Jacob Bell
New Member
Dr. J. D. Reichard, Lexington, Ky. : All substances made
from cannabis are, by act of Congress, narcotic drugs. Although
hemp has been grown for more than a century in the United
States and the flowering tops have been smoked for years, only
recently has there been any concern about it. Tradition and
impression, not always dependable, but worthy of consideration,
suggest that the use of hemp has in the past been relatively
harmless. Old persons in Kentucky report seeing colored field
hands break up and load their pipes with dried flowering tops
of the plant and smoke them. There was never the slightest
suspicion that this procedure caused abnormal behavior. This
is particularly important, since aggressive behavior by a colored
person was, to put it mildly, viewed with alarm. Mr. Howland
Shaw of the State Department tells me that in Asia Minor the
use of cannabis was widespread but that there were no reports
of resulting" behavior disturbances.
Claims are made that the use of cannabis causes degenerative
brain disease. No well controlled study has been published
which even suggests this action. Reports that the use of cannabis
has caused crime, notably a study from New Orleans, gave
the impression that criminals were kidding the examiner, possibly
with the hope of receiving more lenient treatment. The
results of the study made in the Court of General Sessions in
New York City indicated that there was no felony commitment
of which was caused by the use of cannabis.
It is possible that some of the alleged harmful effects are
due to autosuggestion. It is reported that in the Near East the
use of cannabis produces erotic dreams and visions. No such
sensations have been reported by the users with whom I have
come in contact. Since it is widely believed that use of the
drug lowers inhibitions, since the user expects to feel reckless
and uninhibited, this expectation, and not pharmacologie action,
might explain some of the "results" particularly among youngpersons.
I have had a feeling that the effect of cannabis resembles that
of alcohol; however, behavior of subjects given pyrahexyl,
apparently a synthetic analogue of cannabis, resembles more
that seen under adequate sedation with morphine; i. e., quietude
and peacefulness.
Juvenile Deliquency
Dr. Robert V. Seliger, Baltimore : Juvenile delinquency is
a self defining term. Legally, in some states, it means offenses
against society committed by persons from 7 to 20 years of age.
The role of psychiatry is to aid society both in understanding
and in working along practical lines to help cure and prevent
delinquency. Failure will result in further social and individual
chaos.
In America some contemporary influences that have helped
produce juvenile delinquency are broken homes (due to divorce,
death, alcoholism), careless or ignorant parental supervision
(both parents working and inadequate or no community child
care), conflict and tension producing goals in life (emphasis on
"pleasure," materialistic success), inadequate church attendance
and guidance, noncohesive social patterns due to historical eruptions–
war, depression, inflation, racial, class and professional
intolerances, and endemic mass migration of labor, with present
day poor housing and lack of adequate facilities for recreational
and community life.
On the constructive practical side our medical psychiatric role
in juvenile delinquency should be: 1. Preventive work through
Mental Hygiene. 2. To help in reorienting our culture so as
to prevent development of the problem en masse (knowing that
in spite of the best reorientation we shall always have psychiatric
and other problems of human nature). 3. From an individual
practical approach, to help in getting community agencies
to allow psychiatric groups to interpret behavior and not just
to judge conduct. 4. To remember that the term juvenile
delinquency, as such, for individual treatment is only a label
and that we should help the community to understand that we
have situational delinquency, feebleminded delinquency, neurotic
delinquency, psychotic delinquency and psychopathic delinquency
–all to be further studied individually and treated, after studying
the individual conscious and subconscious psychodynamics.
5. To remember that only through organized concerted action
can lasting helpful results be obtained, and that, in fighting a
war to help insure individual physical and spiritual security, we
shall have little left to insure if our children are uncared for
and so permitted to grow up into asocial, psychiatrically insecure
adults and parents of tomorrow.
Selection of Prisoners for the Armed Forces
Dr. John W. Cronin, Brooklyn : The approach to the selection
of inmates confined to penal institutions in the armed forces
resolves itself into one major question. This question is not
What kind of a criminal may be admitted to the armed forces?
but rather, What sort of a fellow is the person who committed
the crime?
It is rather easy to decide who should not enter the armed
forces. Since we at this meeting are primarily interested in
the inmates of penal institutions, it is my opinion that those
individuals who suffer from organic brain diseases such as
brain tumor and the encephalopathies, epilepsy in any form, the
feebleminded, the frankly psychotic, most psychoneurotic persons
and psychopaths with habitual criminal records certainly
would not do well in the armed forces and should not be
admitted to them. Again, it is obvious that the sexually maladjusted
and the homosexual are considered as undesirable.
Many psychopaths have been admitted to the armed forces and
have made good soldiers and sailors. Their very aggressiveness,
intelligence and ability to size up situations stand them in
good stead, particularly when they, as individuals, are understood
by their officers. A psychopath who will accept direction
is certainly more desirable in the armed forces than the weak
neurotic who will not accept direction from others because he
is basically.unable to do so. His feelings of insecurity dominate
his behavior and preclude forceful and aggressive action when
it is indicated.
Our Selective Service program must be carried on in such
a manner as to weed out the undesirable before he is caught
up in the maelstrom of wartime action, which, at its slowest,
travels at a breakneck speed. If the screening program of the
Selective Service can save time for the screening program of
the armed forces by weeding out the unfit, much is gained.
Some Aspects of the Chronic Sex Offender
Morris Ploscowe, Chief Clerk, Court of Special Sessions,
New York: In analyzing court cases of sex offenders I have
come to the conclusion that, while the laws regarding sexual
crimes are clear and distinct, the great majority of sex offenders
are punished under misdemeanor charges rather than the felony
charges which they really merit and which the law provides.
The causes for this are diverse. One reason is that over 85 per
cent of the sex offenders plead guilty after their defense attorney
obtains for them a reduction of the felony charge to a
misdemeanor. This so often occurs because the conviction of
a sex offender under a felony charge is extremely difficult,
particularly where the complainant's testimony requires corroboration.
This practive varies from county to county, depending
on the personality of the district attorney and the makeup
of the grand jury, which often throws out a case on which
another grand jury would indict. Indeed, many courts and
grand juries will allow a plea of third degree assault, which
is not a sex charge at all, when the charge should be sodomy.
Many cases of rape are reduced to the charge of impairing the
morals of a minor. In all of these cases reducing the charge
to a misdemeanor also reduces the possible sentence from ten
to twenty years to one year.
On the basis of a study made of 500 cases for a period of
ten years from 1930 to 1940, it was found that the sex offender
is less inclined to have a record than the offender whb is
charged with burglary or robbery. It was found that the real
sex offender's makeup was a mixed one, a pattern of criminal
disorder, rather than one of sex crime. There was a group
in which one could see a definite pattern of sex crime–at least
three or more convictions–but this group made up only about
5 per cent of the cases studied.
The psychiatric profession must attempt to convince the
lawyer or the judge that the subject in question is not a type
and must be handled as an individual. It is up to the psychiatrist
to tell the authorities whether or not the offender is
dangerous and if he will commit the same crime again.
Unconscious Factors in Crime
Dr. Gregory Zilboorg, New York : That criminal acts are
motivated and determined by unconscious factors is now almost
self evident. The proper exposure and study of these factors
is still lacking. The major reason for this deficiency is not
so much the methodological defects of modern psychology as
the fact that the apparatus of justice still jealously protects the
criminal from searching clinical investigation. It is regrettable
that prisons are not study centers of human psychology. The
primitive aspects of justice being the major points of emphasis,
the criminal is kept, or executed, rather than studied psychologically.
He still is permitted to retain the great secret of his
behavior. The prison is a most unused psychologic research
laboratory. Unconscious motivations can never be revealed by
means of purely formal, classificatory studies.
The assumption that the criminal is a different type of person,
a deviated social being and nothing more, is a very callow
one. Crime is human, and it has been practiced as long as
mankind existed. Also the cultural changes of our civilization
have changed our attitude toward various categories of transgressions.
Crimes against property are certainly a later cultural
product than murder. The interrelation between our own
subjective conception of crime and the cultural trends which
utilize the age long unconscious aggressions must be understood.
Without this understanding crime itself cannot be understood,
nor can it be cured. We can go on punishing criminals, but we
cannot cure them if the prerequisites mentioned are not fulfilled.
Source: The Marihuana Problem
from cannabis are, by act of Congress, narcotic drugs. Although
hemp has been grown for more than a century in the United
States and the flowering tops have been smoked for years, only
recently has there been any concern about it. Tradition and
impression, not always dependable, but worthy of consideration,
suggest that the use of hemp has in the past been relatively
harmless. Old persons in Kentucky report seeing colored field
hands break up and load their pipes with dried flowering tops
of the plant and smoke them. There was never the slightest
suspicion that this procedure caused abnormal behavior. This
is particularly important, since aggressive behavior by a colored
person was, to put it mildly, viewed with alarm. Mr. Howland
Shaw of the State Department tells me that in Asia Minor the
use of cannabis was widespread but that there were no reports
of resulting" behavior disturbances.
Claims are made that the use of cannabis causes degenerative
brain disease. No well controlled study has been published
which even suggests this action. Reports that the use of cannabis
has caused crime, notably a study from New Orleans, gave
the impression that criminals were kidding the examiner, possibly
with the hope of receiving more lenient treatment. The
results of the study made in the Court of General Sessions in
New York City indicated that there was no felony commitment
of which was caused by the use of cannabis.
It is possible that some of the alleged harmful effects are
due to autosuggestion. It is reported that in the Near East the
use of cannabis produces erotic dreams and visions. No such
sensations have been reported by the users with whom I have
come in contact. Since it is widely believed that use of the
drug lowers inhibitions, since the user expects to feel reckless
and uninhibited, this expectation, and not pharmacologie action,
might explain some of the "results" particularly among youngpersons.
I have had a feeling that the effect of cannabis resembles that
of alcohol; however, behavior of subjects given pyrahexyl,
apparently a synthetic analogue of cannabis, resembles more
that seen under adequate sedation with morphine; i. e., quietude
and peacefulness.
Juvenile Deliquency
Dr. Robert V. Seliger, Baltimore : Juvenile delinquency is
a self defining term. Legally, in some states, it means offenses
against society committed by persons from 7 to 20 years of age.
The role of psychiatry is to aid society both in understanding
and in working along practical lines to help cure and prevent
delinquency. Failure will result in further social and individual
chaos.
In America some contemporary influences that have helped
produce juvenile delinquency are broken homes (due to divorce,
death, alcoholism), careless or ignorant parental supervision
(both parents working and inadequate or no community child
care), conflict and tension producing goals in life (emphasis on
"pleasure," materialistic success), inadequate church attendance
and guidance, noncohesive social patterns due to historical eruptions–
war, depression, inflation, racial, class and professional
intolerances, and endemic mass migration of labor, with present
day poor housing and lack of adequate facilities for recreational
and community life.
On the constructive practical side our medical psychiatric role
in juvenile delinquency should be: 1. Preventive work through
Mental Hygiene. 2. To help in reorienting our culture so as
to prevent development of the problem en masse (knowing that
in spite of the best reorientation we shall always have psychiatric
and other problems of human nature). 3. From an individual
practical approach, to help in getting community agencies
to allow psychiatric groups to interpret behavior and not just
to judge conduct. 4. To remember that the term juvenile
delinquency, as such, for individual treatment is only a label
and that we should help the community to understand that we
have situational delinquency, feebleminded delinquency, neurotic
delinquency, psychotic delinquency and psychopathic delinquency
–all to be further studied individually and treated, after studying
the individual conscious and subconscious psychodynamics.
5. To remember that only through organized concerted action
can lasting helpful results be obtained, and that, in fighting a
war to help insure individual physical and spiritual security, we
shall have little left to insure if our children are uncared for
and so permitted to grow up into asocial, psychiatrically insecure
adults and parents of tomorrow.
Selection of Prisoners for the Armed Forces
Dr. John W. Cronin, Brooklyn : The approach to the selection
of inmates confined to penal institutions in the armed forces
resolves itself into one major question. This question is not
What kind of a criminal may be admitted to the armed forces?
but rather, What sort of a fellow is the person who committed
the crime?
It is rather easy to decide who should not enter the armed
forces. Since we at this meeting are primarily interested in
the inmates of penal institutions, it is my opinion that those
individuals who suffer from organic brain diseases such as
brain tumor and the encephalopathies, epilepsy in any form, the
feebleminded, the frankly psychotic, most psychoneurotic persons
and psychopaths with habitual criminal records certainly
would not do well in the armed forces and should not be
admitted to them. Again, it is obvious that the sexually maladjusted
and the homosexual are considered as undesirable.
Many psychopaths have been admitted to the armed forces and
have made good soldiers and sailors. Their very aggressiveness,
intelligence and ability to size up situations stand them in
good stead, particularly when they, as individuals, are understood
by their officers. A psychopath who will accept direction
is certainly more desirable in the armed forces than the weak
neurotic who will not accept direction from others because he
is basically.unable to do so. His feelings of insecurity dominate
his behavior and preclude forceful and aggressive action when
it is indicated.
Our Selective Service program must be carried on in such
a manner as to weed out the undesirable before he is caught
up in the maelstrom of wartime action, which, at its slowest,
travels at a breakneck speed. If the screening program of the
Selective Service can save time for the screening program of
the armed forces by weeding out the unfit, much is gained.
Some Aspects of the Chronic Sex Offender
Morris Ploscowe, Chief Clerk, Court of Special Sessions,
New York: In analyzing court cases of sex offenders I have
come to the conclusion that, while the laws regarding sexual
crimes are clear and distinct, the great majority of sex offenders
are punished under misdemeanor charges rather than the felony
charges which they really merit and which the law provides.
The causes for this are diverse. One reason is that over 85 per
cent of the sex offenders plead guilty after their defense attorney
obtains for them a reduction of the felony charge to a
misdemeanor. This so often occurs because the conviction of
a sex offender under a felony charge is extremely difficult,
particularly where the complainant's testimony requires corroboration.
This practive varies from county to county, depending
on the personality of the district attorney and the makeup
of the grand jury, which often throws out a case on which
another grand jury would indict. Indeed, many courts and
grand juries will allow a plea of third degree assault, which
is not a sex charge at all, when the charge should be sodomy.
Many cases of rape are reduced to the charge of impairing the
morals of a minor. In all of these cases reducing the charge
to a misdemeanor also reduces the possible sentence from ten
to twenty years to one year.
On the basis of a study made of 500 cases for a period of
ten years from 1930 to 1940, it was found that the sex offender
is less inclined to have a record than the offender whb is
charged with burglary or robbery. It was found that the real
sex offender's makeup was a mixed one, a pattern of criminal
disorder, rather than one of sex crime. There was a group
in which one could see a definite pattern of sex crime–at least
three or more convictions–but this group made up only about
5 per cent of the cases studied.
The psychiatric profession must attempt to convince the
lawyer or the judge that the subject in question is not a type
and must be handled as an individual. It is up to the psychiatrist
to tell the authorities whether or not the offender is
dangerous and if he will commit the same crime again.
Unconscious Factors in Crime
Dr. Gregory Zilboorg, New York : That criminal acts are
motivated and determined by unconscious factors is now almost
self evident. The proper exposure and study of these factors
is still lacking. The major reason for this deficiency is not
so much the methodological defects of modern psychology as
the fact that the apparatus of justice still jealously protects the
criminal from searching clinical investigation. It is regrettable
that prisons are not study centers of human psychology. The
primitive aspects of justice being the major points of emphasis,
the criminal is kept, or executed, rather than studied psychologically.
He still is permitted to retain the great secret of his
behavior. The prison is a most unused psychologic research
laboratory. Unconscious motivations can never be revealed by
means of purely formal, classificatory studies.
The assumption that the criminal is a different type of person,
a deviated social being and nothing more, is a very callow
one. Crime is human, and it has been practiced as long as
mankind existed. Also the cultural changes of our civilization
have changed our attitude toward various categories of transgressions.
Crimes against property are certainly a later cultural
product than murder. The interrelation between our own
subjective conception of crime and the cultural trends which
utilize the age long unconscious aggressions must be understood.
Without this understanding crime itself cannot be understood,
nor can it be cured. We can go on punishing criminals, but we
cannot cure them if the prerequisites mentioned are not fulfilled.
Source: The Marihuana Problem
