You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
When the civilized adult is able to deal with his instinctual urges and irrational anxieties by expressing them in a rational form, we call him normal. When he has recourse to irrational methods of gratification and control we say he has a neurosis. It is not enough simply to investigate pathological phenomena; we are bound also to consider the ways in which anxiety is worked over normally. This is as true of the group as it is of the individual.
The author proceeds to examine three of the 'normal' defensive policies adopted by the social group.
1Work provides an outlet for primitive instinctual drives, but its psychological significance is not confined to this. It helps the individual to atone for his sadistic impulses; it relieves his irrational doubts and feelings of inferiority, i.e. inspires him with confidence in his powers; because of the monetary reward attached to it, it allays fears of helplessness and starvation and other deep anxieties; and finally it symbolizes a satisfactory relation to society. Unemployment leaves this line of defence in ruins. The grave psychological situation which ensues is brilliantly described.
2The newspaper, which has always existed, if it has not always been printed, provides harmless substitutive outlets for the individual's sadism; enables him to place his irrational anxieties on a rational foundation (e.g. fears of poverty can appear suitably disguised as concern over the soundness of America's financial policy); and relieves his guilt and anxiety, since he reads also of disasters averted, measures taken to alleviate distress, etc.
3Crime performs an important stabilizing function in the life of the community. It is a serious question whether in the event of punishment being abolished and so ceasing to provide a channel for the discharge of sadism, the effects would not be felt in greater proneness to war and revolution, or again in an increase in neurosis or in the accident mortality rate.
The criminal provides us with a