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It was a great adventure for Dr. Karpman to prepare for publication the very extended histories and hundreds of dreams related
in these two huge volumes, or, as in one case, to record the outpourings of many psychoanalytic sessions—and then to get all this actually published, despite the cost and the obvious limited saleability. The fact that Dr. Karpman won over these fellows to do such a great amount of writing for him proves that either they were in a transference relationship or identified themselves with him as a scientific investigator. There are some definite suggestions of the latter whenever the patient expresses his own desire to know the why of his career.
This second big volume is devoted to only four cases and it is evident that they developed much interest in their past; otherwise they would not have stayed with the author so long on the job of revealing themselves. Of course they were all diagnosed as psychopathic personalities—either with or without psychosis—by the hospital staff, seemingly for the most part on the evidence of their long criminal careers. If they had to be labeled for psychiatric classification, what else was there to call them? But Karpman is not particularly sarcastic about this.
The patient, Cleary, gives a miserable story of stealing and sex irregularities over long years. He was found guilty on a white slavery charge—forcing his young wife into prostitution. Evidently he had psychotic episodes of the cyclothymic type. Dr. Karpman, after some eight months of gathering his story and his dreams, given us without associations, leaves the case, feeling that it was impossible 'to delimit clearly and precisely the rôle of heredity and environment'.
Elton was apparently the only case definitely analyzed. Convicted of sex misbehavior with little girls, 'attempted rape', the penchant of this sex-obsessed fellow for female children was based on his phobia of pubic hair. At times he succeeded in getting women to shave their pubes,