Although criminal violence in the United States has been incrementally decreasing for the past forty years, the incidence of targeted mass attacks has been increasing during the past decade. How can the psychoanalyst or psychotherapist assess the risk of such an attack by their patient–or when should the patient be referred for an evaluation–in the course of treatment? In this presentation, Dr. Meloy will teach the proximal warning behaviors for targeted attacks that he and his group have been researching for the past 15 years, and are now widely used by both members of law enforcement and mental health communities within North America, Europe, and Australia. Research has validated these efforts, and such proximal warning behaviors reflect both the importance of empiricism and psychodynamic formulations in the assessment of such risks.
When the risk of targeted violence enters the psychotherapeutic relationship
Agenda
- 7:30 – 7:35 pm Introduction
- 7:30 – 7:35 pm Presentation
- 8:30 – 9:00 pm Presenter-led question and answer session
Learning Objectives
- Describe in detail the eight proximal warning behaviors for targeted violence.
- Explain the four most imminent proximal warning behaviors.
Presenter
J. Reid Meloy, PhD
Dr. Reid Meloy is a board-certified forensic psychologist who consults, teaches, and does research in the areas of psychopathy, threat assessment, violence and mental disorder, criminality, terrorism, and targeted attacks. He is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego; and is a current faculty member of the San Diego Psychoanalytic Center. For more than two decades he has been a consultant to the Behavioral Analysis Unit, FBI, concerning counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal matters. In 2022 he was given the Manfred Guttmacher from the American Psychiatric Association for his edited book with Dr. Jens Hoffmann, International Handbook of Threat Assessment, 2nd edition (Oxford University Press). He was recognized by the American Academy of Forensic Psychology for his Distinguished Contributions to the field of forensic psychology that same year. Dr. Meloy has authored, co-authored, or edited fourteen books, and numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies.
JoAnn Ponder, PhD
Dr. Ponder is a psychologist-psychoanalyst and former faculty member at the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies in Houston, Texas, who currently maintains a private practice in Austin, Texas working with adolescents and adults. Earlier in her career, she spent 4 years evaluating and treating homicidal and sexual offenders at a maximum-security juvenile correctional facility. She spent an additional 16 years providing group and individual therapy to sexual perpetrators at a residential facility. Among her publications, JoAnn authored a journal article about the dynamics involved in a mass shooting event in Austin and another article about sexual trauma and perpetration.
References
Meloy, J. R., & Amman, M. (2016). Public figure attacks in the United States, 1995–2015. Behavioral Sciences & the Law. https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.2253
Meloy, J. R., Amman, M., Guldimann, A., & Hoffmann, J. (2023). The concept of last resort in threat assessment. Journal of Threat Assessment and Management. https://doi.org/10.1037/tam0000217
Kupper, J., & Meloy, J. R. (2021). TRAP-18 indicators validated through the forensic linguistic analysis of targeted violence manifestos. Journal of Threat Assessment and Management. https://doi.org/10.1037/tam0000165