This book is written for psychotherapists, psychologists, psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, and social workers in clinical or forensic practice. Biological foci include concepts about the deep limbic structures of the brain and the biochemistry that inhibits or disinhibits such violence. Psychological patterns include both psychoanalytic constructs and the specific psychological test data from the case studies that support such constructs. Social factors include the behavior of the victim and, in the case of assassination, the political acts that contribute to predatory violence. Dr. Meloy emphasizes the crucial need for mental health professionals to go beyond descriptive diagnoses and find the motivation and meaning of such acts. The professional's causal and purposive formulations about such violent attachments lead to more effective evaluation, treatment, and intervention, and perhaps testimony in subsequent criminal and civil litigation.
This book is written for psychotherapists, psychologists, psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, and social workers in clinical or forensic practice. Biological foci include concepts about the deep limbic structures of the brain and the biochemistry that inhibits or disinhibits such violence. Psychological patterns include both psychoanalytic constructs and the specific psychological test data from the case studies that support such constructs. Social factors include the behavior of the victim and, in the case of assassination, the political acts that contribute to predatory violence. Dr. Meloy emphasizes the crucial need for mental health professionals to go beyond descriptive diagnoses and find the motivation and meaning of such acts. The professional's causal and purposive formulations about such violent attachments lead to more effective evaluation, treatment, and intervention, and perhaps testimony in subsequent criminal and civil litigation.
J. Reid Meloy, Ph.D., is a diplomate in forensic psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology. Chief of the Court Services, Forensic Mental Health Division for San Diego County, he also devotes time to a private civil and criminal forensic practice, research, writing, and teaching. He is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine; a clinical associate professor of psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology, San Diego; and an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego School of Law. Additionally, he is a Fellow of the Society for Personality Assessment and was recently elected President of the American Academy of Forensic Psychology. In 1992 he received the Distinguished Contribution to Psychology as a Profession Award from the California Psychological Association.
Dr. Meloy has cast a bright light into the dark world of violent
individuals and those who attach themselves to them.
*Larry H. Strasburger, M.D.*
Violent Attachments is an extremely valuable addition to the
literature on aggression. Meloy has shed light on how deranged and
fantasized relationships can lead to stalking, threats, and even
death.
*John R. Lion, M.D.*
Violent Attachments is a work of professional excellence and
practical usefulness to help us better understand violent thoughts
and acts. It combines careful attention to clinical detail with
reader-gripping creativity. This is a book both to read quickly
because it is hard to put down, and then to read again, slowly, in
order to absorb and digest its breadth and depth of wisdom.
*Sherry L. Skidmore, Ph.D.*
With this superb volume Reid Meloy transports the reader to remote
locations that lie at the extremes of human experience. At these
outposts we are privy to bizarre tales that reveal the violent
underpinnings of love relationships. The mental health professions
are indebted to Dr. Meloy for mapping this uncharted territory and
for recognizing that in studying the 'outliers,' we learn more
about ourselves.
*Glen O. Gabbard, M.D.*
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