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This book presents very effectively the case for a more enlightened treatment of the criminal. The author is conversant with the psychodynamics of human behaviour, and, experienced in forensic psychiatry, is aware of the realistic difficulties involved in the control of crime. The restrained and sober marshalling of facts enhances the argument in a field where diatribe and polemic so often prevail.
The evidence presented makes it clear that on the one hand, society satisfies its desire for revenge or seeks to master its own illicit impulses by bearing down on the over manifestations of them in others, and then, unknowingly, finds a respectable outlet in the medium of the law. On the other hand, criminality is symptomatic of some disorder in the psychic organization of the individual, and at the same time represents an attempt at self-cure of conflicts that threaten to overwhelm him. What these conflicts are and how they relate to such factors as an unresolved Oedipus complex, fear of undue passivity and dependency, doubts regarding sexual adequacy or a retention of infantile omnipotence fantasies, the abundant case material in this book portrays very convincingly. So long as the law ignored the subtle determinants of criminal behaviour it could disregard the criminal as an individual and confine itself to discouraging wrongdoing by punishing the offender. But now disturbing statistics, which challenge the effectiveness of punitive measures, as well as modern psychiatry, argue for a revision of this method. Criminality, any more than alcoholism, cannot be intelligently or effectively dealt with until it is recognized as a secondary manifestation, the primary sources of which must be taken into consideration.
The main thesis of this book, it must be clear, is one that has long been familiar to the psychiatrist. However, while considerable progress has been made, the law with its tradition of conservatism is far from accepting and acting upon the knowledge laid b