ABSTRACT
People who take part in organized violent crime and aim at gain from crime do not fall under category of latent murderers: somewhere in these people's minds, though possibly not in foreground of their conscious thought, is the possibility of killing. Latent murderousness is about as safe as a volcano known to be active but in a non-eruptive period. It cannot be relied on to remain inactive. As far as the human condition of latent murderousness is concerned, internal factors, or external ones, can be the reactivating agent that sets into motion a sequence ending in actual murder. In individuals with this intra-psychic patterning of latent murderousness, it is frequently found that they have ways to mourn the fantasy, and the impulse, before it is set in action. Mourning for the fantasy is minuscule compared with mourning for the impulse and the infinite mourning necessary after murder has been committed.
