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The making of a mass murderer: Notes on the novel We need to talk about Kevin

  • The fictional protagonist of the Lionel Shriver novel, >We need to talk about Kevin<, massacred nine classmates, his father and his sister with a bow and arrow. He murdered them just before he turned 16, to avoid being prosecuted as an adult. He spared the life of his mother, a kindred spirit, cold, arrogant, who would recognize the depth of his hatred and nihilism. Kevin's maternal grandfather was born in a concentration camp during the Armenian genocide. His mother, Eva, a tough, independent woman, loathed being pregnant and the process of giving birth. Kevin was a demanding baby and then a cruel child. Eva kept telling her husband that she found Kevin's malignity troubling, but he only wanted to see the charming, vulnerable side of the boy. Was Kevin born a sociopath or did he become one due to his experiences in utero and beyond? In this paper, I elucidate how temperamental features, inadequate parenting, transgenerational trauma, and oppressive gender relations created the perfect storm from which Kevin's personality developed. Finally, I will discuss how Eva and Kevin struggled to repair their relationship after the murders, and consider whether forgiveness and reconciliation are even possible after such a heinous act.

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Metadaten
Author:Veronica Csillag
Parent Title (English):International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 28 (No. 1, 2019), pp. 019-024.
Document Type:Articles
Language:English
Year of first Publication:2019
Release Date:2020/11/03
Format:PDF-scan upon request / PDF-Scan auf Anfrage
IdNo:Csillag_V_2019
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Articles / Artikel
Licence (German):
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