Brittain's Sadistic Murderer Syndrome reconsidered: an associative accountof the aetiology of sadistic sexual fantasy

The ground-breaking work of Brittain (1970) provided the template for subse quent investigations of the aetiology, development and careers of sadistic murderers. The current article revisits some of the key observations that B rittain made, reviews briefly some of the empirical/theoretical development s that followed and offers an associative account of how sadistic fantasy m ay be initiated. We conclude by calling on clinicians working with sadists to apply the single case-study to collect sufficient information so that mo dels of the aetiology of this population may be refined.