Article
Criminal Tendencies in Normal Children
A paper by Melanie Klein, published in the British Journal of Medical Psychology in 1927, on the roots of criminality as they appear in the analysis of ordinary children. From their play, Klein reports sadistic phantasies of attacking and robbing their parents, accompanied by intense anxiety and by a cruel superego formed early in life. She reverses the view that the criminal lacks a superego: on her account criminality arises from a superego so harsh that the anxiety it provokes drives the person to act out aggression rather than restrain it.
Main ideas
- The play of ordinary children reveals sadistic phantasies of attacking and robbing their parents.
- These phantasies come with intense anxiety and with a cruel superego that forms early in childhood.
- Criminality does not stem from the absence of a superego but from one so severe that the anxiety it arouses drives the person to act out aggression.