Mental conflicts and misconduct

Front matter

i.y

1^ m.

LIBRARY

Preface

The great value of understanding] the foundations of conduct is clearly shown by such living facts as are gathered together in this volume. Bearing upon one type of causation of misconduct, we have here not only a rational psychological theory, but also abundant concrete material. An important field is opened before us, especially interesting because of the revelation (a) of potent subconscious mental mechanisms working according to definite laws of mental life, and (b) of types of hidden early experiences which definitely evoke these mental processes that are forerunners of misconduct.

Troublesome behavior, originating in the experiences and mechanisms here under discussion, ranges widely from mere faults of social attitude to severe delinquency and crime dependent upon uncontrolled anti-social motivation or impulse. Cases having this causation occur so frequently that specific knowledge of their nature should be part of the equipment of all who have to pass judgment or to advise concerning misdoing and misdoers.

Much reliance has always been placed upon the idea that admonition and punishment is an effectual way of meeting undesirable conduct. However, even

X PREFACE

the simplest observations show the very great failure of these methods. No thoroughly effective scheme of punishment can be part of our civilization. We have set our faces against barbaric retribution and absolute prevention of offense. Some of us even hesitate at corporal punishment of children. So far as delinquency and crime are concerned, with more or less self -consciousness and with much groping towards progress, we stand nowadays, with our reformatories and probation systems and what-not, definitely for the principle of inducing in the offender self -directed tendencies towards more desirable behavior. It requires little discernment to see how deeply the success of such undertakings must depend on wise adaptation to the causes of misconduct.

The remarkable results following upon exploration of mental conflicts, at least when there has been any fair chance for building up better impulses in these cases we have been studying, show most concretely how earnest seeking for causes forms the effective approach to treatment of misconduct.

Before the reader goes into the body of the work, I would have it thoroughly understood that our studies are tied to no one psychological school. The efforts at mental analysis which are here represented have been stimulated more by uncovering facts than by any theories, although I gratefully acknowledge the help to appreciation of principles which has been derived from various writers on psychoanalysis and kindred topics. It has been no small aid to scientific conviction that many others, even though working in separate fields, clearly discern that often there are covert mental mechanisms basically affecting attitudes and conduct.

PREFACE xi

The reader who profits by this work is, with the author, especially indebted to Doctor Augusta F. Bronner for her studies of cases and her aid in the preparation of this volume.

WILLIAM HEALY.

WiNNETKA, Illinois, November, 1916.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

Preface ix

I Introduction 1

Chapter I Introduction

A REMARKABLE, dynamic quality characterizing certain hidden mental reactions to experiences is responsible in some individuals for the production of misconduct, or, indeed, whole careers of delinquency. These experiences and reactions not only develop as an unrecognized background in the special case (they often are not even consciously framed as causal in the offender's own mind), but the fact of the existence of this type of mental causation is yet to be made a part of general knowledge. It is my task to set forth with abundant illustration the nature of these most important mechanisms of mental life.

In view of the newness of the idea of searching out mental factors of conduct, we have waited several years to see if the discovery of these apparently definite psychological principles held true for an ample number of cases; meanwhile watching the effects of attempts to adjust affairs in the mental life of certain offenders. Sufficient time has thus elapsed, and our studies are now ready for detailed publication. They will have for many the greatest interest of any of our findings.

Some general facts may first be stated. In the consultation room with parents and even with delinquents themselves, or during court hearings, or in considering the statements of probation officers who have striven to avert further misdoing, sometimes a curious aspect of the case becomes apparent. It may stand out clearly that the individual experiences a distinct inner urge towards misdoing — misdoing that often leads to little else than anxious apprehension and other suffering on the part of the misdoer. The painfulness of these effects, even as a repeated experience, is not only apparent to the observer, but may be well recognized by the delinquent. This untoward drive of something in the concealed mental life is seen already in young children, is much more frequent in adolescents, and undoubtedly exists in many adults. In the last, however, the long and strong effects of environmental conditions and habits cover deeply the evidences of original forces. What do such formidable urgings represent?

It is clear to the onlooker that the inner driving force does not proclaim itself in any way as such, that it takes little heed of reason or prudence, that it exhibits a strange energy from a source so unsuspected. Then, if sincere and patient investigation is undertaken with the delinquent, the whole phenomenon may be revealed as a reaction to component parts of mental life and to certain prior experiences. Hardly ever is the chain of causation found to have been selfperceived or self -formulated. Relationship of the active misconduct, regarded as effect, to the underlying cause, is anything but obvious on account of

INTRODUCTION S

repression of the original trouble-producing ideas and emotions. Here superficial facts are thoroughly misleading in regard to antecedents. The displayed energy is only to be traced back along devious or vicarious paths to a distant, pent-up source, where the tendency to action is generated through the high emotional import of the original experience and of the mental states superimposed. In such a case the repressions, the escape of energy along undesirable channels, the outcome in misconduct truly represent mental strife, mental conflict.

For readers unfamiliar with certain trends of thought now influencing psychology and particularly psychological medicine I may say that if the above terse statement does not seem entirely comprehensible, the subject receives further elucidation in the discussion of principles and] methods of studying cases offered in following chapters. There is no need for lack of clarity in treating this most interesting phase of mental life ; I deal with it only along a road that is well lighted by ascertained data. The concreteness of the case illustrations will certainly serve to bring about good understanding of what can be discovered and what can be done in cases of misconduct of the type we have under consideration.

The study and interpretation of these specially involved mental mechanisms, for so they are well-termed, in their relation to misconduct, I have all along felt should proceed with full conservatism. It can readily be seen that we have not in the least overdone the central idea, have not drawn far-fetched conclusions, or been carried away by the dicta of writers who perceive the wealth of possible theory involved in discussion of hidden mental backgrounds. It is likely, rather, that some students ardently seeking mental causations in the field of medical psychology will feel that we have not done justice to the interpretation of many subtleties. More concerning the intricacies of the subject will be developed in later parts of this work, but such points always appear to us of much less importance than grappling the main issue.

The evolution of our own thought concerning the relation of mental conflicts to misconduct has been singularly simple and direct. It proceeded from no a priori expectation or formulation of principles. Indeed, until quite ingenuous inquiry into the springs of conduct elicited this type of fact for us, we were not aware that mental conflict played any part here. The analogy to what has been discovered in other fields by mental analysis or psychoanalysis, particularly as applied to functional nervous disorders which are, after all, largely problems of conduct, was perceived later. Starting thus firmly with actual facts, we have continuously attempted further investigation only with our feet well on the ground. I speak particularly of this because in some quarters the concept of mental conflicts seems to have offered wings for soaring high in the realms of speculative thought.

Many nonprofessional people will balk, no doubt, at the difficulties implied in our insistence on the necessity for such intensive study of not a few cases of misdoing. Certainly parents and others most intimately concerned, while often the very ones who suggest investigation, too frequently show themselves, as may be seen by our case material, quite unable to grasp the purport of the results of investigation. And seriously significant here is the well-rooted general supposition that tendencies to misdoing can be corrected by superficial attitudes towards them, such, for instance, as the administration of ordinary forms of retribution. But, indeed, in view of failures to induce moral reconstruction, ranging from attempts in family life to those undertaken by the law, failures shown by statistics and by individual cases, there should be no objections because of the comparative diflSculty of getting at underlying causes.

The main situation to be comprehended is that the human mind is an immensely complex organism, and that if we are to cope with its conduct-producing powers, we must know them. Obstacles to knowledge may be encountered, but form no excuse if they are not insurmountable. After all, in at least fairly intelligent and young individuals, our experience shows that the deep-lying essentials may usually be ascertained. The task requires skill in appreciations and discernments, and acquaintance with special methods ; the time demanded is only such as any serious human problem deserves.

There is no reason, with the spread of knowledge concerning this subject, why we may not rationally expect a rapid growth of demand for such thorough study of difficult cases of delinquency as may bring to light the fact of mental conflict when it exists. It would hardly do to define *' difficult cases" as merely those instances of delinquency generally regarded as hard to explain, because superficial accounting for wrongdoing is altogether too common. We continually meet all sorts of rough-and-ready explanations of delinquency offered by everybody, from parents to experienced judges — explanations which seem entirely satisfactory as a theory to the person offering them, even when the field of inquiry in the given case has not in the least been covered. In our case-histories, if it were worth while, considerable space might be given to citing the various false causal interpretations which had been passed along as if they represented known facts.

As a contrast to this, I may insist that other workers will have just our experiences in discovery if they assume the highly practical task of intimately studying the causative factors of delinquency. It was not long before we were forced to the conclusion that such information as might be obtained by mental testing, physical examination, by learning the main points of developmental and family history, and by inquiring into companionship and other environmental conditions, was absolutely insufficient to explain the essentials of the development of a marked tendency to delinquency in certain cases. Certain elements of inner mental life had to be sought out and invoked for explanation, even if practical issues alone were in view.

If there is practical value in this deeper investigation it must be evidenced by positive, determinable, therapeutic results. Not only do I grant this point, but I have always insisted on it since I first realized how mental analysis, as a general method, tends to work over into the field of psychology of conduct. It may be said at once that some early cases gave such unmistakable proof of the possibility of great service being rendered through ascertaining the mental conflict back of the misconduct, that since then there has never been with us serious doubt of the worth of this method. Our case-studies, as given later, will sustain the point. In fact, even the failures — from which I contend we may learn nearly as much as from suecesses — often show the continued existence of just those elements which we clearly recognized it was necessary to eliminate from the environment or from the mind in order that the correlated conduct-tendencies might be altered.

In the literature dealing with delinquency and crime we must plead that practically no help or hint was to be found concerning the import of mental conflicts for the production of misconduct ; as a matter of fact the present volume offers the first approximation to a careful study on the subject. However, in the publications of a number of students of mental analysis or psychoanalysis, we have found much that has aided our understanding of the mental life uncovered to us by our own cases. Something of our debt to other investigators will appear in later chapters ; here I will merely state, in general, that the deeper strata of the mind that experts have tapped in their endeavor to study the foundations of the neuroses have revealed data that serve to strengthen greatly some of our findings.

How important this subject of mental conflicts really is in relation to delinquency, as witnessed to by the proportionate number of cases, is a question already, no doubt, in the minds of some readers. It would be difficult to give an estimate that might serve as an^ indicator for any given situation. We are uncertain even about the totals in our own series. (We find no practical difference between the proportions for each sex.) In our first thousand cases of youthful recidivists we found seventy-three instances where mental conflict was a main cause of the delinquency, but during the first year or more of our work we were not aware of the possible frequency of this factor and very likely did not always discover it. Even later we have undoubtedly failed sometimes to ascertain this essential fact ; it is by no means always easy to uncover the conflict. In the second series of a thousand recidivists, studied by Doctor Augusta F. Bronner and myself during two years, although we found seventy-four examples of mental conflict, we, again, would be far from contending that this number represents the true total. Many times, in the exigencies of court work, only the comparatively superficial facts of mental and physical conditions, with some points about family and habits and environment, have been elicited. But even our incomplete showing of over seven per cent, for each series looms large enough to demonstrate the considerable importance of this cause, and to show that any student of unselected delinquents is very likely to see many of these particularly intricate cases.

Much more important than the matter of numbers is the fact that, on account of the recurrence of the impulse to misbehavior, amounting at times almost to a criminalistic compulsion, some of the most important cases of delinquency are those involving the problem of mental conflict. The cases cited will amply demonstrate this. Over many years conduct may be tinged with a malign show of anti-social tendencies, and in some cases a very definite, unfortunate social attitude is assumed. Indeed, a long career of misdeeds may be evolved from the primary cause and its renewals.

Even in this introductory chapter I would emphasize other incident factors, over and beyond the original mental experience and its repression, which enter into the making of delinquent careers upon a basis of mental conflict. In the first place it may be, as often suggested, that a special type of temperament is in part responsible for this given reaction. Possibly this is so, but, of course, the fact implies no mental abnormality; indeed, it may well be that individuals particularly well endowed in emotional qualities and finer feelings are the more prone to suffer from mental repressions and conflicts.

Then, next, may be mentioned certain superimposed elements entering into the making of delinquent tendencies in these cases of mental conflict, not that they are always present as major factors, but the chance of their playing an important part is so great that consideration of them is ever necessary. To enumerate : the thought or impulse as once held may very likely crop up again in the mind through the active forces of memory and of association and habit formation. Then there may be persisting environmental influences which further the development of the delinquent tendency, even though the genesis of the latter has been for the most part a matter of the inner mental life. There are the suggestions coming from various features of living conditions in an old neighborhood, from an already achieved reputation, from old associates in delinquency, or from companions known while under detention. There is the sorry effect of a bad reputation upon chances for employment, and the effect of police surveillance, — warranted, of course, but which leads to the former delinquent continually looking upon himself as a possible offender. Even a family attitude towards an offender may have the same result. We have watched all of these adventitious forces at work in some cases and have observed that where no change of conditions has been carried out.

the continuance of the tendency to offense has seemed inevitable. Complicated and difficult for treatment as the situation may sometimes appear, the various elements are not indistinguishable. The problem in any one of these cases where other elements are added to the original mental conflict is typically the problem of reformation of criminals in general; there are many social maladjustments which stand in the way of betterment.

The interest and import that this whole subject of the relationship of mental conflicts to misconduct should have for a wide range of readers is just the interest and import that the study of causations should have for all those concerned in any way with the problems of conduct. First there are the parents ; they could be saved a vast deal of trouble and disgrace if they understood and could head off delinquent tendencies at the time of beginnings. Perhaps nothing stands out any clearer in our cases than the fact that those nearest have been totally ignorant of what has been going on in the mental life of the young persons in question, and often have not known of exceedingly important experiences. Then, teachers, if acquainted at all with this subject, might often surmise enough to at least advise professional investigation. Judges and probation officers, who see the well-defined cases of delinquency, often gather facts concerning the delinquent which should suggest every reason for deep inquiry into causes and beginnings. The observed ineffectiveness of attempted superficial remedies under the law, in many cases, should be sufficient to demonstrate the necessity for thoughtful, patient, professional consideration of all that could possibly cause the misconduct. Perhaps we might also say that institutional people, by vocation engaged in handling delinquents, are falling short of their highest duties and greatest possibilities if they, in their turn, are not searching for all things curative. And as for pastors and all who attempt moral guidance, it is perfectly patent that they can hardly be thoroughly qualified for their attempts in many directions if they do not have as part of their armamentarium knowledge of the essential facts pertaining to the genesis of misdoing.

Who professionally shall be the analyst to delve into genetics in the actual case depends in any given situation upon who is personally suited and educated for the task. It is a work for medicopsychologists and perhaps for psychologists untrained in medicine, but it also strikes one that it is a rich field for properly equipped pastors, — men who, on account of their very calling, should be trained to fathom the foundations of conduct.

The bearing of such findings as ours on the whole scheme of handling offenders under the law is as striking as it is obvious. It might well serve as a theme for many a discussion. Few words are here necessary ; we and many others have long since dwelled on the to-be-expected inefficiency of any system constructed by the law for handling human beings which is not founded on first principles of understandings. What can be expected if no early effort is made to discover the dynamic sources from which delinquency emanates ?

A great variety of misconduct arises upon the basis of mental conflict. In our observed cases, the range is from the less serious, but sustained bad behavior of childhood, to deeds of actual crime. As will be seen in the following list, there is little in the way of misbehavior to which mental conflict may not lead. We have seen examples of :

General troublesomeness and mischief making, including destructiveness.

Stubbornness, obstinacy, chronic willfulness.

Truancy.

Remaining out over night and running away from home.

Vagrancy.

Stealing, including pathological stealing. (We desire to avoid the use of the ill-defined term "kleptomania. ")

Obtaining money by false representations. Forgery.

Exhibition of bad temper. General violent behavior.

Deliberate malicious mischief and violence.

Sexual offenses.^

Cruelty — sadistic offenses.

Self -in jury of the nature of masochistic offenses.

Injury to others, or attempt to injure.

(It should be readily conceded that the social sins defined by the law do not represent any deeper perversities and often are not as significant for the production of unhappiness as are many of the chronic exhibitions of ugly family attitude, of selfishness, miserliness, bad temper, of overbearing or unfair business methods. And we doubt not that many of these other forms of ill conduct also may arise from subconscious mental conflicts. Indeed, analysts of mental processes have recently been showing this to be true.) ^

^ In our chapter on Applications we have given the reasons for limiting our discussion of sexualistic offenses.

^ O. Pfister's analytic researches into the causes of family hatred offer an instance. Jahrbuch fur Psychoanalytische Forschungen, Bd. II, Heft 1, 1910.

. In the detailed histories of specific cases which follow my general discussion, nearly all the above offenses are represented. Cases have been selected as they portray types of causal experiences, of mental content induced by these experiences, of varieties of resultant misconduct, and sometimes to illustrate other features of special importance. The cases are placed in chapters, according to their emphasis of some particular point. Since the general elements are active in each instance, much overlapping is unavoidable; cases of stealing, for example, are depicted in other chapters than the one especially devoted to stealing. It will be readily understood that space for our very long records cannot be afforded, since it seems desirable to give a considerable variety of cases, that the abridgments indulged in omit the details of the actual diflSculties encountered in getting at the conflicts, that investigations resulting negatively and many other minor points are neglected, that personalities and places are always disguised beyond recognition. Those who wish to understand the subject and its bearings are invited to read closely this most informing concrete material.

As a final introductory word, I would suggest that if motives and impulses, acting recurrently until they signify tendencies and careers, arise out of the subconscious mental life of the individual, the fact must imply vastly more than is involved in the discussion of delinquency. We may reasonably at once think of such possible origin for other kinds of behavior, for social self-assertions, for the pettier unpleasant attitudes and frames of mind, for undefined dissatisfactions and social dislikes. Even many impulses to good behavior and to select desirable paths of actions probably arise from mechaiiisms active in subconscious mental life. At present one may look forward to extremely interesting investigations along this line, with considerable hint of possible accretions to our knowledge already appearing in recent literature on human motives and conduct. At least, the significance of genetics in the field of conduct problems is not limited to behavior of a special group, or to society's interest in delinquency and crime. Broader horizons dawn for the student of origins of conduct-tendencies.

Chapter II General Principles

Concrete findings, rather than theories, have gradually formed the framework of our ideas concerning the relationship of mental conflicts to misconduct. The whole conception is valuably strengthened, however, by formulation of such generalizations as may be rationally evolved from our collected data. Then, there is much of interest in reviewing these larger considerations by the side of certain psychological deductions developed through analogous work in other fields. It has been most fortunate for our investigation that in the last decade or so working methods and principles of dynamic psychology have been established which are especially helpful for the understanding of certain causes of conduct disorders.

At the very outset of any setting forth of principles, I would emphasize the most fundamental of all facts concerning this subject, namely, that the use of the genetic method opens the way, as nothing else does, to the most formidable attacks upon misconduct. One might expect any thoroughly common-sense method to include an effort to go back to beginnings in order to arrive at understandings, yes, and in order to accomplish reformations, although this only too seldom accords with actual practice. But through results actually achieved — in the form of wider explanatory vistas gained and conduct-tendencies altered in individual cases — there need be no mere conjecture about the matter ; we discover many definite evidences of the practical utility of studying causations.

Another main consideration is that we find ourselves here working in the field of dynamics. It is not so much what the individual is structurally, so far as the mental powers are measurable, but what the mental forces may be that are at work creating the undesirable behavior. As I have often maintained, there is much to be gained by the logical procedure of primarily considering conduct as the direct offspring of mental activity. And where mental conflicts are involved, the study of dynamics must go deeper than usual; investigation must be carried out that shall reveal much more than superficial facts and the obvious workings of the mind. We may, perhaps, without much harm to the situation, neglect the mental forces at work in some instances of misconduct, but in cases of the type now under consideration, the study of mental processes affords a master-key for opening to the light the essentials in the background.

Then, it is not merely the fact that there are driving forces of the inner life making for misconduct, but it is a matter of much import that these forces prove to be so powerful and are so persistently recurrent. Many of our cases exhibit the most remarkable energy of impulse in untoward directions. The determining factor of action arises and recurs with a show of strength all out of proportion to any readily perceivable source of motive power. It would seem as if this feature alone of the offender's conduct would be suflScient to call for deep reflection and analysis.

Another point concerning these remarkable cases has heretofore been made very little of, so little that it affords complete evidence of the superficiality of ordinary appreciation of motives. We find that some misdoers do not, in their misconduct, appear to be in the least carrying out their keenest desires. Their actions are forced, as it were, by something in themselves, not of themselves. If we judge by the repetition of misdeeds in the face of possible punishment and other suffering, we might suppose that these misdoers were impelled by their very strongest conscious wishes. But we know that this is often not the case, because the effect of the conduct in question is not in any ordinary sense pleasurable to the misdoers, nor do they regard it as such. The wrongdoing is not even primarily contemplated as likely to give them high satisfaction. So far as we can learn, the impulse arising from mental conflict has no penumbra whatever of delightf ulness ; on the contrary, it seems as if one of its most noteworthy characteristics is the curious absence of any idea of pleasure to be derived from following it. We have heard the expression from not a few misdoers, ''I don't know what makes me do it. I don't want to do it, and I feel sorry afterwards." It would seem that students of human motives should long since have been attracted to this curious phenomenon of conduct, because, results not being even contemplated as pleasurable, ordinary motives are not plainly involved.

In investigation of mental conflicts as causes of misconduct, we are bound to contemplate the mental life of early years, not because of a priori considerations, but through being led back, step by step, to influences active then. We sometimes find a very direct route leading from emotion-provoking experiences and reactions of childhood to even major offenses of adult life. How many cases there may be where the causes date back to childhood with intervening years free from misdeeds, it will need further development of studies of this subject to show. From our observations we should say that this intermitting type of evolution of misconduct will seldom be encountered. As far as examples of long-standing, overt tendency to offense are concerned, of course such cases must have had long-standing causes.

Li passing from these prefatory generalizations to discussion of the mechanisms involved when mental conflicts result in misconduct, I must first attempt some clear statement of certain concepts, deductions, and terms developed in closely allied fields. While this exposition is mainly in the interest of the general reader, it may serve to show professional students also how far our practical experience tallies with the deductions of others, and in what measure certain psychological conceptions may be utilized in studying misconduct.