Psychoanalysis is a special branch of psychiatry- Essay

Psychoanalytical Explanation

Psychoanalysis is a special branch of psychiatry, employing a particular personality theory and a particular method of psycho-therapy. The approach utilises the method of individual case study.

Sigmund Freud, who developed the psychoanalytical theory at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, did not advance a theory of criminality.

But his approach and the three elements of id, ego, and super-ego have been used by others like Alfred Adler, David Abrahamsen, August Aichorn, Friedlander, etc. to explain criminal behaviour.

It is an individual’s raw instincts or desires or derives or urges; ego is the reality; and super-ego is an individual’s conscience or more pressure. Super-ego constantly tries to suppress id while ego is the acceptable balance between id and super-ego. Id and super-ego are basically unconscious while ego is the conscious part of personality.

The three propositions of psychoanalytic thought are: (1) behaviour is largely the product of unconscious psychological-biological forces (drives or instincts); (2) criminality arises out of conflicts related to these basic drives; and (3) to modify undesirable (criminal) behaviour, the person must be guided towards insight into the unconscious roots of his responses so that he can develop control over such impulses.

In a well-balanced personality, id, ego and super-ego work in relative harmony. But in abnormal cases (neurotic individuals), imbalance and disharmony occur. When super-ego is not sufficiently developed, the released repressed instincts may lead to anti-social behaviour.

Conflict in the unconscious mind gives rise to feelings of guilt with consequent desire for punishment to remove the jilt feelings and restore a balance of good against evil. The individual then commits the criminal act, leaves clues for apprehension in order to be caught and punished (George Void, 1968: 93).

August Aichorn (1955: 30) was the first scholar to use Freud’s psychoanalytical approach for studying delinquents. According to him ‘dissocial’ behaviour results from the inner play of psychic forces.

He found several kinds of delinquents: some neurotic, some aggressive and lacking in super-ego development, some with little capacity for repressing their instinctual drives, and some having distorted cravings for affection. Psychoanalysis enables a therapist to discover the unconscious motives behind the ‘dissocial’ behaviour and guide the patient towards social conformity.

Alfred Adler explained crime in the first quarter of the twentieth century in terms of ‘Inferiority complex’. An individual commits crime to ‘get attention’ which helps him to compensate for his sense of inferiority.

But Adler’s theory has been criticised by Mannheim (Comparative Criminology, 1917: 331) for placing greater emphasis on the ‘rational’ side of an individual’s behaviour and for oversimplification.

Abrahamsen held that “in general, the causes of child’s delinquent behaviour may be traced to his parents’ emotional attitude toward his early instinctual manifestations and also by the way his ego and super-ego develop.” In simple terms, all past experiences are important in individual’s further behaviour, particularly delinquent behaviour.

Sociologists have not reacted very favourably either to Abrahamsen’s explanation or to psychoanalytic explanation that causes of crime are unconscious.

They say that early emotional conflicts and traumas might have influence on personality development and delinquent behaviour, but it is an oversimplification to reduce causative factors to three factors in mathematical terms.

Likewise, the explanation that the criminal commits crime because he subconsciously desires to be punished as a result of some of his guilt feelings cannot be accepted for all crimes because in some cases, the individual commits crime, feels guilty, and is then punished which enables him to atone for his action.

Thus, arguments against the psychogenic theories (i.e., psychological, psychiatric and psychoanalytical theories) are:

(1) There are methodological and logic-of-science errors in the theories. They all commit dualistic fallacy, assuming that there are two distinct groups of people criminals and non-criminals and that these exclusive groups commit behaviour that can be distinguished. One commits criminal acts and the other commits non-criminal acts. In fact, criminal behaviour is just like any other behaviour.

(2) The terms are vague as no operational definitions (say of id, ego, super-ego, or unconscious) are given.

(3) Projective techniques are open to subjective interpretation of the analysts. The researchers are based on small samples and inadequate control groups.

(4) So long as an individual is the focus of the approach, generalisations cannot be made regarding patterns of behaviour. Individualistic approach cannot be used for making generalisations for larger populations.