Sexual Murder: Catathymic and Compulsive Homicides
[The author] has written a highly readable and informative volume. … We are given fascinating insights into the minds of these killers. … [C]ase studies are all that is really available in this relatively young field and the rich variety of them in the book illuminate the various concepts very well. … In conclusion, a thoroughly accessible book to all disciplines involved in forensic work. … [T]his is a highly accomplished piece of work which is clearly laid out with useful tables and diagrams. It will be of use to anyone who is interested in any aspect of sexual murders and those who commit them.- Science & Justice, Vol. 44, No. 4, 2004From the forewordSexual Murder: Catathymic and Compulsive Homicides will take its place alongside Cleckley's Mask of Sanity, Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis, and Ressler et al's Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives as a classic in our specialized field of criminal forensic psychology. … Dr. Schlesinger is interested in the inner life of the sexual murderer … [and] finds answers to questions that disturb and frighten most people: Why would anyone be sexually aroused by violence? How could anyone contemplate, let alone commit, such horrendous acts? … This book is a brilliant integration and application of previous theory and research, and advances the field of criminal forensic psychology.- J. Reid Meloy, Ph.D.Author of The Psychopathic Mind and Violent AttachmentsPraise from bestselling crime writerIt is said that when you stare at evil, it stares back at you. Dr. Lous B. Schlesinger illuminates the face, the intelligence, the mental illnesses, and the driving compulsions of the sexual predators we call monsters. Through Dr. Schlesinger's brilliant forensic psychological insight and relentlessness - gained from years of examining the worst of the worst - he presents the sexual murderer in a way that helps both the professional and the layman to redefine and understand the darkest and more incomprehensible aspects of human life and death.