Necrophilia: legal, ethical, and psychological perspectives

Rosman JP, Resnick PJ. Sexual attraction to corpses: a psychiatric review of necrophilia. Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law. 1989;17(2):153-63.

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Department of Psychiatry, Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital, Ohio 44109.

The authors review 122 cases (88 from the world literature and 34 unpublished cases) manifesting necrophilic acts or fantasies. They distinguish genuine necrophilia from pseudonecrophilia and classify true necrophilia into three types: necrophilic homicide, "regular" necrophilia, and necrophilic fantasy. Neither psychosis, mental retardation, nor sadism appears to be inherent in necrophilia. The most common motive for necrophilia is possession of an unresisting and unrejecting partner. Necrophiles often choose occupations that put them in contact with corpses. Some necrophiles who had occupational access to corpses committed homicide nevertheless. Psychodynamic themes, defense mechanisms, and treatment for this rare disorder are discussed.

Publication Types:

* Case Reports

* Review

* Review of Reported Cases

MeSH Terms:

* Adolescent

* Adult

* Fantasy

* Female

* Homicide

* Humans

* Male

* Middle Aged

* Motivation

* Paraphilias/diagnosis

* Paraphilias/psychology*

PMID: 2667656 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Rosman JP, Resnick PJ. Sexual Attraction to Corpses: A Psychiatric Review of Necrophilia. The Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law. 1989;17(2):153-63.

Necrophilia is a subset of paraphilia characterized by the specific sexual attraction to a either a corpse or the near-dead. It is generally associated with people suffering from a range of other mental disorders, most commonly depression. Necrophilia, shunned as socially abnormal, is a sexual deviation with social and criminal repercussions that bring it consistently to the fore-front of mental health oddities and concern; in addition to furthering the mental disorder of the individual and interfering with his or her capacity for reciprocal affectionate action, it is legally tantamount to rape, in which the victim may not have been dead at the start of the act.

The Rosman/Resnick study examines the disorder in 122 cases, 88 from world literature and 34 unpublished; of concern, too, is the reasonable public association of necrophilia with serial killers; the stories of Ted Bundy, Ed Gain, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Karla Faye Tucker remain an active part of the national consciousness. Unlike other mental disorders, this psychiatric syndrome does not seem to be directly related to sadism, psychosis, or mental retardation, making it less a candidate for public stigma-busting and more for re-socialization. Necrophilia falls into the newly attributed "paraphilia" group, a psychosexual disorder that is not chemically or genetically based.

Necrophiles are connected by their possession of a lover who is unresisting and unrejecting, according to Rosman and Resnick. Accordingly, they fufill their sexual desire for rejection in the near-dead and corpses, all too often their victims. The dead are, by definition, not willingly subjecting to the act, and are able to pose as a rejecting partner for the necrophile. Most necrophiles find their professional life in contact with corpses, allowing for more facile access to their fantasy, but those who do not have the desired body at their disposal find a partner with whom to engage in the sexual activity.

While many necrophiles have professional access to corpses, even some of those commit homicidal acts to obtain their desired partners. It is most common in males, and generally is intertwined with the mental desire for domination associated with rape. Of the necrophiles examined in the study and in the common sphere, many exhibited patterned acts that characterized their necrophilia. Of the more mundane actions that necrophiles frequently commit on the assaulted, biting is most common. It is usually in the breast and neck area; these are most common in homosexual necrophilia.

Anal assault is another common trait of necrophilia. Although anal assault is associated with sadism, in the case of necrophilia, it is assumed to be more a product of the necrophile's sense of helplessness, lack of power, a desire for displaced revenge, or gender-related issues, like latent homosexuality or compulsive masculinity. Famous nacrophile Karla Faye Tucker exhibited sadist tendencies in her necrophilic acts, claiming she orgasmed with each blow she used to kill Jerry Lynn Dean.

Oral assault is also generally associated with necrophilia. For workplace necrophiles, the act is equally invasive but less destructive; many other necrophiles decapitate their victims before committing oral assault. Oral assault is one area of the criminal aspect of necrophilia that is of particular concern to psychologists and behavior analysts, because it is usually achieved in conjunction with strangulation. The authors attribute the strangulation, frequently manual or ligature, to the requisite power exertion sought by the necrophile; they report brining the victim in and out of consciousness in the near-death state.

The psychology behind necrophilia is widely debated. Neo-psychoanalyst Erich Fromm associated it as a character orientation with increased tendencies toward destructiveness. He saw necrophilia as an everyday behavior not necessarily associated with death, but as the opposite of biophilia and the spawn of the modern western world's societal dearth of love; since his work, necrophilia has been shown by Kees Moeliker et al. To exist in nature as well as in humanity. Moeliker observed a pair of drake mallards, one a necrophilia, copulating for seventy-five minutes. His work was supported by a February '05 article in the Guardian by Donald MacLeod regarding necrophilia in mallard ducks.