PSYCHODYNAMIC EXPLANATIONS OF OFFENDING

~The Inadequate Superego (Blackburn)~

• The Weak Superego

  • When the same-sex parent is absent during the phallic stage, and so a child cannot internalise a fully formed superego as there is no chance for identification

  • This makes criminal behaviour more likely

• The Deviant Superego

  • If the superego that the child internalises has immoral or deviant values, this would lead to offending behaviour

  • e.g. when the parent is a criminal, their child is more likely to follow in their footsteps

• The Overharsh Superego

  • A harsh superego means the individual is crippled by guilt and anxiety

  • This may unconsciously drive the individual to perform criminal acts in order to satisfy the superegos need for punishment

  • e.g. a child who grew up in a strict environment where punishment was given often, will go on to crave punishment as they get older

~Maternal Deprivation (Bowlby)~

• The ability to form meaningful relationships in adulthood is dependant on a child forming a warm, continuous relationship with a mother figure

• Failure to establish this bond later in life means the child will face irreversible consequences later in life

• Affectionless Psychopathy → lack of guilt, empathy and feelings for other

• 44 thieves study (14 affectionless psychopaths, 12 of those had maternal deprivation)

EVALUATION

Research Support:

→ RESEARCH SUPPORT

• One strength of the psychodynamic approach is research support for the link between offending and the Superego.

• Goreta (1991) conducted a Freudian-style analysis of ten offenders referred for psychiatric treatment. In all those assessed, disturbances in Superego formation were diagnosed.

• Each offender experienced unconscious feeling of guilt, and the need for self-punishment. Goreta explained this as a consequence of an over-harsh Superego, the need for punishment manifesting itself as a desire to offend.

• This evidence seems to support the role of psychic conflicts and an over-harsh Superego as a basis for offending.

• However, the central principles of the inadequate Superego theory are not supported.

• If this theory were correct, we would expect harsh, punitive parents to raise children who constantly experience feelings of guilt and anxiety.

• Evidence suggests, however, that the opposite is true. Parents who rely on harsher forms of discipline tend to raise children who are rebellious and rarely express feeling of guilt or self-criticism.

• This calls into questions the relationship between a strong, punitive internal parent and excessive feeling of guilt within the child.

Conflicting Evidence

→ ISSUES WITH GENDER BIAS

• One limitation of Freudian theory is that it is gender-biased.

• An implicit assumption within Freud’s theory is that girls develop weaker Superego than boys because identification with the same-gender parent is not as strong. This is because girls do not experience the intense emotion associated with castration anxiety, and are therefore under less pressure to identify with their mothers. Therefore, according to Freud, their Superego is less fully realised.

• The implication of this is that women should be more prone to offending behaviour than men, but actually in the UK, there are 20 times more men in prison than women.

• This suggests there is alpha bias at the heart of Freud’s theory and means it may not be appropriate as an explanation of offending behaviour.

→ MAY BE OTHER FACTORS TO CONSIDER

• Another limitation of the psychodynamic approach to offending is that Bowlby’s theory is only based on as association between maternal deprivation and offending.

• Lewis (1954) analysed data drawn from interviews with 500 young people and found that maternal deprivation was a poor predictor of future offending and the ability to form close relationships in adolescence.

• Even if there is a link between children who have experienced prolonged separation from their mother, and offending later in life, this is not necessarily a causal relationship.

• This suggests that maternal deprivation may be one of the reasons for later offending behaviour, but is not the only reason.