We need criminals to identify ourselves with, to secretly envy and to stoutly punish. They do for us the forbidden, illegal things we wish to do.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that criminals serve as a reflection of our darker desires and societal norms that we both envy and condemn.
Karl A. Menninger's quote reflects on the complex relationship between society and crime, suggesting that criminals provide a contrasting figure against which we define our own values and morals. They embody the actions we may secretly envy, while simultaneously acting as a target for our judgment and punishment, highlighting our conflicted nature and fascination with rebellion against societal rules.
In practice
During a discussion on morality, one could use this quote to illustrate the complexities of human desires.
People repeat in adult life emotions they experience in childhood. Many of the people whom I spent the last 30 or 40 years treating at so much per minute wouldn't have needed any treatment at all if they had had the right care as children.
We have come to see that just as the child must learn to love wisely, so he must learn to hate expeditiously, to turn destructive tendencies away from himself toward enemies that actually threaten him rather than toward the friendly and the defenseless, the more usual victims of destructive energy.
Love cures people - both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.
Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.
What's done to children, they will do to society.
Our lives are shaped by those who love us as well as those who refuse to love us.
She was incomprehensible, for, in her, soul and spirit were one - the beauty of her body was the essence of her soul. She was that unity sought for by philosophers through many centuries. In this outdoor waiting room of winds and stars she had been sitting for a hundred years, at peace in the contemplation of herself.
Thus each of us had to be content to live only for the day, alone under the vast indifference of the sky.
A government capable of controlling the whole, and bringing its force to a point, is one of the prerequisites for national liberty. We combine in society, with an expectation to have our persons and properties defended against unreasonable exactions either at home or abroad.
There is but one freedom, To put oneself right with death. After that everything is possible. I cannot force you to believe in God. Believing in God amounts to coming to terms with death. When you have accepted death, the problem of God will be solved, and not the reverse.
One is forever throwing away substance for shadows.
In many climbing cultures, it seems that dirty ethics and poor style are acceptable. In mine they are not.
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