The Lust for Blood: Why We Are Fascinated by Death, Murder, Horror, and Violence

by Jeffrey A. Kottler

Overview

How do we explain the lurid fascination that most people experience when confronted by real or simulated acts of violence, murder, horror, and crime? This is the subject examined in this candid assessment of our dark vicarious thrills. Based on a series of interviews with perpetrators, victims, and "consumers" of violence, including several celebrities, the author of a best-selling book on serial killers explores what there is about this subject that draws such a wide audience. Unlike many other books that attempt to probe the murky psyches of deviant individuals, this book focuses on normal, average people who, despite themselves, enjoy getting close to the most forbidden, perverse side of destruction and evil. The persons interviewed range from homicide detectives and emergency room personnel to a heavyweight boxer and groupies of serial killers on death row. The author considers ideas from a variety of theories and research to explain our responses to violence, raises questions about the shifting line between normal and abnormal, evaluates the confusion and ambivalence that many people feel when witnessing others' suffering, and suggests future trends in society's attitudes toward violence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633889484
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	01/15/2024
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.05(w) x 8.78(h) x 0.68(d)

About the Author

Jeffrey A. Kottler, PhD, is the author of over eighty nonfiction books including the New York Times bestseller The Last Victim: A True-Life Journey Inside the Mind of the Serial Killer. He is one of the foremost psychologists in the world writing about issues related to human behavior. He has written dozens of classic texts and manuals for psychotherapists and teachers, as well as many others about complex phenomena related to crying (The Language of Tears), conflict (Beyond Blame), solitary behavior (Private Moments, Secret Selves), creativity (Divine Madness, Creative Break throughs in Therapy), deception and lying (The Assassin and the Therapist, Duped), social justice (Changing People’s Lives While Transforming Your Own), and the inner world of practicing therapists (On Being a Therapist, The Client Who Changed Me). His books have been translated into two dozen languages. Jeffrey is Professor of Counseling at California State University, Fullerton. He is also cofounder of Empower Nepali Girls, an organization that provides scholarships for lower-caste, at-risk girls in Nepal who would otherwise not be able to attend school.

Editorial Reviews

12/11/2023

Psychologist Kottler (The Last Victim) investigates in this lackluster study why nonviolent people find blood, gore, and general horror compelling, and comes up with mostly unremarkable answers. Drawing on interviews with women who are “irresistibly drawn to” and “simultaneously repulsed by” horror films in which female characters are murdered; analyses of rubber-necking at accident scenes; and research studies on how violent video games affect players and sports brawls influence spectators, Kottler contends that when “a baser instinct that draws us into the vicarious experience in the first place” clashes with rationality, revulsion results (“What the heck am I doing watching this stuff?”). While the paradox Kottler delves into is fascinating, his observation that “the fear of death, the need for stimulation, and instinctual aggression... are at the core of our fascination with violence” isn’t exactly new. In addition, his analysis is marred by dubious and distracting claims, as when he suggests that some humans have historically survived due to “their ability as stalkers and killers,” while their “more peacefully inclined” peers were “wiped out” by the likes of Vlad the Impaler or Adolf Hitler. Nina Nesseth’s Nightmare Fuel or Thomas Fahy’s The Philosophy of Horror will better serve readers intrigued by the questions Kottler raises. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly