Essays and blog posts


2015 through early 2023

Dr. Samenow's blog posts from Psychology Today:

Inside the Criminal Mind blog at Psychology Today

Prior to the Psychology Today blog, he published "Concepts of the Month," on this website.


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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