DR. MICKI PISTORIUS

Psychologist, Author & Profiler

Author: Dr. Micki Pistorius

Why do some serial killers enter an insanity defense plea? Inside Bedlam, scene from William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress (1735) (Public Domain)
Feb 3 2024
Articles

Why do some serial killers enter an insanity defense plea?

In my YouTube channel, Micki Pistorius Profiler on Record, (episode 3) I discuss why some serial killers – and other criminals – enter an insanity plea, claiming not to be of sound mind, or to suffer from a mental illness in order to escape prosecution. The secondary gain of escaping criminal liability is a common […]

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I Understand Serial Killers The Old Bailey Criminal Court by Thomas Rowlandson and Augustus Pugin (1808) (Public Domain). In order to testify on the behaviour of a serial killer, a forensic psychologist has to understand their behaviour
Feb 3 2024
Articles

I Understand Serial Killers

I have often been taken to task regarding my remark that I understand serial killers and this has often been interpreted by sensation-seeking journalists that I ‘agree’ with their reasons for killing, or have sympathy for their cause. On my YouTube series, Micki Pistorius Profiler on Record, (episode 2) I clarify that remark once and […]

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‘The Mentalist’ on a crime scene – hocus pocus or science? The Charmer by John William Waterhouse (1911) (Public Domain)
Feb 3 2024
Articles

‘The Mentalist’ on a crime scene – hocus pocus or science?

The psychologist Carl Gustav Jung defined intuition as “perception via the unconscious”: using sense-perception only as a starting point, to bring forth ideas, images, possibilities, ways out of a blocked situation, by a process that is mostly unconscious.  I prefer the term subconscious, because unconscious sounds like someone has been hit over the head and […]

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My New Best Friend – Serial Killers combating loneliness by keeping bodies in their homes Odd Nerdrum's painting Cannibals (Public Domain)
Feb 3 2024
Articles

My New Best Friend – Serial Killers combating loneliness by keeping bodies in their homes

I have often over and over emphasized that serial killers are normal human beings and underneath their bizarre behaviour lie very normal human needs. Permit me as a profiler and psychologist to explain one of the most disturbing behaviours that some of them exhibit – Why do serial killers keep bodies of their victims in […]

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Jun 16 2023
Psychologist

PSYCHOLOGIST

In 1994 Micki Pistorius obtained her Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology and registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa as a psychologist. Her thesis covered the clinical topic: “A cross evaluation of theories regarding the Oedipus complex by example of a case study”. Upon registration, she was immediately appointed as the first psychological […]

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