ABT, LAWRENCE E., and LEOPOLD BELLAK (Eds.). Projective Psychology: Clinical Approaches to the Total Personality. Pp. xvii, 485, xiv. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1950. $6.00
| Author | Manford H. Kuhn |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271625127400179 |
| Published date | 01 March 1951 |
| Date | 01 March 1951 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
247
As
an
adjunct
to
the
latter
project,
a
Rorschach
analysis
made
a
distinctive
con-
tribution
to
the
project.
From
these
inquiries
the
authors
have
reached
some
tentative
conclusions
con-
cerning
crime
causation,
and
they
have
formulated
a
series
of
&dquo;predictive
tables&dquo;
by
which
to
forecast
the
likelihood
that
a
child
will
become
delinquent.
Any
summary
of
the
findings
of
this
massive
report
must
necessarily
tend
to-
ward
oversimplification.
Superficially,
the
Gluecks’
conclusions
resemble
those
of
other
investigators
of
the
eclectic
school.
Like
Burt,
Ploscowe,
Sellin,
and
many
others,
the
Gluecks
find
no
unitary
cause
of
delinquency.
&dquo;The
evidence,&dquo;
they
say,
&dquo;seems
to
point
to
the
participation
of
forces
from
several
areas
and
levels in
channeling
the
persistent
tendency
to
so-
cially
unacceptable
behavior ...
which
derives
from
an
interplay
of
somatic,
tem-
peramental,
intellectual,
and
sociocultural
forces.&dquo;
The
Gluecks,
however,
have
sifted
fac-
tors
under
each
of
these
four
headings
and
have
indicated
those
which
they
believe
possess
or
lack
causal
significance.
Delin-
quents,
they
believe,
are
distinguishable
from
nondelinquents
in
tending
to
be
&dquo;con-
stitutionally
mesomorphic,&dquo;
but
they
see
no
indications
that
physiological
factors
such
as
weight,
height,
glandular
development,
or
skeletal
pathology
have
any
causal
rela-
tionship
to
delinquency.
Nor
do
they
ex-
plain
why
mesomorphs
are
more
likely
to
become
delinquent
than
are
children
of
other -
body
types.
They
find
also
that
delinquents
tend
to
differ&dquo;
temperamentally
from
nondelinquents.
Delinquents,
accord-
ing
to
their
book,
are
likely
to
be
restless,
destructive,
hostile,
and
resentful,
but
the
Gluecks
discount
the
etiological
importance
of
school
tensions,
feelings
of
personal
inadequacy,
and
introvertive
traits.
The
Rorschach
test
is
found
to
have
great
value
in
the
identification
of
the
potential
delin-
quent.
In
the
sociocultural
frame
of
refer-
ence,
the
Gluecks
find
that
delinquents
are
more
likely
than
nondelinquents
to
have
been
reared
by
socially
inadequate
parents,
but
such
factors
frequently
considered
to
be
contributory
causes
as
size
of
family,
kind
of
housing,
family
domination
by
mother,
and
culture
conflicts
do
not
appear
to
the
Gluecks
as
having
any
causal
value.
Differences
of
opinion
about
this
work
are
inevitable.
While
opinion
will
be
unanimous
that
the
project
has
been
made
possible
by
a
rare
combination
of
scholar-
ship,
patience,
and
persistence,
questions
are
sure
to
arise
in
connection
with
some
of
the
fundamental
phases
of
the
inquiry.
The
first
point
which
is
likely
to
be
questioned
is
the
method
used
to
build
the
sample
of
&dquo;delinquent&dquo;
boys.
The
Gluecks
considered
commitment
to
a
train-
ing
school
for
delinquent
boys
as
con-
stituting
evidence
of
persistent
delinquency.
This
is
valid
only
up
to
a
point.
In
these
days
of
socially
oriented
juvenile
courts,
&dquo;badness&dquo;
is
not
the
only
factor
considered
by
judges
in
deciding
to
commit
a
boy
to
an
institution.
He
also
considers
back-
ground
and,
given
two
boys
of
equal
degrees
of
misconduct,
the
boy
from
the
socially
inadequate
home
goes
to
the
in-
stitution,
while
the other
stays
home.
Hence,
while
the
Gluecks’
statement
about
the
catastrophic
impact
of
socially
in-
adequate
parentage
seems
empirically
true,
the
use
of
data
concerning
institutionalized
children
rather
than
children
defined
by
more
subtle
methods
as
being
persistent
delinquents,
tends
statistically
to
exaggerate
the
causal
importance
of
the
factor
of
inadequate
parentage.
Likewise,
a
psy-
chiatrist
colleague
who
has
examined
the
book
has
raised
questions
about
the
psy-
chiatric
and
related
interviewing
techniques-
which
suggest
the
possibility
that
deeper
interviewing
over
a
longer
period
might
have
yielded
different
results.
These
are
all
questions
which
cannot
be
answered
in
a
brief
review,
but
they
may
suggest
lines
of
inquiry
for
the
Gluecks
to
follow
in
their
further
analyses.
Meanwhile
Unraveling
Juvenile
Delin-
quency
will
join
the
authors’
previous
works
on
the
standard
criminological
book-
shelf.
DOUGLAS
H.
MACNEIL
State
of
New
Jersey,
Department
of
Institutions
and
Agencies
Trenton,
New
Jersey
ABT,
LAWRENCE
E.,
and
LEOPOLD
BELLAK
(Eds.).
Projective
Psychology:
Clinical
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