“THE LONG, unlikely journey of Cathy Greig’’ (Page A1, Nov. 20) is a fascinating article about a most enigmatic individual. What can be pieced together through talking to people who have followed her life story only gives us a small part of the picture. To get to the deeper questions of why and how this woman allegedly became so complicit in a life of crime and hiding with Whitey Bulger, we need to access the more hidden story of her emotional ties to her parenting figures.

As we know from psychoanalytic study, it is the unfolding of these “early object ties’’ that creates the deep impressions that lead people to act and to feel as they later do in adulthood. Psychoanalysts are committed to understanding which unconscious forces drive people to choose to behave either for the good of others or in destructive ways.

If we could only get access to this information, we could really learn about Greig and gain deeper insight into people who bond with criminals and become accessories to crime.