Rosman JP, Resnick PJ. Sexual attraction to corpses: a psychiatric review of necrophilia. Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law. 1989;17(2):153-63. It is not legal for me to reprint the article and copy you on it, since you are purchasing this paper (and copyright would be breached because you would, in form, be purchasing the article without reprint permission) -- but the article IS available for free online (your college should provide access to Google SCHOLAR and that gives not only the full article but all the times since its publication in which it has been cited or invoked in another academic or professional publication) of from PubMed. I can, however, legally provide you with the abstract

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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The authors review 122 cases (88 from the world literature and 34 unpublished cases) manifesting necrophilic acts or fantasies.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

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…