Amanda Knox and Group Dynamics: Addendum

There is a fascinating discussion taking place on the blog, Lies Our Mothers Told Us, written and directed by " Miss Represented" , concerning the group dynamics of what occurred on the night that Meredith Kercher was murdered in Perugia, Italy.

At first glance, the sweet -faced college coeds, the all- American Amanda Knox and upper middle class Italian Raffeale Scolocitto, seemed the least likely of all suspects. But as details of their dynamic unfolded, together with the addition of Rudy Guede, all began to emerge and form a picture, like a slowly spreading ink stain on a white tablecloth.

It is true, that the level of violence, deindividuation and dissociation from responsibility all increase in a group context, as Miss R correctly and astutely points out in her postings.

Amanda Knox surely needed Raffaele and Rudy to bolster her own (somewhat masculine) bravado; and in turn, they needed her anger to spur theirs on. There is a dialectical process at work in which subconscious forces fuse and create a deadly synthesis. It is interesting that Amanda was a tomboy, and highly aggressive in much of her social and sexual interaction. She was clearly the more "masculine" and masterful of the two lovers. And Rudy himself appears to have been a diminutive figure, full of cowardice.

Amanda had been accussed of lesbian tendencies as a high school girl: Might there have been some truth in these accusations? Surely not consciously, but perhaps latently; there may have been gender confusion, and in fact the facts of her youth do point to this. She was overly father-identified as well. Was she now identifying to a degree with Raefelle and Rudy, in wanting a sexual assault on Meredith to take place?  Indeed,  even in her "girlie"  posed pictures,  there is a kind of boyish bravado to her. 

As an analyst once said of the infamous murderers of the Clutter family, Dick Hickcock and Perry Smith, "Neither would have committed the murders on his own. But together, the two men created a third "person"; "he" is the one who did it. So too of the three that night in the Perugian cottage : They created a fourth, who was everyone and no one. And was able to carry out the horrific events which would otherwise have remained locked within the dark recesses of the psyche.