Evening star., 1935-04-30
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

The diSruptive tendencies which
find expression in crime do not brand
the criminal as an unnatural monster,
DR.. William A. White, superintendent
Of st. Elizabeth's Hospital. told the
New York Academy Of Medicine in
the second Of his series of Salmon
lectures the other night.
Much of society's attitude toward
the criminal, Dr. White said, is due to
an outworn philosophy which regard
ed man as naturally the acme of per-
fection. and hence any deviation from
perfection as contrary to human ma
ture. This human self righteousness,
he explained, was defense reaction
of man against the sense Of helpless
ness in the vast. mysterious universe
which surrounded him. In most of
its other aspects this philosophy has
been abandoned. Man recognizes his
littleness in the physical universe due
to the revelations Of astronomers. He
has yet to recognize his ittleness ir
other fields.
Said DR.. White: "The attitude to-
ward crime and the criminal classes Is
perhaps the most outstanding example
which could be chosen Of mans pref
udiced feelings about himself and the
Incorporation of these prejudices into
his thinking and acting.
Man has, from the beginning
thought very well of himself. His
early concepts Of the universe were
that the sun, moon and stars were
put into the heavens in order that
they might light and warm him par
ticularly, and that the sun revolved
around the earth-the earth, because
it was the habitation of man. being
the center Of the universe and man,
the flower of creation, being the par
ticular object of the love and con-
| sideration of God
This tendency has always existed.
1t is part Of mans feeling Of insecur-
ity and the safety motive in his think
ing, feeling and acting. He seek.
safety and security in such beliefs anc
he resists anything that runs to the
contrary. He has always been in.
| clined. probably because of his lazi-
ness, to believe that his instincts were
absolutely correct guides to his con.
duct and that common sense was al
that was necessary to insure success
in his life.
I'm the face Of repeated examples
Of failure Of instructive processes and
the inadequacies of common sense, his
feeling of insecurity is activated and
he reSistS the evidence of his senses
In the same way he has resisted the
evidences of his inadequacies which
have come from the emotional side OF
his life. He has regarded himself as
having reached the peak of evolution
and presenting innumerable perfec-
tions, at least in their possibilities
but he has failed to recognize the
disrUptive and death-dealing tenden-
cies that run along side by side with
his greatest possibilities. So in deal
ing with criminals ne has exalted his
own feelings of perfection at the ex-
penSe of others mistakes, has char
acterized them as sinful and bad and
by implication, considered himself as
good, and therefore worthy"
X X X
Much the same attitude, DR.. White
said, has crept into the educational
| system. Education has come to have
as its main objective the compression
into a common mold of all the varied
possibilities represented by the indi-
| vidual child rather than an effort to
discover in each one his outstanding
capacities. Where efforts have beer
made to get away from this system
DR.. White said, educators have swung
to the opposite extreme, leaving the
child without any CONTROL at all. He
pleaded for via media in education
whereby the individual might be con-
sidered from the point Of view Of q
social unit.
"As SUCH" he said, society becomes
Of absolute Importance to him, as only
through \ en- hs md his Rsatesa