Pathology of Lying, accusation, and swindling Part 15

(According to another cla.s.sification this case belongs in our chapter on Border-line Types. It is retained here because it so well ill.u.s.trates pathological accusation.)

John S., an undersized boy of 16, a pitiable specimen, when under arrest for vagrancy told such a heartrending story of home conditions, with a.s.sertions against family morality, that the judge and others were moved to indignation and an investigation was started. The general feeling was that no one who was not insane could make such statements about their nearest of kin without foundation in fact.

We found a poorly developed, but fairly nourished young fellow; weight 112 lbs., height 5 ft. 2 in.; good strength for his size.

Stigmata: slight facial asymmetry, ears very long and narrow, dent.i.tion very irregular--one upper canine having erupted behind the central incisors. Tattooing on the chest. Vision defective, but how much so was impossible to estimate on account of corneal ulcer and general gonorrheal ophthalmia. Gait and att.i.tude very slouchy. In contrast to general poor development, has already full s.e.x development and much hair over body for his age.

On the mental side we found an excitable and talkative fellow, quite coherent, and giving in no way any indication of aberration by the form or trend of his conversation. He tells us he reached the 6th grade. He willingly works on tests and we note the general result as follows: Learning and memory processes, both for logical verbal and for meaningless a.s.sociations, quite good.

Perception of form, normal. Power of a.n.a.lysis of situations mentally represented, only mediocre. a.s.sociative processes, verbal, not normally accurate. Writes good hand. Simple spelling correct. Arithmetic correct for 4th grade. Tests for several other points hardly fair to register on account of defective eyesight. On one he failed because of not knowing the alphabet in order. Suggestibility extreme, as evidenced by testimony test. In giving report on the ''Aussage'' picture, Test VI, he enumerated 12 items, 11 of them correct, on free recital. Then he gave 11 more details, all correct, on cross-examination, but he accepted no less than 7 out of 8 suggestions offered.

Information on current events is good, but on points said to have been learned at school is much mixed up. In giving responses to questions, he seized on any slight suggestion and adopted the idea. For instance, he said he had read the life of Napoleon, but could not remember to which country he belonged. When England was suggested he agreed to it. He then told various wrong incidents of Napoleon's life and death, also as suggested by the examiner. It finally came out that Bonaparte was an English n.o.bleman who fought against France and Waterloo, was never defeated, and got sick in England. Then in the same way we get the information that this country gained its freedom from France, that Lincoln was president directly after Washington, and so on. John has read books from the library and various magazines, a considerable a.s.sortment. He knows almost nothing of even simple scientific facts, but is well acquainted with items gained from the newspapers and the theatres.

Going into his story, as we were requested, we heard at once about the cruel conditions at home. The boy's own father had been dead for ten years and up to within three years he had lived with a relative. While he was there letters indicated that queer things were going on at home, and the step-father was cruel to the other children. The mother was afraid to tell the whole story. When the boy came home the step-father at once began pervert s.e.x practices with him, horrible things, and John found this man had been doing deeds of the same kind with an older sister and a younger brother. It seems the step-father also beats the children and has put this older girl out of the house.

Recently he has left his wife.

When we go into John's own record, with which we had already made ourselves acquainted, he tells us he does not know what gets into him, but he has run away from home no less than eleven times. He works for a while, takes his wages and then stays at a hotel. He says he has been arrested several times on this account. His mother always telephones to the police about him and that is why he is under detention now. He wishes he were at home. The next day we went into more of the details which had been liberally sketched to the judge and other officials. We now learn that the step-father is a professional thief and that stolen goods he has taken are to be found in their home. He often leaves home and perhaps takes his wife's wages--she has to work out--and just now is again living at a hotel. The family have been informed by a physician that he is probably crazy.

On a later occasion the boy told my a.s.sistant that he wished to relate the whole story of his family. He then describes how the step-father even blackens the eyes of the sister and that he has long been immoral with her. It now appears that perversions began between this man and John some two months ago, never before that. The mother is there in the house all the time and knows about and permits the step-father's immorality with daughter and son. Cross-questioned afterward, the boy (evidently remembering what he said before) states these practices with him began the night he came home three years ago, but they had been going on with his sister before that. He knows this because his mother wrote and told him about it. His uncle wrote and told her to put a stop to it, but the step-father intimidates her with a revolver.

Our notes state that one afternoon when tests were being given him, John seemed to be in an excited state and often interrupted the procedure with talking. Seen in the hallway soon afterwards he waved his hand and insisted on telling more about home conditions and about what the officers would find if they went up there. On still another occasion he reiterated the same things, giving many details.

It was about this time that John was found to give strangely fantastic and childish accounts of circ.u.mstances with which he had been connected. We transcribe his story of a celebration at a school--it is a good example of his tales.

''They had it on Lincoln's birthday and on the 4th of July, too.

The teacher did not believe that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. The children said, oh yes, he did. But they did not believe it. The children all hollered and said yes, he did.

Then they all run up on the platform and got to fighting about it. The teachers would not believe that Lincoln freed the slaves till an old soldier came up there and told them yes, he did do it.'' I questioned him about this matter whether it was only a play they had, or were they in earnest. ''Oh, all in earnest and they had a fight about it. The teachers would not believe that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and the children all run up on the platform and had a fight about it.''

Home conditions were next looked up by a court investigator and we came to know the mother and sister. Much to our surprise we found them to be quite self-respecting, entirely credible people of good reputation in the neighborhood. The mother is an honest hard-working woman and is exceedingly depressed about the career of this boy. The sister is a modest and unquestionably good, self-supporting, young woman. Not a word was heard against them in any way. In their distress they gave us the full story.

The parents were immigrants when young. The father died through an accident some ten years previously. The mother has kept track of the members of both families fairly well. She had a sister insane, said to have become so as the result of the menopause.

The father himself had occasional attacks of epilepsy, but they were never frequent enough to hinder him working as an artisan.

He was a very moderate user of alcohol. The mother has always been fairly healthy. Thinks she now has a cancer. There are no other significant points in heredity that she knows. There are three living children; a number of miscarriages came after John was born.

The pregnancy and birth were, normal. John walked and talked very early. Never any convulsions. At about two years of age he was very low with a complication of diseases. He was sick at that time for three months. Later he was operated on for rupture. The trouble with his eyes is of recent origin. When he was a young boy in school a teacher once told her she did not consider him right mentally.

There has been an exceeding amount of trouble with this boy. He was a great truant and reached only the 4th grade. When he was living with the uncle he caused much trouble, and the uncle warned her. He has run away from home twelve times, stays away perhaps two weeks at a time, and comes home ragged and filthy.

He has had many jobs, but stays only a day or two at work. He steals in petty ways, takes money from home when he runs away.

He is very lazy, but a great reader, especially of cheap novels.

Among the troubles with this boy is his extremely filthy talk.

He has even lost one position on account of this. An aunt caught the boy in bad s.e.x practices several years ago and told the mother. Neighbors, and earlier the school people, warned the mother that this was what was the matter with the boy. About a year ago John was found in a room with a man and other boys engaged in bad practices. The man was sentenced to a long term in the penitentiary on account of it.

Worst of all, the mother says the boy is the most malicious liar she has ever heard of. They have had a frightful time with him on account of this. For over two years John has been telling bad stories about the step-father. Recently he could not stand it any longer and left the mother. He was a good and rather strict man who took much interest in the children. He tried rewards with John, but this was of no avail. The boy has destroyed the home life, but she thought it her duty to try further with her own flesh and blood. The sister is in utter despair about what John has said concerning her. The younger brother also feels great humiliation. The boy has told his worst stories about them even in their own neighborhood.

After our investigation the boy was sent to an inst.i.tution for delinquents where he could have the best of treatment for his ailments. The report from there after a few months was that he proved to be an exceedingly weak and vacillating type. He was notorious for being a boy that would do anything that was suggested to him. An outlook was kept for signs of insanity, but none was noted.

Over three years later we hear that John's character has not shown any radical change as demonstrated by his mode of living.

He has served at least one term in a penal inst.i.tution for adults. We do not know anything further about lying or false accusations in the case.

--------------------------------------------------------------- Const.i.tutional inferiority: Stigmata. Case 17.

Mentality. Boy, age 16.

Heredity: Father epileptic.

Maternal aunt insane.

Masturbation plus.

Pervert s.e.x experiences.

Developmental: Much early illness.

Delinquencies: Mentality: False accusations excessive. Dull from physical Running away repeatedly. causes (?).

Stealing. Beginning psychosis (?).

s.e.x perversions. Pathological liar (?).

Vagrancy.

CASE 18

Summary: Little girl of 7 makes false charges of s.e.x a.s.sault against boy in the same inst.i.tution. She is later found to be an excessive liar and to steal.

Causative factors: (a) atrociously immoral home environment, (b) early s.e.x experiences, (c) local irritation from active gonorrhea.

This case ill.u.s.trates the fact that a young girl, who has had unfortunate s.e.x experiences, especially if her mind is kept dwelling on s.e.xual subjects through bodily irritation, is apt to take advantage of the stir which she knows she can make by her statements, and glibly make false accusations. The case offered no difficulties for study and can be presented in short as typical of a number of similar cases seen by us.

We were asked to see this girl a few days after she had been taken from very bad home conditions and temporarily placed in a good inst.i.tution for dependent children. While there she had much upset the high-minded superintendent and her helpers by stating that an older boy in the place had s.e.x relations with her.

She was a small, bright-eyed, vivacious child. General physical conditions decidedly good. No sensory defect. Well shaped head.

Weight 55 lbs.; height 4 ft. Active gonorrheal vulvovaginitis.

On the mental side we found, although she spoke in somewhat broken English, an ardent conversationalist. With her many ideas about many subjects, she appeared decidedly precocious. We noted her also to be very defiant and self-a.s.sertive, and her tendency to lie without rhyme or reason was soon discovered. Her exact age never was ascertained, but undoubtedly it was about 7. She was in the 2d grade. At times when doing the Binet tests inhibitions would appear and she would give no answer at all even to some easy questions. Her positive responses graded her as 6 2/5 years, but undoubtedly she could have done much better had she so wished.

In her talkative way she used English very graphically, but with curious misuse of p.r.o.nouns and a few other words. Considering the fact that her family spoke a foreign language at home and she had been but a short time in school this was not strange. Her lack of veracity was shown even in her a.s.sertions about her inability to understand English. At the first approach she denied her ability to do so, but later showed that she understood very well. This behavior was of a piece with her att.i.tude shown in doing the Binet tests.

''Police bringed me. Don't know why. Cause my father run away, she don't want to stay with my mother. My father Austrian.

Sometime my father talk Italian. Then G.o.d make him sick cause she talk Italian. My neck is sick. I go to Italian church and I talk Italian and G.o.d makes me sick.

''They bringed me home to-day, then they bringed me back here, then I stay here all along.'' (What is the matter with you?) ''A big boy--up in school--upstairs--don't know his name. I came Sat.u.r.day. She came Sat.u.r.day. She came Sunday, too. When we come to listen to music then she gave to me that disease.

''Papa is bad. She run away. She run away. She take from my mama $12--all the clothes. She got another lady. Is that your lady? Why do you write? I could write better than you because I go to school all the time. I never take money. I Catholic and Catholic can't tell lie. Well, I going to tell the truth now. I found it in bed, in paper inside. Then I give it to teacher and then I give it to nurse. I never tell lies.''

Before we had seen her this child had given some sort of description of a big boy in the inst.i.tution who she said had a.s.saulted her. There was no such person there, but her vehement statements caused much disturbance. Later she denied this to us and accused somebody at her own home. She came from miserable environment, as may be surmised from the fact that her father was a deserter and probably immoral. On account of her unreliability nothing could be done in the way of prosecuting the offender. We always felt it a possibility that some member of her own family was guilty and that was the reason she had told so many different tales about it. An owner was not found for the money which she had stolen. The person from whom she said she had taken it had not lost it. She took it under conditions when she had no chance to spend it. Her excessive lying was a continual source of trouble as long as she was kept in this inst.i.tution. She was long treated in a public hospital for her gonorrhea. Since then she has been lost track of. It is interesting in this case to note that the child maintained that she belonged to a church, which made it impossible for her to tell lies. We have heard almost exactly this same a.s.sertion on numerous occasions. It is clearly made by way of affirmation when the offender covertly feels the need of bolstering up false statements.

--------------------------------------------------------------- Early s.e.x experiences. Case 18.

Bad companions. Girl, age 7.

Physical conditions: Local irritation.

Home conditions: Father immoral and deserter.

Heredity(?): Father as above.

Delinquencies: Mentality: Stealing. Fair ability.

s.e.x.

Lying.