MIND AND MURDER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20596, 21 June 1930, Page 32 (Supplement)

MIND AND MURDER.

A MEDICAL VIEW. Possessed of a lively .wit, a keen interest in criminology and the requisite, medical knowledge, Dr. Harold Dearden is eminently fitted to deal in " The Mind of. the Murderer " with tho psychological aspect of many famous cases. Id his brilliant introduction or thesis," Dr. Dearden scouts tho accepted idea of a " criminal type." "A murder is, in. fact, merely an unwise and undesirably performance of that task which is imposed upon all of us—tho adaptation of ourselves to that environment in which wo live. It, is an awful crime, no donbt; but I suggest that it is committed by poor creatures like ourselves, with tho same desires and imperfections and the samo nobilities and vices. •To feel that is to see in it—as in all human conduct—much that should prompt us to humility,' thankfulness and pity." , A working knowledge of psychology is in tho author's opinion of extreme advantage in the administration of justice. Tliis point he illustrates by a striking parallel. To a savage ignorant of reading the behaviour of an absorbed reader would mean either that the book was a talisman which conferred on tho reader immunity from devils, or that it was a medicine for tho eyes applied by a laborious and novel method. In other words, absence of tho right sort of knowledge renders an incorrect interpretation of auy human action almost inevitable.

Dr. Dearden then proceeds to a review of many notorious murder cases, including Thompson and Bywater3, Seddon, Crippon, Ronald True, Neill Cream and Mario Lafargo. Though not seeking to exculpate the murderers, ho throws a flood of light upon the temperament and emotious which induced the crimes. Life is shown as a compromise between our instincts and our- conventions—between what wo want to do and what wo may do. .f.t And whilo the fascination of tho subject of murder is in part no doubt duo to " tho animal so happily dormant ill most of us," it arises partly also from a shamefaced sense of mental kinship with tho criminal.

" Tho Mind of tho Murderer," by Harold Dcarclcn (Geoffrey Bles).