A Primer in the Psychology of Crime

Applications of Psychoanalytic Theory to Criminal Behavior

Applications of psychoanalytic theory to the study of crime causation are beginning to vanish. This may be due to scientific research which has changed perceptions about many of Freud's ideas. In brief, psychoanalytic theory may be undergoing an extreme process of refinement in which much of its applicability is being discarded as just unpalatable (especially Freud's views regarding women and sexuality in general) and unscientific. At any rate, psychoanalytic theory lays much of the groundwork for many subsequent schools of psychology.

This chapter is primarily concerned with psychoanalytic explanations of crime causation, but it should be noted that there have been many attempts to use psychoanalysis in the treatment and rehabilitation of delinquents (see for an overview Redl and Toch, 1979; Bartol and Bartol, 1986; Hollin, 1989; Martin , 1990). The psychoanalytic approach to crime causation has focused generally on four basic conceptual areas: parental influences, guilt, the oedipal conflict, and aggression. One of the most appropriate applications of psychoanalytic theory to explain crime deals with its interpretation of the affect of parental influence on the formation of children's behavior (Martin et al., 1990). Statistically speaking, most crime is committed by adolescents who are by law considered dependents of parents or guardians (for a discussion of the age effect see Blumstein and Cohen, 1979; Wilson and Herrnstein 1985; Farrington et al., 1986; Gottfredsson and Hirschi, 1990).

Parental Influences and Delinquency

One of the first applications of psychoanalytic theory to the study of crime was by August Aichhorn. Aichhorn's (1955/1925) influential book, Wayward Youth, was based on years of practical experience as a teacher and psychoanalyst working and running a correctional facility for juveniles. Aichhorn's observations led him to conclude that environmental factors are not the sole source of delinquent behavior. Based on the assumptions of psychoanalytic theory, Aichhorn contended that there must be a predisposition or latent delinquency which is somewhat innate and somewhat a product of early socialization factors. In other words, every child confronts the world as an asocial being concerned only with the gratification of id impulses and urges. Through the demands of reality the child learns to subdue the pleasure seeking behavior of basic id urges. According to Aichhorn (1955), delinquent behavior results when the superego remains under developed, leaving the id unregulated. Aichhorn blamed a lack of parental guidance and love for the underdeveloped superego. Neglect results in an inadequate attachment to parental values, which are necessary for developing a strong superego. A strong superego allows one to renounce id impulses and urges and provides the basis of civilized behavior. For Aichhorn, the underdeveloped superego accounts for delinquency. Given this premise, he reasoned that providing a an environment favorable to the development of a strong superego would be conducive to treating and rehabilitating delinquents. By environment he means a strong home-like atmosphere of propriety designed to create the conditions necessary to formulate a well rounded superego, mainly stability, pleasure and happiness.

Both Friedlander (1947) and Abrahamsen (1960) have elaborated on this particular psychoanalytic approach to delinquency. For Kate Friedlander (1947), the drives of the delinquent are no different from those of the law-abiding citizen. It is the ego that decides which of the impulses can find their way into action and which will be repressed, and in this decision the ego is guided by the demands of reality and the voice of the superego. Since the delinquent's ego is still profoundly influenced by the pleasure principle, whenever an instinctive urge arises, reality ceases to exist. This weak ego is incapable of controlling the impulses, including the anti-social ones, because it does not enjoy sufficient support from the superego. The delinquent's conscience is not yet independent. If figures of authority are not physically present, there is no force to strengthen this theoretical knowledge of right and wrong. In Friedlander's (1947) view, three factors contribute to the delinquent's personality formation: a) the weakness of the ego; b) the lack of independence of the superego; c) childish instinctive urges that remained unmodified when the organism develops. These three factors are interrelated; the lack of an early modification of instinctive energy plays an important part in the weakness of the ego and in disturbances of the formation of the superego.

Friedlander (1947) stresses that the primary factors leading to anti-social behavior are represented by the parents' attitude toward the child during the first five or six years of life. The parents' attitudes may be due mainly to their own personality structures or the pressures a bad environment exerts on them. As a result of these primary factors, the child may develop an anti-social personality structure, and the degree of its disturbance can vary from a slight tendency towards anti-social behavior to a fixated behavior of this kind. Unless the delinquent personality develops early on, Friedlander (1947) suggests, later environmental influences will not lead to anti-social behavior. The influence of secondary factors, such as the kind of friends, school, movies, and television programs the individual encounters later must be judged, according to the psychoanalysts, on the basis of the child's affective development in the latency period (infancy and early childhood) and adolescence.

According to Friedlander (1947), children whose emotional development was normal, during the first five or six years of life will benefit from their studies at school. Their intellectual achievements at school will strengthen their ego and make it a better mediator between the drives of the id and the prohibitions of the superego. The school is a province in which children can form a new set of identifications that reinforce their superego and make it easier for them to overcome their childish cravings and impulses. Children with normal emotions will strive for achievement and excellence, and will be grateful for any help they get. The situation is totally different for emotionally confused children. These children's surplus instinctual energies interfere with their concentration on their school work. Because these children are usually subject to fierce fits of anger and jealousy, the social life at school does not attract them or provide them with any satisfaction. They are unable to tolerate the postponement of their desires. School life provides them with more frustration than gratification. The daily frustrations they suffer drive them to satisfy their desires in a negative and anti-social way, which is the only way they can get satisfaction. These children will be attracted to the deviant society of gangs and juvenile delinquents, since these gangs represent their very own aspirations. In their eyes and in the eyes of the deviant group, aggression, violence and delinquency are considered a demonstration of strength and power.

Deviant society, in Friedlander's (1947) view, may actualize the potential delinquency of an individual, but it is not a primary factor, merely a secondary factor of delinquent behavior. Another secondary factor suggested by Friedlander is problematic children's inability to persevere at their employment, because they are unable to postpone the gratification of their drives in order to fulfill their long term needs. Youths of this kind have a very weak "future dimension" which cannot serve them as a repository of strength and patience to spur them on to future achievements. These children cannot bear to wait months or even years for a desired goal such as a fulfilling career, while facing the daily experience of failure and frustration while working toward that goal. Since they must have immediate gratification, they leave their places of work and are drawn to delinquent and deviant society (Friedlander, 1947).

Karen Horney (1945) also dealt with the issue of negative parental influence and how it may lead to pathological or psychopathic personality development in the individual. Bad parents may produce in a child the feeling that everyone in life is hostile and that life is nothing but a relentless struggle. Horney (1945) called this particular "neurotic" style "moving against". According to Horney, "moving against" is conducive to deviant behavior, because it is characterized by toughness, aggression and a craving for power. Many individuals falling under this rubric, she believed, could be classified as psychopathic, because they lacked concern and empathy for others.

Redl and Toch (1979) caution us, however, in assuming that all deviant children are the product of bad parents. Psychoanalytic theory suggests that negative parental influences only increase the likelihood of deficient personality development, which in turn leads to weak internal controls, resulting in delinquent behavior (Aichhorn, 1925; Friedlander, 1947; Abrahamsen, 1960; Vold and Benard, 1986; Martin et al., 1990). The various personality mechanisms (id, ego and superego) are unable to work in harmony and hence, the child is unable to mediate internal and external conflict. The inability to delay gratification is a trait often attributed to delinquents. In psychoanalytic terms this translates into the inability to mediate between the pleasure principle and the reality principle (Alexander and Healy, 1935). As Redl and Toch (1979) suggest the inability of the individual delinquent to control impulses means that he/she has never developed an adequate ego to delineate the boundaries of reality.

Unconscious Guilt and...