Criminal Personality

Samuel Yochelson, Ph.D., M.D., was until his death in 1976, director of the Program for the Investigation of Criminal Behavior at Saint Elizabeths Hospital, Washington, D.C. and research professor of clinical psychiatry at George Washington University School of Medicine Stanton E. Samenow, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist in Alexandria, Virginia. He is also the co-author of The Criminal Personality, Volume II: The Change Process, and The Criminal Personality: Volume I, A Profile for Change.

Yochelson and Samenow have definitely profiled the characteristics of the errors of criminal thinking, together with their derivatives–feeling and behavior. They show persuasively that because of ingrained and pervasive errors of thinking, criminals live and act in a world with entirely different assumptive bases than those of noncriminals. The authors then proceed to develop a treatment program using a phenomenological approach. This exhaustive and painstaking study marks a turning point in the history of efforts to rehabilitate criminals.

• Chapter 1 A New Horizon for Total Change of the CriminalChapter 2 A History of Criminal RehabilitationChapter 3 First Contacts with the CriminalChapter 4 Choice and WillChapter 5 The Phenomenologic Approach in a Program for Basic Change of the CriminalChapter 6 The Group FormatChapter 7 Correctives for Automatic Errors of ThinkingChapter 8 Correction of Other Thinking ErrorsChapter 9 The Process of DeterrenceChapter 10 Experiences During the Change ProcessChapter 11 Criminal Patterns in ConfinementChapter 12 The Personality of the Agent of ChangeChapter 13 A Recommendation for a Rehabilitation Program