Serial murder as allegory : a subconscious echo of unresolved childhood trauma

This thesis explores the notion that we may be able to more fully understand the etiology of serial murder. Specifically, it concludes that the behaviours of serial murderers can be allegorical of unresolved childhood trauma - that in the murderous actions of the adult there can be a depth of subconscious allegorical connection to the repressed (forgotten) and unresolved trauma of the murderer's own childhood. The focus for this hermeneutic inquiry is the intersection that can be constructed between the phenomenon of serial murder and the assertion of the psychoanalyst Alice Miller that every perpetrator of violence was once a child who was (himself or herself) a victim. Alice Miller's concept of Poisonous Pedagogy is explained and critiqued. Her belief that our childhoods tell the stories of our adult behaviours is questioned in light of the similar theoretical ground of Life History, Life Narrative, Psychobiography, and Psychoanalytic Narrative. Miller's contention that there are directly allegorical connections between childhood abuse and adult murderous behaviours is illustrated by her analysis of the life of Jurgen Bartsch. A hermeneutic examination of the biographic records of two other serial murderers (Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy) is then undertaken to question the available support for Miller's contentions It is concluded that there is strong support for Miller's assertions regarding the etiology of violence, and that violent adult behaviour, even serial murder, can be allegorical of unresolved childhood trauma. It is suggested that there is a need to extend this area of research through face-to-face engagement with perpetrators of violence. It is recommended that we directly engage serial murderers in personal discourses that will allow further exploration of Miller's notion that serial murderers' behaviours are allegorical echoes of harm that was done to them

Errors in spectrophotometry and colorimetry with particular reference to near-white and near-black surfaces

Imperial Users onl

Wake in faint television meteors

The two component dustball model was used in numerical lag computation. Detached grain lag is typically less than 2 km, with expected wakes of a few hundred meters. True wake in television meteors is masked by apparent wake due to the combined effects of image persistence and blooming. To partially circumvent this problem, we modified a dual MCP intensified CID video system by addition of a rotating shutter to reduce the effective exposure time to about 2.0 ms. Preliminary observations showed that only 2 of 27 analyzed meteors displayed statistically significant wake

Multistep self-assembly of heteroleptic magnesium and sodium-magnesium benzamidinate complexes

Reaction of the magnesium bis-alkyl Mg(CH2SiMe3)(2) and the sodium amide NaHMDS (where HMDS = N(SiMe3)(2)) with benzonitrile yields the homometallic heteroleptic complex [PhC(NSiMe3)(2)Mg{mu-NC(CH2SiMe3)Ph}](2) (1). It appears that at least six independent reactions must have occurred in this one-pot reaction to arrive at this mixed benzamidinate ketimido product. Two benzonitrile solvated derivatives of Mg(CH2SiMe3)(2) (5a and 5b) have been synthesized, with 5a crystallographically characterized as a centrosymmetric (MgC)(2) cyclodimer. When, the components of 5a are allowed to react for longer, partial addition of the Mg-alkyl unit across the C N triple bond occurs to yield the trimeric species (Me3SiCH2)(2)Mg-3[mu-N=C(CH2SiMe3)Ph](4)center dot 2N CPh (6), with bridging ketimido groups and terminal alkyl groups. Finally, using the same starting materials as that which produced 1, but altering their order of addition, a magnesium bis-alkyl unit is inserted into the Na-N bonds of a benzamidinate species to yield a new sodium magnesiate complex, PhC(NSiMe3)(2)Mg(mu-CH2SiMe3)(2)Na center dot 2TMEDA (7). The formation of 7 represents a novel (insertion) route to mixed-metal species of this kind and is the first Such example to contain a bidentate terminal anion attached to the divalent metal center. All new species are characterized by H-1 and C-13 NMR spectroscopy and where appropriate by IR spectroscopy. The solid-state structures of complexes 1, 5a, and 7 have also been determined and are disclosed within

Systematics of Indo-Pacific Philippia (Psilaxis), Architectonicid Gastropods with Eggs and Young in the Umbilicus

The subgenus Psilaxis Woodring is distinguished from Philippia Gray, s.s., on the basis of differences in the shells, jaws, opercula, and doubtfully radulae. Only two species of Psilaxis, differing mainly in three protoconch characters, are recognized in the Indo-Pacific. Philippia (Psilaxis) radiata (Roding), with the generally smaller protoconch, is the most abundant and widespread species, ranging from South Africa and the Red Sea east to the Marquesas and the Hawaiian Islands ; it is thus both tropical and subtropical. Philippia (Psilaxis) oxytropis A. Adams has a larger protoconch and a disjunct range, being known only from the subtropical western and central Pacific Ocean-including Japan, the Hawaiian Islands, and New Zealand but excluding latitudes between 20 ° Nand 20 ° S. Young postlarval P. oxytropis live in the umbilicus of the adult shells, and in P. radiata one egg mass has been found in an umbilicus. Nevertheless it is concluded from the small egg size of P. radiata (average diameter 63μ) that both species have a long pelagic larval stage. Philippia hybrida (Linn.) is a Mediterranean species in the subgenus Philippia, s.s., and P. layardi A. Adams is a synonym of P. radiata. In Marqu esan P. radiata there is a noteworthy increase and bimodality in protoconch size that are attributed tentatively (with no chromosomal evidence) to polyploidy. Polyploidy perhaps also is involved in the origin of species of Philipp ia and in the origin of Psilaxis from Philippia, s.s. By the Miocene, Psilaxis seems to have displaced Philippia, s.s., from most areas except peripherally in the subtropics. The pyramidellid-like egg capsules of architectonicids are described for the first time, and the larvae are also opisthobranch-like. Philippia has a cuticularized esophageal tube and radular teeth similar ( analogous? ) to those in the Epitoniidae