Dark Legend : A Study in Murder. By Frederic Wertham,
M.D. (Gollancz. 6s.)
Dark Legend is a psycho-analytical study, by the Senior Psychiatrist of the New York Department of Hospitals, of a case of matricide. Like Orestes, Gino, a seventeen-year-old Italian boy from the lower East Side, killed his mother for dishonouring his family and for defiling his dead father's memory. Like Orestes, he felt he had complete justification for his act ; but behind his immediate con- viction there lurked a doubt.
The spirit that I have seen May be a devil, and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape.
The doubt was resolved, temporarily, by his mother's death. In a moment of seeming insanity he found release. Later, however, he understood his father-image more fully : " My mother needed to be forgiven." Dr. Wertham, whose testimony saved Gino from the electric chair, set out to trace to their source the unconscious impulses behind the matricide, and was able, eventually, to demonstrate the way in which a fortuitous set of events, reacting on a normal and far from psychopathic personality, set up an emotional demand which could find no satisfaction in ordinary behaviour. In this account of his investigation, scientific analysis and a deep sense of poignancy are complementary. Without knowledge of cause and effect, no suffering can be avoided ; without the grasp of social values implied in his writing, no rehabilitation of the individual or society is possible. To the expert and to the general reader alike this book can be commended as an instructive and encouraging account of the psychiatrist at work in the community.
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