Born Criminal: The Lombroso Theory. Anthropological theory of Lombroso

The anthropological direction in criminology and criminal law, where the main assessment is the appearance of a person, according to which his moral and behavioral potential is assessed, has found the clearest recognition among theorists and practitioners of fascism.

Biography

Lombroso was born on November 6, 1835 in Verona to a wealthy Jewish family. He studied literature, linguistics, and archeology at the universities of Padua, Vienna, and Paris, but changed his plans and became a surgeon in the army in 1859. In 1866 he was appointed visiting lecturer in Pavia, and later, in 1871, he became head of the psychiatric hospital in Pesaro. Lombroso became a professor forensic medicine and hygiene in Turin in 1878. In the same year he wrote his most important and influential work, L'Uomo delinquente (The Criminal Man), which went through five editions. Italian and published in various European languages.

Since 1862 professor at the University of Pavia, and since 1896 professor of psychiatry at the University of Turin and criminal anthropology (1906) at the same university.

He died in Turin in 1909.

Scientific activity

Developed a formula that underlies the formula of criminal defeat most in demand in criminology. In his formula, the great founder of the anthropological institute proposes to correlate the average size of the anthropological features of convicts with the number of minors who drink alcohol. The result obtained, multiplied by the conditional indicator "E", is considered as a frequency sign of the station wagon. This formula made it possible to identify the causality of crime, which general level has always been reduced to the length of certain parts of the body.

Works

"Genius and Madness"

In 1863 Italian psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso publishes his book Genius and Madness (Russian translation by G. Tetyushinova, 1885), in which he draws a parallel between great people and lunatics. Here is what the author himself writes in the preface of the book:

In this book, C. Lombroso draws conclusions, practically diagnoses, the greatest representatives of mankind. All the celebrities that Lombroso wrote about were dead by the time the book was written and, therefore, did not have the opportunity to refute what was written. There is no evidence that any of the geniuses described by Lombroso in his book sought his medical help, or that Lombroso personally met any of the celebrities he described. The psychiatrist makes all "diagnoses" in absentia, based solely on his own credulity or predilection for various rumors about the characters and habits of great people, whose biographies, by the very fact of their celebrity, were overgrown with all sorts of legends. This book is a prime example of medical abuse. Lombroso refers in the preface to the fact that he wrote this book "under the influence of ecstasy, as it were", but this fact, according to his own theories, conclusions and observations, puts him on the verge of turning from a psychiatrist into a patient.

In his work, C. Lombroso writes about the physical similarity of brilliant people with crazy people, about the influence of various phenomena (atmospheric, heredity, etc.) on genius and insanity, gives examples, numerous medical evidence about the presence of mental abnormalities in a number of writers, and also describes special features of brilliant people who suffered at the same time and insanity.

These features are as follows:

  1. Some of these people showed an unnatural, too early development of genius abilities. So, for example, Ampère was already a good mathematician at the age of 13, and Pascal at the age of 10 came up with a theory of acoustics based on the sounds made by cymbals when they are placed on the table.
  2. Many of them were extremely drug and alcohol abusers. So, Haller absorbed a huge amount of opium, and, for example, Rousseau - coffee.
  3. Many did not feel the need to work quietly in the quiet of their office, but as if they could not sit in one place and had to constantly travel.
  4. They also changed their professions and specialties no less often, as if their powerful genius could not be satisfied with any one science and fully express itself in it.
  5. Such strong, captivating minds passionately indulge in science and greedily take on the solution of the most difficult questions, as perhaps most suitable for their morbidly excited energy. In every science they are able to grasp new outstanding features and, on the basis of them, draw sometimes ridiculous conclusions.
  6. All geniuses have their own special style, passionate, tremulous, colorful, which distinguishes them from other healthy writers and is characteristic of them, perhaps precisely because it is developed under the influence of psychosis. This position is confirmed by the own admission of such geniuses that, after the end of ecstasy, all of them are not able not only to compose, but also to think.
  7. Almost all of them suffered deeply from religious doubts, which involuntarily presented themselves to their minds, while a timid conscience forced them to regard such doubts as crimes. For example, Haller wrote in his diary: “My God! Send me just one drop of faith; my mind believes in you, but my heart does not share this faith - that is my crime.
  8. The main signs of the abnormality of these great people are already expressed in the very structure of their oral and written speech, in illogical conclusions, in absurd contradictions. Wasn't Socrates, the brilliant thinker who foresaw Christian morality and Jewish monotheism, crazy when he was guided in his actions by the voice and instructions of his imaginary Genius, or even just a sneeze?
  9. Almost all geniuses gave great importance to your dreams.
  • In the conclusion of his book, C. Lombroso, however, says that on the basis of the foregoing it is impossible to conclude that genius in general is nothing but insanity. True, in the stormy and disturbing life of brilliant people there are moments when these people resemble madmen, and in mental activity and others there are many common features - for example, increased sensitivity, exaltation, replaced by apathy, originality of aesthetic works and the ability to discover, unconsciousness of creativity and great absent-mindedness, excessive use of liquor, and great vanity. Between brilliant people there are lunatics, and between crazy people there are geniuses. But there were and are many brilliant people in whom one cannot find the slightest sign of insanity.

"Types of Criminals"

Lombroso identified four types of criminals: the murderer, the thief, the rapist and the crook.

"Woman criminal and prostitute"

The work examines the relationship of women to three objects: love, prostitution and crime. Lombroso comes to the conclusion that for a woman the main instinct is motherhood, which determines their behavior throughout life.

  • Love
    • Love in animals
    • Love in a person
  • Prostitution
    • History of prostitution
      • Shame and prostitution among savage peoples
      • Prostitution among historical peoples
    • Congenital prostitutes
    • Random prostitutes
  • Crime woman
    • Crime woman
      • Crime of females in the animal kingdom
      • Female crime among savage and primitive peoples
    • Born criminals
    • Random criminals
    • Criminals of passion
    • Suicides

List of works

  • Ricerche sul cretinismo in Lombardia, (Gazz. Medico, Italiana, No.13, 1859) - "Studies on Cretinism in Lombardy"
  • Genio e follia: prelezione ai corsi di antropologia e clinica psichiatrica presso la R. Universita "di Pavia. - Milano: Tipografia e Libreria di Giuseppe Chiusi, editore, 1864. - 46, p. - "Genius and Madness"; in Russian translation - "Genius and insanity"
    (subsequent edition: Genio e follia: prelezione ai corsi di antropologia e clinica psichiatrica presso la R. Universita" di Pavia. - 3a edizione ampliata con 4 appendici: i giornali dei pazzi, una biblioteca mattoide, i crani dei grandi uomini, polemica. - Milano: U. Hoepli, 1877. - VIII, 194 p.)
    • Genius and insanity: A parallel between great people and crazy people: From the portrait. ed. ... / C. Lombroso; Per. from 4 ital. ed. [and foreword] K. Tetyushinova. - St. Petersburg: F. Pavlenkov, 1885. -, II, VIII, 351 p.
    • many modern publications:
      • Genius and insanity / Cesare Lombroso; [per. with it. G. Tetyushinova]. - M.: RIPOL classic, 2009. - 397, p. ISBN 978-5-7905-4356-2
      • Genius and insanity: [translated from Italian] / Cesare Lombroso. - St. Petersburg: Leningrad Publishing House, 2009 (St. Petersburg: IPK "Leningr. Publishing House"). - 364, p. ISBN 978-5-9942-0238-8 (in translation)
      • Genius and insanity [Text] / Cesare Lombroso. - M.: Acad. project, 2011. - 237, p. - (Psychological technologies). ISBN 978-5-8291-1310-0
      • Genius and insanity / Cesare Lombroso; [per. with it. G.Tyutyushinova]. Moscow: Astrel, 2012. 348 p.
      • Genius and insanity / Cesare Lombroso; [per. with it. G.Tyutyushinova]. Moscow: Astrel, 2012. 352 p.
      • Genius and insanity. From genius to madness one step?.. [Text] / Cesare Lombroso; [per. from Italian. G. Tetyushinova]. - Moscow: RIPOL classic, 2011. - 397, p. - (World bestseller). ISBN 978-5-386-02869-5 (in translation)
  • L'uomo bianco e l'uomo di colore. Letture sull "origine e le variet? delle razze umane. - Padova: F. Sacchetto, 1871. - 223 p. - "White man and colored man. Readings on the origin and diversity of human races"
  • L'Uomo delinquente, (1876; L "uomo delinquente in rapporto all" antropologia, alla giurisprudenza ed alle discipline carcerarie: aggiuntavi La teoria della tutela penale del Prof. Avv. F. Poletti / Cesare Lombroso; Francisco Poletti. - 2 ed. - Torino: Bocca, 1878. - 746 p.) - "Criminal"; in Russian translation - "Criminal Man"
    • Criminal man: [transl. from it.] / Cesare Lombroso. - M.: Eksmo; MIDGARD, 2005 (St. Petersburg: AOOT Tver. polygr. comb.). - 876, p.: illustrations, portraits, tables; 24 cm. - (Giants of thought). ISBN 5-699-13045-4
  • L'amore nel suicidio e nel delitto, 1881. - "Love and insanity"
    • Lunatic love: For doctors and lawyers / Cesare Lombroso, prof. psychiatry in Turin; Per. from Italian. Dr. med. N. P. Leinenberg. - Odessa: type. "Odes. news", 1889. - 41 p.
    • Sexual psychopathy: (Love in lunatics) / Caesar Lombroso, prof. psychiatry in Turin; Per. from Italian. and ed. dr honey. N. P. Leinenberg. - 2nd Russian ed. - Odessa, 1908. - 46 p.
  • L'Uomo di genio, 1888. (L "Uomo di genio in rapporto alla psichiatria, alla storia ed all" estetica. - 5a edizione del "Genio e follia", completamente mutata .... - Torino: fratelli Bocca, 1888. - XX, 488 p.) - "Brilliant man"
  • Palimsesti del carcere; raccolta unicamente destinata agli uomini di scienza. - Torino: Bocca, 1888. - 328 p. - "Prison Scribble, Study of Prison Inscriptions"
  • Il delitto politico e le rivoluzioni in rapporto al diritto, all "antropologia criminale ed alla scienza di governo / Cesare Lombroso, Anthropologe Mediziner Italien; Rodolfo Laschi. - Torino: Bocca, 1890. - 10, 555 p. - (Biblioteca antropologico-giuridica Serie 1, vol. 9) - "Political Crime" co-authored with Rodolfo Lasky
    • Political crime and revolution in relation to law, criminal anthropology and state science: In 2 hours / Lombroso and Lasky; In the lane K. K. Tolstoy. - St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg. commercial type-lit. Vilenchik, . - 255 p.
      • Political crime and revolution in relation to law, criminal anthropology and state science = Politicalcriminality and revolution with respect to law, criminal anthropology and state science: In 2 hours / C. Lombroso, R. Lasky. - St. Petersburg: Jurid. Center Press, 2003 (Academic type. Nauka RAS). - 472 p. ISBN 5-94201-200-8
    • The latest advances in the science of the criminal = (L'Anthropologie criminelle et ses re'cents progre's par C. Lombroso) / Cesare Lombroso; Per., with permission. ed., ed. and with preface. Master of Criminal Law L. M. Berlin, Dr. S. L. Rappoport. - St. Petersburg: N. K. Martynov, 1892. -, 160 p.
  • La Donna delinquente, 1893 - "Criminal"
    • Woman criminal and prostitute / C. Lombroso & G. Ferrero; Per. [and foreword] by Dr. G. I. Gordon. - Kyiv; Kharkov: F. A. Ioganson, 1897 (Kyiv). - , 478, IV, VII p.
      • ... - AVAN-I, 1994. - 220 p. ISBN 5-87437-004-8
      • A woman - a criminal or a prostitute / Cesare Lombroso; [per. with it. G. Gordon]. Moscow: Astrel, 2012
      • A woman - a criminal or a prostitute / Cesare Lombroso; [per. with it. G. Gordon]. Moscow: Astrel, 2012
  • L'origine du baiser, 1893 (La Nouvelle Revue 1893/06, A13, T83)
    • The origin of the kiss = (Cesare Lombroso - "L'origine du baiser"): Per. from fr. / Caesar Lombroso. - St. Petersburg: V. Vroblevsky, qualification. 1895. - 15 p.
  • Le piu recenti scoperte ed applicazioni della psichiatria ed antropologia criminale /C. Lombroso. - Torino; firenze; Palermo; Messina; catania; Roma: Fratelli Bocca, 1893. - 431 p.
  • Gli anarchici: con 2 tavole e 5 fig. nel testo. - Torino: fratelli Bocca, 1894. - 95, p. - "Anarchists, a study in criminal psychology and sociology"
    • Anarchists: Crimin.-Psych. and sociol. essay / C. Lombroso; Per. from 2 ital. add. ed. N. S. Zhitkova. - Leipzig; St. Petersburg: "Thought" A. Miller, 1907 (Odessa). - 138 p.
  • L'Antisemitismo e le scienze moderne, 1894 - Anti-Semitism in the Light of Modern Science
    • Anti-Semitism / Cesare Lombroso; Per. with it. G. Z.; Instead of preface Art. O. Ya. Pergamenta: "The Jewish Question and People's Freedom". - Odessa: Tribune, qualification. 1906. - , VI, 73 p.
    • Anti-Semitism and modern science/ Cesare Lombroso; Per. from Italian. Ephraim Parkhomovsky. - Kyiv: F. L. Isserlis and Co., 1909. - 146 p.
      • ... - Kraft +, 2002. - 360 p. ISBN 5-93675-038-8
  • Genio e degenerazione, (Remo Sandron, Palermo), 1897. - "Genius and degradation"
  • Le crime, causes et rem?des, 1899. - "Crime, its causes and methods of eradication"
    • Crime / C. Lombroso; Per. Dr. G. I. Gordon. - St. Petersburg: N. K. Martynov, 1900. - 140 p.;
      • Crime [Text]; The latest advances in criminal science; Anarchists / Cesare Lombroso; [foreword V. S. Ovchinsky]. - Moscow: INFRA-M, 2011. - VI, 313, p.: tab.; 22. - (Library of a criminologist). ISBN 978-5-16-001715-0
  • Madness before and now: Per. with it. / Cesar Lombroso, prof. psychiatry in Turin. - Odessa: N. Leinenberg, 1897. - 43 p.
  • My visit to Tolstoy / Caesar Lombroso. - Carouge (Geneve): M. Elpidine, 1902. -, IV, 13 p.
  • Kissing psychology: (Cesare Lombroso - "Psycologie du baiser"): Per. from fr. / Caesar Lombroso. - St. Petersburg: F. I. Mityurnikov, 1901. - 27 p.

Theories and concepts of crime

2.1 Theory " born criminal» C. Lombroso

Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909) - an outstanding Italian psychiatrist, criminologist and criminologist.

Cesare Lombroso was one of the first to undertake a systematic study of criminals, relying on strictly fixed anthropometric data, which he determined using a “craniograph” - a device for measuring the size of parts of the face and head. He published the results in the book Anthropometry of 400 Offenders (1872).

He owns the theory of the so-called "born criminal", according to which criminals are not made, but born. Lombroso declared crime to be a natural phenomenon, like birth or death. Comparing the anthropometric data of criminals with careful comparative studies of their pathological anatomy, physiology and psychology, Lombroso put forward the thesis of the criminal as a special anthropological type, which he then developed into an integral theory (“Criminal Man”, 1876). He came to the conclusion that a criminal is a degenerate, lagging behind in his development from the development of mankind. He cannot slow down his criminal behavior, so the best strategy for society in relation to such a "born criminal" is to get rid of him, depriving him of his liberty or life.

According to Lombroso, the "criminal type" is distinguished by a number of innate features of an atavistic nature, indicating a lag in development and criminal inclinations.

The scientist developed a system of physical signs (“stigmata”) and mental traits of this type, which, in his opinion, characterize a person endowed with criminal inclinations from birth. The scientist considered the main features of such a personality to be a flattened nose, a low forehead, large jaws, a frowning look, etc., which, in his opinion, are characteristic of "primitive man and animals." The presence of these signs allows you to identify a potential criminal even before he commits a crime. In view of this, Lombroso spoke in favor of involving doctors, anthropologists and sociologists in the number of judges and demanded that the question of guilt be replaced by the question of social harm.

The main drawback of this theory of Lombroso was that it ignored the social factors of crime.

The rapid and widespread dissemination of Lombroso's theory, and especially the extreme conclusions that were often drawn from it, caused sharp and conclusive criticism. Lombroso had to soften his position.

In later writings, he refers to the innate anthropological type only 40% of criminals, whom he calls "savages living in a civilized society." Lombroso recognizes the important role of non-hereditary - psychopathological and sociological causes of crime. This gave grounds to call Lombroso's theory biosociological.

IN late XIX V. at international congresses on criminal anthropology, the theory of anthropological crime was generally recognized as erroneous.

Under the influence of criticism, Lombroso himself moved away from a purely biological explanation of crime, recognized the existence, along with the “natural” type, of the “accidental” criminal, whose behavior is determined not only by personal, but also external factors. In the book Crime, Its Causes and Remedies, Lombroso outlined a scheme of crime factors containing 16 groups of such factors, including cosmic, ethnic, climatic, racial factors, civilization factors, population density, nutrition, education, upbringing, heredity and etc. Thus, the biological theory of crime, already in the works of its founder Lombroso, began to transform into a bio-social theory. This transformation was even more clearly manifested in the views of Lombroso's students and associates - Ferri and Garofalo, who, having retained the main provisions of the theory of their teacher, significantly strengthened the role social factors crime.

Despite the refutation of this theory during the lifetime of Lombroso, they continued to develop it with some changes: in Italy - R. Garofalo, E. Ferri, D. di Tullio, in Germany - E. Kretschmer, V. Sauer, in the USA - E. Huton , W. Sheldon and other biocriminologists.

Modern biocriminologists substantiate their positions based on recent achievements natural sciences. The hereditary theory in modern understanding is divided into several varieties: family predisposition, twin, chromosomal, endocrine, etc. in their conclusions, representatives of these theories draw on the results of studying the pedigree of criminals, the functioning of the endocrine glands, comparing the behavior of twins and identifying chromosomal abnormalities in criminals and non-criminals .

Indisputable links between crime and human biology have not been established. Biological theories of the causes of crime do not find serious support either in individual countries or in the world as a whole.

2.2 Psychosexual theory of the causes of crime (Z. Freud)

sociological crime stigmatization conflict

Among the biological and bio-social criminological concepts, those that associate crime not with the physical, but with the psychological structure of a person, are more popular. This is especially true of the psychological theory of Sigmund Freud, who considered crime as the result of a defective development of the individual. The essence of the theory is that a person from birth is biologically doomed to a constant cruel struggle of antisocial deep instincts - aggressive, sexual, fear - with the moral attitudes of the individual. That is, an individual from childhood learns to control his instincts. Some individuals never manage to achieve this due to some specific circumstances, for example, poor family relations. As a result, they develop incorrectly and form into an inferior personality. The conflict between the subconscious and the conscious, the struggle between them determines the content of a person's mental activity and his behavior. In those cases when the activity of consciousness is insufficient, the "oppressed" anti-social instincts and inclinations break out and manifest themselves in the form of a crime.

An explanation for criminal behavior should be sought in the psychosexual conflicts that a person encounters in early childhood. Unsatisfied drives are pushed out of consciousness into the unconscious and continue to have a decisive influence on human behavior.

Freudian theories gained currency in the early 20th century. They got their name from the ancestor - the Austrian psychiatrist 3. Freud. In the works “Psychopathology of everyday life”, “Basic psychological theories in psychoanalysis”, he argued that the explanation of human, including criminal, behavior should be sought in psychosexual conflicts that a person encounters in early childhood. The struggle of subconscious sexual desires (libido), as well as the instincts of aggression and fear with the human consciousness, moral and legal requirements, Freud named after the mythical persons - "Oedipus complex", "Herostratus complex", "Electra complex". Unsatisfied drives, according to Freud, are forced out of consciousness into the unconscious and continue to have a decisive influence on human behavior.

Modern psychoanalysts additionally associate the internal conflicts of the individual with the high pace of life, with neuropsychic overload, with technical progress, which, in their opinion, leads to psychopathization, neuroticization of the population, an increase in crime and mental illness.

Research and analysis of the problem of qualified and highly qualified composition of rape

The most important element of the forensic characteristics of rape is the identity of the perpetrator. About 40% of rapes are committed by persons who have previously committed crimes ...

Forensic characteristics of murders committed on sexual grounds

The concept of personality belongs to the branch of many sciences. Personality is the object of study of philosophy, history, psychology, law, medicine and other sciences. At the same time, the study of personality in each individual science cannot take into account experience ...

Methodology for investigating coercion to make a transaction or to refuse to make it

The victim, as a rule, is the owner of valuable property, information, a person who has power and administrative powers at his disposal. It is possible to distinguish 2 age groups of victims - up to 25 years old - persons ...

Political crime

Social sciences, which study complex social phenomena, connect the subject of their knowledge to a greater or lesser extent with the problem of man. are no exception to this rule and legal sciences crime cycle...

Understanding law in domestic and world jurisprudence

The theory of legal positivism originated in the middle of the 19th century. It arises largely as an opposition to "natural law" ...

The concept of the identity of the offender

One of the most basic elements of the subject matter of criminology is the identity of the offender. So, the personality of a criminal is understood as a set of social and socially significant properties, signs, connections, relationships that characterize a person ...

The problem of illegal behavior of minors

A civilized society presupposes and lays the basis for personality, since the latter acts as an object and subject of social relations...

State origin

Its founder is considered to be the French Count J. Gobineau (1816-1882), the author of the four-volume work An Essay on the Inequality of Races. Gobineau tried to explain the whole course of human history, based on those features ...

Modern theories emergence of the state

The theory of violence was most logically substantiated in the 19th century. in the works of E. Dühring, L. Gumplovich, K. Kautsky and others. They saw the reason for the origin of statehood not in economic relations, divine providence and social contract ...

The subject of the crime and the identity of the offender

Theories of the origin of the state and law

This theory explains the origin of the state through the conclusion of a social contract, considered as the result of the rational will of the people ...

Characteristics of the main concepts of the origin of the state and law

K. Wittfogel in his work "Eastern Despotism", based on specific historical facts, showed particular interest in the construction of irrigation facilities in the eastern regions. People living in Egypt...

The famous Italian forensic psychiatrist and criminologist of the 19th century, Cesare Lombroso, called for types with "non-photogenic" faces to be executed or isolated: they say that a person's criminal addictions are written on his face. His theories have long been recognized as erroneous, but many of his developments are valuable today. For example, a method of fixing anthropological data of a person.


Mikhail Vinogradov: psychics in the service of special services

Lombroso, born in 1836 in Verona, went down in history as one of the most famous criminologists of the century before last - he created the criminal anthropological direction in the science of criminal law. It is believed that he made a great contribution to the development legal psychology. True, there is little practical benefit from his research today: often the most terrible maniac-criminals in person were no more terrible and no more beautiful than average citizens.

At the age of 19, studying at medical faculty University of Pavia, Lombroso publishes his first articles on psychiatry - on the problem of cretinism, which attracted the attention of specialists. He independently mastered such disciplines as ethnolinguistics, social hygiene.

In 1862, he was already a professor of mental illness, then director of a mental illness clinic, professor of legal psychiatry and criminal anthropology. In 1896, Lombroso received the chair of psychiatry at the University of Turin.

As a military doctor back in the early 1860s, Lombroso had a chance to take part in campaigns to combat banditry in the south of the country - then he undertook his first research on anthropometry. Summarizing them, he came to the conclusion that the hardships of life in poor southern Italy led to the fact that there appeared an "anomalous" type of people with various anatomical and mental abnormalities. He attributed them to a special anthropological variety - "criminal man."

Cesare Lombroso strictly recorded the anthropometric data of lawbreakers, using a special device for this - a craniograph, with which he measured the dimensions of parts of the face and head. He published his findings in the book Anthropometry of 400 Offenders, which became something of a textbook for many of the then detectives.

According to Lombroso's "born criminal" theory, offenders are not made, but born: criminals are degenerates. Therefore, it is impossible to re-educate them - it is better to preventively deprive them of their freedom or even life.

How to determine criminal inclinations in appearance? That is served features- "stigmata": a set of psychological and physical features. For example, a flattened nose, a low forehead, massive jaws - all of them, from the scientist's point of view, are characteristic of "primitive man and animals."

However, Lombroso also had critics. Already many of his contemporaries noted that his theory overlooks the social factors of crime. Therefore, as early as the end of the 19th century, the theory of anthropological crime was generally recognized as erroneous.

It is worth mentioning the curious work of Lombroso - "Genius and insanity" (1895). In it, the scientist put forward the thesis that genius is the result of abnormal brain activity on the verge of epileptoid psychosis. He wrote that the resemblance of brilliant people to the physiologically crazy is simply amazing. Well, many agreed with him then - they agree now: after all, often people of genius are really "out of this world."

By the way, it was Lombroso who was the first in the world to apply knowledge of physiology to detect deception, that is, he used a kind of lie detector. In 1895, he first published the results of the use of primitive laboratory instruments in the interrogation of criminals.

Cesare Lombroso died on October 19, 1909 in Turin, despite all his mistakes and delusions, remaining in the memory of posterity as an outstanding scientist, one of the pioneers of introducing objective methods into legal science. His works played an important role in the development of criminology and legal psychology.

In Cesare Lombroso's contribution to forensic science, Pravda.Ru was told by a forensic psychiatrist, doctor of medical sciences, professor of psychiatry, founder and head of the Center for Legal and psychological help in extreme situations Mikhail ViktorovichVinogradov:

"Cesare Lombroso laid the foundation for modern psychiatric criminology. But at that time he did not have the opportunity to conduct a clear mathematical analysis of the signs that he identified. With what a person has written on his face, in gestures, in gait, facial expressions, all this reflects its essence, but Lombroso shifted the concepts of man in a special way, because man is, as it were, a twofold being: social and biological.

Literature on this topic is very extensive, although inaccessible. Even in antiquity, there were mythological-demonological explanations of what is now considered mental illness.

One of the most famous and stormy studies that drew a parallel between genius and insanity was the book published in 1863 by the Italian psychiatrist and criminologist Cesare Lombroso "Genius and insanity" 1 .

Psychopathology became part of psychiatry. Psychopathologists began to apply knowledge from this area to art a long time ago. By the way, the words mania (in Greek), navi and mesugan (in Hebrew), nigrata (in Sanskrit) mean both madness and prophecy. Even ancient thinkers considered it possible to draw parallels between genius and insanity. Aristotle wrote: “It has been observed that famous poets, politicians and artists were mad. Even at the present time we see the same thing in Socrates, Empedocles, Plato and others, and most of all in the poets. Mark of Syracuse wrote pretty good poetry while he was a maniac, but when he recovered, he completely lost this ability. Plato argues that delirium is not a disease at all, but, on the contrary, the greatest of blessings bestowed on us by the gods. Democritus said bluntly that he does not consider a person who is of sound mind to be a true poet. Pascal constantly said that the greatest genius borders on sheer madness, and subsequently proved this by his own example.

2. The essence of the ideas of Cesare Lombroso

Epigraph to the book:

“Having established such a close relationship between men of genius and lunatics, nature seemed to want to point out to us our obligation to treat indulgently the greatest of human disasters - madness - and at the same time give us a warning that we should not be too carried away by the brilliant signs of genius, many of which not only do not rise to the transcendental spheres, but, like sparkling meteors, having flashed once, they fall very low and drown in a mass of delusions.

2.1. The difference between talent and genius

The dependence of genius on pathological changes can explain a curious feature of genius compared to talent: it is something unconscious and manifests itself completely unexpectedly ”(13). A talented person acts completely deliberately; he knows how and why he came to a known theory, while a genius is completely unaware of this” (13).

2.2. Basic Parallels Between Geniuses and Crazies

Lombroso sees much in common between them in physiology, strange behavior, mania, unconscious actions, the same reaction to climatic and geographical factors, to some differences in relation to subjects of different ethnic groups, etc. etc.

We will give a study of the facts by him, and out of many hundreds of examples, we will focus only on the most famous names.

Buffon, immersed in his thoughts, once climbed the bell tower and descended from there by a rope quite unconsciously, as if in a fit of somnambulism.

Many geniuses are characterized by poor muscular and sexual activity, characteristic of all lunatics.“Michelangelo constantly said that his art replaces his wife. Goethe, Heine, Byron, Cellini, Napoleon, Newton, although they did not say this, but by their actions proved something even worse. Heine wrote that it was not genius at all, but a disease (of the spinal cord) that forced him to write poetry in order to alleviate his suffering.

Goethe says that he composed many of his songs while in a state of somnambulism. In a dream, Voltaire conceived one of the songs of the Henriade, and Newton and Cardano solved their mathematical problems in a dream. There was a saying about Leibniz that he only thought in a horizontal position.

Many of the brilliant people abused alcohol. Alexander the Great, Socrates, Seneca, Alcibiades, Cato, Avicenna, Musset, Kleist, Tasso, Handel, Gluck - all suffered from binges and most of them died from drunkenness due to delirium tremens.

And how early and strong passions manifest in brilliant people! The beauty and love of Fornarina served as a source of inspiration for Raphael not only in painting, but also in poetry. Dante and Alifieri were in love at 9 years old, Rousseau at 11, Kavron and Byron at 8. The latter had convulsions when he found out that the girl he loved was getting married. The painter Francia died of admiration after he saw a painting by Raphael. Archimedes, delighted with the solution of the problem, in the costume of Adam ran out into the street shouting "Eureka1". Boileau and Chateaubriand could not indifferently hear the praise of anyone, even their shoemaker.

Painful impressionability also gives rise to exorbitant vanity and concentration on oneself and one's thoughts.

“Poets are the most vain of people,” Heine wrote, “meaning himself as well.

The poet Lucius did not get up when Julius Caesar appeared, because in poetry he considered himself superior to him. Schopenhauer was furious and refused to pay bills if his last name was written with two "p". Sebuya, an Arabic grammarian, died of grief because Harun al-Rapshid disagreed with his opinion on some grammatical rule. Great geniuses sometimes fail to assimilate concepts that are accessible to the most ordinary people, and at the same time express such bold ideas that most seem absurd. A genius has the ability to guess what he does not quite know: for example, Goethe described Italy in detail before he saw it. Often they predict death (remember how M. Voloshin and K. Balmont predicted death on the scaffold for Tsar Nicholas, how philosophers Cardano, Russo and Galler, poets N. Rubtsov, I. Brodsky, film director A. Tarkovsky and others predicted their own death). Cellini, Goethe, Hobbes (in a dark room he immediately began to see ghosts) suffered from hallucinations, Mendelssohn - melancholy, Van Gogh thought he was possessed by a demon, Gounod, Batyushkov, Hölderlin went crazy (he killed himself in a fit of melancholy in 1835) Salieri, Edgar Poe. Mozart was convinced that he would definitely be poisoned. Musset, Gogol, Garshin. Rossini suffered from persecution mania. Schumann lost his mind at the age of 46: he was pursued by talking tables with omniscience. The founder of positivism, Auguste Comte, was treated for a mental disorder for 10 years, and when he felt better, for no reason drove away his wife, who, with her gentle cares, practically saved his life. Before his death, the materialist Comte declared himself an apostle and minister of religion. Tasso once grabbed a knife and, under the influence of hallucinations, rushed at the servant. Swift, already in his youth, predicted his future insanity: walking one day with Jung, he saw an elm tree, on the top of which there was almost no foliage, and said: "I will just start dying from the head." In 1745 he died in a complete mental disorder. Newton also suffered from a real mental disorder. The reader will find the most accurate description of the mental anguish of a Lipemaniak in the works of Rousseau, especially the last ones: "Confession", "Dialogues" and "Walks of a lonely dreamer". Wherever he was, he suffered from spy mania. The whole life of the great poet Lenau, who died in a hospital for the insane, is from early childhood a mixture of genius and madness. Hoffmann suffered from binge drinking, persecution mania and hallucinations. Schopenhauer also suffered from persecution mania.

All damaged geniuses have their own particular style - passionate, quivering, colorful; this is confirmed by their own admissions that all of them, after the end of ecstasy, are not only unable to compose, but even to think. The great Newton, who weighed all the worlds, was he not in a state of insanity when he took it into his head to compose interpretations of the Apocalypse?

He considered the most obvious sign of the abnormality of the geniuses considered by Lombroso to be an extremely exaggerated manifestation of two intermittent states - ecstasy and atony, excitement or decline of mental strength.

Lombroso notes that the opinion that mental illnesses are always accompanied by a weakening of mental features is erroneous. In fact, mental faculties, on the contrary, often acquire unusual vivacity in madmen and develop precisely during illness.

Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909) - an outstanding Italian psychiatrist, criminologist and criminologist. Born on November 6, 1835 in Verona, then controlled by Austria. In 1858 he received degree MD from Pavian University. In 1859-1865. As a military doctor, he participated in the Italian War of Independence. In 1867 he was appointed professor at the mental hospital in Pavia, in 1871 he was the head of the Pesaro neurological institution, and in 1876 he was professor of forensic medicine at the University of Turin.
Psychiatrists consider C. Lombroso the forerunner of several scientific schools, in particular the morphological theory of temperament. His book "Genius and Madness" is a classic of psychiatry. Criminologists see Ch. Lombroso as one of the creators of the theory of judicial identification. None other than Lombroso, in his book The Criminal Man, outlined the first experience practical application psychophysiological method of "lie detection" (using a device - a prototype of a polygraph) to identify persons who have committed crimes.
In criminology, C. Lombroso is known for being the founder of the anthropological school. In his work - "Criminal Man" (1876), he put forward the hypothesis that a criminal can be identified by external physical features, reduced sensitivity of the senses and pain sensitivity. Lombroso wrote: “Both epileptics and criminals are characterized by a desire for vagrancy, shamelessness, laziness, boasting of a committed crime, graphomania, jargon, tattooing, pretense, weakness of character, momentary irritability, megalomania, a quick change of mood and feelings, cowardice, a tendency to contradictions, exaggeration, morbid irritability, bad temper, quirkiness. And I myself observed that during a thunderstorm, when seizures become more frequent in epileptics, prisoners in prison also become more dangerous: they tear their clothes, break furniture, beat ministers. Thus, the offender is in special pathological conditions, determined in most cases by different processes or different special conditions. Impressed by his discovery, C. Lombroso began to study the anthropological features of a large array of criminals. Lombroso studied 26,886 criminals, 25,447 respectable citizens served as a control group for him. Based on the results obtained, C. Lombroso found out that a criminal is a kind of anthropological type who commits crimes due to certain properties and characteristics of his physical constitution. “The criminal,” Lombroso wrote, “is a special being, different from other people. This is a kind of anthropological type, which is motivated to crime due to the multiple properties and characteristics of its organization. Therefore, crime in human society is as natural as in the whole organic world. Plants that kill and eat insects also commit crimes. Animals cheat, steal, rob and rob, kill and devour each other. Some animals are bloodthirsty, others are greedy.”
The main idea of ​​Lombroso is that the criminal is a special natural type more sick than guilty. A criminal is not made, but born. This is a kind of bipedal predator, which, like a tiger, does not make sense to reproach for bloodthirstiness. Criminals are characterized by special anatomical, physiological and psychological properties that make them, as it were, fatally doomed from birth to commit a crime. To anatomo-fiziol. signs of the so-called. "Born criminal" Lombroso refers: irregular, ugly shape of the skull, bifurcation of the frontal bone, small jagged edges of the cranial bones, asymmetry of the face, irregularity in the structure of the brain, blunted susceptibility to pain, and others.
The offender is also characterized by such pathological personality traits as: highly developed vanity, cynicism, lack of guilt, the ability to repent and remorse, aggressiveness, vindictiveness, a tendency to cruelty and violence, to exaltation and demonstrative forms of behavior, a tendency to distinguishing features special community(tattoos, jargon, etc.)
Born criminality was first explained atavism: the criminal was understood as a savage who cannot adapt to the rules and norms of a civilized community. Later it was understood as a form of "moral insanity" and then as a form of epilepsy.
In addition, Lombroso creates a special typology - each type of criminal corresponds only to his characteristic features.
The killers. In the type of murderers, the anatomical features of the criminal are clearly visible, in particular, a very sharp frontal sinus, very voluminous cheekbones, huge eye orbits, and a protruding quadrangular chin. These most dangerous criminals are dominated by the curvature of the head, the width of the head is greater than its height, the face is narrow (the posterior semicircle of the head is more developed than the anterior), most often their hair is black, curly, the beard is rare, there is often a goiter and short hands. TO characteristic features killers also include a cold and motionless (glassy) look, bloodshot eyes, a bent down (aquiline) nose, excessively large or, on the contrary, too small earlobes, thin lips.
The thieves. Thieves have elongated heads, black hair and a sparse beard, mental development is higher than that of other criminals, with the exception of swindlers. Ravens predominantly have a straight nose, often concave, upturned at the base, short, wide, flattened and in many cases deviated to the side. The eyes and hands are mobile (the thief avoids meeting the interlocutor with a direct look - shifty eyes).
Rapists. The rapists have bulging eyes, a delicate face, huge lips and eyelashes, flattened noses of moderate size, deviated to the side, most of them are lean and rickety blondes.
scammers. Fraudsters often have a good-natured appearance, their face is pale, their eyes are small, severe, their nose is crooked, their head is bald. Lombroso was able to identify the features of the handwriting of various types of criminals. The handwriting of murderers, robbers and robbers is distinguished by elongated letters, curvilinear and definite features in the endings of letters. The handwriting of thieves is characterized by extended letters, without sharp outlines and curvilinear endings.
The atomistic teaching of C. Lombroso was of great importance in the search for ways and means of diagnosing the personality of a criminal, the development of psychology and pathopsychology of a criminogenic personality, in the formation of the foundations of forensic science and forensic psychology, in the search for appropriate measures to influence the personality of a criminal. Many results of Lombroso's empirical research have not lost their relevance (experimental data on the genetics of behavior at the end of the 20th century demonstrated that genetic factors really are the cause of some varieties of aggressive, incl. criminal behavior). And, most importantly, they are not reduced to primitive schemes for the biological explanation of criminal behavior. C. Lombroso's conclusions are always multivariate and imbued with a constant desire to reveal the real mutual influence of biological and social factors on each other in antisocial behavior.