If Love Could Kill
The Myths and Truths of Women Who Commit Violence
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A groundbreaking work by an internationally acclaimed forensic psychotherapist that looks at women who commit extreme acts of violence and cruelty and at the underlying oppression and abuse often at the heart of these crimes
Women can be murderers and child abusers. They can commit acts of extreme and sadistic brutality. And those who do, are outcasts from society and from womanhood itself. They are seen as monsters and angels of death: and must be kept at a safe distance.
Anna Motz is a renowned clinical and forensic psychologist in London and New York. Writing with candor, compassion, and a clear-eyed perspective, she explores in depth the shockingly underexamined psychological underpinnings of female violence. Far from the heartless and inhuman monsters we might believe them to be, these women are often victims of a culture of violence and emotional trauma.
Already hailed as a landmark, Motz's daring book, bursting with humanity, makes clear that women’s violence is more widespread than most realize, that these acts of violence expose deeply held, centuries-old beliefs about women and their value, and that these acts demand to be taken more seriously as a distinctive societal taboo that can—and must—be brought into the light.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Female violence is often misunderstood because it counters "idealized notions of women as sources of love, nurture, and care," according to this visceral study from forensic psychotherapist Motz (coauthor of Invisible Trauma). Drawing on her therapeutic work, Motz observes that women's violent acts, ranging from child abuse to murder, were often preceded by abuse, dysfunctional relationships, or a particularly harrowing experience of motherhood, which she describes as a common "lightning rod" for "emotional pressures that can lead women to violence." Some of her patients—though not all—began to reform when provided with appropriate support. For example, Saffire, who'd endured a traumatic childhood and later abused her own sons, learned to regulate her emotions after a 14-month course of therapy, while Grace, a middle-class mother who'd purposefully induced allergic reactions in her six-year-old daughter in a case of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, was eventually able to acknowledge her own pathologies and agree to restrictions protecting her children from further harm. Motz neither shies away from nor sensationalizes the grim, often shocking elements of her patients' crimes. Instead, she carefully accounts for the psychological and social forces that can drive women to violence, and in the process builds a robust case for mitigating such behavior by raising awareness of those forces and increasing support for women in and out of the justice system. This challenges and enlightens.
