Finding your contact address on your website,
I greet you from Seoul, Korea.
I am very much interested in psychobiography,
and am requested to give lecture on for more than 100 attendants
by the dean, Sukhwan Jueong, United Graduate School of Theology, Yonsei University.

I did my Ph. D. dissertation by psybiography,
and I think that is the reason the dean challenges me for new area of lecture in Korea.

Maybe the first opening of psychobiography subject.
I attach the English Abstract of my dissertation for your interest.In the future, I hope my dissertaion to be translated into English.

I would be morea than happy if I hear from you in due course of time.

With warm regards,

Soon Park, Ph. D

Pastoral Counselor,
Yonsei University Center for Counseling & Coaching Services

Adjunct Professor,
United Graduate School of Theology

Abstract

An Abused Parricide Lifer’s Psychobiography In Narrative Psychology

Park, Soon
Department of Theology
The Graduate School
Yonsei University

This dissertation aimed at a psychobiographical research on life narratives of an abused parricide lifer, Kim. He was once a student aged 24 at an illustrious university and threw tremendous emotional shock waves to society by committing double parricide, cutting the dead bodies into pieces and abandoning them. Immediately after the accident, his elder brother said that he could understand his younger brother and went on to say that he would take care of his younger brother for his whole life only if he would be exempted from capital punishment. Such a brotherly affection aroused a high interest in the legal circles, learned circles and religious world. Kim was demanded a death penalty in the first trial, but some fellow believers including Cardinal Kim, Soo Hwan at the Roman Catholic Church where Kim’s family used to attend presented a petition for saving his life. Kim was sentenced to life imprisonment in the second trial, and has been serving his time for 8 years at the Wonju Correction.
This researcher came to have an interest in Kim from the beginning of the news report on this accident and visited the Gwacheon Police Station where Kim was put under arrest at that time. Later I had the first interview with him at the Suweon Detention House on June 28, 2000, and since then I have been exchanging letters with him starting from August 1, 2000, and received about 120 letters up to now along with 24 face?to?face interviews with him. This research was focused on the analysis of life narratives permeated in his every single letter using a psychobiographical method in narrative psychology.
As for the theoretical background, this researcher used the correlation between marital conflict and child abuse, narrative psychology, analytical psychology, and pastoral counseling as the foundation. In the category of narrative psychology, modernistic McAdams’ six?stage developmental structure was used as a basis. In addition, this researcher took a look at an externalization of the problems, unique outcomes, written and oral tradition, and letters as narratives emphasized in post?modernistic narrative psychology of White and Eptston. In the category of analytical psychology, this researcher found out the research participant’s mythological archetype in Bolen’s research on Greek god Hephaestus. In constructive theologian Poling’s theological understanding on the Abuse of Power among the pastoral counseling theories, this writer considered the discussion on domestic violence victims’ testimony, abuse of power as an evil, psychological mechanism used for survivors’ ambiguous self-search and God’s ambivalence the survivors have. As for the psychobiographical method in narrative psychology, McAdams’ approach as “a whole person” and “psychobiographical methodology subsequent to life?cycle” were adopted as the basis. This writer drew up a biographical writing using Alexander’s personological approach based on psychometrics and psychobiography and Runyan’s eight step model.
Kim’s life was not auspicious from the very birth. He was slow in his movements from his infancy as much as to arouse a suspicion of Asperger’s syndrome and had a lot of problems in social interactivity. He suffered from physical, verbal and emotional abuse, medical neglect, and spiritual abuse. Nevertheless, he managed to do his school work faithfully enough to achieve an excellent school record from the regular elementary course until the senior high school course but unfortunately he became a victim of bullying from his friends, leaving inerasable injury in his heart. In the aftermath of such an adverse process, he understandably came to have an avoidant character and tended to have an extremely negative judgment over even his teachers. When he was in the third grade of a junior high school in 1991, he fell into a deep conflict with his mother. Since then, he began to come up with a retaliatory scenario as he had a crystallizing experience of “We won’t live together.”
In the meantime, he was immersed into books and movies while starting to enrich his knowledge of humanities and social science sectors. He appreciated about 700 movies systematically and also was involved in movie?lovers’ club while doing research on writers and movie directors with a dream to be a screen writer. While serving his term in the air force, he became aware that his family life was too far from his colleagues’, finally burning himself more with hatred against his family who despised and discriminated against himself. While Kim, after being discharged from the air force, was preparing for a transfer to the Humanities Department because his college major did not match with his aptitude, he lost all desires and retreated to his apartment in the thinking that he had made a big mess in his TOEIC. Under the circumstances of weakness both physically and psychologically, he murdered his parents who abandoned him more than a week. This means that his narcissistic rage, which had been oppressed for 10 years, exploded as a lockage phenomenon. This researcher understands that he has outstanding Greek artisan Hephaestus’ mythological archetype. Though he was maltreated by his parents, had difficulties with interpersonal relations, and had an inferiority complex about his external features, I surely argue that he has an archetypal appearance of god Hephaestus in that he is equipped with the faculty of a faithful and artistic maker.
This researcher believes that, in Christian child rearing, parental authority empowered by godly authority without equal regard for the relation between the parents and the child is one of main contributors to domestic violence and child abuse. This aspect will often leave the survivors of domestic violence lack of trust, low self?respect, shortage of socializing skills, helplessness, difficulty in expressing feelings, flashback and phobia. Based on the fact that, after all, these adverse factors develop into a spiritual abuse in a Christian family and they were directly exposed in the case of Kim’s life process, this researcher tries to make a critical approach to the case. As a result of considering the 8 years’ communication with the research participant [Mr. Kim] in the light of Poling’s nine?stage spiritual growth theory, this researcher found out that the journey of spirituality of doing goodness displays a recursive model of three stages: conversion of consciousness; determined implementation; and expanding.
This researcher also found out that Kim has a persona of a parricide offender and concurrently a shadow of a “Right Life Cross bearing Man” just like twins. Revealed is an appearance of “a wrathful gentleman renowned for his virtue” from Mr. Kim in whom these two aspects coexist.

Keywords: abused parricide offender (APO), psychobiography, narrative psychology, analytical psychology, mythological archetype, Hephaestus, abuse of power, nine-stage theory of spiritual growth, Asperger.

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