Seminar RECORDING - Brett Kahr

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Why do human beings commit such ghastly crimes? Social scientists claim that violent offences result from genetics, neurodegeneration or other biological factors. In contrast, forensic psychotherapists appreciate the role of core traumatic infantile and childhood experiences as important aetiological contributors to such horrific crimes. Professor Kahr will draw upon his clinical experience as well as several detailed biographical studies of famous serial killers such as Jeffrey Dahmer and Joseph Kallinger, underscoring the important role of early childhood genital-related traumata which will have damaged the ego structures of predominantly male offenders. Brett will expand Sigmund Freud’s classic, but often controversial, notion of castration anxiety as a core factor in the development of the male psyche, examining the ways in which early attacks on the genitalia, as well as a sense of basic impotency, contribute to the perpetration of such crimes as genital exhibitionism, paedophilia, and murder during adolescence and adulthood.