Tell Me a Story: MMPI Responses and Personal Biography in the Case of a Serial Killer

Abstract

The interpretation of MMPI (Hathaway & McKinley, 1943) profiles has emphasized a language of pathological attribution that often serves the interests of clinical description and actuarial prediction better than those of individual case formulation and an understanding of the adaptive forces involved in the production of symptomatic behavior. In this article, I illustrate a contrasting approach, one that emphasizes MMPI items and scales as instruments of personal biography, with the case of the serial murderer Jeffrey Dahmer.