How to recognize abnormal people

In the late 1950s, Drs. Robert Matthews and Lloyd Rowland wrote a police training manual titled "How to Recognize and Handle Abnormal People," which was then distributed to sheriff and police departments throughout the U.S. The officers receiving it in the photo below look a little skeptical.

Check out more scans from the book at Print magazine.

The Bloomington Pantagraph - May 2, 1958

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Posted By: Alex - Tue Sep 29, 2015
Category: Police and Other Law Enforcement | 1950s

Comments

I'm guessing the guy walking down the street wearing only a diaper and a colander would be covered in this book?

Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 09/29/15 at 08:43 AM

You haven't been visiting San Francisco have you?

http://www.sfgate.com/moms/article/Parents-beware-Folsom-Street-Fair-is-this-weekend-6526919.php

Posted by RobK on 09/29/15 at 01:36 PM

Just what every parent wants to hear from their 5 year old:
"Mom, why does that guy have a sock on his penis?"

Posted by RobK on 09/29/15 at 01:58 PM

Recent events seem to show that law enforcement personnel are the last group that should have interaction with the mentally ill in public.

Posted by KDP on 09/29/15 at 04:55 PM

Old and archaic it may be, but a lot of our current cops would have benefited from reading this book.

Posted by Harvey on 09/29/15 at 05:29 PM

The beginnings of profiling, no not the pull over every black person in an expensive car offensive BS kind, the kind the FBI does that figures out serial killers and such.

Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 09/29/15 at 05:35 PM

It's all in the eyes. Sometimes the most normal looking ones are the most disturbed. When I last went through basic police school 1983 very little time was spent on dealing with the mentally ill, disturbed, abnormal or just plain crazy person. Hopefully this has changed. But often police arrive just as things have gone to crap and end up dealing with the violent and unpredictable. I was lucky when I got into law enforcement. Two years as a drug abuse councilor had taught me much about mental illness.

I have convinced my family I'm so close to the edge now they just leave me alone.

Posted by Gator Guy on 09/29/15 at 06:54 PM

I flatly deny that's my picture on page 7! And it's my bad side, and I wasn't having a good day . . .

Posted by Phideaux on 09/29/15 at 08:15 PM

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