This excerpt shows with clarity the crux, and maybe even the secret, of extreme violence: selectivity, which shapes the link between an aggressor's psychological disturbances and his authoritarian symptoms. The perpetrator of extreme violence structures his mind in such a way that his “flood of inchoate emotionalism” is released in violent outbursts, following pre-determined directions. Because the violence is carefully targeted at selected victims, the aggressor protects himself from his authoritarian symptoms, whilst at the same time keeping a stable, empathic relationship with the part of reality which is preserved from his attacks. He thus becomes a functional paranoiac, as FBI agent John Douglas put it (Douglas and Olshaker, 1999).