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eBook Murder and Madness: the Secret Life of Jack the Ripper ePub

by David Abrahmsen

Author: David Abrahmsen
Language: English
ISBN: 0860518426
ISBN13: 978-0860518426
Publisher: Robson Books Ltd (1992)
Pages: 242
Category: True Crime
Subcategory: Biography
Rating: 4.3
Votes: 275
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ePub file: 1821 kb
Fb2 file: 1802 kb

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David Abrahamsen, MD, FACPn, is a forensic psychiatrist who served as an expert witness in the investigation of Lee Harvey . Only a handful of titles are actually about Jack the Ripper and one of them, perhaps tellingly, is a novel

David Abrahamsen, MD, FACPn, is a forensic psychiatrist who served as an expert witness in the investigation of Lee Harvey Oswald and others. He wrote fifteen books and lives in New York City. Abrahamsen examined the evidence from Scotland Yard to arrive at his conclusion. This 1992 book of 219 pages has an ‘Introduction’, eight chapters, a ‘Bibliography’, and ‘Index’. Only a handful of titles are actually about Jack the Ripper and one of them, perhaps tellingly, is a novel. One of the books cited is actually a book about how to recognize if your child is dyslexic.

Forensic psychiatrist Abrahamsen pieces together a questionable solution to the Jack the Ripper murders.

Murder and Madness book. The book is full of entertaining psychoanalytic twaddle, like the idea that women forced to sell themselves on the street to survive only continued working during the Autumn of Terror because they were "unconsciously drawn to the Ripper. There are no work sabbaticals when you're desperate for a place to sleep tonight, Doctor!.

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Murder and Madness: Secret Life of Jack . Publisher: Robson Books Ltd ISBN 13: 9780860518426.

Publisher: Robson Books Ltd ISBN 13: 9780860518426. Title: Murder and Madness: Secret Life of Jack the Ripper Item Condition: used item in a very good condition. Author: David Abrahamsen ISBN 10: 0860518426. Read full description.

With the help of d Scotland Yard information, a forensic psychiatrist offers an in-depth portrait of the life and crimes of the notorious nineteenth-century criminal.

Author:Abrahamsen, David. MURDER & MADNESS, THE SECRET LIFE: Secret Life of Jack the Ripper. Each month we recycle over . million books, saving over 12,500 tonnes of books a year from going straight into landfill sites. See all 3 pre-owned listings. Murder and Madness: Secret Life of Jack the Ripper by David Abrahamsen (Hardback, 1992). Pre-owned: lowest price.

Murder and Madness: Secret Life of Jack the Ripper (1994).

Crime and the Human Mind (1944). The mind and Death of a Genius (1946). The Psychology of Crime (1967). Our Violent Society (1970). Murder and Madness: Secret Life of Jack the Ripper (1994).

David Abrahamsen was a Norwegian forensic psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and author who wrote analyses of. Murder and Madness: The Secret Life of Jack the Ripper. A veteran forensic psychiatrist focuses his considerable.

David Abrahamsen was a Norwegian forensic psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and author who wrote analyses of Richard M. Nixon and David Berkowitz.

With the help of never-before-released Scotland Yard information, a forensic psychiatrist offers an in-depth portrait of the life and crimes of the notorious nineteenth-century criminal. Reprint.

Goltikree

Murder & Madness

David Abrahamsen, MD, FACPn, is a forensic psychiatrist who served as an expert witness in the investigation of Lee Harvey Oswald and others. He wrote fifteen books and lives in New York City. [Oswald didn’t shoot a rifle from the sixth floor so anyone who says differently doesn’t know the facts of the case.] Abrahamsen examined the evidence from Scotland Yard to arrive at his conclusion. This 1992 book of 219 pages has an ‘Introduction’, eight chapters, a ‘Bibliography’, and ‘Index’. The ‘Acknowledgments’ thanks those who helped him. The ‘Introduction’ explains how his interest in the “Son of Sam” led to this investigation of “Jack the Ripper”. He retrieved files from Scotland Yard and received permission to publish this material. “A psychoanalyst attempts to uncover hidden motivations and interpret emotional linkages” (p.xiii). Does that guarantee accuracy? Years later Patricia Cornwell picked a different suspect.

Part One provides a background to the five murders. The author claims “forgetting dates and names, our misplacing objects” all show how the unconscious interferes with our conscious emotions (p.45). [Really?] Is “the unconscious the force behind all human behavior” (p.46)? That sounds like some sort of cult that is true only if you believe it to be true, like an opinion. Part Two tells what the Inquests revealed. Various reports are quoted. There are descriptions of the men seen with the victims. Nothing outstanding, about average height. The killer had knowledge of the positions of the organs, or he didn’t (p.93).

Part Three says murderers have “intense personal torment”. The author claims inner conflicts in adults are due to serious traumatic experiences in early childhood (p.102). [What proof does he have?] The author explains why he thinks two men were involved in these murders. Chapter 6 is a history of J. K. Stephen. Chapter 7 has the life of Prince Albert Victor Edward, who was a slow learner. J. K. Stephen was selected as a tutor for the Prince. The five Ripper murders occurred during holidays at Cambridge (p.159). [Did others also have a holiday?] Chapter 8 has the author’s recreation of the murders and the future lives of the Prince and J. K. Stephens; both died young.

The author has an explanation for actions that fit his solution. “The seemingly innocuous story of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ is an example of necrophiliac fantasy” (p.199)! Could this expert witness psychiatrist be wrong? Expert witnesses testify for the side that pays them. The murders stopped after the death of Montague John Druitt, found drowned (pp.104-106). I think this is the better solution, but I haven’t read that book.

Ariseym

There is no shortage of badly written books that claim to have solved the Ripper mystery and then point to some character or other without any actual evidence whatsoever. The fact that this book trumpets itself as having been written by a credentialed forensic psychiatrist with a background in serial murder makes takes this book from the merely laughable to the truly pathetic.

The bibliography to this book is extensive, but to describe it as eclectic would be an understatement. Only a handful of titles are actually about Jack the Ripper and one of them, perhaps tellingly, is a novel. One of the books cited is actually a book about how to recognize if your child is dyslexic.

It becomes quite clear fairly on that Dr Abrahamsen, while purporting to have researched and carefully analysed the evidence has done little more than scan a few books on the subject in a most superficial way. He repeats as fact many canards which have been effectively dismissed in a host of respected works and, most oddly for one who is supposedly looking for telling patterns in the killings, simply announces that there were five murders attributable to the Ripper. He never considers or discusses any of the other seven 'Whitechapel murders', even if only to dismiss them. Most shamefully, for a doctor of medecine, he cannot even manage to cite the medical evidence correctly.

The good doctor's focus, in this 'study' is ostensibly a psychiatric profiling of the killer (or killers as he later 'reveals'), from which he then names the pair who fit. A glaring weakness in this approach is that one of the major sources of the character 'evidence' is the famous 'Jack the Ripper' letter which apparently provides a wealth of psychological insight in to its writer. It's rather a shame that the author has not read enough of the literature to see that virtually all serious researchers have concluded that *none* of the so-called Ripper letters were actually written by the killer and that there are some very credible theories as to the identity of the journalist who actually wrote the letter this author relies upon.

Finally, having come up with this totally ridiculous profile, Dr Abrahamsen informs us, without any shred of connecting evidence whatsoever, that the killers were Prince Eddy and J.K Stephen. This is hardly original to begin with, but the idea, in the context of this supposedly forensic examination is not merely ridiculous, but says very little about this author's qualifications as an objective professional. Again, it is a shame that the good doctor didn't take the trouble to read enough to learn that book after book has conclusively pointed out that the Prince's whereabouts were well documented during more than one of the five murders.

A sad effort.

Kajishakar

If it were possible for a book to earn zero stars that's what the rating on this book would be. As the other reviewers have stated, the author doesn't prove his theory, and the idea that Prince Eddy has been pretty much shown to be false by other researchers.
The one thing he adds to the mix is his argument that the Ripper probably had a lookout simply because he seemed to be able to concentrate on his slaughter without concern that someone would stumble upon him. That's the one supposition in the entire book that at least carries some weight because it's logical. Otherwise, the book is pretty much a waste of time.
For more in-depth book reviews I've done, search for goldenrulecomics on hubpages.com.

JoJogar

I felt this was a creative, fly by the seat of your pants theory, that was just as good as anyone else's guess. It's great!