Formation of the Antisocial Character

The purpose of this article is to clarify the factors that may lead an individual in emotional stress to react with antisocial rather than with neurotic behavior. It is now generally accepted that none of the unconscious conflicts underlying criminal acts are limited to the delinquent. We know, for instance, that in many cases of kleptomania in women, the unconscious conflict that motivates the antisocial act is penis envy: the unconscious purpose is to take from the mother that which she has never given to the child of her own free will. We know also that this same unconscious conflict leads only rarely to stealing and more often results in neurotic conflicts, sexual disturbances and various character distortions. Unconscious feelings of guilt arising out of the oedipal conflict have been shown by Freud1 to result in criminal behavior. Alexander2 describes a dramatic case in which the criminal acts are clearly shown to be motivated mainly by this mechanism. Every analyst is familiar with a vast number of ways in which this particular conflict is expressed. Familiar to all is the formation of a masochistic character, in which suffering is achieved without actual punishment by law. It is of interest to study the rich case material Healy3 presents when emphasizing the importance of mental conflict in the causation of antisocial behavior.

Psychoanalysts have thus far stressed the similarities between neurotic and delinquent reactions rather than investigated the difference. Foulkes, in a recent publication,4 is one among many who do so. The reason for this seems twofold. First, the similarity between the