Evening star., 1933-03-03
|CR|ME IS INSANITY, /
DR.. WHITE H0[DS|
Head of st. EIizabeth's Gives
Some Reflections Drawn
From Long Experience.
Don't punish criminals.


such E the considered viewpoint Of q
man who for 80 years has had The Gus
tody Of dangerous law 1reakers-Dr.
william A. white, superintendent Of st.
Elizabeth's Hospital.
DR.. White, whose reflections, drawn
from his long experience with the GRIM
insl mind, are contained In q volume
Just issued, sees little theoretical differ
ence between crime and insanity and
no more reason for Furnishing . man
for murder than for Furnishing him for
having dementia precox. An insane in
dividual, he says, Is confined to protect
society from his possible depredations
and to cure him, II possible. But there
IS no idea Of punishment and as soon
Is q cure i effected the patient Is
released.
He would apply essentially the same
idea to the treatment Of the criminal
It may be necessary to restrain his
range Of activities for the protection Of
others and to cure his murderous ten
denotes. Or It may be that these are
cured by the crime itself and there Is
no need Of confinement.
Both crime and insanity DR.. White
regards as essentially the same phe-
nomenon-reversion to behavior which
was socially acceptable In the past but
which has been repressed with the
growth Of human culture. Once muir
der was practically . necessity for the
survival Of the Individual A certain
amount Of his available energy found
its outlet In this direction. The energy
Is still there, under the surface and
ready to break out In the old channel
when the individual encounters q prob
lem for which he cannot hnd q solu-
ton in socially acceptable behavior.
Much the same, DR.. White holds. Is
true Of the insane, although 1t NAV
not take form 50 dangerous to others.
Both "criminality" and insanity" he
holds, are relative terms.
The great difference, he considers
lies In the fact that the criminal has
such reversals Is the average individual
feels . tendency toward and of which,
consequently, he feels the danger to
society. Judge or JUROR can put him
sell IN the criminals shoes, has felt some
OF the same tendencies, and has con-
quered them. Consequently, he inclines
to regard the behavior as willful. The
behavior Of the insane person, on the
other hand, Is SO bizarre that the
average person cannot recognize In him
self any tendency In the same direction
Following are some Of DR.. Whites
reflections drawn from his long expert
ence with the criminals and the insane
at the big Government hospital here
MurdererS are by no means necessar.
ty dangerous criminals.
1T very frequently happens that the
circumstances Of the homicide are SO
unusual that 1t hardly would be possible
for them to occur . second time. Under
these circumstances they may be very
safe and reliable people to discharge
into the community. Especially Is this
50 II the crime and subsequent punish
ment have exhausted all the require
ments Of the emotional situation"
Come criminals may commit crime
merely for the sake Of being punished.
With such individuals increasing sever
tty OF punishment does not deter but
rather invites to the commission OF
crime.
When an insane patient begins to
smell things" its bad sign. Man,
who has gotten his nose away from the
ground in countless generations of
evolution from q quadruped to q biped,
normally has very defective sense of
smell. The part of the brain which
served this sense, however, still retains
its function. 1t Is very old in the
evolutionary line and deep-seated. The
sensory impressions 1t serves do not
readily arise to consciousness but they
have, nevertheless, profound subcon-
scious emotional ramidcations. So when