Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T17:39:23.605Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sadistic Fantasy, Sadistic Behaviour and Offending

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

M. J. MacCulloch ,
P. R. Snowden ,
P. J. W. Wood  and
H. E. Mills
M. J. MacCulloch
Affiliation:
Park Lane Hospital, Maghull, Liverpool L31 1HW; Special Hospitals Research Unit, Park Lane Hospital, Maghull
P. R. Snowden
Affiliation:
Park Lane Hospital, Maghull, Liverpool L31 1HW
P. J. W. Wood
Affiliation:
Lynfield Mount Hospital, Bradford BD9 6DP
H. E. Mills
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Park Lane Hospital, Maghull, Liverpool L31 1HW
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

This paper explores the genesis of sadistic behaviour in men and its relationship to crime. Sixteen male special hospital patients, each with a diagnosis of psychopathic disorder, formed the basis of this descriptive study. In only three cases were the crimes explicable in terms of external circumstances and personality traits. The offences of the remaining 13 cases became comprehensible only when the offender's internal circumstances were explored: investigation revealed repetitive sadistic masturbatory fantasies which had spilled over into overt behaviour because the patients had felt impelled to seek and create increasingly dangerous in vivo ‘try-outs' of their fantasies. The paper discusses the crucial link between sadistic fantasy and behaviour.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 143 , Issue 1 , July 1983 , pp. 20 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bartholomew, A. A., Milte, K. L. & Galbally, F. (1975) Sexual murder: psychopathology and psychiatric jurisprudential considerations. Australia and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 8, 143–52.Google Scholar
Bowden, P. (1978) Rape. British Journal of Hospital Medicine, 20, 286–90.Google Scholar
Brittain, R. P. (1970) The sadistic murderer. Medicine, Science and the Law, 10, 198–207.Google Scholar
Bluglass, R. (1982) Assessing dangerousness in sex offenders. In Dangerousness: Psychiatric Assessment and Management, Gaskell (Royal College of Psychiatrists), (eds. Hamilton, J. R. and Freeman, H.). Ashford, Kent: Headley Brothers.Google Scholar
Comfort, A. (1975) The Joy of Sex. London: Quartet Books.Google Scholar
Crepault, C. & Couture, M. (1980) Men's erotic fantasies. Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 9, 565–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eysenck, H. J. (1968) A theory of the incubation of anxiety/fear responses. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 6, 309–21.Google Scholar
Feldman, M. P. & MacCulloch, M. J. (1980) The biological bases of sexual behaviour. In Human Sexual Behaviour. Chichester: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Fenichel, O. (1946) The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Gebhard, et al (1965) Sex Offenders: An Analysis of Types. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Guttmacher, M. (1963) Dangerous offenders. Crime and Delinquency, 9, 381–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henderson, D. K. (1939) Psychopathic States. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Kraft-Ebbing, R. (1886) The Psychopathia Sexualis. Revised edition (1959). London: Panther.Google Scholar
Kuhne, T. S. (1962) The structure of scientific revolutions. International Encyclopaedia of Science, 2, 2.Google Scholar
McCaldon, R. J. (1967) Rape. Canadian Journal of Corrections, 9, 37–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masters, W. H. & Johnson, V. E. (1966) Human Sexual Response. Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
McGuire, R. J., Carlisle, J. M. & Young, B. G. (1965) Sexual deviations as conditioned behaviour: a hypothesis. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 3, 185–90.Google Scholar
Power, D. J. (1976) Sexual deviation and crime. Medicine, Science and the Law, 16, 111–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reinhardt, J. M. (1957) Sex perversions and sex crimes; a psychocultural examination of the causes, nature and criminal manifestations of sex perversions. Police Science Series. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas.Google Scholar
Revitch, E. (1965) Sex murder and the potential sex murderer. Diseases of the Nervous System, 26, 640–8.Google ScholarPubMed
Revitch, E. (1980) Gynocide and unprovoked attacks on women. Correctional and Social Psychiatry, 26, 6–11.Google Scholar
Spengler, A. (1977) Manifest sado-masochism of males: results of an empirical study. Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 6, 441–56.Google Scholar
Swigert, V. L., Farrell, R. A. & Yoets, W. C. (1976) Sexual homicide: social, psychological and legal aspects. Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 5, 391–401.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
West, D. J., Roy, C. & Nicholas, F. L. (1978) Understanding Sexual Attacks. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.