If Love Could Kill: A Deep Dive Into Female Violence with Anna Motz

Forensic psychotherapist and author of If Love Could Kill, Anna Motz, joins Interintellect founder Anna Gát in NYC to explore the hidden realities of women who commit extreme acts of violence.

In this SuperSalon, we will delve into Anna’s book, If Love Could Kill: The Myths and Truths of Women Who Commit Violence, and the complex and often misunderstood world of female violence, exploring the psychological underpinnings and societal taboos that surround it. Join us and discuss!

Topics discussed will include:

• The psychological roots of female violence and cruelty.
• Societal taboos and stereotypes about women who commit violent acts.
• The relationship between oppression, abuse, and female-perpetrated violence.

Pre-event media:

• If Love Could Kill: The Myths and Truths of Women Who Commit Violence by Anna Motz
• When Women Commit Violence by Alexandra Schwartz

About the book:

A groundbreaking work by an internationally acclaimed forensic psychotherapist that looks at women who commit extreme acts of violence and cruelty and at the underlying oppression and abuse often at the heart of these crimes. Women can be murderers and child abusers. They can commit acts of extreme and sadistic brutality. And those who do, are outcasts from society and from womanhood itself. They are seen as monsters and angels of death: and must be kept at a safe distance. Writing with candor, compassion, and a clear-eyed perspective, Anna Motz explores in depth the shockingly underexamined psychological underpinnings of female violence. Far from the heartless and inhuman monsters we might believe them to be, these women are often victims of a culture of violence and emotional trauma.

About the author:

Anna Motz is a clinical psychologist working in the Criminal Justice System in the United Kingdom, in a women’s prison and in private practice. She has over 30 years of experience in the field and is also a qualified psychoanalytic and forensic psychotherapist, meaning she works in therapy with women who have committed violent acts, and are often serving criminal sentences. As a clinician Anna works closely with criminalised women, sometimes for several years, and gets to know and understand the reasons for their crimes, often stemming from years of trauma and abuse, some of which has been buried until the time it emerges as a violent act. She aims to help these women understand their conscious and unconscious motivations and to gain insight and control over dangerous feelings and impulses and uses a talking therapy to do so, with the full consent of the women. Through her work she has come to understand the importance for the women of overcoming trauma and learning to trust others and the world. The criminalised women are often both victims and perpetrators of acts of violence, whose meaning and function can be revealed through patient and compassionate therapeutic work.

The exact location will be shared via email and in the New York channel of the Interintellect community Discord.