Concept of the Month


Effective 2015 through 2022

Please read and bookmark Dr. Samenow's blog at Psychology Today for monthly commentaries:

Inside the Criminal Mind blog at Psychology Today

The blog entries take the place of the "Concept of the Month", previously published here. See below for the past concepts.


Past Concepts of the Month

2014

October-November: New Paperback Edition of Inside the Criminal Mind
August-September: A Tactic: The Vagueness of the Criminal
March: Pray at Ten O'Clock, Rob at Noon

2013

December: The Criminal Does Learn from Experience
August-September: Anger: The Metastasizing of a Cancer
June-July: Oppositional, Defiant Youngster Destroy Families
May: The Criminal's Idiosyncratic Use of Language
March/April: The Criminal's Procrastination and Default
February: James Patterson: Explaining a Supercriminal as a Product of a Broken Home
January:A Social Agenda Trumps the Reality of Character in Richard Wright's "Rite of Passage"

2012

December: "Depression" and the Criminal
September: The Criminal's Apparent Envy of the Responsible Person
July:Criminals Do Learn from Experience
May: A Note on the Criminal's Lack of Empathy
April: A Burden or an Opportunity?
March: The Criminal's Sentimentality Does not Translate into Empathy
January/February: A Note on the Criminal's "Suggestibility"

2011

September-October: The Criminal's Shutoff of Fear
July-August: Criminals Do Learn from Past Experience
June: The Offender’s Parents as Victim: The New Film “Beautiful Boy”
April-May: Literarcy and Recidivism
March: Bullying: A Sign of a Developing Criminal Personality?
February: An Attention Deficit Disorder is not Predisposing to Criminality
December 2010/January: The Criminal's Tactic of Silence

2010

November: The Criminal's Misuse of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Other Self-Help Groups
October: The Myth of the Out of Character Crime
September: "Sincerity" versus "Conviction" in an Offender Who Wants to Change
July/August: The Criminal's Pursuit of Control for Its Own Sake
May/June: Do Prisons Really Make Criminals Worse?
March/April: A Note on Religiosity and the Criminal
February: The John Edwards/Tiger Woods "Phenomenon"
January: The Changeability of the Criminal

2009

December: The Search for a "Motive" for a Crime
November:
The Myth of the Street Gang as a "Family Substitute"
October:
Part 1: "I think it; therefore, it's true" -- a thinking error of the criminal
September:
Mind-altering Substances as Facilitators of Whatever the Offender Seeks
August:
The Criminal and Control
July:
The Criminal's Lying: "Compulsion" or "Habit"?
June:
Identifying Thinking Errors in Child Custody Cases
May:
Narcissism and the Antisocial Personality Disorder -- a Lot in Common
April:
Lies- "A Taint of Death"
March:
The Criminal Who Wants To Change -- Where's the Excitement?
January/February:
The "Conscience" of the Perpetrator of Fraud or, How a Beloved and Trusted Person Preys Upon Friends, Closest Associates, and Long Time Acquaintances


2008

December: A "Non-concept" but Information, Nonetheless, for December...
November:
The All or Nothing Thinking of the Criminal
October:
The Argument that there is "Larceny in Every Soul" is Hollow
September:
When "Rehab" and Alcoholics Anonymous is Not Enough
August:
The Alleged Relationship Between Attention Deficit Disorder and Criminality
July:
Peer Pressure as a Causal Factor in Criminal Behavior?
May/June:
"Errors in Thinking" Apply to the Alcoholic or Problem Drinker
April:
Early Identification of Antisocial Behavior - Part I
March:
Does the Criminal "Burn Out" with Age?
February:
More on the Role of the Social Environment
January:
Does Prison Make a Person a "Worse Criminal"?

2007

November/December: The Male Criminal's Choice of Women
October:
An Alternative View of "Compulsive" Gambling
September:
The Primacy of Thinking
August:
Dick Diver from F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender Is the Night": A comment on a 1920's narcissist and today's celebrity narcissists
July:
Another "Addiction"?
June:
Musings about City Safety - USA and Spain
May:
Virginia Tech: Can a Future School Shooter be Identified?
April:
White Collar Crime and Street Crime: Similar Thought Processes
March:
More on "Addiction" as a "Disease"
February:
The Criminal and Suicidal Thinking
January:
"I think, therefore I feel": The Primacy of Thinking

2006

December: The Overuse and Misuse of the Word "Addiction"
November:
The Social Environment Does Not "Cause" Crime
October:
"Anna Karenina" -- A Study in Character
September:
The Concept of "Nonarrestable" Criminality
August:
A Note on "Copycat" Violent Crimes
July:
How "Errors in Thinking" Apply to Pedophiles
June:
Suggestibility and the Juvenile Offender
May:
Part I: Anger and the Criminal

April:
An Expanded Concept of "Criminality"
March:
Neurotic Features in the Individual with an Antisocial Personality Disorder
February:
Sporadic Remorse Elevates the Criminal's View of Himself as a Good Person
December05/January:
Can A Criminal Learn to be Empathic? -- Parts I and II

2005

November:
"Compulsive" Gambling: Mental Disorder or Irresponsibile Choices?
September/October:
Opportunistic Looting as in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
August:
"Kleptomania": A Reality or a Psychiatric Invention?
July:
"Love" -- The Criminal's Experience is Extremely Limited
June:
The Problem with "Anger Management"
May:
Religion in the Criminal's Good Opinion of Himself/Herself
April:
From Maudlin Sentiment to Savage Brutality
March:
The Use of the Offender's Language is Counterproductive in Interviewing and Counseling
February:
The Concept of "Confrontation" in Helping Offenders Change
January:
"I think, therefore it is so": A Costly Error of Thinking

2004
2003
2002

December 2004 - A Clarification about the Alleged Causal Connection between the Larger Social Environment and Criminal Behavior

November 2004 - Does the Criminal Experience Remorse?

October 2004 - Thinking in Extremes

September 2004 - Peer Pressure

August 2004--Reading and Poetry Do Not a Reformed Criminal Make

July 2004 -- What the Drug-Using Criminal Really Means by a "High"

June 2004 -- The Criminal's Anger Results from Fear

May 2004 -- Typing Offenders by the Crime for Which They Are Arrested -- Concealing More than Revealed?

April 2004 -- The Criminal Does Learn from Experience

March 2004 -- The Criminal's Shutting off Conscience

February 2004 -- The Criminal's Lack of a Concept of Interdependence

January 2004 -- The Criminal and "Low Self-Esteem"

January 2003 -- Control: For a worthy aim or for its own sake?

March 2003 -- Bipolar Disease or the Ups and Downs of the Antisocial Person's Unrealistic Expectations?

April 2003 -- "Out of Character Crime" is Not Out of Character

May 2003 -- The Armed Bank Robber and the Corporate Crook are One and the Same

June 2003 -- Drug Addiction: A Caution about the Disease Concept

July 2003 -- Dependence versus Exploitation

August 2003 -- Drugs as Escape or as Facilitators?

September 2003 -- Criminality and Suggestibility

October 2003 -- The Futility of Focusing on Causes of Criminal Behavior When Evaluating and Counseling Adult or Juvenile Offenders

November 2003 -- The Criminal Knows Right From Wrong

December 2003 -- Can A Criminal Learn From Experience?

May 2002 -- Working to Eliminate Anger

June 2002 -- Self Esteem: What is it?

July 2002 -- Can An Agent of Change be Both a Counselor and a "Cop"?

August 2002 -- Chronic Drug Abuse -- For "Escape" or  Excitement?

September 2002 -- "Respect" in the Street Sense versus Respect in the Responsible World

October 2002 -- Power and Control -- Legitimate or Not?

November 2002 -- "Addiction" -- the disease concept in treating criminals

December 2002 -- Does the Criminal Have a Conscience?


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