Dead Man's Switch. Encounters with Criminals
The unsound mind and the burden of guilt
Mr Matzke has raped five women. He has been in prison for 30 years, but he doesn’t feel guilty. Mr Knieriemen abused his ten-year-old niece. He enjoyed it – this moment when he finally felt free from fear himself. Ms Krüger, who killed her baby, her little 'titch', never wants to be a victim again – during the therapy session, she pulls out a knife and stabs her therapist . The psychotherapist Karoline Klemke recounts harrowing cases from therapy sessions in secure mental health units. These bring home the depths of human abysses and the motives of the perpetrators. But they also reflect the therapist’s struggle for control and composure – in her determination to help. An intense glimpse into a world behind closed doors.
[Dead man’s switch: A device that checks whether a person has become incapacitated and triggers a warning signal.]
- How people turn in perpetrators
- Powerfully told – intense, unsparing, empathetic
- For readers of Ferdinand von Schirach
Karoline Klemke
Karoline Klemke, born 1973, studied psychology and has been working in forensic psychiatry since 2002. As a psychologist and qualified psychotherapist, she spent many years attending to homeless adolescents and treating serious off enders in secure mental health units, prisons, and an off enders’ clinic. Since 2016, she has been an assessor in criminal prognosis, running her own psychotherapy practice in Berlin.
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