The Washington times., 1933-09-02
CORRECT BREATHING AN ESSENTIAL FACTOR SEARCH FOR HEALTH AND
Secrets OF
Health
BY LOUIS E. BISCH. MD. Ph.D.
That Strange Individual,
the PSychopath
Copyright, 1888, King Features
SNnlic icnla Inc l

Copyright, 1888, King Features
Syndicate, IncD
Most persons are familiar, at g.
least through hearsay, with the
more striking types of mental
abnormality, such as insanity
and feeble-mindedness. Few,
however, know what a psyche !
path is, or have they ever heard
of one. IL
Yet, figuratively speaking, the
woods is full of them. In fact,
there is no telling how many of
these, often dangerous, indi-
VidualS are in our midst. When.
ever a heinous crime is COM
mitted, such as specially cruel
murder of a kidnapping, mental
specialists quite naturally think
of the psychopaths. They know
that it Is just this type of men.
tai alteration that is given to
such atrocities.
Psychopaths, 1t must be
pointed out, are singularly lack
ing in emotional response. Not
that they do not possess any
emotions at all, but rather that
their emotional reactions are
quite different from those of
normal people.
For instance, mother love is a
deeply and universally ingrained
feeling, but a psychopath may
be absolutely devoid of it. Pity.
tenderness, love for a wife or
child, and the like, are other
emotions that some psychopaths
have never experienced.
On the other hand, although
such an individual may not re-
act to one of these sentiments,
he may, perhaps, respond to
patriotism. Or he may react to
every emotion, but in an unex-
pected and surprising way.
Coupled with such emotional
inadequacy there often exists,
however, high order of intelli-
gence.
A psychopath may be college
bred and yet not shed q tear if
his dearest friend or his mother,
wife or sweetheart dies. He may
be able to talk on the fourth
dimension" and EinStein's
theories of relativity and yet be
capable of planning a perfect
crime" without the slightest
pangs of conscience.
And that, of course, Is what
makes psychopaths so specially
dangerous. Often nothing has
occurred in the life of the
individual to make anyone
suspect that he is given to
criminality until the deed Is
done and it is too late.
What is even worse, such an
individual has the brains" not
only to work out a plot but to
cover up his tracks successfully
afterwards. :
The task of "spotting," sc to
speak, every psychopath Is
practically an impossible one.
Nevertheless the law could
recognize this abnormallty for
what it actually is and treat
those psychopaths who offend
against society accordingly.
The procedure now, untor-
tunately, is not to admit IN
court that such people exist.
Simply because they measure
up normally on mental tests
and do not "talk out Of their
heads" they are treated as or
dinary criminals.
This means sentence and i'm
prisonment for a limited pc
riod only.
But the psychopath was born
with fundamental defects, and
he can never change. When
released from prison he Is as
great a menace to society as
he was before. Unfortunately,
too, he cannot be cured by any
methods known to psychiatry.
Psychopaths who break the
law should not be segregated
in prisons, but in special instt-
tutions adapted to their needs.
And if their peculiar emotional
inadequacy happens to be as
sociated with marked criminal
ity and cruelty, they should be
so hospitalized for life.
DR.. Bisch's Daily Diet Hint
Honey not only is most palat-
able, but it Is highly nutrt-
tious. Besides, children like 1t.
Several kinds Of sugars are to
be found in honey. Chief
among them are glucose and
fructose. Different samples Of
honey may vary in flavor, due
to the fact that bees have
gathered the honey from flow
are NJ Aifferent odorS