Moral Problems of Mental Defect
- Author:
Cammack, S.J. Burns, Oates & Washbourne. 7/6.
Father Cammack, S.J., might easily have found a more popular title for his book which deals from an unfamiliar angle with some very familiar problems of mental deficiency. It is an analysis, by a skilled moral theologian, of the nature of ” moral deficiencya concept which is even more puzzling to the expert than to the amateur in the psychology of crime, who may see nothing particularly odd in the notion of a person being without moral sense. To have moral responsibility carefully examined and clearly defined is a useful preliminary to wise action, for loose thinking on this fundamental point has led to much futile discussion and inaccurate certification.
Father Cammack deals further with the various factors which modify responsibility, including heredity. This section covers well-trodden ground, but the public still needs much education on recent researches which are here summarised.
A great part of the book is devoted to an examination of the question ” what precisely is a moral defective?”, and here again we are on very familiar paths, many of which seem to lead round in a circle. The author finds much to criticise in Dr. Tredgold’s work but concurs generally in the use of the term ” Moral Sense” to mean a feeling or sentiment about moral notions, an emotional tone superadded to the intellectual perceptions of the rightness or wrongness of actionsFr. Cammart himself believes that the essential differences which produce this low emotional tone, or defective ” emotional resonance” as it has always been called, are of an organic character.
Like many modern experimental psychologists, he considers the factor of ” perseveration ” to be of great importance in determining character and considers that in this line of research lies the greatest hope of elucidation of the problems of Moral Defect. Some interesting studies of individual cases are given in the book and attention is rightly drawn to the rarity of true “Moral Defect”. L. F.
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