Table Of ContentPsychoanalytic Understanding of Violence
and Suicide
‘This book is a joy to read, human and theoretically stimulating…The subject is urgently
topical…It is a marvellous read which could be a standard work for many years.’
Reviewer for the New Library of Psychoanalysis
‘The clinical material is detailed, vivid, and convincing; the theoretical discussion is
wide and the result is a book of great interest to anyone involved in psychoanalysis.’
Ronald Britton, Training and Supervising Analyst of the British Psycho-Analytical
Society
‘Perelberg has produced a book of the greatest topical importance to anyone involved
in psychoanalysis. The review of the literature is by far the best on the subject. The
various chapters of this most skilfully edited book are beautifully written and lay the
foundations for a psychoanalytic theory of violence and suicide. They also make an
important contribution to a theory of technique that understands symptoms as solutions to
conflicts…It should be a standard work for many years to come.’
Joseph Sandler, Late Professor Emeritus in Psychoanalysis, University College London
Although there is a vast literature on aggression, comparatively little has been written
on the issue of violence and even fewer clinical discussions have been published on the
violent patient. This pioneering book presents a collection of case studies by analysts who
have treated patients who have committed serious acts of violence either against others or
themselves. Each detailed clinical account demonstrates the effectiveness of the
psychoanalytic treatment and aims to further our understanding of the nature of violence.
Psychoanalytic Understanding of Violence and Suicide also contains a comprehensive
review of the existing literature on aggression and violence from America, England and
France, drawing out major themes which will be of interest to all those working with
violent and suicidal patients.
Rosine Jozef Perelberg is a Training Analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society
and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Theoretical Psychoanalytic Studies at University
College London. She is researching a project at the Anna Freud Centre which offers
subsidised analysis to young adults and is also in private practice.
THE NEW LIBRARY OF
PSYCHOANALYSIS
The New Library of Psychoanalysis was launched in 1987 in association with the
Institute of Psycho-Analysis, London. Its purpose is to facilitate a greater and more
widespread appreciation of what psychoanalysis is really about and to provide a forum
for increasing mutual understanding between psychoanalysts and those working in other
disciplines such as history, linguistics, literature, medicine, philosophy, psychology and
the social sciences. It is intended that the titles selected for publication in the series
should deepen and develop psychoanalytic thinking and technique, contribute to
psychoanalysis from outside, or contribute to other disciplines from a psychoanalytical
perspective.
The Institute, together with the British Psycho-Analytical Society, runs a low-fee
psychoanalytic clinic, organizes lectures and scientific events concerned with
psychoanalysis, publishes the International Review of Psycho-Analysis (which now
incorporates the International Review of Psycho-Analysis), and runs the only training
course in the UK in psychoanalysis, leading to membership of the International
Psychoanalytical Association—the body which preserves internationally agreed standards
of training, of professional entry, and of professional ethics and practice for
psychoanalysis as initiated and developed by Sigmund Freud. Distinguished members of
the Institute have included Michael Balint, Wilfred Bion, Ronald Fairburn, Anna Freud,
Ernest Jones, Melanie Klein, John Rickman and Donald Winnicott.
Volumes 1–11 in the series have been prepared under the general editorship of David
Tuckett, with Ronald Britton and Eglé Laufer as associate editors. Subsequent volumes
are under the general editorship of Elizabeth Bott Spillius, with, from Volume 17, Donald
Campbell, Michael Parsons, Rosine Jozef Perelberg and David Taylor as associate
editors.
ALSO IN THIS SERIES
1 Impasse and Interpretation Herbert Rosenfeld
2 Psychoanalysis and Discourse Patrick Mahoney
3 The Suppressed Madness of Sane Men Marion Milner
4 The Riddle of Freud Estelle Roith
5 Thinking, Feeling, and Being Ignacio Matte Blanco
6 The Theatre of the Dream Saloman Resnik
7 Melanie Klein Today: Volume Mainly Theory Edited by Elizabeth Bott Spillius
9 Psychic Equilibrium and Psychic Change: Selected Papers of Betty Joseph Edited by
Michael Feldman and Elizabeth Bott Spillius
10 About Children and Children-no-longer: Collected Papers 1942–80 Paula Heimann.
Edited by Margret Tonnesmann
11 The Freud-Klein Controversies 1941–45 Edited by Pearl King and Riccardo Steiner
12 Dream, Phantasy and Art Hanna Segal
13 Psychic Experience and Problems of Technique Harold Stewart
14 Clinical Lectures on Klein & Bion Edited by Robin Anderson
15 From Fetus to Child Alessandra Piontelli
16 A Psychoanalytic Theory of Infantile Experience: Conceptual and Clinical Reflections
E.Gaddini. Edited by Adam Limentani
17 The Dream Discourse Today Edited and introduced by Sara Flanders
18 The Gender Conundrum: Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Femininity
and Masculinity Edited and introduced by Dana Breen
19 Psychic Retreats John Steiner
20 The Taming of Solitude: Separation Anxiety in Psychoanalysis Jean-Michel Quinodoz
21 Unconscious Logic: An Introduction to Matte-Blanco’s Bi-logic and its Uses Eric
Rayner
22 Understanding Mental Objects Meir Perlow
23 Life, Sex and Death: Selected Writings of William Gillespie Edited and introduced by
Michael Sinason
24 What Do Psychoanalysts Want?: The Problem of Aims in Psychoanalytic Therapy
Joseph Sandler and Anna Ursula Dreher
25 Michael Balint: Object Relations, Pure and Applied Harold Stewart
26 Hope: A Shield in the Economy of Borderline States Anna Potamianou
27 Psychoanalysis, Literature & War: Papers 1972–1995 Hanna Segal
28 Emotional Vertigo: Between Anxiety and Pleasure Danielle Quinodoz
29 Early Freud and Late Freud Ilse Grubrich-Simitis
30 A History of Child Psychoanalysis Claudine and Pierre Geissmann
31 Belief and Imagination Ronald Britton
32 A Mind of One’s Own Robert A.Caper
To Sergio, my partner on the journey
NEW LIBRARY OF PSYCHOANALYSIS
33
General Editor: Elizabeth Bott Spillius
Psychoanalytic Understanding of
Violence and Suicide
Edited and introduced by Rosine Jozef Perelberg
Foreword by Leonard Shengold
Preface by Ronald Britton
London and New York
First published 1999 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“ To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of
thousands of eBooks please go to http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/.”
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York,
NY 10001
© 1999 selection, editorial matter and chapter introductions: Rosine Jozef
Perelberg; Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5 © Institute of Psycho-Analysis; all other
chapters © the contributors; ‘red-rag and pink-flag’ is reprinted from Complete
Works 1904–1962, by E.E.Cummings, edited by George J.Firmage, by permission
of W.W.Norton & Company. Copyright © 1991 by the Trustees for the
E.E.Cummings Trust and George James Firmage.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Psychoanalytic understanding of violence
and suicide/[edited by] Rosine Jozef Perelberg. (New library of psychoanalysis; 33) Includes
bibliographical references and index. 1. Violence—Psychological aspects. 2. Violence—Case
studies. 3. Violence—Treatment. 4. Suicide. 5. Psychoanalysis. I. Perelberg, Rosine Jozef. II.
Series. RC569.5.V55P794 1999 616.85′82–dc21 98–25639
ISBN 0-203-01390-5 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-415-19931-X (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-19932-8 (pbk)
Contents
List of contributors viii
Foreword xi
by Leonard Shengold
Preface xviii
by Ronald Britton
Acknowledgements xix
Introduction 1
by Rosine Jozef Perelberg
1 Psychoanalytic understanding of violence and suicide: a review of the 15
literature and some new formulations
Rosine Jozef Perelberg
2 Towards understanding violence: the use of the body and the role of the 44
father
Peter Fonagy and Mary Target
3 The role of the father in a pre-suicide state 63
Donald Campbell
4 A core phantasy in violence 74
Rosine Jozef Perelberg
5 Narcissism and its relation to violence and suicide 93
Anthony Bateman
6 Technique in the interpretation of the manifest attack on the analyst 105
Rosemary Davies
7 The paradox of suicide: issues of identity and separateness 123
Joan Schachter
8 Final remarks 134
Peter Fonagy
Index 141
Contributors
Anthony Bateman graduated in Medicine in Cambridge and is a Member of the British
Psycho-Analytical Society. He is also Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy in St
Ann’s Hospital and Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists where he is Secretary of
the Psychotherapy of Faculty. For the last ten years he has also been a member of the
Young Adults Research Group at the Anna Freud Centre which offers subsidised analysis
to young adults. With Jeremy Holmes he has co-authored the book Introduction to
Psycho-Analysis: Contemporary Theory and Practice, published in 1995 by Routledge.
He has a particular interest in the treatment of borderline and narcissistic disorders and in
the application of psychoanalytic thinking to general psychiatry and research.
Donald Campbell is a Training Analyst of the British Psycho-Analytical Society.
Previously he trained as a Child Analyst at the Anna Freud Centre. He is Principal
Psychotherapist and former Chairman of the Portman Clinic, a National Health Service
out-patient facility which specialises in the assessment and psychoanalytic
psychotherapeutic treatment of delinquent or sexually deviant persons. He is an associate
editor of the New Library of Psychoanalysis, published by Routledge in association with
the Institute of Psycho-Analysis. He has published on the subject of violence, suicide,
child sexual abuse, delinquency and adolescent development. His areas of research are
perpetrators of violence, incest and paedophilia.
Rosemary Davies is an Associate Member of the British Psycho-Analytical Society. She
works in private practice and in the National Health Service. She is a member of the
Young Adults Research Group which offers subsidised analysis to young adults at the
Anna Freud Centre, where she also teaches.
Peter Fonagy is Freud Memorial Professor of Psychoanalysis, UCL, Director of
Research at the Anna Freud Centre. He is Vice-President and Chair of the Research
Committee in the International Psycho-Analytic Association. He is Director of the Child
and Family Centre and Clinical Protocols and Outcome Centre at the Menninger Clinic,
Topeka. He is a clinical psychologist and Training and Supervising Analyst of the British
Psycho-Analytical Society and also a member of the American Psychoanalytic
Association. He is the Director of the MSc in Theoretical Psychoanalytic Studies at
University College, University of London. He has authored or edited several books and
published over 200 papers in prestigious international scientific journals. His research
interests are in attachment and the outcome of psychotherapy. He is also a Fellow of the
British Academy.
Rosine Jozef Perelberg is a Training Analyst of the British Psycho-Analytical Society.
Previously she completed a PhD in Social Anthropology at the London School of
Economics, at the University of London. She worked for many years as a Senior
Psychotherapist and Family Therapist in the NHS in London, both at the Maudsley
Hospital and Marlborough Family Service. She is an associate editor of the New Library
of Psychoanalysis, published by Routledge in association with the Institute of Psycho-
Analysis. She is also on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Psycho-
Analysis. She has co-edited with Ann Miller Gender and Power in Families (1990) and
with Joan Raphael-Leff Female Experience: Three Generations of British Psychoanalysts
on Work with Women (1997), both published by Routledge. She is in private practice and
for the last ten years she has also been working at the Anna Freud Centre on a research
project offering subsidised analysis to young adults.
Joan Schachter is a Training Analyst at the British Psycho-Analytical Society and a
Psychiatrist working in the NHS and private practice. Having trained in general
psychiatry in Birmingham and London, she worked for six years at the Cassel hospital, an
in-patient psychotherapy unit for adults, adolescents and families. She has been a
Consultant Psychotherapist in the NHS for 14 years. She has a long-standing interest in
working with adolescents and young adults. She worked at the Brent Consultation Centre
for three years and since 1991 has been a member of the Young Adults Research Group
at the Anna Freud Centre.
Leonard Shengold is a Training and Supervising Analyst and former Director at NYU
Psychoanalytic Institute. He is a former Vice-President of the International Psycho-
Analytical Association and the author of many papers and six books which include: Soul
Murder: The Effects of Childhood Abuse and Deprivations (1989); ‘Father, Don’t You
See I’m Burning?’ Reflections on Sex, Narcissism, Symbolism and Murder: From
Everything to Nothing (1991); ‘The Boy Will Come to Nothing’: Freud’s Ego Ideal and
Freud as Ego Ideal (1993), all published by Yale University Press.
Mary Target is an Associate Member of the British Psycho-Analytical Society. She has
a PhD in Psychology at the University of London. Her first degree was in Experimental
Psychology and her Masters degree in Clinical Psychology, both from Oxford University,
and she continues research in the areas of psychoanalytic outcome and the assessment of
social/emotional development through the life span. She is a Senior Lecturer in
Psychology at University College London, responsible for running an MSc course in
Theoretical Psychoanalytic Studies. She is also Deputy Director of Research at the Anna
Freud Centre in London, and involved in the teaching of another UCL MSc based there
on Psychoanalytic Developmental Psychology. She has written or coauthored numerous
articles on both the outcomes of treatment for children and adolescents (particularly
psychoanalytic treatment), and on psychoanalytic theory. She is a member of policy
groups concerning the provision of mental health services to young people, presenting the
evidence for effectiveness of various treatments, especially the case for psychodynamic
therapy.
