caa a22 4500 477106366 CHVBK 20180405111554.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170330e19960301xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/BF02803681 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/BF02803681 Garrison Arthur Delaware Criminal Justice Council, Delaware, USA aut The catathymic crisis: An explanation of the serial killer [Elektronische Daten] [Arthur Garrison] Various explanations have been proposed to explain the motivation of serial killers. This article proposes that the theory of the Catathymic Crisis is an explanation that adds light to the "serial” nature of serial murder as well as an explanation of why and how a person can become a serial killer. The theory of Catathymic Crisis was presented in 1937 by Dr. Frederic Wertham as an explanation for some types violent and seemingly motivationless crimes. Dr. Wertham's theory describes a five stage process in which (1) a thinking disorder occurs within the mind of the criminal, (2) a plan is created to commit a violent criminal act, (3) internal emotional tension forces the commission of the criminal act, which leads to (4) a superficial calmness in which the need to commit the violent act is eliminated and normal activity can be conducted and (5) the mind adjusts itself and understands that the thinking process that caused the commission of the criminal act was flawed and the mind makes adjustments in order to prevent further criminal activity. The serial killer never reaches the fifth stage but returns to the second and operates in a cycle between stage two and four. This article advocates that the Catathymic Crisis explains why the serial killer needs to commit murder, why that need develops and why there is an escalating nature of the criminal activity by the serial killer. Society for Police and Criminal Psychology, 1996 Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology Springer US 11/1(1996-03-01), 5-12 0882-0783 11:1<5 1996 11 11896 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02803681 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02803681 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Garrison Arthur Delaware Criminal Justice Council, Delaware, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology Springer US 11/1(1996-03-01), 5-12 0882-0783 11:1<5 1996 11 11896 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer