ABSTRACT
Considering the vastness and complexity of psycho-analytical literature, it is clear that no complete and original account can here be given of even the essential features of this branch of psychology as represented mainly by Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), but a brief summary will be presented as an introduction to the assessment of the specifically criminological contributions of psycho-analysis. Details and changes which the system has undergone in the course of its development will largely have to be ignored, and the same applies even to essential features such as the theory of dreams, or the mechanism of transference, or the whole question of treatment, which have no direct bearing on criminological problems. Nor can any critical evaluation of the whole doctrine be attempted as it would go far beyond the scope of this book and the author would not be qualified to undertake it. All that has to be said here by way of introduction is that in the present writer's view some of the many aspects of psychoanalytical thought are of the greatest value to the understanding of crime and punishment, while others can be accepted only with important reservations or not at all.
