B – The Sexual Art of Serial Killers Book

Description

Based on the exhibit of the same name, this book explores the value of examining explicit art by notorious criminals, and features art shown in the Museum’s Forbidden Gallery –  in full color.

Serial killers represent an extreme end point on the wide spectrum of human psychology; an extreme which is difficult to imagine and impossible to understand. Because of this, many of us are fascinated by the gruesome tales that their crimes generate. But it takes courage as well as a keen scientific mind to try and analyze their psyches in a way that might increase our understanding. In Forbidden: The Sexual Art of Serial Killers, Dr. Victoria Hartmann adds an important new component to the corpus of scientific knowledge, in the form of sexual artworks that the killers produced. Case by case she discusses whether or not this art may be of diagnostic value, and the potential weaknesses of our existing methods of categorization. While this is without a doubt a demanding book to read, Dr. Hartmann’s controlled and respectful writing make it an important addition to the psychological literature about serial killers.

157 pages. Glossy. Full color. Paperback and Hardcover.