Psychoanalytic criminology, childhood and the democratic self

This chapter concentrates on the little-known work of psychoanalysts in their roles as members of the Institute for the Scientific Treatment of Delinquency (ISTD) in London. In the post-war period, psychoanalytic ideas resonated with those of government officials and courts, and were also taken up in first-person descriptions by many of those deemed criminals. The organization actively sought out expert advisers who were already committed to a psychoanalytic approach to crime. The question of continuity and change in theories of crime and punishment is a complex one; and the degree to which the Second World War transformed psychoanalytic criminology is open to debate. Healthy family dynamics and normal childhood development, they argued, are central to the challenge of cultivating emotionally balanced and mature democratic subjects in an era bedevilled by totalitarianism. In the post-war period, psychoanalytic ideas resonated with those of government officials and courts, and were also taken up in first-person descriptions by many of those deemed criminals.