Abstract
Because of the diffuse picture of psychodynamic explorations in homicide an attempt was made to look at two structural elements, age and relationship, and to apply these considerations to three cases of matricide. Since matricide occurs predominantly in late adolescence the act is often related to impulsivity and explosiveness. We have shown that this did not apply to our cases, nor to the age structure of homicides in general. Because of the nature of the object, the mother is generally seen as the dynamic factor in the situation. These cases, although they confirm the phenomenon of ‘lockage’ which is often observed in close relationship homicides, raise doubts about the object-specificity of this state. Underlying theterm relationship is also the factor of temporal-spatial proximity, which may be a simple probability factor in object choice and has to be considered, although it will not account for a number of incidence distributions. A clearer view of the structure of the various homicide phenomena is needed before causal relationships can be stated with any degree of certainty.