Crime in Fantasy and Dreams and the Neurotic Criminal

A neurosis, as we know, is the result of a compromise between the strivings of Ego and Id. We know also that the criminal tendencies so often present in the neurotic are generally released through fantasy or dreams. But the compromise is not always complete. Sometimes compromise between the Ego and Id strivings results, not in a neurosis, but in some criminal action. What remains a fantasy with the neurotic here breaks through into reality because of an interaction of factors. The person involved acts under an irresistible and—to him—incomprehensible compulsion.

The usual conception is that criminal action is due to deficiencies in the culprit's sense of morality and to an unbalanced desire for gain. Freud, in his study, “Several Character Types from Psychoanalytical Practice,” first hinted at the possibility of criminal action being the result of a strong sense of guilt, making the seemingly paradoxical statement that sometimes the sense of guilt is present first, and the crime is committed to get relief. Psychoanalytically we know that this sense of guilt is rooted back in the Oedipus situation (Gesammelte Schriften: B. X.). With this study Freud gave the first impetus to the application of the psychoanalytical approach to criminology.

Among analytical patients we occasionally find those who came to analysis because, although they were seemingly normal people, they suddenly found themselves driven to some offense such as stealing, and became panic stricken with their inability to understand why such an action should crop out in them when they had never before been aware of any such possibilities in themselves. It is of interest and importance to ascertain how such a tendency makes its way through to action, and how a theft can take place, perhaps only once, under certain circumstances.

An analysis of the patient invariably reveals the cause for the action as well as the symbolic meaning, which usually makes the theft a substitute for something else.