"The Interpretation of Murder" by Jed Rubenfeld Quiz

Answer: Carl Jung

Freud had been invited by G. Stanley Hall, President of Clark University, to give a series of lectures on the history of Psychoanalysis. In all Freud gave five lectures and was paid $714.60.
Spinoza is considered one of the great rationalists during the 17th century.
Jung is considered one of the founding fathers of 'Analytic Psychology'. He first met Freud in 1907 when they collaborated on the study of schizophrenia and he joined Freud on a visit to the U.S.A. in 1909.
Rene Descartes was a philosopher during the early half of the 18th century and has been called the "Father Of Modern Philosophy", his major opus 'Meditations on First Philosophy is a standard text in most universities.
Bertrand Russell was born in Wales and is known as a logician and philosopher who helped found 'Analytic Philosophy' with Frege and Wittgenstein

Answer: SS George Washington

The SS George Washington was built for the Bremen based North German Lloyd and was named after the first president of the United States. It was launched in 1908 as the largest built German steamship and the third largest steamship in the world. It could carry over 2,000 passengers in comfort and many celebrities, including Freud, sailed on her.

She is most well known for passing a particularly large iceberg, on 14th of April 1912, and radioing a warning to all ships in the area, including the Titanic, which sank later that night.

Answer: Left hand

After Priscilla's older sister, Mary, dies of influenza, Priscilla is overcome with guilt and manifests a paralysis of her left hand - the same hand that she used to write letters acknowledging the condolences of friends and family. Her guilt stems from her wish to supplant her sister's role as wife and mother.

Answer: The House of Mirth

Written by Edith Wharton in 1905, "The House of Mirth" is recognized as her first important piece of fiction writing.
Nora has a secret copy of this book which she takes to Gramercy Park which is across the road from where she lives.
Wharton went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for her novel "The Age of Innocence" in 1920. All book titles are novels by Edith Wharton.

Answer: He called out the militia

There was a long standing feud between two Shakespearean actors, William Charles Macready (British) and Edwin Forrest (American). The feud started over a disagreement concerning the interpretation of the character of Hamlet - primarily whether the Prince should be played as a strong or weak character. Macready tended to prance round the stage, according to Forrest resulting in Forrest being driven from the stages in England. When Macready then toured America in 1849 he was pelted with rotten eggs, old shoes and coins.

The furor culminated in front of the Astor Place opera House where fifteen thousand rioters collected to disrupt Macready's performance. The rather green Mayor of New York panicked and called out the local militia. When order was finally restored between twenty to thirty men had died when the militia opened fire on the crowd.

Answer: Enuresis

Enuresis is the inability to control urination and is normally prevalent in the very old or very young.
One particular scene describes how Freud urinated in his trousers when he was waylaid on his way to the bathroom. In a rather shameful lack of empathy Jung waylays Freud until Freud wets himself whereupon Jung creates an elaborate reason for the enuresis based on the fact that Freud is threatened by his protégé.

Answer: Electra Complex

The personality factors consist of the conscious, preconscious and subconscious mind. The conscious mind is what we pay attention with at the moment and therefore takes a large amount of our attention. The preconscious mind is those things that we are aware of but pay no attention to. The subconscious mind acts independently from the conscious mind and is responsible for most of our behaviour.
Transference occurs when a person takes the perceptions and expectations from one person and projects them onto another person. This can be paternal, maternal, sibling, or other transference.
Defense mechanisms result from conflict between the Ego, Superego, and the Id and can result in anxiety and tension.
One of the theories that Freud expounded was the Electra complex, i.e. that a daughter wishes to have sex with her father. Younger was skeptical about this theory, which Freud characterised as resistance.

Answer: Jung

Jung was promoted to the position of Editor in chief by Freud over the misgivings of his Viennese disciples. Freud considered Jung to be his natural successor within the field of Psychoanalysis. The 'Yearbook' was the first periodical devoted to the new psychology.

Answer: Jefferson Market Jail

After finding work in a clothing factory Betty is arrested for quitting her job. The owners of the factory had sacked the previous workforce for striking and had brought in non-union labour to replace them. Betty refused to be seen as a scab and consequently quit.
Normally the jail was inhabited by streetwalkers and thieves.
All the other prisons existed within the city of New York.

Answer: The Stanford White Murder

On June 25 1906 Harry Thaw calmly walked up to, and shot, Stanford White on the rooftop garden of the old Madison Square Garden. White was a famous architect who enjoyed a libertine lifestyle, with a particular taste in young chorus girls.
The other three murders happened later on in history.
The Black Dahlia murder occurred in the September 1943.
William Desmond Taylor was a popular actor and director during the era of silent movies. He was shot and killed, in his bungalow, in February 1922.
Rev Edward W. Hall and Eleanor Mills were murdered in September 1922. Like Stanford White, Mills had been shot three times in the head. No-one was ever charged with this murder.

Answer: "To be or not to be"

"O that this too solid flesh would melt" and "To be or not to be" come from Hamlet.
The soliloquy "To Be ...", showing Hamlet deciding whether to act or not against the person who killed his father, is pondered on, and eventually dissected by, Younger. He hypothesises that for Hamlet "to be" will result in death whereas "... not to be" would mean that he would live. It is this conflict, within himself, that results in Shakespeare's most famous soliloquy.
"The raven himself is hoarse" and "Is this a dagger which I see before me" come from Macbeth.

Answer: General Franz Sigel

Younger confirms the identity of the girl found in the trunk whilst questioning Nora Acton. After being shown a photograph of Nora standing beside the victim and a Chinese man Nora confirmed that the girl was Elsie Sigel, granddaughter of General Franz Sigel.
General Sigel was a real person who had been born in Baden, Germany before emigrating to the USA in 1852. He was indeed a Civil War hero and was involved within New York politics; at one time he was pension agent for the city of New York after being appointed by President Cleveland.

Answer: Control of the inner ear

During the trip down the shaft Younger controls the muscles within his inner ear to open the Eustachian tube to release the pressure build up as a result of the descent. Another way of doing this is to pinch your nose and blow out.

Answer: Yelling

After retrieving the trunk from the window Littlemore and Younger find themselves in a pressurised cabin in a shaft that was filling with water. To stop themselves from exploding their lungs during the rapid ascent they had to yell continuously until they reached the surface.

Answer: Her baby

Detective Littlemore returned to the brothel on Fortieth Street to re-interview Mrs Merrill's girls about the whereabouts of Harry Thaw. He interviewed Greta who informed him that her baby had been removed by Mrs Merrill and placed in a family in Hell's Kitchen. Also Greta is being docked three dollars a week for the care of the baby. All this was done without the consent of the poor girl Greta.

Answer: Mayor of New York

During a second attempt to kill Nora Acton, George Banwell is trapped and arrested with the help of Littlemore's paramour Betty Longobardi. Banwell had been able to access Nora's room by way of a secret passageway behind a wall panel near the hearth. In an attempt to pressure Littlemore to let him go Banwell states that he had the Mayor of New York in his power, whereupon the Mayor, McClellan, appears and confronts Banwell.

Answer: Smith Jelliffe

Harry Thaw entered the Players' Club through the rear door, and gave his name as Monroe Reid. He took special delight in visiting the building that had been designed by Stanford White, whom he had murdered three years previously. He meets Carl Jung in the ballroom, becoming acquainted after Jung mentions the name of Smith Jelliffe. Jelliffe is Thaw's psychiatrist.

Answer: The Triumvirate

The Triumvirate consisted of Charles Loomis Dana, Bernard Sachs, and M. Allen Starr. They were the three most powerful neurologists in the country. They believed that all nervous diseases result from neurological problems and not psychological causes. They considered psychoanalysis, and Freud in particular, a threat to their livelihoods.
The Order of the Skull and Bones is a Yale University society.
Opus Dei is an organisation belonging to the Catholic Church.
The Rosicrucians are believed to have been created by a group of German Protestants.

Answer: Hotel Manhattan

Freud had stayed for a week at the Hotel Manhattan during his visit to New York City in 1909. He later went to Clark University to deliver a series of lectures on psychoanalysis.
The Waldorf Astoria was actually two hotels built on the site that now houses the Empire State building. The Waldorf Hotel was built in 1893 with the Astoria opening in 1897 making the combined hotel the largest hotel in the world at that time.
The Astor House Hotel was actually built in Shanghai and is known as the first western hotel to be established in China. It has existed in the city of Shanghai since 1858. It is now a backpackers hostel and is called the Pujiang, becoming the first Shanghai member of the International Youth Hostel Federation in 1998.
The Hotel Knickerbocker was erected in 1906 on the southeast corner of ND Street. It was built by John Jacob Astor and was the long time residence of Enrico Caruso.

Answer: Ida Bauer

Freud wrote a famous case study about one of his patients whom he named Dora, after his sister's nursemaid. Her real name was Ida Bauer and she suffered from a form of hysteria called Aphonia, otherwise known as loss of speech.
The other names are characters in the book.