Criminal Psychodynamics. A Platform
Benjamin Karpman · The Journal of Criminal Law Criminology and Police Science · 1956
Criminal psychodynamics has for its purpose the study of the genesis, development, and motivation of that aspect of human behavior that conflicts with accepted social norms and standards.The Archives of Criminal Psychodynamics will encourage research into the psychodynamics of existing knowledge on the subject, promotion of superior legal and humane understanding of the relations between the criminal and society, and the betterment of the condition of the criminal as an individual.With this as a prior formulation, let us see where we stand today as compared'with fifteen years ago, when I prepared a platform for the JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL PSYCHO-PATHOLOGY edited by the late Dr. V. C. Branham. I. PSYCHODYNAMICS AND CRIMINAL MOTIVATIONSNo marked improvement can be reported in the contributions to criminal psychopathology made by criminology, academic psychology, physical anthropology, and law, which emphasize mass aspects of the situation, generally failing to appreciate the significance of the individual.In conventional psychiatry, an advance has been made through the increased number of converts to psychodynamics.But many psychiatrists still operate at the descriptive level, seeing behavior as consisting of deliberately chosen, conscious acts and seemingly unable to grap the meaning of unconscious motivations.