The Barracuda writes about himself: narrative, psychosocial and semiotic analytical methods in clinical criminology

Abstract

Starting from the analysis of a fictional story written by an author of violent crimes repeatedly subjected to a psychiatric examination, this work aims to highlight the importance of studying the writings of criminals to "understand" the author of the story. In order to show the clinical-criminological usefulness of the analysis of the written productions of the perpetrators, we have subjected the narrative text produced by the subject to a cross-examination, reading it from the point of view of the content in the light of the history of the same available in the expert report, and subsequently analyzing it according to multiple methods of investigation (analysis according to the contributions of narrative criminology, psychodynamic analysis of the defenses according to the contributions of psychosocial criminology, semiotic analysis according to Barthes). All this in order to better understand the characteristics of the subject and to attempt an all-round description.The study of the offender's narratives allows us to better represent the conflict that leads to the passage to the violent act: the in-depth analysis of the narrative productions, both before and after the crime committed, highlights the traumatic moments and the delicate passages that precede the fall of the process of symbolization and the construction of a representation of the self and the other that sees violence as the only way out of an otherwise unmanageable situation.