)

He found that acute catathymic murders not only are associated with disorganized crime scenes but also include, on the part of the murderer, various personality and mood disorders, attachment pathology, moderate levels of psychopathy, autonomic hyperactivity, and a history of physical or sexual trauma (or both) (Meloy, 2000). In a recent article, Meloy (2006) discussed the empirical support for distinguishing affective from predatory forms of violence.

Catathymic homicides, in Meloy’s (1992) view, are differentiated from other forms of affective violence by an “unconscious motivation for the act and the symbolic significance of the victim” (p. 47). Accordingly, the author points out that “transference distortions” which trigger the violence can be identified through a careful history taking that focuses on the offender’s problems in attachment. Such distortions are precipitated by one or more traits in the victim that the offender misperceives based on his or her conflicts. Meloy finds the Rorschach and the TAT helpful in understanding the dynamics of such events.

Presence of Dissociation and Trauma

Additional insight into the etiology of explosive catathymic violence is provided by Dicke (1994). He described three cases involving “inexplicable, sometimes bizarre, violence suddenly acted out with explosive rage against intimates, acquaintances or even strangers” (p. 10). As these defendants had no prior criminal record, Dicke first thought they might be malingering because of “the automaticity, vagueness, or amnesia for the event” (p. 12). His offenders had unstable families, overwhelming mothers, and absent or abusive fathers. Projective-test findings showed the offenders to be very attached to their mothers as well as likely victims of emotional abuse, abandonment, or maternal sexual abuse (or some combination of these). Subjects idealized their mothers as wonderful or perfect, while at an unconscious level, as the test results indicated, they felt “a rageful life and death struggle to get dependency needs met by [the] mother without being engulfed, abused or abandoned by her” (p. 11).

Dicke (1994) believes that in many cases of sudden catathymic violence, the offender also has a concomitant dissociative disorder and/or a posttraumatic stress disorder. This view has been supported by Heide and Solomon (2006) and Muskowitz (2004). Dicke found that many of his subjects suffered trauma and developed dissociative disorders as a result. However, the offenders were unable to make a conscious connection between the early traumatic event and the catathymic explosion. Thus, Dicke essentially views the violent act as a defense against internal pain. He found hypnosis to be helpful in diagnosing cases of catathymic violence because the defendants were able to reenact or reexperience the actual trauma or abuse which laid the foundation for the catathymic dynamics. The author believes that many of these cases have viable legal defenses: “I would venture to guess that the number of dissociative defendants throughout the country who are imprisoned for catathymic acts without their lawyers having raised their mental status is very significant” (p. 12).

Kirschner and Nagel (1996) also discussed the role of dissociation in explosive catathymic violence, particularly as it relates to individuals who were adopted. These authors contend that, because of the circumstances of being adopted, adoptees have a unique form of “trauma,” which often leads to rageful feelings that erupt in catathymic violence. They relied on the work of Lifton (1994), who found adoptees to have “cumulative trauma” based on their separation from their birth mothers; this trauma is compounded when they are denied knowledge of their biological parents. Kirschner and Nagel believe that rage associated with dissociation (although not specific to adoptees) is frequently found in such cases. “An eruption of catathymic violence in adoptees is always triggered by a series of perceived or actual rejections that resonates with and reactivates the dissociative primary feelings of rejection and rage” (p. 207).

The authors present an illustrative case of an adopted young man with no prior history of violence, who developed a dissociative state following rejection by his girlfriend and an ultimatum from his father that he “get a job, join the military, or move out.” The offender bludgeoned his adoptive parents to death and set their bodies on fire. Kirschner and Nagel stress that “adoption pathology” is a neglected area of inquiry in similar cases of violence and homicide.

Overcontrolled Personalities

Megargee (1966) found that overcontrolled individuals who have rigid inhibitions and strong moral beliefs against violence explode infrequently but in extremely violent ways. Cartwright (2001) also noted that many individuals who commit “rage-type” homicides are overcontrolled and appear “apparently normal” to others. Grubin (1994) observed this personality profile in a number of murderers whose crimes were associated with sexuality. He believes such offenders bottle up their rage, remain isolated interpersonally, and then suddenly explode when triggered in some way by the victim. One of Grubin’s subjects strangled his victim with a cord so tightly pulled around her neck that the ambulance crew was unable to untie it. In another case, the brutal beating of an elderly woman resulted in 16 broken ribs, a torn liver, and a ruptured heart. Grubin found that anger and overcontrol were common characteristics of such offenders, who were not any more impulsive than others. And, as noted by other investigators, these men also reported feelings of inadequacy and powerlessness. In fact, in several cases, the offenders were unable to perform sexually until after the murder. The author concluded that a sense of power derived from the assault itself “finally enabled [them] to ejaculate” (p. 627).