How do we explain the lurid fascination that most people experience when confronted by real or simulated acts of violence, murder, horror, and crime? This is the subject examined in this candid assessment of our dark vicarious thrills. Based on a series of interviews with perpetrators, victims, and "consumers" of violence, including several celebrities, the author of a best-selling book on serial killers explores what there is about this subject that draws such a wide audience. Unlike many other books that attempt to probe the murky psyches of deviant individuals, this book focuses on normal, average people who, despite themselves, enjoy getting close to the most forbidden, perverse side of destruction and evil. The persons interviewed range from homicide detectives and emergency room personnel to a heavyweight boxer and groupies of serial killers on death row. The author considers ideas from a variety of theories and research to explain our responses to violence, raises questions about the shifting line between normal and abnormal, evaluates the confusion and ambivalence that many people feel when witnessing others suffering, and suggests future trends in societys attitudes toward violence.
Jeffrey A. Kottler, PhD, is the author of over eighty nonfiction books including the New York Times bestseller The Last Victim: A True-Life Journey Inside the Mind of the Serial Killer. He is one of the foremost psychologists in the world writing about issues related to human behavior. He has written dozens of classic texts and manuals for psychotherapists and teachers, as well as many others about complex phenomena related to crying (The Language of Tears), conflict (Beyond Blame), solitary behavior (Private Moments, Secret Selves), creativity (Divine Madness, Creative Break throughs in Therapy), deception and lying (The Assassin and the Therapist, Duped), social justice (Changing People’s Lives While Transforming Your Own), and the inner world of practicing therapists (On Being a Therapist, The Client Who Changed Me). His books have been translated into two dozen languages. Jeffrey is Professor of Counseling at California State University, Fullerton. He is also cofounder of Empower Nepali Girls, an organization that provides scholarships for lower-caste, at-risk girls in Nepal who would otherwise not be able to attend school.
"A personable and comprehensive tour of the violent entertainment we love to hate and hate to love. Kottler ably explores our paradoxical lust and revulsion as a cathartic means of restraint, with specific attention to its psychological impact: seeing violence within a media frame makes us feel alive, recharging us to face our private anxieties about life-and-death issues. This book offers something for everyone, from media psychologists to fans of splatter films."
- Katherine Ramsland, Ph.D., author of Mind of a Murderer
