ABSTRACT
The notion of woman as killer is abhorrent to cherished beliefs about femininity, as Helena Kennedy so clearly expresses above. The fact that women are more likely to kill within the family than a stranger contributes to the horror and bewilderment that surrounds female homicides. In considering women who kill, psychodynamic questions emerge. These include the question of what is actually being split off and killed off through the murder, in terms of the killer’s fantasy. Addressing unconscious issues in killing requires an understanding of how it can be an enactment of a primitive defence mechanism whereby an aspect of the self, threatened with annihilation, retaliates through murder. The act of killing can be experienced as a temporary escape from this danger and may appear to ensure psychic survival. This apparent solution is short-lived, however, and the internal dangers return; the initial euphoria recedes and depression threatens.
