Cruelty, violence, and murder

by Arthur Hyatt-Williams

The line that separates those who kill from those who only think about it and those who injure themselves is often thinner than we imagine. Convicted murderers, their sentences commuted to life in prison when England abolished the death penalty, are some of the subjects of world-renowned psychotherapist Arthur Hyatt-Williams' in-depth psychological study of what makes people kill. Applying the theories and techniques of Melanie Klein, Herbert Rosenfeld, Hanna Segal, and, above all, Wilfred Bion, he sought to expand the sufferers' repertoires beyond acting out by facilitating the beginnings of a mourning process.