SENSE OF GUILT

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 May 1933, Page 10

SENSE OF GUILT

MOTIVES FOR BEHAVIOUR.

That the. community as a whole; through its members,, has developed from primeval times a “sense of guilt” which each individual feels was advanced by Dr. Emanuel Miller, the neurologist, as an explanation oi some of the strange psychological symptoms observed in modem society, ... - . ■ . ’ Dr Miller is a vice-president oi die Institute for the Scientific Treatment oi Delinquency, and he was. lecturing on the treatment of, delinquency at the Institute of Medical Psychology. He quoted extraor'diiiary cases in which human motives, have been probed by doctors peering, into the darker recesses of the mind “below the threshold of consciousness.” “I have had. frequent cases under my care of. neurotics, who have identified themselves with thieves and murderers in the current news,” said Dr Miller. .......

“Some, perfectly innocent, confessed to crimes or gave the police imaginary clues about murderers of whom they had not the faintest knowledge. “On deep examination of such per-, sons it was discovered that they had a deep sense of guilt connected with homicidal thoughts about members of their own family—-thoughts which had lain below the surface, influencing health and behaviour in remote and fantastic ways.” It was very difficult, he went on, in reading a detective story to decide whether we were on the side of the criminal or his pursuers.

Dealing with cases in which punitive measures were inapplicable, Dr Miller quoted the following instance; A man who had the uncontrollable impulse to mutilate railway carriage furniture, and who, in desperation at bis inability to resist the compulsion, threw himself from a train.

“A GOOD SMACK.” No compulsive neurotic was ever cured by prison, he said. Stealing by children was nearly always compulsive, and “a good smack” would probably serve much better than conviction in a police court. Children’s courts should be completely remodelled. Every case should be considered by a psychopathologist. “Many delinquents, are painfully ! moral,” said Dr Miller. “Fallen women I are frequently tender, generous and often God-fearing.” Dr Miller related the case of a man who repeatedly embezzled and disappeared. It was found that on his wanderings he would revisit the scene of bis childhood, trying to recover "omething of the halcyon days when he was attached to his mother. Psychotherapy had changed that man, who had for seven years led a blamej.ess life. Another case quoted -was that of a young engineer who said he could not work at the lathe when the foreman was there because he was afraid of causing an accident. It was discovered that there was a subconscious homicidal feeling against the foreman, to whom he bore no grudge, but who resembled a relation of whom the young man was jealous. The young man was cured when this was explained to him.