THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CRIME

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21986, 9 January 1937, Page 15

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CRIME

The Unknown Murderer. By Theodor Reik. The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis. 26W pp, (12/6 net.) This volume .is No. 27 of the Psycho-Analytical Library, edited by Ernest Jones, M.D. It has been translated from the German by Dr. Katherine Jones. As a work on the psychological aspects of crime, it attempts to “show whether and what psycho-analysis, has contributed to the problem of the-unknown cnriiirial.” This study is one that, it need hardly be said, considering its origin, is based upon much research and wide learning. Its subject matter does not make easy reading, yet the book is written with such spirit that it carries the reader on. The very titles of some of the chapters arouse curiosity: e.g., “The Visiting Card, “The Cranes of Ibycus and the Flies of Mr Breese”; and “The ‘Omnipotence of Thought’ in Criminal Cases.” What'.are the “seven golden W’s?” They are; What? Who? When? Where? in What Way? What With? Why? Most people would not think it necessary to find an explanation of our desire to get rid of a criminal, especially, for example, a murderer. But Reik, following Freud, finds in this desire a witness to the fact that we have repressed impulses to - the very crime which fills us with horror. In the judge, the lawyers, and the public these same unconscious tendencies that led to the crime are operative. The final chapter of the book contains an analysis of . the fictional “Canary Murder Case,” which was solved by van Dine’s Philo Vance. The author uses *it here to show! the essential character of circurhstantial evidence, and the psychological sources of ‘jtidicial inference based on it. The whole book is an original and stimulaUrig g,igg3 9i work. V-