History, Murder and the Fear of Death

The account of the crime is nearly always a cover up story. Murder occurs concretely in most cases when it has been committed many times previously in daydreams, nightmares and sometimes in unconscious phantasy that has never become conscious. Before the deed, conscious efforts – sometimes unconscious ones, too – are designed and devoted to keeping the murder encapsulation from action. Then something takes place internally that breaks loose the murderousness from it's cordoned off status, so that the whole of the energies of the individual becomes devoted to enacting the murderous deed. In the death constellation there is a psychically traumatic and indigestible experience to do with death. Only with a life threatening trigger, displayed as the fear of death, did they enact their murderousness. Violence is thus a communication about the patient's belief systems about themselves, about their relationships with others and about their origins. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.