Rorschach object relations of adolescents who committed homicide.

We investigated the object relations of adolescents who committed homicide. A clinical sample of 55 adolescents who committed homicide did not differ from a comparison group of nonviolent delinquents on Rorschach measures of object differentiation, mutuality of autonomy, and aggressive content. However, the subgroup of adolescents who committed homicides in the context of another crime (e.g., robbery or burglary) did manifest significantly lower object relations (poorer object differentiation and more victim responses) than the subgroup of adolescents whose homicides were committed in the context of an interpersonal conflict or dispute with the victim. These findings support the need for differentiated classification of violent individuals as urged by Megargee (1970) over 20 years ago.     

Towards a real phenomenology of logic

This paper was presented at the Workshop on Husserlian Perspectives on Cognition and Ontology in Gargnano (Italy), September 1986. It is a revised version deriving from Ch. 4 of my book on noemata, in which the relationships between mind and logic are investigated through the framework provided by Husserl's thought (Noema. Mente e logica attraverso Husserl, Franco Angeli, Milan, 1988). I wish to thank Ernest LePore, Barry Smith and an anonymous reader for this Journal for helpful suggestions.