Construing the Construction Processes of Serial Killers and Other Violent Offenders: 1. The Analysis of Narratives

Abstract

SARAH PATIENT Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health TrustThis article presents analyses of two narratives: a book written by a serial killer, Ian Brady, and an autobiographical account written by a serially violent offender. In both cases, the narrative was subjected to a content analysis and converted to a textual grid. It is argued that narratives provide not only a means of better understanding the violent offender's view of the world and the choices he or she has made but also a potentially useful therapeutic option with such individuals.

Toward a Constructivist Model of Radicalization and Deradicalization: A Conceptual and Methodological Proposal

“…Since it considers the individual’s own constructs rather than using pre-established items, it is well suited to investigations in different cultural settings, and it has been used in exploring the construing of survivors of a brutal civil war in Africa, including both perpetrators and victims of extreme violence ( Winter et al., 2016 ), and in elucidating the different pathways to radicalization of Jihadi terrorists in India ( Sarangi et al., 2013 ). Also of possible relevance to the experiences of individuals prior to radicalization is that grid indices of difficulty in construing oneself and others have been related to measures of hopelessness ( Winter D. et al, 2007 ) and alienation ( Winter et al., 2009 ).…”

“…PCT concepts (or, as Kelly termed them, professional constructs) are then applied to produce a formulation ( Winter and Procter, 2013 ) based on the self-characterization and any other relevant material. As described by Feixas and Villegas (1991) , longer pieces of text may be converted into, and analyzed as, repertory grids, a method that has been used to analyze books written by a serial killer ( Winter D. A. et al, 2007 ) and the Commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp ( Reed et al., 2014 ).…”

Construing a “Perfect Knight”: A Personal Construct Investigation of Mass Murder

“…Such an approach, in which the client's views are taken "at face value," and he or she is regarded, "like the proverbial customer," as "always right" (Kelly, 1955, p. 322), may not be too challenging when the client's construing and actions do not deviate too far from social norms. However, the limits of credulity may be tested when the approach is applied with individuals who have been responsible for major loss of human life, as has been explored in a series of studies of people ranging from serial killers to a concentration camp commandant (Reed et al, 2014;Winter, 2006Winter, , 2007Winter et al, 2007). In these studies, it has been argued that attempts to understand the construing of such people are a prerequisite for any measures directed at prevention of future atrocities of this sort.…”

Cycles of Construing in Radicalization and Deradicalization: A Study of Salafist Muslims

“…(Post, Sprinzak, & Denny, 2003, p. 171). One such extremist person is Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in the cause of countering "cultural Marxism" and "multiculturalism," and whose beliefs and actions were considered from a personal construct theory perspective by Winter and Tschudi (2015) in one of a series of attempts to apply a credulous approach to people who have engaged in extreme violence (Reed et al, 2014;Winter, 2006Winter, , 2007Winter, , 2016aWinter et al, 2007Winter et al, , 2016. Analysis of an interview conducted by Breivik with himself, similar to a self-characterization (a method developed by Kelly (1955) in which the individual writes an autobiographical character sketch in the third person), indicated that he had experienced numerous invalidations of his construing in his early life, but that the development of his radical beliefs allowed him to reconstrue himself as a "Perfect Knight" (Berwick, 2011(Berwick, , p. 1435).…”