Eroticized Violence and the Death Drive: A Forensic-Psychoanalytic Study of Yoshikage Kira

Abstract

This paper presents a forensic and psychoanalytic study of Yoshikage Kira from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, focusing on the manifestation of the erotic death drive in his homicidal compulsions. Drawing on Freud’s theory of Thanatos and DSM-5 criteria for paraphilic disorders, Kira’s fetishistic obsession with severed hands is analyzed as symbolic of unresolved psychosexual trauma and compulsive control. His behavior is situated within forensic typologies of lust killers, supported by comparative profiles of real-world offenders like Jeffrey Dahmer. The study interprets Kira’s Stand, Killer Queen, as a projection of repressed desire and identity fracture, offering a cross-disciplinary lens that merges clinical theory with literary analysis of fictional violence.