Reading Geldenhuys: Constructing and Deconstructing the Norwood Killer

Abstract

This article takes the form of an autocritique, plotting the progression and ultimate dissolution of a developmental psychopathology research project on Kobus Geldenhuys, the notorious Norwood serial killer. The topic is introduced with a detailed case study, which gives way to a classical psychoanalytic interpretation, that is, an engagement that explores Geldenhuys's psychopathology through the interlocking accounts of the zonal stages, the Oedipus complex and the id/ego/superego structural dynamics of personality. This and other similar regularising engagements with the topic are then themselves analysed and critiqued as producing multiple lines of objectification, fictionalisation, prurience and distance. By way of resolution, the article lists a series of concerns about particular trends of attempted knowledge production in psychology.