PSYCHOLOGY OF SELF-ACCUSATION.

Southland Times, Issue 1737, 6 May 1873, Page 1 (Supplement)

PSYCHOLOGY OF SELF-ACCUSATION.

The crime of murder may or may not, the Lancet says, be on the increase in proportion to the population ; but it is a curious phenomena that after every tragedy like that of Coram-street, or Hoxton, or Elthara, there are always three or four persons who voluntarily give themselves up as its perpetrator. The seclusion of a prison cell and the opportunity of sober reflection invariably bring them to their senses, though never till they have cost the detectives three or four valuable days. It is noteworthy, also, that in no other crime but that of murder are such self-accusers to be found. Here, at least, medico-psychology has an opportunity of serving the law, by explaining the genesis of the phenomenon, and devising tests for its exposure. Is it a symptom of general paralysis, the early stages of which are often accompanied by so-olled exaltation of ideas, taking the form of a perfect passion for notoriety ? Is it another effect of what has been classified as " the hyperassthesia of an over-wrought civilization," in which the emotional nature, brooding with fascinated intensity over a horrible deed, yields so far to the law of imitation as to realize the position, and even assume the person, of the perpetrator ? The selfaccuser is always one whose nervous system is so enfeebled as to be at the mercy of momentary impulse, and who, under the sway of a powerful impression, is unable to cast it off till he has almost identified himself with the train of events in which it has culminated. The phenomenon has a social as well as a psychological interest, showing as it does the conscious capacity for crime among so many people, and the actual insecurity of all who may unwittingly provoke its unexpected outbreak.