贝壳电子书 > 英文原著电子书 > criminal psychology >

第148章

criminal psychology-第148章

小说: criminal psychology 字数: 每页4000字

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!



nd truly'' seen by our nurses。 The stories of such people have no significance for the criminalist; but if a person has seen an entering thief; an escaping murderer; a bloody corpse; or some similar object of criminal law; and these are hallucinations like classical ghosts; then are we likely to be much deceived。 Hoppe'2' enumerates hallucinations of apparently sound (?) people。 1。 A priest tired by mental exertion; saw; while he was writing; a boy's head look over his shoulder。 If he turned toward it it disappeared; if he resumed writing it reappeared。 2。 ‘‘A thoroughly intelligent''


'1' James Sully。 Illusions。

'2' J; J。 Hoppe。 Erklrungen des Sinnestauschungen。

 man always was seeing a skeleton。 3。 Pascal; after a heavy blow; saw a fiery abyss into which he was afraid he would fall。 4。 A man who had seen an enormous fire; for a long time afterward saw flames continually。 5。 Numerous cases in which criminals; especially murderers; always had their victims before their eyes。 6。 Justus Mser saw well…known flowers and geometrical figures very distinctly。 7。 Bonnet knows a ‘‘healthy'' man who saw people; birds; etc。; with open eyes。 8。 A man got a wound in his left ear and for weeks afterward saw a cat。 9。 A woman eighty…eight years old often saw everything covered with flowers;otherwise she was quite ‘‘well。''

A part of these stories seems considerably fictitious; a part applies to indubitable pathological cases; and certain of them are confirmed elsewhere。 That murderers; particularly women…murderers of children; often see their victims is well known to us criminalists。 And for this reason the habit of confining prisoners in a dark cell for twenty…four hours on the anniversary of a crime must be pointed to as refined and thoroughly medival cruelty。 I have repeatedly heard from people so tortured of the terror of their visions on such days of martyrdom。 Cases are told of in which prisoners who were constipated had all kinds of visual and auditory hallucinations and appeared; e。 g。; to hear in the rustling of their straw; all sorts of words。 That isolation predisposes people to such things is as well known as the fact that constipation causes a rush of blood to the head; and hence; nervous excitement。 The well…known stories of robbers which are often told us by prisoners are not always the fruit of malicious invention。 Probably a not insignificant portion are the result of hallucination。

Hoppe tells of a great group of hallucinations in conditions of waking and half…waking; and asserts that everybody has them and can note them if he gives his attention thereto。 This may be an exaggeration; but it is true that a healthy person in any way excited or afraid may hear all kinds of things in the crackling of a fire; etc。; and may see all kinds of things; in smoke; in clouds; etc。 The movement of portraits and statues is particularly characteristic; especially in dim light; and under unstable emotional conditions。 I own a relief by Ghiberti called the ‘‘Rise of the Flesh;'' in which seven femurs dance around a corpse and sing。 If; at night; I put out the lamp in my study and the moon falls on the work; the seven femurs

dance as lively as may be during the time it takes my eyes to adapt themselves from the lamplight to the moonlight。 Something similar  I see on an old carved dresser。 The carving is so delicate that in dim light it shows tiny heads and flames after the fashion of the Catholic church pictures of ‘‘poor souls;'' in purgatory。 Under certain conditions of illumination the flames flicker; the heads move; and out of the fire the arms raise themselves to the clouds floating above。 Now this requires no unusual excitement; simply the weary sensing of evening; when the eyes turn from prolonged uniform reading or writing to something else。'1' It has happened to me from my earliest childhood。 High bodily temperature may easily cause hallucinations。 Thus; marching soldiers are led to shoot at non… existing animals and apparently…approaching enemies。 Uniform and fatiguing mental activity is also a source of hallucination。 Fechner says that one day having performed a long experiment with the help of a stop…watch; he heard its beats through the whole evening after。 So again when he was studying long series of figures he used to see them at night in the dark so distinctly that he could read them off。

Then there are illusions of touch which may be criminalistically important。 A movement of air may be taken for an approaching man。 A tight collar or cravat may excite the image of being stifled! Old people frequently have a sandy taste while eating;when this is told the thought occurs that it may be due to coarsely powdered arsenic; yet it may be merely illusion。

The slightest abnormality makes hallucinations and illusions very easy。 Persons who are in great danger have all kinds of hallucinations; particularly of people。 In the court of law; when witnesses who have been assaulted testify to having seen people; hallucination may often be the basis of their evidence。 Hunger again; or loss of blood; gives rise to the most various hallucinations。 Menstruation and hmorrhoids may be the occasions of definite periodic visions; and great pain may be accompanied by hallucinations which begin with the pain; become more distinct as it increases; and disappear when it ceases。

It might seem that in this matter; also; the results are destructive and that the statements of witnesses are untrue and unreliable。 I do not assert that our valuation of these statements shall be checked from all possible directions; but I do say that much of what we have considered as true depends only on illusions in the broad sense of the word and that it is our duty before all things rigorously to test everything that underlies our researches。


'1' Cf。 A。 Mosso: Die Ermdung。 Leipzig 1892。

 Section 105。 (C) Imaginative Ideas。

Illusions of sense; hallucinations; and illusions proper taken as a group; differ from imaginative representations because the individual who has them is more or less passive and subject to the thing from which they arise; while with the latter the individual is more active and creates new images by the _*combination_ of existing or only imagined conditions。 It does not matter whether these consist of the idea only; or whether they are the product of word; manuscript; picture; sculpture; music; etc。 We have to deal only with their occurrence and their results。 Of course there is no sharp boundary between imaginative ideas and sense…perception; etc。 Many phenomena are difficult to classify and even language is uncertain in its usage。 The notion ‘‘illusion'' has indicated many a false ideal; many a product of incoherent fancy。

The activity of the imagination; taken in the ordinary sense; requires analysis first of all。 According to Meinong'1' there are two kinds of imaginative imagesa generative; and a constructive kind。 The first exhibits elements; the second unites them。 Thus: I imagine some familiar house; then I reproduce the idea of fire (generative); now I unite these two elements; and imagine the house in question in flames (constructive)。 This involves several conditions。

The conditions of generation offer no difficulties。 The difficulty lies in the constructive aspect of the activity; for we can imagine astonishingly little。 We can not imagine ourselves in the fourth dimension; and although we have always had to make use of such quantities; we all have the idea that the quantity A represents; e。 g;; a line; A; a square; A; a cube; but as soon as we have to say what image A; A; etc。; represents; our mathematical language is at an end。 Even twelve men or a green flame seen through red glass or two people speaking different things can barely be imagined with any clearness。 We have the elements but we can not construct their compounds。 This difficulty occurs also in the consideration of certain objects。 Suppose we are looking at an artistically complete angel; we are always bothered by the idea that his wings are much too small to enable him to fly。 If an angel constructed like a man is to be borne by his wings; they must be so gigantic as to be unreproducible b

返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 0

你可能喜欢的