Base Instincts: What Makes Killers Kill

The author of this seminal work is professor of neurology at Georgetown University School of Medicine and has spent his career working with very violent men. He has found that the three key factors are severe physical or sexual abuse, neurological dysfunction (sometimes resulting from the abuse) and psychiatric illness. His hypothesis, illustrated with five detailed case histories, is that while abuse generates the violent urge, neurological impairment and mental illness damage the capacity to control this urge. Pincus also suggests ways of spotting and rehabilitating potentially violent individuals at an early stage. Of special interest to psychologist and psychiatrists.