Evening Star Newspaper, July 20, 1930, Page 77

s — THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JULY 20, 1930, "ALL MEN Are Born CRIMINA iy Lillian G. Genn. NO CHANCE TO BLOW OFF STEAM! Before the Machine Age, points out Dr. Alexander, a man could find enor- mous, though sublimated satisfaction in his work. Now he is only a cog in a huge machine. The instincts, though, must be satisfied. If no other release is found, the criminal instincts will come to the fore. Threat of punishment may hold them in check, but it needs more than punishment to adjust a person to society. There must be an inner feeling of justice and complete satisfaction of normal instinets and eravings. F YOU believe it is natural for you to be a righteous, law-abidding individual, you are under a misapprehension. Ac- cording to Dr. Franz Alexander, psycho- analyst of Berlin, now visiting in the United States, we are all born criminal beings. Dr. Alexander has devoted many years to the mental hygiene of criminology and is the author of “The Criminal and His Judges,” as well as several other books pertaining to the subject. His observations, therefore, are based on mature thought and experience. “Most people,” he said, “take it for granted that criminals are mental defectives or peculiar personalities who are unable to ‘go straight.” And yet the fact is that a good proportion of criminals have normal and even superior in- tellects. They are not biologically different from the person who does not break laws. “We usually ask, ‘Why does a person become a criminal?’ To my mind, it would be more to the point to ask, ‘Why don't all people become <riminals?” Every one is born into this world with instincts and impulses that are not adjusted to soclety. “IP’ A child could realize the demands of his instincts, he would act as a criminal. To overcome this natural tendency, the demands of his instincts must be adjusted to the demands of society. This is a gradual process that is never completed. By that I mean that only one part of his personality really becomes ad- justed. The other part continues to remain criminal. This is proved by dreams, the slips of every-day life and by symptoms of various kinds. The fact that a person is able to exclude these criminal impulses from his consciousness marks him as a cultured, civilized human being. “But to return to the child. Just how does he become a social being? He must be re- stricted and suppressed. He must be taught what are the right things to do and what are not. To- accomplish this task successfully, he must be given substitutes so that he will be satisfied with his restrictions. If his circum- stunces and environment are such that he receives no satisfaction for the restrictions that are imposed on him, then his repressed criminal instinct will break through. “When the process of adjustment between the demands of the instincts and the demands of society is disturbed in a child we find that he becomes a delinquent. He is dissatisfied with his emotional life and he breaks the laws of society for the pleasure of satisfying his in- stincis. His impulse to steal, for example, is not for any utilitarian reasons. The thing that he may tal’: may be of no use to him; he may not even care for it. It is only that the act of slealing is an emotional release for him. This childish, instinctive stealing. trans- forms into the later purposive stealing of the adult. ° “The process of adjustment can be disturbed for many reasons. A child may be constantly prohibited from doing things by his parents. If there is dissension between the parents he will be torn by an emotional conflict that will impel him to crime. If, on the other hand, the child is overwhelmed with attention and spoiled, he will come into conflict later in life. He finds that society does not spoil him. He cannot face any problems. It is too difficult for him to stay social and so he turns to breaking laws. Here at last he finds satis- faction. “The present method of education is such that it does not help in the process of adjust- ment. It is almost entirely restrictive, In the days when life was simpler, this wasn’t a handi- cap. But today civilization is so complex and 80 restrictive that different methods of educa- tion are needed if a child is to be equipped for the difficult role he will have to play. For as soon as he is old enough he will enter into an economic world that will do its best to dam up his emotional release. “Before the Machine Age a man could find enormous, even though sublimated, satisfaction in his work. It was a personal and individual thing with him. Now he is only a cog in a huge machine. He has to perform small work that bas no meaning in itself. This division of labor takes away from a job almost every pos- sibility of a pleasurable release. As great organe- izations continue to take the place of the small individual concerns and the majority of beople become employes, & mechanical part of oné body, you can readily see that they will be more restricted than ever. The instincts, though, must be satisfied. “If no other release is found, the criminal instincts will come right to the fore. The threat of punishment may hold them in check, but not for long. It needs more than punish- ment to adjust a person to society. There must be an inner feeling of justice and of satis- faction. And this feeling comes only when there is proper balance between what is for bidden and what is permitted. ‘The fact that the average person’s life is not properly bal- anced today is the reason why he expresses so much discontent. “ONE must further consider that marriage, too, has lost its playful, irrational pleasure-seeklng to a great extent. Men are more absorbed with work. To be a financial success i5 the most important thing in Ilfe, And now that women have become emanci- pated, we also find that they are busy with work or club activities. Rfen and wowmen have little time for each other. Since marriage has hecone an insignificant part of their lives, it has naturally lost much of its importance as an emotional release, “This decrease of psychic outlets increases conditions for neurosis. If the léss hardy person is consequently impelled to a life of crime it isn’t on his shoulders that the blame should be laid. It is society itself that is ve- sponsible because it has not provided him with adequate emotional outlets. “In other words, the adjustment of society must be based on substitutes which make people emotionally satisfled. Otherwise you have causes for crime.” These are only a few of the essential factors that Dr. Alexander believes all tend to hinder the social development of man and promote the outbreaking of his criminal instincts. Portu- nately, while modern civilization is tending to restrict man, it is at the same time trying to find, with intuitive efforts, new outlets for him. “The tremendous growth of the movies,” said Dr. Alexander, “is due to the fact that it offers a very important emotional vent.. Here man can find his lost individuality. For the time being he identifies himself with the hero. This ° accounts for the great popularity of.adventure, ' crime and sex films. It is the reason why they must continue to be untruthful if they are to appeal to people. “The automobile, radio, art, music and the sports also provide vents for dammed-up emotions. Chewing gum and smoking partly answer this need, t0o. They serve instincts which go back to infancy. “Life has become so impoverished for man that if he did not have the movies and the theater he would hardly be able to keep his equilibrium. They have become such necessar y outlets for him that if any one were n a position to prohibit them it would lead to deep discontent and inevitable revolution, “It is not an accident that the movies, sports, Tadio and the other so-called non-essentials of life are developing so enormously. It is vecause People absolutely require them. They need them to appease an emotional craving. The man who wants to make a fortune for himself could do it in no better way than to devate himself to the creating of non-essential things.* N Dr. Alexander’s opinion, though, it . I mistake to call them non-e&senthh."x‘hhc; u:&;;ry ltmur:ortnnt and should be deemed so. e of the reasons why people can proper adjustments,” he declared, “hmche:’:x: they \are inclined to undervalue these non- essentials. They are taught to regard them as the trivial things of Jife, But the samo technique and concentration should be applied to them as is applied to big business organiza- tions, so that these non-essentials could take their proper place in the scheme of life. In the days of the Roman Empire the gladiatorial combats played an importsnt part in the lives of the people. Caesar himself grasped their for relief from the inner pressure in v People are forced in an overorganized so“:-ie't';l'l.u “Modern society cannot afford to overlook the non-essential industries. They ' are the oneg that satisly the instinctive demands of man and help hin\ to maintain his balance.” It is the education of the child that Dr, Alexander fraquently repeated throughout the !nurvlev. In the child’s first diffculties in ad= justment of his emotional relations to parentg and society are found the later causes of crime, Coatinued on Ninctsenih Paps