ABSTRACT
Of the various psycho-analysts who have discussed the psychology of the detective story only one, Geraldine Pedersen Krag, has put forward a specific hypothesis to account for their popularity. In her article 'Detective Stories and the Primal Scene' she suggests that it arises from their ability to reawaken the interest and curiosity originally aroused by observation of the primal scene. In the ideal detective story the detective or hero would discover that he himself is the criminal for whom he has been seeking. Such a story, though it is not generally accounted a detective story, does in fact exist and has given its name to the very psychological constellation which endows observations and fantasies of the primal scene with such significance. In the opinion of both T. S. Eliot and Dorothy Sayers The Moonstone remains the finest detective story in the English language.
