Neurotics at the Wheel

The careful driver who rates a fellow motorist as "nuts" for honking his horn as soon as the light changes to green is probably right, though medically inexact. Alan Canty, psychologist for Detroit's traffic court, spelled it out in more technical terms at a National Safety Council meeting in Chicago last week: "The fellow who blasts his horn to bully his way through traffic, the fellow who wants to race you in a traffic-light getaway, and the smart-aleck who defies traffic regulations are selfish . . . and egocentric individuals."

Of 10,000 problem drivers referred to his clinic by the courts, Psychologist Canty found 100 certifiably insane. 850 feeble-minded and 1,000 who were former inmates of mental hospitals. Of the rest, he said, many are "psychoneurotic and emotionally unstable, impulsive and irresponsible, or daydreamers preoccupied by financial stress, marital discord or sex problems. [Others are] disturbed by inferiority feelings . . . because of small stature, poor clothing, lack of money, or driving a dilapidated car."

The automobile has been accused of changing the personalities of drivers, and always for the worse. Not so, said Canty --the personality defects come first, and the auto merely affords the driver an opportunity to express hatreds which exist even when he is at home and on his good behavior.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.