The psychoanalytic movement introduced the study of unconscious processes that influence human activity. The movement was fully consistent with the German model of mental activity, going back to the writings of Leibniz and Kant. Although act psychology and the Gestalt movement were also modern expressions of the German model, psychoanalysis emphasized the goal of a homeostatic balance of unconscious energies within personality. Its founder, Sigmund Freud, used his keen powers of observation to devise much-needed therapeutic approaches, and later expanded his formulations to a psychodynamic theory of personality growth dependent on tension reduction. Other theorists modified Freud’s model to include cultural influences (Jung) and social needs (Adler and Horney). In addition, scholars have integrated the psychoanalytic model with a field approach (Sullivan) and existential assumptions (Fromm). As a contemporary movement, psychoanalysis still exerts considerable influence in psychiatry and clinical psychology, although the movement is fragmented owing to a lack of methodological agreement. In addition, Freud’s statements on the unconscious have led to new interpretations of artistic expression. However, as a viable model for psychology, psychoanalysis has departed from the empirical foundations of psychology and shares little with other systems of psychology that rely on that methodological approach.

Inhibition can be reduced by stress and ingesting alcohol, making it more difficult to employ working memory, such as recall of instructions on how to avoid trouble. Alcohol tends to induce alcohol myopia; that is, a focus on the present and away from potentially future troubles. Some lust killers display ambivalence about offending, suggesting that excitation and inhibition are competing in strength. As with excitation, inhibition is organized in layers involving the Old Brain and New Brain. A distinction is drawn between cognitive empathy (the ability to simulate the mind and moves of another) and emotional empathy (feeling the pain of another). Lust killers are not deficient in the former but show serious deficiencies in the latter. Lust killers fit the role of dehumanization and employ neutralizing techniques of the kind ‘she should not have been out at night’. They have commonly experienced brain damage, which might explain the compromised empathy.