I bought The Psychology of Murder last Saturday for 50¢ at an Estate Sale. It was published in translation from the original Swedish in 1927 and the book first appeared in 1907. It is a discussion of the psychology of several criminals who have been sentenced to life imprisonment in Sweden for murder. I bought it because of the provocative title. (I have an older blue binding. The version in the image is a later printing.)

I’ve done a little research and found that in general Bjerre was not taken very seriously by psychology. His method of extensively interviewing inmates and inferring basic motivations does not seem to merit any real consideration. The results are heavily filtered through Bjerre’s own prejudices and sensibilities. Freudians, especially, seem to have a hard time with him.

Since controversies in psychology are a little beyond my own interests, I have approached the book as a work of fiction. The characters in the book are Bjerre’s own personality, constantly recording, evaluating and judging the murderers and the murders themselves who are sad cases in their own way, pitiable, but extremely narcissistic. There is endless grist for the novelistic mill here.

The Psychology of Murder is divided into three sections: Self Deception, Anguished Fear, and Shamming. I’ve only read through about 60 pages, but I think that each of these sections is devoted to a single criminal. Bjerre discusses the background of the cases and then goes on to reveal the criminal’s perceptions of the crimes. He spends much time in the criminal’s reaction to imprisonment and how the criminal perceives his own guilt of innocence. Particularly interesting was the first criminal’s adoption of religion while in solitary confinement and his immediate rejection of religion when integrated with the general prison population. This says reams more about Bjerre’s opinion on religion than the inmate’s.

The translation is stiff and sometimes difficult to read and heavily formal, as are many translations. I feel that is loses some of the personality of the author, but not being able to read the original Swedish, I can’t say for sure. There is practically no separating of text into paragraphs. Page after page goes on with smoothly justified words and no break. This forces me to read every word, and not every word needs reading in this. I will read some more on the way home tonight, but tomorrow I may decide that I’ve had enough.

I can see this a film – The Psychology of Murder, three short films on the secret lives of the criminally insane. Any one of the three profiles of murderers would form a good basis for a screenplay. Treated as fiction, these episodes and analysis seem to take on a more interesting life. Treated as just documentation of depravity, they are just depressing.

Here is an example from page 64 about the criminal chosen to represent Anguished Fear:

The individual who seems to me most typical of this group of criminals first attempted to poison his fiancée when she became pregnant as a consequence of their connection, and subsequently murdered her immediately after intercourse.