Newkirk, P. R.

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Northwestern University Illinois, School of Law: Scholarly Commons

Journal of Criminal Law and CriminologyVolume 34 | Issue 2 Article 31943Psychotherapy on Juvenile DelinquentsP. R. NewkirkFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclcPart of the Criminal Law Commons, Criminology Commons, and the Criminology and CriminalJustice CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted forinclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons.Recommended CitationP. R. Newkirk, Psychotherapy on Juvenile Delinquents, 34 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 100 (1943-1944)PSYCHOTHERAPY ON JUVENILE DELINQUENTSP. R. Newldrk,"Psychiatric co-operation at reformatories and penitentiaries, ison the increase. The task of the psychiatrist at a penal institutionconsists however, of classification mainly. This paper will try toprove that there is a definite place for therapy within the scope ofpenology: therapy here means psychotherapy. There are manymethods of psychotherapy and to make my point clear, I am forcedto say something about the history of my endeavor in this field.Originally active in research work, I took up internal medicine.After 1920, I also became interested in psychotherapy. Orthodoxpsychoanalysis did not fit into my general practice, but I found thata short analysis followed by suggestive methods, particularly post-hypnotic suggestion, was a practical and effective treatment of manyneuroses. I even became convinced that suggestion is the main activeprinciple of all psychotherapy; no psychotherapeutic method canachieve anything without the influence of one mind on the other.For six years I taught psychotherapy within the scope of internalmedicine at a European Medical School. It so happened that prose-cuting attorneys and lawyers referred incriminated subjects forexamination and treatment before the case was taken into court.Kleptomaniacs, sex offenders, and forgers were prevalent. Thera-peutically, I could not find much difference between delinquent andnon-delinquent neurotics although incriminated delinquents weregenerally more accessible to suggestive treatment than other groups.In this country I found a surprising prejudice against suggestivemethods. Hypnosis seemed to be abhorred by the medical profession.Its abuse by fakers and quacks, silly publicity, and perhaps dis-inclination against imposing ones will power on another subject,seemed motives for this antagonism. In fact, it is quite possible thatruthless hypnotists may take material and even emotional ad-vantage of their medium. All these objections, however, areirrelevant if suggestive therapy is applied to delinquents at an in-stitution by a psychotherapist who is at the full-time service of theState and acts under the eyes of the authorities.It cannot be denied that innumerable neurotics have beentreated successfully by suggestive methods since ancient times andcertainly during the last one hundred years since adequate methodshave been developed by Braid, Charcot, Libault, and Forel.1Member of the Staff of the Northern State Hospital, Sedro, Woolley, Wash.JUVENILE DELINQUENTSIncidents of crime among juveniles of the same stock are, inthe United States, several times higher than in Scandinavia. Thishigh juvenile criminality in the United States is due to the unfavor-able influence of poor neighborhood, bad company, and brokenhomes on the subjects. If this is true, part of the delinquents atleast, should be accessible to counter-suggestions.During two and one-half years at the Northern State Hospitalat Sedro-Woolley, Washington, and some observations at a re-formatory, I came to the conclusion that after elimination ofmorons, severe psychopaths, and other constitutionally anti-socialindividuals, there remain about ten to fifteen percent of juveniledelinquents who could be prospective candidates for psychotherapy.Intelligence, suggestibility and personal confidence are the require-ments. Two examples may show what psychotherapy can achieve:A: Under suspended sentenceB: After minimum sentence has been passedFirst CaseThis seventeen year old boy, G. J., was referred for observationto the Northern State Hospital on March 5, 1941, by the Court,after having committed numerous homosexual acts, some of thembordering on male prostitution. Although this boy may have aconstitutional homosexual trend, his perversion was started byseduction at the age of six by an older boy. There is no indicationof endocrine abnormality in this case. The boy's sister was aparoled patient of this hospital and had been admitted in 1926, age13, because of kleptomania and sexual promiscuity. When re-examined, she confirmed the rule that all such female delinquentsare abnormally suggestible. So her brother was experimentallysubjected to hypnotic examination and treatment, also. He wasfound to be an even better medium than his sister. During aperiod of three months at the hospital he obeyed post-hypnoticorders with the greatest precision. Given the suggestion not to leavehis ward without the special permission of the psychotherapist,he disobeyed all orders of other persons, to pass the door of the wardfor any purpose whatsoever. He stole small coins and chewing gumseveral days after pertinent suggestions. He confessed, and madeexcuses after having received new hypnotic orders. After receivingpertinent suggestions he became nauseated when the word,"sodomy," was mentioned, and questions such as, "Do you havemany friends?" made him terminate the conversation angrily.After he had been tested thoroughly it was proposed to the Courtthat this minor be paroled to the farm of his parents under the con-dition that, a) he keep away from his former town of residence;b) abstain from all abnormal sexual actions and that, c) he appearat the hospital at regular intervals for treatment.P. R. NEWKIRKThe Court's sentence was one to ten years in the reformatory butthe sentence was suspended under the condition that he would liveup to the above enumerated directions. No complaints have beenheard for one year and a half. As the community is comparativelysmall and the boy well-known to all police officers and many otherpersons, it can be assumed as proven, that he has not associatedwith male persons outside of his family. He has a girl-friend withwhom he has been seen frequently by unprejudiced observers, andhe is planning on marriage.Thus far, I have not met anyone who claimed that the same resultwould have been obtained under standard management. The methodapplied was the following.1. The delinquent was isolated at his farm home with graduallyincreasing privileges, such as visiting movies in the vicinity butnot in his former residence.2. He was kept at work-first on his father's farm; later at aPlant.3. Follow-up suggestions were given, at first every two, laterevery four weeks. Theoretically, psychotherapy could be continuedto the limit of the maximum sentence of ten years. According to thesentence, the case will be expunged from the record after five yearsof good behavior.Second CaseB :-The second case, W. H., is the 'black sheep' of his reputablefamily. Up to the second year of high school, he seemed quite normal.He was good natured, easily influenced by others. Lack of will powerwas noticed by his mother, his school principal, and his first em-ployer. He was sentenced to the reformatory in 1937 and servedtwo years for forgery and carnal knowledge. After his parole, heresumed the practice of writing bad checks and on December 6,1941, was sentenced to twenty years in the penitentiary. Fromthere he was re-transferred to the reformatory on May 15, 1942.At the reformatory, W. H. complained of various intestinal ail-ments. He ate little; lost weight; was deeply depressed and onAugust 18, 1942, he was transferred to the Northern State Hospitalfor observation and incidental treatment. No organic changes werediscovered. A psychiatric examination revealed all his ailments tobe the somatic expression of despair and despondency because ofhis ruined life. This diagnosis justified the application of psycho-therapy which was effective immediately. W. H. recovered rapidlyand began helping the attendants on his ward. This was encouragedby suggestions. His work and endeavor were excellent. Secondarysuggestions were, never to leave the ward without personal per-mission of his physician and never to write his name in longhandbut to print it only. The work which he did, meant no coddling ofJUVENILE DELINQUENTSthe delinquent: He cleaned and bedded untidy mental patients andhe helped the charge attendants at first without enjoying anyprivileges. Later on he had ground parole. He never failed toreturn on the minute after his hour's walk.The state hospitals in Washington are open to committedpsychotics, and to observation cases for a period of ninety daysonly. Because of these rules, W. H.'s treatment had to be terminatedafter ninety days and he was returned to the reformatory. Thework that he did at the hospital was successful and to his likingand he could have continued with this for years while being underpsychotherapeutic control and permanent observation of fellow-employees. It is easy to predict that at the reformatory, this boywill, under the suggestive influence of energetic fellow-prisoners,remain what he is now,-a recidivist.Psychotherapy cannot be effective on subjects who are servingfixed sentences at a penal institution. Suggestive psychotherapymust co-operate with a regime granting the subject increasingliberty and opportunity to prove his reformation. There is practic-ally no danger of escape. Persons, well tested under this kind oftherapy, are acting as though on an invisible leash. Physicalrestraint is replaced by more humane suggestive restraint.A number of young men and boys were tested with regard totheir suggestibility. Two of them had been transferred to theNorthern State Hospital for observation in 1940, because of prisonneurosis. All prison neurotics are highly suggestible because prisonneurosis is the result of auto-suggestion while under emotionalstrain. Both were excellent mediums. After the termination oftheir observation they had to be returned to the reformatory andcontact with them was lost. They are behaving well at the re-formatory and would be candidates to test the psychotherapeuticparole method which I am recommending.Experimental work seems to prove that the average juveniledelinquents are neither more nor less suggestible than non-delin-quents. Suggestibility is, however, not merely a constitutional andfixed quality of the mind. Persons who suffer physically or emo-tionally and long for relief are much more accessible to psycho-therapy than individuals who undergo suggestions for experiment'ssake. Even the initial proposition of psychotherapeutic treatmentto a delinquent is most revealing. Those who have a genuine desireto reform are eager to be helped and are immediately ready to co-operate. Others, like alcoholics and addicts, hesitate and makeexcuses. Without being able to prove this statistically, I found thatamong juvenile delinquents, there are two psychological extremes:Those who are less than normally and those who are overlysuggestible.P. R. NEWKIRKThe first group acts anti-socially because they follow their ownpattern of life. The second group of juveniles, if growing up in adecent environment, may not cause any trouble or at least not cometo the attention of the court. If they are products of divorced mar-riages or living under conditions of poverty among amoral com-panions, they are prone to become delinquents.Only the highly suggestible group is accessible to suggestivepsychotherapy. The prerequisite for psychotherapy is thereforepsychiatric diagnosis and classification. Morons, schizoids, anti-social psychopaths, and a-suggestibles should be eliminated. Forg-ers, automobile thieves, alcohol and sex delinquents are the mostpromising groups, but good prospective subjects are found amongjuvenile-hold-up men, too. The type of crime is not as important asthe finding of the psychiatric examination. Hypnotic tests mustthen reveal whether the subject is not only suggestible but whetherhe executes post-hypnotic orders. I admit that this kind of workcalls for psychiatric as well as psychological experience and that itsbasis is careful diagnosis. The preliminary tests should be per-formed within an institution. All subjects are given hypnotic ordersnot to talk about the treatment and are forbidden to accept hypnoticorders from anyone except their physician. It is the general ex-perience in psychotherapy, that both these orders are obeyed.The obstacles to planned psychotherapy on juvenile delinquentsare neither to be found in difficulties of technique nor does themethod meet with opposition from the delinquents. The difficultiesare due to laws and regulations based originally on theories ofpunishment and determent. Psychotherapy does not agree withstandardized imprisonment, but it calls for free occupation underpsychotherapeutic guidance and in the morally best environmentthat can be found under the circumstances. An idea solution, forexample, is work at a mental institution where gentle treatment ofhelpless patients and work on the ward under discipline, are helpfultowards the aim of re-education. A practical plan could be: Alljuvenile delinquents pass an observation clinic conducted by a psy-chiatrist in cooperation with a sociologist. The recommendation ofthis unit should carry weight with the judge and the parole board.Individuals found accessible to psychotherapy, would be testedthoroughly and should then receive a suspended sentence, like G. J.After termination of observation they could live with their familyor at a home, or as workers at a state hospital. They should appearfor psychotherapy as ordered. Their liberty must be restricted bysuggestive orders. In case of disobedience, arrest and transfer tothe reformatory would be the consequence. It is my experiencethat psychotherapy is accepted readily under the natural fear of thelaw. In other cases several months at a reformatory would raiseJUVENILE DELINQUENTSthe individual's willingness to accept foreign suggestion for hisown benefit. Parole should be granted only after a period of psycho-therapeutic treatment.The legal question might be raised whether juvenile delinquentsmay be held under foreign influence: All who undergo treatmentare informed of its nature before the treatment is started. Theytake the first step voluntarily. If someone has as little will poweras W. H., a boy who achieved nothing in life but a maximum sen-tence of twenty years in a reformatory, then it seems quite permis-sible to give him a loan from another person's will power, if thisserves the purpose of converting a shiftless young criminal into auseful member of society. The same is quite as true for offenderslike G. J.It is not claimed that basic qualities of the personality can bechanged but there is no reason why psychotherapeutic controlshould not be continued for years and in some cases, even to thelimit of the maximum sentence. This would practically mean ref-ormation, because it is known that juvenile criminals do not re-lapse readily after the thirty-fifth year.The method is practicable. It takes some time and effort to givethe first treatment and to accomplish observation. The follow-uptreatment, however, in the case of G. J., takes about fifteen minutesat intervals of one month.It is generally admitted that the present management of juveniledelinquents is not satisfactory. Dr. Richard C. Cabot's foreword toS. and E. Glueck's "500 Criminal Cases," stresses the small percen-tage of reforms achieved. He says: "So far as I have seen such re-forms or heard of them from others, there has been at least onenecessary condition; that someone should come to know and under-stand the man in so intimate and friendly a way that he comes to abetter understanding of himself and to a truer comprehension of theworld he lives in." It goes without saying that psychotherapy asdescribed, creates such an atmosphere of confidence. I considerthe case of W. H. as a test case and I conclude in raising thequestion:After careful examination and three months of observation, Iclaim that a man like W. H. can be rehabilitated for all practicalpurposes if paroled and put to work under psychotherapy. Thiscannot be achieved under the existing laws. This suggestible in-dividual will serve his fixed minimum sentence in company of harderdelinquents and will remain what he is, a recidivist.I plead that suggestive psychotherapy be given a chance to proveits usefulness in the management of juvenile delinquents of thepsychoneurotic type.

Psychotherapy on Juvenile Delinquents

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Psychotherapy on Juvenile Delinquents

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