 |
——————————————————————————————— Adolescent impulses: Lack of self-control. Case 19. Sex temptations. resisted. Girl, age 18. Lack of parental care. Deficient interests: Both mental and recreational. Delinquencies: Mentality: False accusations. Good ability. Stealing. General lying. Staying away from home. ———————————————————————————————-
CASE 20
Summary: A girl of almost 16 years, of attractive and innocent appearance, alleged that she had been leading an immoral life and frequenting houses of assignation. She told the story to the people of her church, who were naturally horrified and demanded a thorough investigation of the social vice problems involved. This was undertaken by the police authorities, but they failed to get any satisfactory evidence from the girl. It was later found that the story was all a myth and the girl had not been in the least immoral. Her first statements followed directly after her attendance at an emotional revival meeting where these topics had been preached about. Afterward this girl was in court many times for various reasons. She is a mild psychoneurotic type, exhibiting under stress unusual mental phenomena. She and her family have created an astonishing amount of trouble in law courts as both defendants and complainants, because their peculiar unreliabilities have not been understood.
This case has long been under observation and we have much information concerning it. It was found difficult to understand by pastors and others who had given considerable attention to various aspects of it. Annie F. was first seen by us when under custody because of her own statement that she had been leading an immoral life. We have seen her and members of her family many times since. The account of the case can best be given, not by commencing with the cross-section study as obtained at first, but by going at once into its whole connections and evolution. At first it was merely learned that we had to do with an unstable, adolescent girl who had engaged for apparently no purpose whatever in false self-accusations which would naturally blight her career.
On the physical side we found a rather slight girl, however, of normal development. Weight 102 lbs.; height 5 ft. 3 in. No organic defect was ever discovered. Neurological examination showed as follows: No tremors. Tendon reflexes normal. Conjunctival and palatal reflexes absent. The sense of pain to pin pricks was almost nil on the arms, and diminished on the face. Strength poor in the arms even when there was evidently great effort made. (Several of these functional findings, however, have varied from time to time in the ensuing years.) Hearing normal. Ocular examination showed hypermetropia 1.5 D. R. and L. with marked astigmatism. Fields and color vision normal. Left pupil about twice the size of the right. (A competent oculist could find no evidence of organic affection of the nervous system correlated with this.) Shape of head normal. Bowels regular. Appetite capricious. When first seen was anemic, but later color was very good. Temperature was taken regularly, but no significant observations made. Petite, pretty features, and unusually beautiful eyes. Complaint of frontal dull headaches, soreness of scalp, cold hands and pain "about the heart.'' Menstruated at 15 years, then much irregularity for two years. Several badly carious teeth and great crowding in a narrow upper dental arch.
This girl was several times observed during a period of about 5 years. She developed into an unusually attractive young woman, showing at times various mild nervous disturbances as well as character difficulties. Only occasionally has she worn the glasses which corrected her errors of refraction. During this time she has not been severely ill. She has a palpable thyroid which has hardly increased in size. When last seen she was notable for a very clear skin, good color, and bright eyes. Conjunctival and corneal reflexes much diminished. Palatopharyngeal reflexes quite absent. The headaches are said to have persisted during all the time we have known her.
We have repeatedly attempted to summarize the mental status and functionings of this young woman, but our findings on tests and otherwise have been irregular and diverse. She reached 6th grade at 14 years, but had been absent much on account of sickness. When first seen we found that she was already fond of Lytton, Scott, and Dickens, and that she was a great reader of the daily newspapers, dwelling much on accidents and tragedies. What we say about her ability must be based upon the best that she has demonstrated. Often when seen she has been in some mental state which has prevented her from doing, or being willing to do, the best that is in her. She writes a good hand, does long division promptly, and reads well. Her association and memory processes have been proved normal, but given a task to do she is prone to show inhibitory pauses and other phenomena which interfere much with a satisfactory result. She has some little reputation of being able to give long, almost verbatim accounts of sermons which she has heard, but the accuracy of her report we have not been able to verify. She gave the antonyms of twenty words in average time of 1.4'', which is a good record. There was one failure, but that was quite typical. At the end of 20'', which is beyond the time of failure, she gave "unhappy'' as the opposite of "happy,'' adding that she had thought of that before, only she did not speak it out. Her tests for psychomotor control were miserably done. She was rapid in movement, but absolutely inaccurate and did not follow instructions. However, we felt that even this did not indicate her full ability, for she had capably held a position in a millinery establishment where she was required to show manipulative dexterity. Perhaps the best statement of her performances is that she demonstrated great irregularities from time to time, and even at the same examination in her work on different tests.
On account of her peculiar testimony against herself, her memory processes and especially her performance on the "Aussage'' test the case seemed of great interest. We found, as we stated above, in various ways that her abilities to remember, when at her best, were normal, but using the "Aussage'' picture we obtained only 6 details in free recital; she was sure that was all she saw in the picture. Then on cross-questioning she mentioned 9 more items correctly, and gave 8 others much altered from the truth. No other item was added, but her report on these was almost illusional in its incorrectness. Of 5 suggestions offered she accepted 2 of the least important, refusing the others entirely. This was a remarkably poor result for a girl of her age, but may not be indicative of her best abilities even on this type of work. Our final opinion was that she was not clearly subnormal in native ability.
Annie has grown somewhat more stable as the years have gone on. Following our first acquaintance with her we have known this girl to make serious false accusations against others (vide infra) and to again damage her own reputation by alleging herself to be pregnant when she was not. Her word in other matters all along has been found somewhat unreliable, but there has been no extensive weaving of romances such as those indulged in by typical pathological liars. Our original diagnosis of this as a case of pathological accusation upon the basis of mild hysteria we have seen no reason to change. Both Annie and other members of her family are representatives of a most important type for court officials and all other social workers to understand. A great deal of trouble has been caused in several religious congregations by the unusual character of the behavior of these people. Also the number of times they have been in courts for various reasons is astonishing.
The history of physical and mental development merges closely with the story of evolution in the moral sphere, and all can be given together. On account of the mother having long been dead and the father being the peculiar man that he is there is some question about the truth of some of the details which have been given us, but we have reason to believe that the main facts are true because they have been held to be the truth in the family circle generally and were not merely given to us. Verification of details would be very difficult because the family are distributed between Europe and America, and no relatives outside the immediate family are at hand. The mother was in excessively poor condition at the birth of Annie. She had miscarriages preceding and following. It is stated that the diagnosis of malaria was made and that the mother had convulsions both before and after confinement. At the birth the prolonged labor and instrumentation were not known to have done any damage. As an infant Annie is said to have been frail, but not to have had any definite sickness or any convulsions.
However, at about Annie's fifth year there began a long list of illnesses. She had scarlet fever severely and also a number of other children's diseases. At 8 years she had an attack of muscular jerking, and then had a number of successive attacks until she was 14 years. At one time she was in a public hospital for three weeks on account of this. It was stated that this was chorea, but of course we can not be sure on this point. Annie was always regarded as a very nervous child; she was frequently a somnambulist until she was about 12. She is very nervous before the onset of menstruation. Of recent years she has been an excessive user of tea— at times before we first saw her she is said to have had 12 cups of tea in a day. At times she was then suffering from sleeplessness, and was wont to feel tired in the morning. As a young child she had severe night fears, seeing terrifying shadows upon the wall.
On account of her illnesses and her general nervous condition, Annie was very irregular in her school attendance. However, she reached 6th grade. As to the family opinion of her mentality we hear that they have regarded her as being an odd type, not lazy, but irritable, hateful, and moody by spells. Her memory is said to be most irregular, sometimes exceedingly good. The other children find it difficult to get along with her because she slaps them so much. At times she swears. At the time of the revival meeting, shortly before we saw her, she is said to have come home from church in an hysterical state. When in custody she was in rather a dazed condition. Where she was detained they say she acted as if she were stunned. Her memory did not seem at all clear, nor has it ever seemed other than confused about the events immediately surrounding the main episode of her career. She maintained she could not remember just exactly what she had said, and her account of it contradicted that of her father.
As we afterwards learned from the church people, it is undoubtedly a fact that her notions of self-accusation came from a Sunday School session in which her teacher repeated what had been talked about in the revival meeting concerning the scarlet woman. A day or two afterward the girl told that she herself was "a scarlet woman.'' She told it first to the teacher, was then taken to the pastor, when she reiterated the story, and the police authorities were called in. Of course her story implied lack of home guardianship and consequently the whole affair was handled for some days by the police alone, after the girl had given a very detailed description of her immoral life. By the time we saw the father it had been ascertained that this girl had never been away from home a single night in her life and probably had never been in the least immoral sexually.
It is necessary to have knowledge of the heredity and environmental background to understand this case. Almost nothing is known of the maternal family. After losing his first wife, the father was twice remarried, and even the third wife has divorced him. He had a brother who, after going insane and killing two laborers, committed suicide. His grandmother, and probably also a cousin, were insane. Two of his sisters were of a nervous and hysterical type and said to have attacks of aphonia. A child by his second wife is epileptic. This man gives us a long account of his own defective heredity and of his own physical ailments. He does not recognize the fact, however, that he also is mentally below par. We have seen him on numerous occasions and known of his great activity in the courts, and have attempted to size him up. He is undoubtedly a constitutional inferior, in poor general physical condition and subject to episodic mental states. One would be inclined to call him a semi-responsible individual with mild delusions, defective reasoning ability, great energy in self-assertion, and of combative disposition. This latter shows itself in his voluble emphasis on the alleged ill treatment of himself and family, even by his wives. He is never physically violent. On account of false accusations, whether delusional or not, he got at least one pastor into a peck of trouble, and, strangely enough, his wives have been involved in some other church embroilments when his own character was called severely into question. On one occasion we were interested to enumerate an astonishing list of people and organizations which, he stated, had treated him and his family unfairly. It seemed to us that during the last two or three years he must largely have lived in the courts to carry on his transactions there. His concern for his daughter seemed genuine and her delinquency led him to seek the law more than ever. Some of the good people who have become interested in his affairs tell us that his is the strangest story they have ever heard. His veracity is often in question. On more than one occasion with us he has dwelled on his nervous states, and on the fact that he is subject to times of mental confusion, but he defends his own judgment and actions on all occasions with great vigor.
This most erratic father has nearly always sided with Annie and offered excuses for her under all circumstances. However, she has stated that he was most difficult to live with on account of his quarreling at home and general bad management of the household. We know that at times he has been a seeker of newspaper notoriety. From his conversations with us and with others we know that his mind dwells much on sex affairs and these things are frequently discussed in the home. There has been much turmoil and quarreling in the family circle, at least with the last two wives. On several occasions the family have had to appeal for aid from the charities because none of them succeeded in making a living. Annie alleged she was taught shop-lifting by the second wife—we regard this as being possibly true on account of the woman's general reputation, the fact that they were desperately poor, and that she drank at times.
The father has the ability to make a very good presentation of himself, to use the best of language and he has had musical training enough to be able to give lessons. Annie herself has taken many lessons in music.
The after-history of this case is instructive. Almost none of our suggestions were taken when our first diagnosis was made. Two years after we first saw Annie she was placed in an institution for delinquents, then having run away from home, "picked up'' a man on the street and stayed all night in a hotel with him. At the institution the girl became very nervous and behaved badly and the authorities decided it was a poor place for her. The father, who at first wanted her placed there, very soon decided that she should be removed. It is very likely his attitude had something to do with her behavior there.
About this time Annie worked in a millinery shop where she proved herself quick and skilful. There she told stories again defaming herself. She said she had had a baby and went into complete details, such as giving the name of the nurse who had taken care of her, and so on. On account of this she was discharged. Later she told us she related these stories to get even with her father, for if there was ever a hell on earth it was living with him.
About three years after our first study of Annie, the father himself brought a complaint against her of untruthfulness and general unreliability. This was at one of the times when he was complaining bitterly of other people. It seems he had lately tried to restrain her from leaving the house and she had cut his head open with an umbrella. It was evident she had started downhill again, and she was placed in a Rescue Home. She now repeatedly told people she was pregnant and made charges against some man, but these soon fell through because a little detective work showed she was corresponding with a boy and had very likely been immoral with him and others. She was then making an attempt to lead a dual life, maintaining she wanted to save some of the unfortunates with whom she was placed, while at the same time entering into various escapades with them and others. At this period a suicidal attempt was reported, but we never had satisfactory proof of the genuineness of this. Annie was now regarded as being excessively delinquent.
A few months afterwards, when the young woman was in one of her better moods and wished to do well, we made a few vocational tests on her. We found her quite unfit for the position of telephone operator which had been suggested for her. Psychomotor control appeared then decidedly defective. However, there was great improvement on work done on intellectual tests two or three years previously. Although she had developed physically (she now was a particularly good looking young woman) we felt she was quite unfit for work which demanded steady effort. One trouble all along was the fact that she did not wear her glasses. We advised then, as we had advised at first, a quiet country life for Annie and the other members of the family. The constant stimulus of city conditions was too much for them.
Again our advice was not taken and some months later the father came to us with the story of extreme poverty, some recent attacks of unconsciousness on his part, separation from his third wife, and the information that Annie was about to become a chorus girl.
Even a final consideration of the general diagnosis in this case which has been so long observed by us does not seem to justify our including it among our border-line mental types. Application of the term constitutional inferiority seems a priori warranted by the family history and yet we have no proof that her physical and mental conditions as enumerated above are not the result of her many early illnesses and the excessively erratic environmental conditions, rather than of causes which existed at birth.
On account of the peculiar inhibitory phases which arose nearly always during observation, we never relied merely on the results of laboratory tests for our judgment, and her success in some social situations has proved the wisdom of this. Our earliest feeling that we had to do with a temporary and mild psychosis was perhaps justified, but further observation of her has led us to see clearly that she is not to be considered as a deeply aberrational type. Could she ever have been free from the extraordinarily upsetting home conditions one could have gauged much more accurately her mental capabilities. As time went on, the moral difficulties, which were largely induced by family conditions, led to mental as well as moral upsets which could be considered as little else than normal reactions to the situation. Her conduct lapses, under the circumstances, are no indication of any mental breakdown. On the contrary, it is clear by our own examinations and the accounts of other observers that she gradually has showed greater mental stability.
(Since writing the above, we have had, by chance, the opportunity of getting some important information about this case from an entirely new source. A person who knew the family many years ago corroborates the father's remarkable story of antecedents. The father himself remains in about the same state of social incapacity. Annie, now married to a young man with a long criminal record, has a child. Her word has recently been found absolutely unreliable, and testimony lately given by her in court concerning her husband was grossly false when it would seem that her interests and welfare demanded her testifying the truth concerning his non-support.)
———————————————————————————————- Mentality: Psychoneurotic. Case 20. Heredity: Extremely defective. Girl, age 16. Developmental conditions: Defective antenatal conditions. Difficult birth. Earlier neurosis. Physical conditions: Earlier dental defects. Defective vision, usually uncorrected. Stigmata of eyes. Stimulants: Excessive use of tea. Home conditions: Highly erratic and unstable. Many bad influences there. Excitement and suggestion from revival.
Delinquencies: Mentality: Self-accusations. Abilities irregular, Running away. and as above. Sex affairs. ———————————————————————————————-
CASE 21
Summary: This case illustrates the fact that pathological lying and accusation may arise first during a period of special stress. A young woman of 19, after illegitimately becoming pregnant, was found home after home by a charitable organization. In each place she made false accusations of immoral proposals against some one in the family or neighborhood. This created much trouble and lost her several good homes. Her lies persisted after an abortion had been secretly produced, but it is to be noted that she now, as a sequel to the operation, suffered from irritative pelvic conditions.
A short statement of this case will suffice to bring out the point that during a period of social and mental upset pathological lying and accusation may be first indulged in. We studied the case of a young woman of 19 who had been the source of much trouble in a certain locality on account of her false accusations. She was taken in hand by a charitable organization and found a home, after she had become pregnant at a wedding feast where alcoholic stimulants flowed freely. There was then no one to look after her but an invalid father. She was placed with an estimable family. In a short time she made the shocking announcement to the wife, and to others, that the husband had made immoral advances to her. He was a man of excellent character and of course this could not be believed. She was then placed on a farm, where she showed erotic tendencies and insisted that one of the helpers about the place wanted to take liberties with her. She was observed flirting and making advances to thrashers and others. She had to be found a new home, and this time it was in a city, where new accusations were made against a delivery boy. After this the young woman made off and shifted for herself for a time, and succeeded in getting some shady character to produce an abortion on her. Later, she again came to the official attention of the social agency by reason of making new accusations. From the date of her impregnation to the time we first studied her, a period of about 10 months, she had made serious accusations against many. When her lies were told in a new environment they, of course, always made new trouble. Each time, however, the girl herself was the loser. Her real partner at the wedding feast had early deposited several hundred dollars for the expected infant.
We found a strong, normally developed young woman of rather attractive appearance for the grade in society from which she came. No sensory defect. Diseased tonsils. Complained of constant suffering from pelvic conditions, perhaps induced by the abortion. However, being such a strong type she has been able to get about well and do her daily work. When we saw her she was employed in a factory.
The question put to us was concerning her mentality. She came of a Slavic peasant family, had been in this country only 6 years, and her relatives spoke only Slavic. She had been to school but a very short time, either in the old country or here. Because of the language difficulty, the giving of many tests, such as those in the upper years of the Binet system, could be regarded as most unfair. However, the simpler language tests she did fairly well, especially those where she could understand the commonsense questions. In regard to her acquirement of English, she has done better than her relatives, who continue to live in a neighborhood where their own Slavic dialect is spoken. When it came to dealing reasoningly with concrete situations, such as those presented by our performance tests, this young woman did comparatively well—quite above the grade of the feebleminded. Our diagnosis, then, was that she could best be regarded as poor in ability or possibly subnormal as compared with our general population, but as correlated with her peasant type she was probably normal.
From the standpoint of aberration one could find no evidences of anything but eroticism and a constant tendency to deviate from the truth. About the affair of the abortion she showed herself unexpectedly shrewd, maintaining that she had had to work very hard carrying stones when a new silo was being built on the farm, and at her next menstrual period she had flowed for a week or so, and that was all there was to it, except that she had been suffering from pains continually since. (The charitable organization knew she had visited the office of a notorious abortionist.) She smiled much in a silly way when in the company of men; she proved herself easily led. Taking it altogether, there was no reason for considering her insane, or as being in any way a psychopathic personality. She showed no stigmata of degeneracy.
There was no opportunity to get a satisfactory family history. Many of the relatives were still in the old country. A sister and brothers have been known in the neighborhood where this girl lived, and are said to appear quite normal in their simple ways of living. They are of the peasant type and good laborers, but given to occasional indulgence in feasting with alcoholic embellishments. From the sister we learned that this girl had passed through a sickly childhood and had been most irregularly brought up on account of the illnesses of her mother. She was not known as a liar when younger. Her short school record showed nothing of value for diagnosis. What happened to this girl was no great exception; among these people, we know from their own accounts, free and easy sex relationships are common. We are advised that it was long ago known that this girl was going with bad companions.
In this case we advised gynecological and other medical treatment and segregation in a reformatory or industrial school. The young woman could be regarded as nothing else than a dangerous person in any community. Even when being brought to us she had endeavored to flirt with a conductor on the train. A fair diagnosis could only be that she was, for the present at least, morally irresponsible.
This case has been only recently studied and no further report can be given. It is cited in illustration of the fact that was not clearly brought out by our other cases, namely, that a period of stress may be very definitely the exciting factor in developing pathological lying and accusation. This stands out particularly clearly in this case because the young woman had, prior to the wedding feast, been a good worker and had given no trouble in the community.
CHAPTER V
CASES OF PATHOLOGICAL LYING IN BORDER-LINE MENTAL TYPES
We could load our pages with histories of cases where the statement of delusions, unrecognized as such, has created much trouble in courts and out, but this type of case is too well known to need any illustration. Text books of psychiatry deal with the falsifications of paranoia and other insanities. That the really insane also sometimes lie pathologically, that is, tell for no normal purpose what they adequately know to be untrue, is a fact not so well understood. But even that we need not be especially concerned with in our case histories. It has been well brought out in the previous literature on pathological lying, as witness in our Chapter II. In the present chapter we do not include the out-and-out insane, nor the definitively feeble-minded, nor the recognizably epileptic.
Much more difficult of understanding and much less easily recognized because of the mildness of many of the symptoms, or their variations from time to time, are the types which we enumerate. Several of these offer no complete picture of insanity—even Case 25, although clearly aberrational, extremely defective in self-control, and markedly criminalistic, did not show to some psychiatrists who observed him a sufficiently clear correspondence to any form of insanity as laid down in the old-school text-books to be practically regarded as insane and in need of long segregation. In considering this whole matter we must never forget that there is no wall of demarcation between those whose conduct clearly betokens insanity and those who are not insane. There are plenty of instances where the easily passable border between the two is permanently occupied or is at times approached.
We keep our border-line cases separate in order to emphasize that pathological lying by an insane person does not make a pathological liar in the true sense. We should hesitate, however, to give in legal form a verdict of insanity in several of these border-line cases we cite—they are very difficult to classify, and the question of responsibility called for sometimes in court work is unanswerable. Keeping even these mild cases away from our others serves, however, to lessen confusion; we need in this subject to conserve all the clearness possible by holding to fundamental classifications and showing up vagueness of definition where it does exist.
Perhaps we are over-particular in keeping such a case as No. 22 in this chapter. The commonsense observer would hardly regard this girl as at all lacking, even in self-control. On the other hand, for the purpose of illustrating the subject of pathological accusation we have kept Case 17 in the previous chapter when it clearly shows great resemblance to Case 26 and is in reality a border-line type. Then, too, the swindler, Case 12, in some respects belongs in this chapter.
We are hardly called on in this work to discuss the lying of drug habitues, although they so frequently in their mental conditions represent border-line types. They are often on the verge of a psychosis as the result of their intoxications. Their lying is mostly done for a purpose, to be sure, and hence much would not come under the head of pathological lying, but occasionally veracity is so much interfered with that there seems to be a tendency to aimless lying. This class of cases, however, is sufficiently discussed in special literature pertaining to the subject.[24]
[24] Vide, "Morphinism and Narcomanias From Other Drugs,'' by T. D. Crothers. Philadelphia, Saunders and Co., 1902. Also Chapter V, Stimulants and Narcotics, in "The Individual Delinquent,'' by William Healy Boston, Little, Brown, and Co., 1915.
CASE 22
Summary: A girl of 14, a most vigorous and vivacious personality, had for a couple of years pursued a curiously active career of misrepresentation, of obtaining goods under false pretenses and running away from home even to distant places. Her conversational ability was above normal; her lies were evolved for the purpose of adapting herself to the peculiar circumstances in which she frequently found herself. Her general conduct combined with her abnormal psychomotor activity gave ground for the diagnosis of constitutional excitement—hypomania.
Birdie M., 14 years old, we saw after some clever detective work had proved her to be the girl who in another town had repeatedly swindled shop-keepers. It seems she had been accustomed to take the train for localities where she had no connections whatever, and there enter shops and make away with whatever she could. An astounding incident was when she returned some goods she had stolen and persuaded the manager to "refund'' her the money on the same. This was regarded by the authorities as extremely clever.
We found Birdie very small for her age. Weight 76 lbs.; height 4 ft. 8 in. Tonsils very large. Teeth excessively crowded. No sensory defect. Not yet menstruated. A very nervous type; quick physical and mental reactions; exceedingly active, restless manner.
Our psychological impressions state that Birdie did all her tests brilliantly and quickly, but very often with less accuracy than would have been the case had she taken the time to think quietly rather than work rapidly. She was very keen to make the best possible record. "I am proud of being quick; nothing is hard for me; it was not hard at school.'' It was found by steadying her that she gave a more accurate performance. We diagnosed her ability as good, but her school advantages had been poor. Otherwise we noted she was a pert, talkative, responsive child, of a distinctly nervous and somewhat unreliable type. Her ideas came tumbling, one on top of another. Under close supervision she was able to control her mental processes fairly well. For instance, on the antonym test, where opposites to twenty stimulus words are called for, Birdie gave them in the remarkably rapid average time of .8 of a second, with only one failure and one error. This is an exceptional record. From this and her unexpected powers of self-control exhibited on some other tests we were obliged to conclude that her aberrational tendencies were not very deep-set. Her mental traits seemed to conform most nearly to the type designated as constitutional excitement, or hypomania. Further observation of the case confirmed us in this first view of it.
On the "Aussage'' or Testimony Test she gave 13 items, all correct, upon free recital. On questioning, 14 more details were added, but 6 of these were incorrect. Of the 6 suggestions offered she accepted none.
Birdie immigrated from Austria with her family when she was 10 years of age. She came of a healthy family; all of her grandparents and many of her uncles and aunts are living. We get no history of any insanity, epilepsy, or feeblemindedness on either side. She is one of 7 children, several of whom have had nervous troubles. Two of the children had convulsions in infancy, but then only. One brother at 10 years old is an excessive stammerer and extremely nervous.
Birdie was born after a pregnancy during which the mother was much worried and in poor health. The father, too, was sickly at that time. The family conditions were defective on account of poverty and illness during a large share of the period when the children were born. Birdie at birth was very small and there was difficulty in resuscitation. She, however, was never seriously ill until she was 7 years of age, when she had something like peritonitis. No spasms or convulsions at any time. She was a very small child during her infancy, but walked at 8 months and talked very well indeed when she was only one year old. Developmental history otherwise negative, but all along there has been poor family control on account of ill health and the slight earning capacity of the father.
During the several months we knew Birdie she was always a most unreliable person. She repeatedly ran away from home and was lost track of. On one occasion she got as far as Omaha. By the use of elaborate, but plausible stories she always succeeded in winning the friendship of reputable people. Once she was found, after she had been away several weeks, residing in a good home in another State where the people thought of adopting her on account of her brightness. Many times she wandered about her home city and in the most active and sly fashion purloined anything she cared for. Several times when she was taken by the police she invented clever stories, without the least faltering, that seemed entirely fitted to the occasion. As the investigator said, she talked incessantly with not the slightest hesitation and was always airy and sure. No one to whom she had gone with her misrepresentations questioned her veracity— she always came out with a clearly connected and plausible story. We noted that her parents in comparison seemed quite stupid.
Of course Birdie passed under various names. Once we recognized her picture in the newspaper representing a weary, disheartened girl who was tired walking all day long from one employment bureau to another. She stated to the reporter it was her ambition to become a model servant. When in Omaha her mental peculiarities were recognized and she was studied by a competent alienist who, however, was not willing to render a verdict of non compos mentis to the police. This was when she had run away from Chicago and had told a lot of stories all of which had turned out to be untrue. The trouble which she created in various communities by reason of her hyperactive delinquencies has not been small.
With much merriment and an excessive amount of facial expression this little girl held forth to us. It is hardly necessary to say that the account varied somewhat from day to day. She did not like it at home and did not propose to go back there. There were too many in the family. As soon as the floor was scrubbed one of the children would get it all dirty again. She had started for New York, but the old gatekeeper at the station was mean and she could not slip by him. She got along all right in Omaha, but finally she gave herself up to the police there. She thinks perhaps she might go up to the people in Wisconsin who wanted to adopt her. In any case, she can do a great deal better than Viola B. who ran away from New York and got caught, and was so much talked about in the newspapers.
Thus her story would run along at great length, Birdie in the meanwhile chuckling with the thought of her own escapades.
We never recommended institution life because it seemed as if better things might be done for this girl. We felt that if she were built up from a physical standpoint her tendency towards nervous excitement might grow less. Her tonsils were removed. Every one felt that the girl's good mental abilities should be conserved to the utmost. Attempts at management in a different environment gave some hope of success, and after a time her parents moved to a smaller town, when we lost oversight of the girl. Following our acquaintance with the case it had been managed in the light of her characteristics, and her falsifying tendencies were constantly discounted by those in charge. We felt that her tendency was to grow more stable.
Three years later: We have just gained further information concerning Birdie. The family is still in straitened circumstances, the father having proved too weak a character to support them. He posed as somewhat of a gentleman and made off to another country. Birdie is said to have worked steadily for months at a time, but over a year ago suddenly left home once more, this time going with a stage company. Although the police in several cities have been appealed to, no trace has been obtained as yet of our young friend. Whether her lying was continued at home we cannot satisfactorily learn, nor do we know accurately about any continuance of her state of excitement, but without doubt Birdie in her present wandering is fabricating anew, and is what she was before, namely, a young adventuress.
———————————————————————————————- Mental conditions: Constitutional excitement. Case 22. Girl, age 14 years. Developmental conditions: Defective pregnancy. Early impaction of teeth. Poor general physical conditions. Home conditions: Poverty. Irritability of father and mother. Delinquencies: Mentality: Running away. Ability good; Stealing. Constitutional Lying. excitement. ———————————————————————————————-
CASE 23
Summary: A girl of 16 having been out all of one night, related a story to the police of having been led off, and incidentally made the statement that she had been repeatedly immoral, once with a relative. She dictated and signed a detailed account of the affairs, giving times and places. This was used in investigating and led to much fruitless effort even on the part of experienced people—her story was quite untrue. When studied she proved to be a mild case of chorea, exhibiting the typical psychotic tendencies of that disease, such as we have observed in court work a number of times.
Nellie M., when brought to us by her grandmother, following the girl's experience with the police who had been told by her of immoralities practiced, was found to be rather a nice looking and gentle girl, pleasant and responsive with us.
On the physical side we found her to be poorly developed and nourished. Weight 93 lbs.; height 4 ft. 9 in. Vision about 20/40 in each eye, but wears glasses which correct this. Rather poor color. Complains somewhat of headaches. Marked tremor of outstretched hands. Moderate amount of choreic movements in arms and legs, exaggerated when attention distracted. Knee jerks exaggerated. Conjunctival and palatal reflexes almost absent. Small regular features. Well shaped head. Said to drink at least 4 cups of tea a day. Heart sounds negative.
Mentally, she seemed to be fairly normal in ability, but was undoubtedly in a peculiar psychical condition. She had reached 7th grade in spite of much moving about, even to different cities. We found evidence of lack of good apperceptive powers and the history of the case led us to see clearly that she had been just recently in a very unstable, if not quite confusional mental condition.
The "Aussage'' or Testimony Test was not given in this case.
The history of heredity and development shows many points of importance. The mother died when Nellie was a very little girl. She was terribly abused by a husband who was excessively alcoholic and in general a tremendous brute. They lived in a roadhouse where drunken fights were not uncommon. Nellie has been brought up since her mother's death by other relatives. Outside of alcoholism on the father's side there is said to be no family peculiarities. The mother came from a very reputable family. Nellie suffered early from several severe illnesses. When only six weeks old she is said to have been in a comatose condition with scarlet fever and diphtheria. Later she had measles, whooping cough and other mild ailments, and at one time suffered extremely from constipation. Walked and talked early. No convulsions. Menstruated first several months ago. Sometimes complains of severe headaches. One observer reported that the girl had been subject to slight melancholia within the last year. Choreic movements have been present off and on for about a year, but have not been marked until a little while previous to the incident which brought her to us. The diagnosis had been made that it was a case of mild St. Vitus dance. During all the year Nellie had been regarded as in general unreliable, but nothing of importance had happened prior to the above episode.
Nellie's story as told to us seemed coherent enough. Apparently she had entire memory of her past actions and, in general, of what she had said. Her own statements convinced us as much as anything else of her unreliability at times. It seems she had run away and gone to a picture show and had fallen asleep there. When she got out it was very late, but it was election night and people were about on the street. She finally was accosted by a woman who took her home. After her story of being led off by a man the police were called into the case and she gave them her remarkable statement. Nellie told us of picking up with a man, too, who lured her to a theatre, but who left her there. There was no way of corroborating this. She fully acknowledged to us the lies which had created so much trouble. "Well, I was telling the first lies and then when I was going to tell him that I knew that I was telling wrong he acted so cranky and said such things to me. He said he knew somebody had done bad things to me and so I thought I had to give the name of somebody and so I gave those names.
"The girls around in the schools I used to go to talked about these things. I never went with them. I was always by myself. None of the boys said bad things. The police were so cranky I did not know what else to say. They said someone must have done it to me when I was younger and I said it was my cousin because he always used to want to. He said he would give me a pair of skates if I would. He was 13. I never asked my grandmother or anyone about these things. No one ever explained it to me. Just the girls are the ones who told me about these things. They told me themselves how they had been out at night with the boys. I never did do it with anybody.''
Examination by a gynecologist about this time showed positively that there had been no immoral relations, and after our findings the case became a closed incident so far as prosecuting anybody was concerned. Nellie was taken in hand by the family physician and no further delinquencies or false accusations have been complained of during the succeeding two years.
Outside of the girl's general frank bearing, undoubtedly a point rather indicating to the police possible truth in her statements, was the detail in which the alleged events were given. The signed statement coming from an apparently naive girl of 15 would seem in its clearness and coherency to bear the earmarks of truth. We always regarded this case as one of our interesting examples showing the unreliability of girl witnesses, especially those who have had unfortunate experiences, even though merely mental, with sex affairs.
———————————————————————————————- Mentality: Mild choreic psychosis. Case 23. Girl, age 15 years. Early clandestine sex teachings. Delinquencies: Mentality: Running away. Normal ability, False accusations. temporary aberration. ———————————————————————————————-
CASE 24
Summary: A girl of 16 whose general conditions won ready sympathy created much trouble. She repeatedly made serious accusations against a man and her attempt at suicide made her statement seem convincing. Further study showed the absolute falsity of her charges. It was a case of hysteria which had developed largely upon a basis of injury—there was a traumatic psychoneurosis. Under good treatment she made a fine recovery; there being no more indulgence in pathological accusations, although her nervous symptoms recurred for a short time after a couple of years.
At the time when we first saw Georgia B. she was somewhat over 16 years old and had been only 5 years in this country. We saw her because she had run away from home and attempted suicide. From the latter she had been rescued, and then had accused a neighbor of raping her. The case proved to be very troublesome until the nature of the whole affair was understood.
We found a thin and anemic girl, not at all prepossessing in appearance, dull in expression, suffering from a chronic suppurating otitis media.
On the mental side we had much trouble in conducting an examination because she was greatly given to tears. She did work for us on a few tests and her efforts would have been graded as those of a feebleminded person if her emotional state had been left out of account. Even our physical examination was largely hindered through her crying. However, her story was told in a straightforward way and with that show of emotion which had previously convinced others that grave injustice had been done her. Distinct proof of hysteria was present; for instance, on one occasion in the middle of a test Georgia apparently became unconscious. Her head dropped to the table, but her lips were red, her face did not change color, she resisted having her head moved, and in a moment or two lifted it herself to a more comfortable position. The diagnosis from such symptoms as these and from her history was not difficult to make.
The "Aussage'' test, for obvious reasons, was not given.
Georgia told her story with surprising coherency; in outline, it was as follows: She ran away from home, and then was put under protection of the police authorities by a man who caught her. She said she was caught when standing by a drug store where she had been to get medicine, just ten cents worth of peroxide. When asked by us if it were not really carbolic acid she called for, she said yes, it was and that she intended to take it. She wanted to get rid of her life. What could she do in the way of living? Her father and mother were both sick and they could not live long and then how could she get along taking care of three little children? When asked if her parents would not be terribly affected by her suicide she said that it would not be the first time they had buried a child. At this time she would go no further into her history.
On the next day she talked straight to the point, but with a remarkably dull expression on her face. She said that about five weeks ago, she cannot tell the exact date, she went to a neighbor's house. A man there wanted her to come and look at some pictures. He finally got her to go to a bedroom and then held her so she could not scream, and raped her. She is sure of it. He later choked and beat her and kicked her out of the house. At first she was afraid to tell her people. A couple of weeks afterward she went back and asked why he did that, and he swore at her and accused her of being bad, and she and he talked back and forth for some time. "He says, 'I'll kill you. I did not touch you at all.' I says, 'You did. You're a liar and you can kill me now if you want to. You have already killed me. See, I grow large like this.' '' He then set upon her and beat her again. She has not seen him since. After telling this Georgia began to cry very hard and said that she really is killed now and is done for. The whole story was told in a straightforward way with a full show of emotion.
A complicating feature of this case, resultant upon lack of understanding of the characteristic vagaries of this type, was the action of a vigorous knight errant. He was the one who rescued her. Hearing her ask in the drug store for the carbolic acid, which she did not get, he thought she was desperate and questioned her, but she tearfully refused to answer. He quietly followed her until she got to the river, and then, when she had her foot on the rail of the bridge and was about to jump off, he seized her. She fought and kicked him so that she badly hurt one of his legs. She told him she had reason to commit suicide. He got her to some house and there she fainted. When she came to she described her situation to him, naming a man who boarded with a neighbor as having raped her. She told him this was the reason she had tried to commit suicide.
This young man visited Georgia's family, found them strangely indifferent and not inclined to believe the girl, so he set out to see that justice was done. With his well-intended efforts he succeeded in getting several agencies to work on the case, the parents meanwhile partly resenting his interference. They said they knew what kind of a girl she was.
We never felt thoroughly satisfied with the family history on account of the comparative ignorance of the parents, our only source of information, although they were honest enough people. All points in heredity seemed negative, nor could we learn that there had been anything significant in developmental conditions. The girl had only recently menstruated. Her people felt that of late her word was quite unreliable. She went as far as the 4th grade. On account of the short time in school in this country this was considered doing fairly well.
Ten months prior she had fallen off a street car; it was not known she was damaged seriously. A jury had given a verdict of several hundred dollars against the company, but on account of an appeal having been taken the case was still unsettled. Since the accident a number of fainting attacks had occurred and Georgia had lost one position on account of them, a place where she had worked for 2 years. She was said to have been quite healthy before the accident. Some 5 weeks before we saw her, the girl had become hysterical and announced that she had not menstruated the week before and the cause was that she had been raped. Her behavior was so peculiar in regard to this that her parents did not believe her statements and did nothing about it. The girl evidently was accustomed to telling falsehoods, although we could get no specific account of them. The parents were very anxious to avoid a scandal, for though they were poor they made much of their respectability .
Georgia was examined after a later reiteration of her charges; the physician said that she had not been raped. After we saw her the parents thought it was best to go to another physician with the young man who had become so interested. Once more the report was that there had been no rape, but it now appeared that there had been some manipulation of the parts. After this the case quieted down, but Georgia had run away again just before this second examination. When by our recommendation she was now placed in a convalescent home she repeated the same stories and announced that she was pregnant. Of course more trouble was created by this and a third examination had to be made to convince these good people who had been recently asked to interest themselves in her.
After her stay in the convalescent home Georgia returned to her parents, and, appearing to be recovered, went to work again. Her record for two years was unexpectedly satisfactory. When the above episode had blown over she regained control of herself, adapted herself to family conditions, and worked steadily. On one occasion her nervous symptoms have returned with much depression and again an attempt at suicide. She was now carefully studied in a hospital for signs of insanity, but again it was determined that she was not of unsound mind. She made a speedy recovery, adjusted herself once more to her surroundings, and after a few months became married. During the last year or so there has been no further trouble. A settlement of the law suit for injuries was made before her more recent period of depression. At the time of even her last attack we can learn of no more false accusations having been made. The family attitude about her has, all along, not been what it should have been to have gained the proper results, but the problem of poverty was always with them.
———————————————————————————————- Mentality: Traumatic psychoneurosis. Case 24. Girl, age 16 years. Accident, with law suit following. General physical conditions: Anemia, poor nutrition, otitis media. Delinquencies: Mentality: Running away. Poor ability; Attempted suicide. temporary False accusations. aberration. ———————————————————————————————-
CASE 25
Summary: Case of a young man of 19, with already a long record of criminalism, who created much trouble for a court where a judge was keenly anxious to do justice. The fellow implicated himself in a sensational murder, but investigation proved this to be untrue. In other ways his word was found most unreliable. The question concerning his sanity could only be answered by stating that he was an aberrational type peculiarly inclined to criminalism, and therefore needed segregation, and that he was also given to pathological lying and self- accusation. From the legal and social standpoints it is important to note that the case represents a type, unquestionably abnormal, although the mental pathology could not be subsumed under the head of any one of the designated mental diseases.
The case of John B. was studied at the request of a judge who had continued the trial because of the manifest mental peculiarities of the defendant. We were told that his behavior varied much, that one day he would cry and apologize, and on another would show stupid bravado. As the judge stated, John had long been in disciplinary institutions and this had failed to do any good. The immediately peculiar features of the case were that while he was being held for vagrancy and robbery, John made a strong attempt to implicate himself in a murder case. In other words he was a self-accuser.
We found a strong young man of 19 years; weight 157 lbs., height 5 ft. 5 in. Very broad shouldered and deep chested, but slouchy attitude. Good color. Eyes bright. Varicocele. Somewhat defective vision in one eye. Well-shaped head—circumference 56.5, length 18.5 and breadth 16 cm. Thick, heavy voice. Appears dull and depressed, but energizes under encouragement. Other physical examination negative. Complains merely of headaches in left frontal region, but says he has had these only since last year when he was struck there by a beer bottle. Recently an excessive user of tobacco.
In the mental examination we found much of interest. When first seen he gave every appearance of being a mental defective, but by judicious stimulation he could be waked up to do comparatively good work in several directions. On the Binet tests, 1911 series, he passed all but one of the 12 year set; in that he followed the suggestion offered. On the 15 year old tests he did three out of five. The failures were on the memory span of figures and in the repetition of a sentence of 26 syllables.
By our other tests we also found him defective in verbal memory processes, even when he read the passage to be remembered. In working with our so-called construction tests, where his success depended not only upon planning with concrete material, but even more on the ability to profit by his failures, he did decidedly poorly. In handling the puzzle box, where above everything is required perception of the relationship of one step to another, he succeeded very rapidly. With the cross-line tests, which require mental representation of an easily remembered figure and analysis of its parts, he did very poorly, succeeding only after the third attempt in each of the two simple tests. This is a type of work that is especially easy for the normal person.
In our "Aussage'' or Testimony Test we got a decidedly poor result. At first enumeration he gave only 8 items, and on cross questioning gave only 6 more. He denied seeing other objects plain in the picture, but contradicted himself somewhat on this. It is interesting that he took only one out of four suggestions, notwithstanding his suggestibility on the Binet test.
On school work he does altogether much better. He writes a good hand, reads fairly well, and promptly does a sum in long division. He claims to have reached the 6th grade. One difficulty in testing him was his prevailing lethargy. We constantly had to fight this by encouragement. Once he insisted he must give up the work because he had not had a smoke for an hour or so. Altogether, including his irregularities, we could not call him lower than poor in ability, possibly subnormal. He did not come within the limits of the feebleminded group. Just where to place him would depend upon what he perhaps could do under other more favorable conditions. So much for the tests of ability.
In studying him for aberrational tendencies there were positive indications. Most significant it was when, in the Binet tests, he came to the word "justice'' and turned to the examiner, saying feelingly, "I don't know what that is,'' and then burst into tears. Yet this was from a fellow who had offered to get himself into even worse trouble with the courts. He made much of his worrying about not having any home and not being the child of his so-called parents. His attitude was of sorrow and hopelessness about his whole situation in life. As seen again about two weeks later, still more evidences of aberration were found. He contradicted himself then in regard to his previous stories, in regard to his home life, denied he had made self-accusations, and very clearly did not remember at all accurately what he had previously told me. In fact, he evidently was not quite clear just who I was, although he had before been brought across town under the charge of a couple of officers to see me—an important break in his incarceration. He also told a different story from one he had told before to a certain official who now was present. He seemed rather mixed on a number of points, and this is all the more significant because he had been heartily afraid of being adjudged insane. Our diagnosis at this time was purely tentative as far as exact diagnosis was concerned. We stated that in our opinion he was an aberrational type and the practical point was that he should neither be allowed to go out in the community, nor be sent to a penitentiary, but rather to an institution for observation and perhaps for long detention. The jury found it necessary, as usual in such cases, to declare him insane.
The history of John runs as follows: From an evidently conscientious parent we learn of nothing significant in the family history. At birth he was said to be bright and healthy. He had diphtheria severely at 4 years. At 6 he started to school. He always got along well in his classes, but was very troublesome. At 11 years he began to run away from home. His father spent much time and money in going to various parts of the country for him, and at 13 years of age he was placed in an industrial school. He is the only child. He came home after 2 years, remained there for 3 or 4 months and then ran away once more to California. (His home was in the middle West.) He was returned by the police, sent to the industrial school for another year, and then again returned home. He stayed only 2 weeks before running away to New York. Coming back he got into some trouble and was sent for the third time to the industrial school. There he stayed until 6 months before we saw him. He was released once more on parole, stayed at home a week, and again ran away. It is reported that during his early time at the industrial school he was rather melancholy by spells, and at one time tried to poison himself. His relatives say he has a bad temper. He had typhoid fever at 14, but made a good recovery.
John has been known for years as a great liar, having told miserable stories about his parents, all of which were quite untrue. He has frequently mortified his father and mother by denying his parentage. The last time John was on parole he wrote more than one letter to police authorities in his home State, informing them he had been implicated in a serious crime. An officer at the reformatory institution had a letter from him purporting to be written from a penitentiary, stating he was sentenced there on a charge of robbery. When he was held in our city on a minor charge, he informed the police officials that he was connected with a certain notorious murder of which the papers had been full just previously. He was sent out with a couple of detectives who soon found he knew nothing about the actual facts, and that his alleged accomplices were innocent men.
In jail it is reported that he seems childish. He has to be locked up alone at times and then begs and teases to get out, but in ten minutes or so will repeat the bad behavior. He has stolen little things from others in custody and has attempted to dispose of his own clothes for a few cents. It is definitely reported that he has shown evidences of poor memory. From the institution where he previously had been so long, word comes that he was regarded there as not quite normal. John had been held in another city on a charge of rape, but without much evidence, for he was allowed to go. We could not find out whether he made self-accusations in that case.
In his story to us he complains bitterly about his treatment at the old institution, maintains he was head laundry man there, tells about his excessive smoking of late, denies his parentage, says the only friend he has is a certain church worker, maintains he did not have any home to go to from the industrial school, intimates he will commit suicide if there is any question of his being declared insane, says that he had earlier stolen things from home, tells of having spells when things get black in front of his eyes and can't see for a little while, says he wants to be sent to the penitentiary and wants to start right now serving his term.
All told, there was nothing so striking about this whole case as the extravagant tendencies towards prevarication. For years he has been lying to no purpose, although he has never been previously regarded as insane. Now he appears as an extreme self-accuser and as a fellow whose word can't be trusted from hour to hour. The lying, regarded as an aberrational tendency, is out of proportion to our findings of abnormality in any other sphere of mental activity, except perhaps the evidences of defective memory processes. One trouble in gauging his memory is, of course, the boy's prevarications, but one might argue that if his memory processes were as good as his other abilities he would make equal use of them.
Following our study and recommendation in the case John was found not guilty, but insane. Then being resident of another State, and, indeed, being on parole from a reformatory institution there, he was held over to the jurisdiction of that State, and placed in a hospital for the criminal insane. We have a full report from the latter place which is exceedingly illuminating. It appears that despite his first terror of being sent to an asylum he adapted himself to his new surroundings very readily. It is stated that he assisted with the ward work and spent his leisure time in reading and playing cards. He asked for work outside on the grounds and was regarded as a very courteous and genial patient. No evidence of delusional or hallucinatory trends could be obtained. He always seemed to be well oriented and conscious of everything going on about him. Emotionally he appeared somewhat subnormal inasmuch as he did not worry about his own condition, but said he was perfectly contented. (The latter, of course, to a psychiatrist would be significant.) He was a great talker and his stories were well listened to. John said that when he was indicted for robbery his lawyer advised him to feign insanity and as a result he had been sent to that hospital. (It is to be remembered that with us he made great effort to show off his mental powers at their best and evidently did somewhat better work than when later in the hospital.) He gave them a history of being somewhat of a cocainist and morphinist, of being a slick "pickpocket,'' and of associating with prominent criminals, particularly "auto'' bandits. He was boastful of his experiences, but sometimes admitted that he prevaricated. It is most interesting to note that he told a story of having concealed in Chicago some plunder—jewels, money, and so on—and was really taken to Chicago by one of theBoard of Visitors of the hospital to find the booty. It is hardly necessary to say it was not located. The last of the hospital report states, "Inasmuch as we were unable to prove that he had any form of insanity he was discharged.''
It is of no small importance for discussion of the relation between insanity and criminalism to know that there are such cases as this where the individual is unquestionably aberrational and yet does not conform in mental symptoms to any one of the definitive "forms of insanity.'' They may be lacking in normal social control and in ability to reason, impulsively inclined to anti-social deeds and therefore social menaces, but, notwithstanding this, may not be classified under the head of any of the ordinary text-book types of mental diseases.
It is clear that for the protection of society a different notion of what constitutes mental aberration or insanity should prevail, so that these unusually dangerous types might be permanently segregated. It would really seem that just the findings which the hospital statement enumerates would convince one of this individual's marked abnormality from a social point of view and that his being at large was a grave undesirability.
The latest information concerning this young man is that he was being held in a Western city for burglary.
We should hesitate to make out a card of causative factors in this case. It is clear that the major cause in his delinquency was his aberrational mentality. What there was by way of causation back of this, our history, although obtained from an apparently conscientious parent, is too meagre for explanation.
CASE 26
Summary: Boy of 16 had for 6 years caused a great amount of trouble by his general unreliability and excessive lying. He had been tried away from his own people in private homes and in institutions without success. His lying was excessive and often showed no purpose and no foresight. His peculiar delinquencies demonstrated weakness of will. Although in good general physical condition he simulated illnesses. Mental and physical characteristics rendered certain the diagnosis of constitutional inferiority.
We saw William S. first when he was over 16 years of age, after he had been arrested for stealing. He had already been in three institutions for delinquents. From his father and others we gained a long story of the case.
William was in fairly good physical condition. No sensory defect. Weight 125 lbs.; height 5 ft. 3 in. Although well enough developed in other ways he was a marked case of delayed puberty; as yet no pubescence. Strength only fair; for his age, muscles decidedly flabby. A high, broad forehead. Large nose. Peculiar curl of the upper lip. Small, weak chin. These features give him a peculiar appearance—readily interpretable as showing weakness of character. Cranium notably large. With small amount of hair measurements were: circumference 57.8; length 19.6; breadth 15.5 cm. (Head same size as father's.) Expression downcast. Voice high pitched. "Under dog'' attitude. Slouchy. No analgesia or other signs of hysteria.
The performance on tests was peculiarly irregular. In this monograph we have omitted discussion of the results of separate tests, but the citation of the summary as dictated when the case was first studied will prove instructive: The work done on our tests was very irregular, peculiarly so. Perceptions good and most phases of the memory processes fair, but in reasoning ability and especially in tests which require the application of some foresight the results are poor indeed. The failure is remarkable in proportion to what he could do in school work and to his abilities in some other ways. He reads fluently, writes a very good hand, and in arithmetic is able to do long division, but showed no grasp of good method. When at his best he sticks at a job well enough, but does it with no intelligence and does not save himself in the least by thoughtful procedures. We were interested to note that in a game which he said he had played a great deal, namely checkers, he made the most foolish and shortsighted moves. It is only fair to say that this boy varied in his performance from time to time; his emotional condition largely controlled his performance.
On the "Aussage'' or Testimony Test he gave a functional account upon free recital, with 15 details. On questioning he gave 13 more items. Out of the entire number only 3 minor errors. Of 5 suggestions proffered none was accepted.
There was a great deal more to be said about this boy's mental peculiarities than what was evidenced by the giving of tests. Our observations of him made at intervals over a period of several months corroborated entirely the statements of several others, including members of his own family. The boy was remarkably unstable in his ideas and purposes. What he apparently sincerely wanted to do and be at one time was entirely different at another. His changeableness was shown in many ways. When he had been found apparently suitable employment or a new home he often would stay only a few days. The father's first statement that the boy was a craven was borne out by all that we saw. He was too cowardly to be "tough,'' but he was a persistent runaway and vagrant. He sometimes used an assumed name. In general demeanor he was good natured, but always restless. Not the least of his peculiarities was his ready weeping. It was amazing to see so large a fellow draw down his chin and sob like a young child. He was easily frightened at night. Under observation he had peculiar episodes of behavior. Once in a school-room, without any known provocation, he suddenly began to cry and scream, picked up a chair and soon had the entire room cleared out. A moment afterwards he was found sobbing and bewailing his lot because he "never had a fair chance.'' On another occasion his legs strangely gave out and he had to be carried to bed by his fellows. The next morning a physician found him with his legs drawn up and apparently very sensitive over his back and other parts of his body, but with a little encouragement all his symptoms soon disappeared. He gave a history of having had convulsions, but this was found to be untrue. He was a "bluffer'' among boys; when met valiantly showed always great cowardice.
We felt much inclined at first to denominate him a case of abulia, but his stubbornness in recalcitrancy led us to change our opinion. From the above physical signs and mental phenomena he was clearly a constitutional inferior.
Some facts we obtained on the family history were most significant. The mother of William suffered from attacks which were undoubtedly epileptic. Her mother, in turn, had convulsions at least during one pregnancy. We did not learn whether or not she had them at other times. No other points of significance in that family are known. The father himself was brought up, as he says, strictly, but he was inclined to be wild, and he has indulged for many years altogether too much in tobacco and alcohol. He is distinctly a weak type and the poorest specimen of his family. William is the only child. There was nothing peculiar in developmental history until he was 2 1/2 years old when he suffered from "brain fever and spinal meningitis.'' This was said to have left him with a stiff right arm and to account for his being left handed. (We could discover no difference in the reflexes.) Then at another period he was sick in bed for 6 months with some unknown, but not very serious illness. The mother has been dead for years and so we were unable to get accurate details about this. At a very early age William sought the pleasures of tobacco, even when a child of 6 or 7 he used his pennies for that purpose. He was brought up in an environment defective on account of his father being a poor earner and weak in discipline. But still his parent took for years a great deal of interest in him and it was not until the boy had proven himself most difficult that his father proclaimed himself unable to manage his son.
At about 10 years of age William began running away from home and manufacturing untrue stories. One of his favorite statements was that his father had been killed in an accident. It is notable that all these years he has been attempting to gain sympathy for this or that assumed condition, whether it be his own alleged physical ailments, or fictitious family difficulties. As a matter of fact, during this time he has been in some good homes, failing each time to comport himself so that he could be retained there. It was typical that he reiterated, "I have no friends; there is no one to stick up for me.'' Besides being in three institutions before he was 16 years old, William had been in homes which he had found when he had run away, or in which he had been placed by his father or by social agencies, the services of which had been evoked. His stealing was often done with an extraordinary lack of foresight. For instance, in one good position that had been found for him he took a box of cigars, when, of course, as the newcomer he would have been suspected, and even after his employers made it clear to him that they knew of the theft he took another box the next day. His lying under all occasions was nothing short of astonishing. To even his best friends he offered all sorts of fabulous tales which one iota of forethought would have made him realize would redound to his disadvantage. Almost his only show of common sense in this was when he gave an assumed name while getting a new position, and even this performance could hardly be considered deeply rational. It is hardly necessary to give lengthy specimens of his falsifications; they always pervaded his stories about himself, but strangely enough he acknowledged many of his delinquencies. A good example of the latter was when he collected a little money for a new employer and on the way back, looking in a shop window, saw an electrical toy and immediately bought it. He then went home, not even returning to the office to get the wages which were due him. An example of his lying is his responses to questions about his schooling. He maintained that he only reached the third grade. (In reality he could do sixth grade work at least.) He said, "I know long division by about 13 and about 5 figures. I don't know it by any other numbers.'' William maintained these same characteristics over the 6 years during which we have good data about him. We know he continued the same kind of a career for a year or so afterwards.
Three years later we have direct information from his family concerning William. His habits of prevarication have been kept up steadily, so it is stated. He has been in and out of institutions and at present is serving a sentence for larceny. He all along has been unwilling to face realities and has lied against his own interests continually. For instance, we are told that if he lost a place, instead of obtaining the help his family would have been willing to give him in gaining another, he would steadily pretend to be holding the former position. He is still considered utterly unreliable and a thoroughly weak character with a tendency to meet a situation as readily by a lie as another person would tend to react by speaking the truth. People who have known him of late speak of him as being at 21 "just the same fellow,'' which probably indicates that he is thoroughly a victim of habit formation as well as of innate tendencies.
———————————————————————————————- Mentality. (Typical constitutional inferior.) Case 26. Boy, age 16 years. Heredity: Mother epileptic. Maternal grandmother had convulsions. Father alcoholic and tobacco in excess—weak type. Developmental conditions: Early disease of the central nervous system. Delinquencies: Mentality: Running away. Abilities irregular, Stealing. psychic episodes. Lying. ———————————————————————————————-
CASE 27
Summary: Case of a boy, age 16 years, who told the most extraordinary stories of his vagrant life and the character of his family to officers of several organizations who tried to help him. He understood well that evidences of his unreliability would count against him. His stories, although often repeated, were not credited, and later, after a home had been found for him, he began a new series of lies that seemed almost delusional and somewhat paranoidal. After months during which much had been done for him it was suddenly discovered that he was an epileptic.
John F. appealed to an agency for assistance. He told a story of having wandered with his brother since he was a young boy. "My father was insane from what my uncle did to my mother. He drowned her. The house caught on fire and he blamed her for it. She said she didn't. She was too sick to get up and he took her out of the house and his big son pumped water on her. She was pretty near dead anyhow. We was too little to do anything. I seen it. I remember that all right. I can see that yet Brother and sister died about 3 years ago. Brother took sick from sleeping out. We slept around in barns for 2 years. Father was in an insane hospital in Kansas. I think my uncle was hanged at N. Junction. We did not stay there. I remember yet when they went to put my mother in the grave. I jumped in with her. We put right out and after awhile folks wrote that father was dead.''
So much attention would not have been paid to this gruesome tale had it not been repeated to various people during the course of several months. The boy wrote letters reiterating these incidents. His stories always went on to include the most surprising amount of abuse. It seemed that everywhere he had been illtreated. Farmers had whipped him, or clothed him badly, or defrauded him of his wages.
Physically, we found John to be in good general condition. A strong active country boy. No serious defect of any kind was discovered.
On mental tests he did better than we expected. To be sure he was very backward in arithmetic, but then his story was that he had hardly ever been to school at all. He certainly did well in many of our tests with concrete material, but the results as a whole were curiously irregular, even if we allowed for his deficient schooling. At that time we were disinclined to pass ultimate judgment on his mentality without knowing more about his antecedents.
On the "Aussage'' Test he gave only 11 bare items on free recital. On questioning 19 more details were added. Of the entire number only 3 were incorrect, and these were not serious mistakes. Of 6 suggestions offered he accepted 3.
The history of this boy and his family has never been forthcoming. The authorities in his alleged home State have not been able to trace his family, which they could have done had his stories been true. Their report made it clear that the boy's reiterated family history was a fabrication—the raison d'etre of which is still in doubt. In spite of his lying the boy was found a desirable home in the country at the work for which he was suited. After staying for a few weeks he returned to the city and got lodgings for himself. We next heard of him because he was induced by a "hold-up'' man to secrete a revolver on his person while the police were in the neighborhood. Upon looking up his landlady, it was found that while with her he had suffered from epileptic attacks. These had not been observed during the several months we had previously known him, and he had strongly denied them to us. In our court work we constantly inquire for evidences of epilepsy; in this case we received nothing but negation. After he served his sentence this young man was lost sight of. Even in the institution to which he had been sent he continued his fanciful and often hideous stories, still largely centered about the idea that he had suffered unjustly wherever he had been.
No complete summary of causative factors is possible in this case. The major cause for his lying as well as other delinquencies, particularly his vagrancy, is, of course, the mental traits peculiar to epilepsy.
CHAPTER VI
CONCLUSIONS
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INDIVIDUAL. DIAGNOSIS
PHYSICAL FINDINGS
Our 19 mentally normal cases (18 females, 1 male) showed:
Good general condition. . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Fair general condition. . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Poor general condition. . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Poor development. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Poor development, undersized for age. . . . . . .2 Defective vision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Headaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Mild nervous symptoms . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Tonsils and adenoids. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Fainting attacks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Gynecological ailments. . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Abdominal tumor, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Hutchinsonian teeth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 "Stigmata of degeneracy''. . . . . . . . . . . .3 Premature sex development . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Comparing the above with the findings by previous writers we see little chance to draw safe deductions. So many of the foreign cases have been insane; they can be more nearly compared with our 7 border-line types where all sorts of physical conditions may be found. It is notable that a large percentage of our mentally normal cases are in good general condition. Defective vision in 6 cases may be only a coincidence, but perhaps resulting nervous irritation was sometimes a factor in producing misconduct. Headaches, which Stemmermann makes so much of, appear as an incident in only a small number of our cases; her emphasis on periodicity also we cannot corroborate, there are hints of it in only one or two instances, but then her cases for the most part are not comparable to ours. That 6 out of 18 females should have had severe gynecological ailments is not to be wondered at, considering the trend of their lives, but, in turn, there can be little doubt that, as in Cases 16, 18, and 21, the local irritation tended to bring about moral disabilities.
MENTAL FINDINGS
Considering first the question of mental capabilities we can classify our 19 normal cases as follows:
Supernormal in ability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Precocious; later, still considered bright. . . . . . . . 1 Good ability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Fair ability, perhaps not quite up to the former classes. 6 Poor ability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Poor ability, hysterical type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Poor in general, but with artistic and literary ability . 1 Dull from physical causes, but later normal . . . . . . . 1
Over and beyond the above enumeration there were some intensely interesting facts which came out during the intimate study of these cases. We are at once forced to agree with previous writers that an unusual number of the pathological liar group show great aptitude for language. This is shown by their general conversational ability and by the fact that many of them have found out themselves that they had capacity, for instance, for writing compositions. Taking our group of pathological liars in the strict sense, as given in Chapter III, we find that no less than 7 of these 12 have been given to writing compositions and stories. Three of them had definitely commenced long stories or novels. It is most unusual among other offenders to find evidence of any such tendencies. A considerable number of our group were characterized as great talkers, and several as romantic, dramatic, fantastic, etc., even by ordinary observers. All this goes to show clearly that the native traits making for verbal fluency are strongly correlated with pathological lying. When it comes to consideration of such an instance as Case 11 we have the point more strongly brought out. Here the individual is fairly swung down his life's course as the irregularity of his capacities direct. His language ability carries him along as nothing else will. In corroboration of this interesting point the conclusions of other authors should be noted.
The aberrational types which show pathological lying are, several of them, depicted in our Chapter VI. But little in summary of them needs to be said. The general mental and moral weakness of the constitutional inferior very naturally leads him to become a pathological liar; he follows, by virtue of his make-up, the path of immediate least resistance—lying. The episodic lying or aimless false accusations of the choreic psychosis needs no comment—the confusional mental state sometimes accompanying that disease readily predisposes toward fantastic treatment of realities. The relationship of constitutional excitement to pathological lying is less well recognized, but fully explicable when we recollect the rate at which ideas present themselves in the mental content of such individuals, who have little time, as it were, to discriminate the true from the false. The mental conditions leading to purposeless prevarication which supervene in the real hysterical mental states, or during the course of traumatic psychoneurosis are well known. The individual is to be surely regarded, at least temporarily, as suffering from a psychosis in many of these instances, and falsification, while it may be difficult to distinguish between delusion and lying, is a well recognized phenomenon. The very deliberate lying of psychopathic individuals, such as Case 25, who, though so strongly aberrational, do not fit under the head of any of the classic insanities, is a matter for earnest consideration by all who have to deal with delinquents. There is altogether too little general knowledge of this type of fact. The correlation of the various epileptic mental states with pathological lying is well recognized. In many of the cases cited by foreign writers it has turned out that the individual was subject to epileptic seizures. It is another illustration of the great variety of epileptic phenomena. Something of a point has been made in the literature heretofore that abnormalities of sexual life are unduly correlated with the inclination to pathological lying, and the conclusion is sometimes drawn, as by Stemmermann (loc. cit. p. 90), that the two prove a degenerative tendency. Our material would not tend to show this nearly as much as it would prove that the psychical peculiarities follow on a profound upset caused by unfortunate sex experiences.
A characteristic of pathological liars is undoubtedly a deep-set egocentrism, as Risch states. If one goes over our cases it may be seen that there is exhibited frequently in the individual an undue amount of self-assertion. There is very little sympathy for the concern of others, and, indeed, remarkably little apperception of the opinions of others. How frequently the imagery of the heroic role of the self recurs, and how frequently it occupies a central stronghold is seen by the fact that nearly all of our cases indubitably demonstrate the phenomenon.
Most of our cases have been studied by the application of a wide range of tests. Indeed many of the individuals have been studied over and over. It is beyond our point at present to go over the separate findings because there is no evidence of a strong correlation of any type of peculiarity, except the ones mentioned here, with the pathological lying. Memory processes, for instance, as ordinarily tested seem to be normally acute.
We have naturally been much interested in the result of the "Aussage'' or Testimony Test work with this present group, on account of the possibility of demonstrating correlations between laboratory work and the individual's reactions in social intercourse, particularly when there has been falsification upon the witness stand. In general we may say that while we have seen normal individuals who are not falsifiers do just as badly as a number of these individuals, yet for the group the findings are exceedingly bad. Perhaps the better way of stating it would be to say that not one case shows the sturdily honest type of response which is frequently met with during the course of testing other delinquents, even as young as the youngest of the cases cited here. Our findings stand in great contrast, we note, to the results on other test work. When looking at the table given above we see that a large share of our 19 normal cases are up to the average in general ability, and yet as a group they fall far below the average on this Testimony Test. Take Cases 8 and 9, for instance— both of them bright girls with, indeed, considerable ability in many directions, and yet both of them give a large number of extremely incorrect items in reporting what they saw in the "Aussage'' picture, and also both accept a very large proportion of the suggestions offered. It seems as if frequently in these cases there is no real attempt to discriminate what was actually seen in the picture from what might have been in a butcher shop. In most cases the fictitious items were given upon questioning, but without the offering of suggestions. When the individual was allowed to give merely free recital the result was better. This, however, follows the general rule.
A general survey of work on other tests has not shown anything immediately significant in correlations, and this makes the result upon the "Aussage'' much more notable. Perhaps it may be urged that if these individuals had been told to key themselves up to do this test well, being forewarned that otherwise it would reveal their weaknesses, they could have done better. Some hint of this may be seen in our story of the results of tests in Case 3. But of course the same might be argued about the other test work where no such tendency to poor results was discernible.
The following table, with a word of explanation, will serve to bring out results on this test clearly to even the reader unfamiliar with the specific details of this subject. A general description of the test is found in our introduction.
———————————————————————————————— ITEMS REPORTED ITEMS INCORRECT SUGGESTIONS CASE Denominator=number offered Free On Number Percent Recital Questioning Numerator = number accepted
16 16 12 3 10% 2/7 15 10 14 3 12% 2/5 4 12 28 6 15% 3/4 19 15 8 4 17% 4/6 3 17 20 7 19% 0/6 7 11 17 6 21% 2/5 6 17 12 7 24% 1/7 13 8 21 7 24% 4/4 8 16 28 12 27% 5/7 9 12 32 12 27% 6/7 14 7 21 8 28% 4/7 2 10 12 7 32% 1/5 20 6 9 8 53% 2/5 ————————————————————————————————
Only 13 of our 19 mentally normal cases were found to have had the "Aussage'' Test done so uniformly that results could be fairly compared, as in the above table. The reader will find it easy to refer back to the case for noting other correlations with behavior. In the first double column the items which were given in free recital come first, and in the second part the number of positive responses to questions by the examiner. The coefficients attached to these represent the number of egregious errors or entirely fictitious items given. It should be clearly understood that slight deviations from facts, for instance in color, are not counted as errors for our present purposes. In a later study on this whole topic of the psychology of testimony there will be much more complete itemizing. The errors in which we are particularly interested can perhaps best be called pure inventions. In the next double column is given, first, the total number of incorrect items and, then, the percentage of these to the total number of items reported. In the last column suggestibility is dealt with. We have been accustomed to offer 7 suggestions, asking the individual whether such and such things which might well be in a butcher shop really appeared in the picture. For several reasons not all of the 7 suggestions were asked in every case, therefore the result is best viewed as a statement in fractions— the numerator being the number of suggestions accepted and the denominator the number of suggestions offered.
As a last statement on this question which we put to ourselves, namely, whether pathological liars show the same traits in the laboratory as they do on the witness stand or in general social life, we can answer in the affirmative. We may repeat that others have made as bad records as some of this group, but taking the group as a whole, it is unlike any random 13 cases which might be picked out from our other classes of mentally normal offenders. On the other hand, many a feebleminded testifier has done vastly better than the median of this group. The errors themselves are of the purely inventional type, such as your ordinary report from a mentally normal person does not contain. (There is perhaps one interesting exception to this; Case 3. The report given by this subject included egregious denials of some of the main objects in the picture, and so was fictitious to this extent. She did not say that she did not know whether these to-be-expected objects really were in the picture—she insisted that they were not.) So far as suggestibility is concerned, there are great differences among even normal people in all classes. For comparison with the above group, we may take 63 cases of mentally normal delinquents, all of whom had been offered the full 7 suggestions. The median error of this group was two. Lower than the fraction thus obtained was the result on only 4 of the present cases. We have been interested to see that with some of the pathological liars there is no great suggestibility. The person is willing to deal in his own inventions, but not with false ideas which others attempt to put in his mind.
DIAGNOSIS
The essentials for the diagnosis of pathological lying are contained in the definition at the beginning of our book. The above considerations of the physical and mental make-up of pathological liars should leave little question as to what belongs in this class. Of course here, as in the study of any mental traits, borderline cases difficult to discriminate will always be found. Sometimes one will not be able to determine whether the individual is a true pathological liar or merely a prevaricator for a normal purpose. We have already stated our inability to determine this in some cases, and yet the nucleus of the type stands out sharply and clearly, and there can be no doubt as to what is practically meant by the definition. |
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