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.
MetadatenAuthor: | 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): | |
---|