An hypothesis about heroin addiction, murder, prostitution, and suicide: acting out parenting conflicts.

From interviews with forty subjects, we have developed a preliminary hypothesis which can be refined and deepened and then tested by psychotherapeutic investigation. These murderers, prostitutes, heroin addicts and successful suicides all demonstrated various aspects of difficulty with their capacity for reciprocal tenderness. This arose from their experiences of exploitation and derprivation with their own parents. Their unique characteristics included primitive rage, insatiable demands and capacity for unconflicted manipulation. These characteristics colored the expression of their intrapsychic conflict between the wish to parent successfully and the fear of perpetrating their own childhood experiences upon their children.