ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author describes how the experiences enliven and excite women who commit violent crimes. The sense of being filled with destructive energy, like a drug, is central to the experience of the women themselves. She outlines the ‘intoxicating’ impact that working with the women can have on the minds and bodies of staff, in that they can feel exhilarated or excited, as well as ‘poisoned’ by their interactions with the women who have committed offences. The author explores how the phenomenology of intoxication, and the push to action, can be mirrored in the staff who work with violent women as they take in their projections, absorbing their dangerous energy and its impact on thinking. An intoxicating state of mind constitutes a loss of control and heightened sense of emotionality that can be both exhilarating and frightening. Women in intoxicating states of mind often take reckless and destructive action without consideration of the consequences.
