NCJ Number
137370
Journal
Anal Psychol Volume: 22 Dated: (1991) Pages: 258-272
Date Published
1991
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This article interprets the historical phenomena of criminology from the perspective of analytical psychology.
Abstract
Although analytical psychology has rarely been used to illuminate criminology, unconscious psychological motivations can be detected in many historical aspects of penal law. For example, the ritual of public execution, which is so prevalent in the 17th and 18th centuries, may have served to help both victims and spectators release feelings of revenge and personal aggression against the offender. The witch trials, which culminated in the 16th and 17th centuries and were most often directed against women, may have expressed the attempt of a highly restrictive society to deal with its own temptations and magical inclinations. Historical forms of execution (burning, drowning) and of trial procedures may be linked to archetypal symbols of purgation and the aversion of evil. Lastly, the author asks whether laws against the killing of people which exist in all societies and historical periods express unconscious archetypal drives for the preservation of the human species. 28 references