Home / Browse / Philosophy & History of Ideas / Crime and the Human Mind.
ABRAHAMSEN, David.
Crime and the Human Mind.
Publisher: New York: Columbia University Press, 1944
Stock code: 60128
Price: £75 Currency Conversion
First edition. Interesting study of criminal psychology. Born in Norway, and trained in Europe, Abrahamsen worked in the field of psychiatry and general criminal psychopathology, first at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington and then at the Illinois State Penitentiary in Joliet. Later, he worked at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, N.Y., and at the New York State Psychiatric Institute of Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. He worked on the David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz case, being retained by the DA's office to determine if Berkowitz was fit, to face trial. "Dr. Abrahamsen examined Mr. Berkowitz and concluded that while he was mentally disturbed, he was nevertheless competent to face a jury. There was 'no thought disorder, no insanity, no deterioration of judgement,' Dr. Abrahamsen said at the time. Rather, he argued, Mr. Berkowitz manifested a 'psychopathic personality." (NY Times obituary) He subsequently a book-length study of the case. This copy from the library of playwright and screenwriter Clifford Odets.
Octavo. Original green cloth, title gilt to spine. In the dust jacket. Cloth a little frayed head and tail of the spine, jacket marginally a little browned
