A study of eight murderers between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one years with three case vignettes is presented. Menninger's and Mayman's concept of 'episodic discontrol' served as a general framework for the development of a psychodynamic thesis. None of these murderers was diagnosed as psychotic or schizophrenic although there were varying degrees of amnesia surrounding the actual impulsive acts. In each instance the object of the attack was a parent or a parent symbol who was provocative in a depreciatory way and thus triggered the impulses of rage.

The life history of each adolescent was full of deprivation and failures. Each suffered from early oral deprivation which was evident in the history as well as the psychological tests. Since many people have such histories and do not murder, the hypothesis is presented that there is a unique relationship to the mother wherein the original infantile ambivalence and expectation of wish fulfilment is kept alive by repetitive stimulation. As a result, the ego