Booklist Monthly Selections - #2 March 1998

New York psychiatrist Lewis, whose "curiosity about differences between us" caused her to change career paths and study homicidal criminals, offers a fascinating glimpse into the world of psychiatry and violent crime. How the mild-mannered Radcliffe College graduate found herself face-to-face with death row inmates and testifying in well-publicized trials is most intriguing. Lewis rationally explains her findings that violent crimes often are perpetrated by persons with abusive childhoods or organic brain impairments or both. A humanizing factor in her memoir is her psychiatrist's ability to reflect on her own shortcomings and miscues in diagnosing disorders. Lewis concludes that "given certain neurologic and psychiatric problems, any of us could be a killer," which is frightening, perhaps controversial, and always interesting. ((Reviewed March 15, 1998)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews