New-York tribune., 1918-07-24
The Unconscious
Wish to Kill
To the Editor of The Tyib13,c

To the Editor of The T1iJ,nc
CN lR: We witnessed the other day quito
extraordinary accident. A young man in
an automobile coming up very narrow
lane whred quickly around an obstructing
cart and, seeming to lose all sense of direc-
ton, went flying across the sidewalk into
an adjacent building An old woman who
was passing was pinned between the car
and the building. She seemed almost un-
hurt. 1t was miracle that she was not
crushed to a pulp. Any one who knew
anything Of motoring would have said sim
ply that the young man had lost his head
But suppose person with no preconcep-
tions witnessed the accident and endeavored
to describe it impartial1y, he would have had
to say that the young acted as if he
wished to kill this helpless old woman.
Which explanation was nearer the fact?
One of the Offices Of the new psychology
has been to make clear how strong is the
impulse to kill, at times, in every human
being. We know that this wish at times
appears with astonishing intensity in lit
tie children. We also know that it was
a basic drive in the savage. The new psy-
chology has revealed that these infantile
or savage desires not eradcated as we
grow to manhood or womanhood they are
merely suppressed, or rather repressed, and
sometimes their outbreak is very frightful
indeed.
Now, in this present instance, the young
man was apparently deeply angcred at tho
obstruction of the cart, and at the mo-
ment of passing seemed to turn his head
and swear at the driver of the cart It was
probably this burst of anger which caused
him to lose his direction and 20 crazily
over the curb. The basis Of this burst was
the desire to inflct retribution upon the
obstructng cart. This sprang from the
lnfantlle unconscious. But how should this
cause the driver to "lose his head" as we
say?
The explanation Of the new psychology
would be that in the instant of time that
elapsed the drivers wrath was distributed
over anything in sight The first thing in
sight was a wretched old woman. There
was blind impulse to DESTROY; its vic
TIM was the woman. The strange impulse
that made the driver open his throttle in
stead of slamming on his brake was this
unconscious impulse to kill. His terror
sprang not from the thought of killing the
old woman, but terror at his own thought.
This is evident on purely statistical basis.
There was time to think of the con-
sequences of killing the old woman. There
was only time to be terrified at his own
desires
We think that this explanation prob
ably covers by far the larger number of
all killings by automobiles They spring
IN very large part from this same primal,
lntantlle savage desire to slay. This seems
like an extreme view, but it is very re-
markable that where drastic penalties for
automobile accidents have been enforced
these accidents and these killings have re-
markably subsidized. The full proof we be-
lieve would be simple. If it were def
nitely known that, no matter what the
provocatlon or excuse, every motor car
driver who kills human being is forth
with to be hanged, We venture the predic-
ton that in a whole year there would not
be five of these summary executions.
New York, July %, 1918 C. S.