In the work presented to the reader, the author, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst of the Lacanian school, a renowned clinician, explores the phenomenon of the serial killer Henri Désiré Landrieu.
What sets this case apart from a number of similar stories is the striking rationality of the criminal (nobody at the time doubted his sanity).
The case has a clear selfish motive, although it is masked by noble considerations - care for the well-being of a destitute family.
Behind the systematic seduction of women (there were 283), which resembles Don Juan, and the seamless annihilation of the robbed victims, there lies nothing but the words of Landrieu himself, taken at face value - family, its well-being, the anxiety of the breadwinner fulfilling his duty to the end, even in such an ugly way.
Nevertheless, analysis in light of contemporary psychological concepts of a number of available facts from this old case (1919) allows us to see Landrieu in an entirely new light.
