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ArticleNo Access

Psychiatric Study of Homicide

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.125.9.1252

In evaluating 53 perpetrators of homicide, the author noted that a history of violent child-rearing, a severe superego, and an altered state of consciousness just prior to the act of homicide were marked characteristics of a majority of these individuals. He postulates three categories of homicide, based upon the immediate psychological state of the perpetrator: dissociative, psychotic, and ego-syntonic.

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