Author: Prof Bachmann, Florenz

Cited by

• Ellery Queen (1)
  • IN: The Greek Coffin Mystery (1932) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: “In science, in history, in psychology, in all manner of pursuits which require an application of thought to the appearance of phenomena, things are very often not what they seem. Lowell, the illustrious American thinker, said: ‘ A wise scepticism is the first attribute of a good critic.’ I think precisely the same theorem can be laid down for the student of criminology…. “The human mind is a fearful and tortuous thing. When any part of it is warped— even if it be so lightly that all the instruments of modern psychiatry cannot detect the warping— the result is apt to be confounding. Who can describe a motive? A passion? A mental process? “My advice, the gruff dictum of one who has been dipping his hands into the unpredictable vapours of the brain for more years than he cares to recall, is this: Use your eyes, use the little grey cells God has given you, but be ever wary. There is pattern but no logic in criminality. It is your task to cohere confusion, to bring order out of chaos.”
    FROM: Closing Address to Class in Applied Criminology at University of Munich, (1920), NULL, NULL