Studies in Forensic Psychiatry Part 8

The question arises here, "Are we dealing with a psychosis which engrafts itself upon the individual without any apparent cause, a psychosis possessing a course and termination wholly independent of outside influences, a psychosis having no tangible relation to any definite situation; or have we here a psychogenetic disorder, a pathologic reaction of a degenerative const.i.tution to an unfavorable situation, a paranoid picture developing as an outgrowth of the individual in reaction to a definite experience?" In other words, are we dealing here with a case of dementia praec.o.x, or with one of the degenerative psychoses? If we agree with Stransky[5] that dementia praec.o.x depends upon an intrapsychic ataxia, that it is the disturbed coordination between the intellectual and affective faculties of the individual which makes the picture of dementia praec.o.x what it is; this is not a case of dementia praec.o.x. The acute emotional reaction to all situations which this man manifests, the development of the psychosis in consequence of the depth of his feelings concerning the unpleasant experiences and the entire absence of this important incoordination between his feeling and acting, would, in itself be sufficient to separate his psychosis from dementia praec.o.x. If we agree with Kraepelin and others that dementia praec.o.x has a more or less definite onset, a more or less definite course and termination in a dissolution of the individual's psyche, our case is not one of dementia praec.o.x. Our patient has had the same attributes of character and personality always. There is no indication in his life history of a definite onset of a retrograde process, or of any progression towards dissolution. His psychosis, such as it is, is the outgrowth of his degenerative personality, and if we a.s.sume this to be true, if we consider the psychotic manifestations of this individual as a pathologic expression of his anomalous personality, the question arises--to what extent have his criminal acts likewise been pathologic expressions of the same underlying degenerative basis? I believe that the relation between the criminality and mental alienation of this man is a.n.a.logous to that existing between two branches of the same tree. The same degenerative soil which makes the development of the psychosis possible in one case, expresses itself in crime in another instance. The factors which determine whether the one or the other phase will manifest itself, depend largely upon environmental conditions, and are accidental in nature. The stresses which these defective individuals meet with in freedom need not have such a strong influence upon them as to produce a psychosis. The want of moral attributes makes it possible for them readily to surmount many difficulties by means of some criminal act, difficulties which in a normal person would require extraordinary effort to remove. When placed, however, under the stress of imprisonment where they can neither slip away from under the oppressive situation, nor square themselves with it by some criminal act, the organism becomes affected to such a degree that the development of a psychosis is greatly facilitated. The character of the delusional fabric of these individuals is such that one can easily find a ready and more or less correct explanation for it. It is chiefly a compensatory reaction in an endeavor to make a certain unpleasant situation acceptable.

CASE II.--J. H., aged 37. Admitted to the Government Hospital for the Insane, March 8, 1909. Maternal grandfather died suddenly from unknown cause. Was a race-track operator. Father alcoholic. Mother suffered from vertiginous attacks. There were twenty-one children in the family, fifteen of whom died in infancy. One brother died of brain tumor. One sister is neurotic; her eight year old son suffers from congenital heart disease. Patient was born in Manchester, England. He was the twentieth child; mother was over forty years old at the time of his birth. He was an unusually small and puny infant and remembers using crutches when a child. At seven he was bitten by a dog and dragged about on the ground for a great distance; when finally rescued was unconscious for a long time. No further ill-effects.

School life was characterized throughout by truancy and disobedience and finally terminated in expulsion. At that early period of life he already showed marked egotism, extreme vindictiveness and an utter disregard for consequences. The immediate cause of his expulsion from school was a fistic encounter with a teacher. At the age of eleven, his family immigrated to this country. He states that he was different from other boys of his age, did not care for the ordinary childhood sports, and the only friends he had were a young sister and a dog. He states that he couldn't get along somehow with the other boys, that he often thought that the whole world was trying to down him and persecute him. About that time someone stole his dog. He brooded over this so much that he finally jumped into a creek, intending to commit suicide, but was rescued by bystanders. He has made several other attempts at suicide in later life. In describing these he elaborates them with a lot of fanciful tr.i.m.m.i.n.g, dilates on the importance of the various situations attending them, and how much uproar they caused among those who knew of them. At the age of fourteen he had a quarrel with another boy. Upon being reprimanded by the latter's father, he could not rest until he had obtained a gun and fired at the boy's father while the latter was sitting at the supper table with his family. In relating this incident he states with great vanity that he fully intended to kill the boy's father; he wasn't going to be insulted by anyone and let it go at that. Here was probably the first well-ill.u.s.trated instance of his pathologic emotionalism, the tendency to a complete dominance of a certain affect. He was committed to some sort of an industrial school for a year. Upon his release from there he went to work in a machine shop in his native town. One day a couple of gentlemen and a lady walked through the shop and stopped in front of the machine on which he was working. He did not like this, became angered, picked up the dog which followed them and threw it into the oil tank which fed his machine. At sixteen he ran away from home. He gives a history of an industrial career and apparently he had no difficulty in learning a trade, and it is quite likely that he was a skilled workman. His entire industrial career, however, is characterized by an inability to fit harmoniously into the situation at hand, not because of an intellectual deficiency, but because of the disharmony between his various mental faculties. His extreme sensitiveness and emotionalism, his vindictiveness, the total lack of a sense of responsibility, his impulsive existence, all these, were always at play in his relations with man. If to these be added his extreme egotism and vanity, the reasons for his conflicts become clear. "Here, the foreman thought he knew more than I did." "There, I did not like the way they were running the business," etc. Among his occupations, saloon-keeping and professional gambling played an important role. He finally gave up all attempts at leading an honest existence and turned to crime. Our record of the man in this regard is rather incomplete, but according to his record at the Secret Service Bureau, he was sentenced in 1890 to a two years' term for highway robbery. In 1902 to three years for counterfeiting; in 1904 to three and a-half, and in 1908 to six years for the same offense. These sentences were incurred under various aliases. He married at a very early age. He says he made up his mind one night to get married and two days later was married. His conjugal life, like everything else he engaged in, proved a failure and was characterized by repeated desertions. He commenced using alcoholics at a very early age and has indulged excessively all his lifetime. He has had several gonorrhal infections, and has an active luetic infection at the present time.

On May 5, 1908, he was sentenced to a six years' term of imprisonment. Soon after it became necessary to perform an operation for appendicitis, and upon recovering he began to complain of having been cut open and of having had poison put inside of him. The U. S.

Government sent men down to the prison who were threatening to kill him. He saw detectives from Washington whom he recognized. He was very apprehensive and refused to submit himself to an examination, and made homicidal attacks upon the officers. On March 8, 1909, he was admitted to this inst.i.tution. His conduct here was characterized throughout his entire stay by the same attributes of character which were at play throughout his entire antisocial existence. He was at all times very emotional. He was very sensitive, becoming offended on the least provocation, and when laboring under some imaginary grievance his antagonism and vindictiveness knew no bounds. He was constantly plotting and scheming some means of inciting a revolt among the other inmates and took every opportunity to put himself forth as the champion of the other patients. He was very egotistical and vain and showed a marked tendency to interpret most trivial occurrences in his environment as having some reference to him. He was always ready to endow every incident with a personal note of prejudice. He showed throughout marked fluctuations of mood. One never knew what sort of a reception one would meet. He was a pathological liar, was keenly alert to everything that transpired about him and was always ready to utilize every incident to his own advantage. He was depraved to a very marked degree morally. He gave his past history without the least sign of regret and when questioned concerning the reason of his criminal life, he objected strenuously to being called a criminal, insisting that what he did was right. At times he impressed one by his mode of reaction to various daily occurrences as being as nave as a child and suggestible to a very marked degree. He frequently threatened to commit suicide if refused some of his impossible requests and showed a marked tendency to hypochondriasis and exaggeration of actual ills. On this basis he developed various persecutory ideas, exclusively against those who had anything to do with his care and safe-keeping. The warden at the jail before he came here tried to poison him and took the opportunity of accomplishing this while he (the patient) was undergoing an operation. The Government sent Secret Service men down to watch him and persecute him. Here the physicians are doing the same thing. They are trying to down him, to make his life miserable for him, etc. Throughout his sojourn here he was clearly oriented, knew everything that was going on and failed to show the least indication of the existence of a deteriorating process. He showed also a marked tendency to write a good deal of poetry and fiction in which he spoke of himself as a martyr who had been persecuted and downed all his lifetime. His stories were of a fantastic, adventurous kind, in which gambling, shooting, and similar highly melodramatic situations were enacted. On July 17, 1911, he was returned to prison as recovered.

Another point of interest in this case and one to which I have briefly alluded before, was his tendency to the exaggeration of symptoms and to malingering, but the malingering which he manifested was of the kind that the child manifests in an endeavor to attract attention to itself and to arouse the sympathy of those about him.

Here again we have before us a kaleidoscopic picture of the life of a human being who from childhood showed tendencies so antisocial, so criminalistic, that it is hard to get away from the belief that most of the attributes which went to make him just what he is, must have been inherited. Let us take this poorly-begotten organism and follow it through life. We shall see how its existence has been a continuous round of conflicts with everything it came in contact. He entered school and meets with the first obligation, with the first necessity for a well-regulated, purposive existence. What is the result? Truancy, disobedience, and finally expulsion--not because of intellectual deficiency, but because of those same attributes which later served to put him in the penitentiary. It was the first evidence of his pathologic emotionalism and vindictiveness. We next see him in an effort to lead an industrial life, but here, too, everything he does proves a failure, and likewise not because of intellectual deficiency, but because of a disharmony, a disproportion, between his various mental faculties. He could not, somehow, submit himself to any well-regulated existence. His egotism and absolute lack of the sense of responsibility made it impossible for him to adjust himself effectively to the world about him.

He next tries matrimony, and the same story rea.s.serts itself. His conjugal life is characterized by repeated desertions; and thus he becomes steadily more debased, more depraved, sinks to the level of the professional gambler and finally even this becomes too strenuous for him, and he turns to a life of crime. At the age of forty we find him with a record of numerous arrests, and as far as known, one-fourth of his lifetime has thus far been spent in jails and penitentiaries. The characterological anomalies at the bottom of his career came to the front already in his childhood days. Before completing his fourteenth year we find him deliberately planning the murder of a human being because of an insult. His idea concerning that situation has not changed in the least since then. He now speaks of it without the least sign of remorse or regret. As a matter of fact, he is inclined to impress one as being rather proud of that deed, and he cannot see the criminality of it. The atavistic nature of his act in throwing the dog into the oil tank is quite evident. Then his attempts at suicide throughout his lifetime, evidence of a pathologic emotionalism, must also be remembered. These are a few examples of his mode of reaction to everyday occurrences in life. Is it at all strange that he has developed finally into the habitual criminal? On the contrary, it would be rather strange that an individual with such attributes should turn out to be an honest, peaceful citizen. He likewise was a prey to all the vices of modern civilization, and these, as in the preceding case, unquestionably added to the dissolution of the originally defective organism. We finally meet with an ill.u.s.tration of the other phase of his mode of reaction. Following imprisonment on a charge of robbery, he develops a psychosis which necessitates his transfer to an insane asylum. Brief as the description of his psychosis has been, it is sufficient to ill.u.s.trate that here we are likewise dealing with a psychogenetic disorder manifesting itself as a reactive expression of a degenerative const.i.tution to an unpleasant situation. Shortly after his arrest he is being operated upon for appendicitis and upon recovery elaborates the idea that the warden of the jail, one of the members of that large cla.s.s against whom he has been warring all his lifetime, takes this opportunity of placing poison in his body. He sees and hears people around his cell whom he recognizes as Secret Service men sent down from Washington to torture him. On his transfer to our Hospital he readily carries over his delusional ideas to the officials here. He is simply being persecuted by a bunch of anarchists, who are trying to down him and make life miserable for him.

It has long ago been questioned by psychiatrists whether these so-called delusional ideas of this cla.s.s of patients deserve to be endowed with the value of delusions. Let us not forget that a similar att.i.tude toward officialdom exists in the minds of criminals enjoying a respite from the law. It is the officers of the law, society's inst.i.tution for the prevention and punishment of crime, that these people have to fear, and when they speak of being persecuted by those who have their care and safe-keeping in hand, it is not, necessarily, a pathological manifestation. The only difference between such paranoid ideas in the criminal at freedom and the one in confinement is that in the latter case, coupled with the stress of confinement, the stress of a forced routine existence, these ideas a.s.sume enormous proportions and in some instances become supported by fallacious sense perceptions. Their exaggerated self-consciousness, their great tendency to introspection, a tendency which is very much enhanced by confinement and plenty of leisure time for such indulgence, and their paranoid att.i.tude toward law and its officers, makes it possible for them to endow the least significant occurrence in their environment with a personal note of prejudice. The least deviation from the normal routine has a meaning to them, a meaning which is readily interpreted as some evidence of persecution, of prejudice, etc. The course of their disorder shows so much evidence of this psychogenetic character that it is impossible to think that we are dealing with a psychosis which apparently has no relation to the situation at hand. Every symptom which they manifest can be traced to some definite cause and can be clearly explained as being of the nature of a reaction, of a motivated expression to a definite experience. It is, I believe, unnecessary to enter into a lengthy discussion to show that we are not dealing here with a case of dementia praec.o.x, but with one of the degenerative psychoses and we will consider the criminal tendencies of this individual likewise as expressions of that same degenerative soil which permitted of the development of the psychosis. On July 17, 1911, the patient was returned to the penitentiary to serve out the remainder of his sentence.

CASE III.--P. F., alias H., white male, aged 42. Admitted to the Government Hospital for the Insane, March 11, 1910.

Father is a chronic alcoholic; one brother a wanderer, has not been heard from for twenty years; one sister a suicide; one sister left home at the age of eighteen and has not been heard from since.

Patient was born in England in 1868. Was a healthy child as far as he knows; no history of spasms or convulsions. Talked and walked at the usual age. Of the diseases of childhood he had whooping cough, measles and scarlet fever, from which he apparently made good recoveries.

Entered school at the age of seven; attended irregularly until he was twelve years old. After leaving school he made an attempt at learning a trade and worked as apprentice for some time. At fifteen he endeavored to enlist in the British Navy, but was rejected on account of palpitation of the heart. In 1884, at the age of sixteen, he joined the Royal Marines; soon found this to be disagreeable to his tastes, and wanting to secure his discharge, he stole a suit of clothes off a dummy with the avowed purpose of being discharged for the offense.

Was arrested, plead guilty, and served a sentence of one month. In 1886, at the age of eighteen, he enlisted in the Royal Fusileers and deserted therefrom about a month later. He then reenlisted in the eighteenth Royal Irish Fusileers, shortly after deserted, and then gave himself up; was court-martialed, dishonorably discharged, and given a sentence of six months which he served in Brixton's Military Prison, London. In 1887, at the age of nineteen, under the name of Henry Sayers, he joined the Welsh Division of the Royal Artillery, whence he deserted two months later and sold a kit and coat belonging to another recruit; was apprehended, tried and given a sentence of six months. In all, he was dishonorably discharged from the service seven times. In 1892, at the age of twenty-four, he immigrated to this country. On arriving here he worked about a month at railroading and then enlisted in the Army, deserted after serving three months, and crossed the Canadian Border. He subsequently returned and gave himself up to a sheriff, was court-martialed, dishonorably discharged, and given a sentence of one year and a half. After being released he resumed his nomadic existence but in a more p.r.o.nounced manner. Since 1895, he has had no definite occupation, subsisting on begging, stealing, and peddling minor articles, chiefly on the two former. He has spent most of his life since then in penitentiaries and workhouses, and when at liberty, in cheap boarding-houses and missions. As far as he can recall he has been arrested twenty-two times for vagrancy since 1895, served four years at Moundsville and Atlanta for robbery, and six months for theft. He commenced to indulge in alcoholics at a very early age and has been an excessive drinker all his life. Has been intoxicated on numerous occasions and has had delirium tremens twice. In 1897 he indulged in opium smoking for thirteen days and in 1904 sniffed cocaine for a similar period. On three or four occasions in his life he has had s.e.xual experiences with men and there is a definite history of inversion. He has been married twice. His conjugal life with his first wife was a very unhappy one. He attributes this entirely to his own fault. There were three children from this union, all of whom died in infancy. He left his first wife without obtaining a divorce from her and subsequently, in 1898, married again. This union was happier than the former one.

His second wife, however, died in 1905. There were no children from this union. He acquired gonorrha and syphilis in 1899. In 1907 he prepared an elaborate attempt at suicide, purchased a dagger for this purpose, and set June 13th for the date. He was, however, arrested shortly before this and thus his plan was frustrated. He stated that it was not disgust of life that drove him to do this. He simply had a desire to see whether he had the nerve to execute such an act. On February 2, 1910, was arrested for vagrancy and begging, and given a sentence of 180 days in the workhouse. While in his cell he attempted suicide by inflicting superficial cuts over the praecordium, wrists and calves of his legs with a piece of broken table knife. These were very insignificant in nature. While confined in the workhouse he developed various fallacious sense perceptions, saw visions of weird and fantastic nature, and frequently these would take on a religious and s.e.xual coloring--he would see nuns' heads. He also developed auditory hallucinations and would hear voices of a disagreeable nature. He was subject to peculiar sensations as though there was a wire framework inside him which made him squirm. This necessitated his transfer to this inst.i.tution.

On admission he was well-nourished, but prematurely gray. He had numerous tattoo marks on his body; on the right forearm a woman in tights and the head of another; on the left forearm initials U. S., flag, ship and cross; over the dorsum of left hand a star, and a band across the wrist. His vision was impaired to some extent; otherwise negative. Aside from a futile attempt at suicide which he made shortly after admission, his conduct has been excellent. He has never been known to become involved in altercations or quarrels with his fellow patients and has obeyed fully the rules and regulations of the Hospital. He was somewhat circ.u.mstantial during a lengthy conversation, but in a superficial interview he made quite a natural impression. He was clearly oriented and showed no memory defect. His answers to the intelligence tests failed to show any intellectual impairment. His emotional tone was unvaried. He was always very polite, courteous and optimistic, and very popular with the attendants. He willingly a.s.sisted with the ward work at all times, was keen and alert, fully cognizant of everything that transpired about him. He spent his time reading and rarely a.s.sociated with his fellow patients, whom he considered below him intellectually. He believed in reincarnation, and thought himself to have been in a former being Pharaoh of Egypt and the Earl of Warwick. He had tactile, auditory and visual hallucinations of a religious and s.e.xual coloring. These were, however, transitory in type and perhaps better called pseudo-hallucinations, as he was able to bring them on and cause their disappearance at will. He was frank in his statements and discussed the various ideas without hesitation. He was inclined to write a great deal, especially poetry of the waste-basket variety, and considered himself quite proficient in this respect. On February 2, 1911, he appeared before the Staff conference where the advisability of granting him parole of the grounds was considered. Upon being refused this privilege he again attempted suicide by making several superficial cuts across the wrists. These were quite insignificant in nature. At the present writing the patient, I am told, if anything, had improved somewhat. At any rate he shows no intellectual impairment nor evidence of any progressive mental disorder. Patient was eventually discharged on April 7, 1915, as unimproved and went to work in a steel-plant in the District of Columbia. He soon, however, reverted to his old alcoholic habits, came in conflict with the law and was sentenced to the workhouse. While his strictly psychotic symptoms subsided it is quite evident that the original defective const.i.tution which has been responsible for all of his past difficulties has not improved.

Here is another individual who started out in life with a heavy hereditary burden. His early childhood, as far as can be determined, was normal. He entered school and here met the first obligation. He wavered, showed a tendency, that early, to be unable to lead a well-regulated life and in consequence his school attendance was irregular. The next difficulty he met was in attempting to learn a trade. He soon found this too strenuous and sought an environment less exacting in nature, and at fifteen we see him endeavoring to enlist in the Navy. This is probably the first indication of his "wanderl.u.s.t."

He was rejected, and after another year's effort to get along in his immediate environment, finally succeeded in entering the Navy. Soon, however, he found out that Navy life was not what he had pictured it to be. It, likewise, was too exacting. He had to live up to prescribed rules, obey orders--things to which he could not reconcile himself, and in consequence failed of a proper adjustment. He knew he could not stand it, he must get out. He must seek something more suitable, something less exacting. In looking for a way out of the situation he availed himself of the first opportunity, stole a suit of clothes with the avowed purpose of being discharged for the offense. Here is the starting point of his criminal career. He did not reflect upon the consequences. He knew he must gratify his desire to get out of the Navy, must do it at any cost, and yielded to temptation. This yielding to temptation, this lack of power of resistance, characterized his entire life. He yielded to every vice that crossed his path; he stole, he drank, he became a morphine habitue, he sniffed cocaine, acquired gonorrha and syphilis in his promiscuous s.e.xual trends, and lastly yielded to s.e.xual perversion. After having served his first sentence he was released and again found himself thrown upon his own resources.

He had not, as yet, reached the stage of the habitual criminal with the utter disregard for property rights, nor had he reached that nonchalance of the hobo, whose philosophy rests upon the dogma that the world owes him a living, that tomorrow will provide for itself somehow. He began to yearn for the service again. There, at least, he was provided with shelter and food. There, at least, he did not have to worry for the tomorrow. He entered the Army, deserted, re-entered, deserted again, and kept this up until he was dishonorably discharged seven times. He could stand it just so long. His lack of stability, his inability for any continuous purposive effort, made him slip from under the stress. He has less dread for the future now. He was beginning to acquire that nave philosophy that somehow the world would provide for him. We next hear of him across the ocean. Here his "wanderl.u.s.t", his love of adventure, rea.s.serts itself, but somehow he did not fit into existing conditions, and unable, because of his particular organization, because of his disequilibrated mentality, to create for himself a suitable environment, his existence continued to be an unbroken chain of conflicts, of contradictions, and of failure.

He finally tried matrimony, but here, too, he soon felt the overwhelming burden of duties and obligations. He was not a.s.sisted in sustaining these by any moral sense, by any paternal feelings--and after a more or less continuous struggle to cope with the situation, left wife, situation and all. He realized subjectively that he and his wife were not congenial. As a matter of fact, his entire life has been a continual round of uncongenialities, of inability for a proper concourse with men and things in the world. Throughout his life his ego occupied the center of the stage. It is he that has to be satisfied first. After leaving his wife he resumed his nomadic existence and sometime later married again. But by this time he was a full recidivist, as well as an accomplished hobo. The nomad was no longer able to adjust himself to a communal existence. Besides, it required effort. He was expected to provide and he could not be expected to do anything. Fate was in his favor--his wife died. It must not be forgotten that by this time he had made full use of the kind oversight of the law. He had been arrested innumerable times, he had breathed the atmosphere of the workhouse and partaken of the penitentiary menu. The once unfinished product had been shaped and polished by the machinery of the law and order of our modern civilization so that all dread and fear of punishment had lost its value with him. At last the organism which was originally begotten from decayed stock, which had been tossed and knocked about through its entire existence, and preyed upon by all the vices that modern civilization affords, began to falter and shake. He developed a psychosis. I shall not enter here into an extensive discussion as to the diagnosis of the disorder. The total absence of any indication of progression in this man's mental disorder, the pliability of the various delusional ideas and hallucinatory experiences, his perfect control over them in the matter of bringing them on and causing their disappearance at will, speaks sufficiently against dementia praec.o.x.

CASE IV.--A. W., colored, aged 28. Mother suffers from neuralgia and headaches; one sister died of pulmonary tuberculosis. One brother is now serving a sentence at Moundsville Penitentiary for a.s.sault and battery. Another brother has been frequently arrested for various offenses.

Birth and childhood of patient apparently uneventful. During childhood fell from a fence following which he was unconscious for some time.

Entered school between the ages of seven and eight, and attended regularly for about two years, when he became unruly and ungovernable--would play truant on frequent occasions, and finally left school before finishing the fourth grade. He worked around home for a little while, and was arrested the first time when eleven or twelve years old, for a.s.sault. At fourteen he was again arrested for some minor offense, and shortly afterwards was sentenced to one year in jail. On August 20, 1902, at the age of eighteen was arrested for carrying concealed weapons and discharging them in the street, for which offense he served five months in jail. March 3, 1903, sentenced to serve thirty days for larceny, and on the same date was further charged with disorderly conduct, for which he was given fifteen days in the workhouse. May 1, 1903, he was sentenced to sixty days in jail for petty larceny; July 18, 1903, charged with fornication, but charge was withdrawn. August 31, 1903, sentenced to thirty days in jail for being drunk and disorderly, and committing a.s.sault. November 1, 1903, sentenced to fifteen days in the workhouse on a charge of disorderly conduct. November 17, 1903, sentenced to twelve years for a.s.sault and highway robbery. He commenced using alcoholics at a very early age, and has indulged heavily since then. He was admitted to the Moundsville Penitentiary, December 13, 1903, where he remained until July 4, 1908, when he was transferred to Leavenworth. His record at the penitentiary is a very bad one, he was frequently punished for various offenses and showed a constant tendency to disobey rules and get into altercations with fellow prisoners. He was in solitary confinement several times, and forfeited almost all of his good time.

Frequently became mildly excited, singing, shouting, praying and cursing in the most irrational manner. This state of excitement persisted unremittingly for seventy-two hours on one occasion. He declared that his lungs were rotting with tuberculosis or some other foul disease, and that he was suffocating. He persisted in exposing himself in a nude condition and refused nourishment.

He was admitted to the Government Hospital for the Insane, December 24, 1909.

Physical examination showed him to be a well-developed, healthy negro.

Both deep and superficial reflexes exaggerated; ankle clonus both sides; hyperaesthesia of abdomen and face. He stated that two or three months prior to his admission to this Hospital he became suspicious of his food; had a burning in his stomach after eating; believed that his health was failing him; his breath became short; voice weak and lungs rotting. Early in December, 1909, he believed that he had been chloroformed by the prison officials for five days; he was not certain how this was done but believed that it might have been poured through the keyhole. During this period he sang like a graphophone; voices said "move his head", and his head would move itself. When his eyes were open he saw nothing unusual but when they were shut he could hear them operating a machine on his body; they were pumping his stomach, and he became a skeleton. This was done to him through prejudice; did not know who was prejudiced against him, but at the prison they know all about it. Said he had not slept a wink since his admission to the Hospital; his breath is short; he has pains around his heart, but thinks he is getting better now.

He was a negro of limited mental capacity and possessed very little acquired knowledge. He was clean and tidy in his habits, keenly interested in his environment, and well oriented in all spheres. He lacked insight into the nature of his trouble. Attention could be easily gained and held; he comprehended well and readily, and showed no memory defect. There was a very marked tendency to hypochondriasis and exaggeration of actual ills. Soon after admission the active symptoms of his disorder disappeared, and he gradually acquired an adequate amount of insight, realizing that he had been insane. His conduct, at first orderly, now a.s.sumed the same character as that at prison. He frequently became involved in altercations with other patients and on several occasions manifested decidedly vicious tendencies. He was almost absolutely unamenable to the Hospital regulations and on that account had to be frequently reprimanded. He incited the other patients in his ward to all sorts of misdemeanors, and when not having any complaints himself, would fight the other patients' battles. He remained clearly oriented throughout. He was decidedly deficient morally--could not see where his life had been an unsocial one, and did not even promise to lead a better one in the future.

Here, again, we see disease and crime rampant in the family history of a man who himself began to manifest criminal tendencies at a very early age. His school career is characterized by truancy, and he never made an effort at an industrial career. At the age of eleven or twelve, we already find him arrested for an offense against the person, and before having reached his twentieth year he has received a penitentiary sentence of twelve years. His psychosis is unquestionably one belonging to that large group developing on a degenerative basis, the same soil which is at the bottom of his criminal career. What his future life is going to be may readily be surmised; he has not yet reached his thirtieth year--and by turning him loose at the expiration of his present sentence, society adds only another parasitic and infective organism to gnaw at its roots. It would be indeed ridiculous to expect the boy who at the age of nineteen was placed in the environment of a penitentiary--the hot-bed of crime--to be turned out a better man after having spent twelve years there. Something over two years has elapsed since the original publication of this paper and I am able to furnish some additional data concerning this case.

Upon the expiration of his sentence we were obliged to discharge the patient because he showed no symptoms of mental disease, and in consequence we had no authority for holding him in a hospital for the insane. He was discharged in March, 1912. In October of the same year he was again arrested, charged with a.s.sault with a dangerous weapon and received a seven-year penitentiary sentence.

There can be very little doubt as to what his future career will be following this second penitentiary sentence.

CASE V.--W. A., white male, aged 36 on admission to the Government Hospital for the Insane, January 18, 1911. Father was an alcoholic; mother neurotic, one sister insane, one uncle suicide. Mother enjoyed good health during her pregnancy with the patient, but birth was an extremely difficult one.

Patient learned to talk and walk at the age of five, when he was severely scalded which necessitated his confinement to bed for a long time. Entered school at the age of seven and attended for about eight years, reaching the 6th grade. He experienced no difficulty in learning but played truant on frequent occasions. His industrial career const.i.tutes an uninterrupted chain of failures. He was frequently discharged for various offenses and quarrels with his a.s.sociates. He commenced to indulge in alcoholics at a very early age and has been an excessive drinker all his life. Married in his twentieth year and managed to live with his wife for six years, when she left him on account of infidelity, non-support and drunkenness.

One miscarriage and one apparently healthy child were the results of this union.

He came in conflict with the law for the first time at the age of twelve or thirteen for some offense against the person. We have an incomplete record of his criminal career, but this can easily be surmised when we take into consideration that part of it which we do possess. Between March, 1903, and December, 1910, he was arrested thirteen times for a.s.sault, twenty-eight times for disorderly, and drunk and disorderly, twice for housebreaking, once for petty larceny and twice for vagrancy. Habitual drunkenness, destruction of private property, and depredation on house furniture, add to the list of charges against him. During this period he served a penitentiary sentence, was tried for murder, and acquitted on a second trial on a plea of self-defense, and on four different occasions, was ordered to be examined mentally. Following a debauch, during which he was arrested three times for a.s.sault, he developed a mental disorder in jail while awaiting trial, which necessitated his transfer to the Government Hospital for the Insane.

He developed the idea that someone was always around him looking for a chance to kill him. Continually heard strange voices and noises. Was very nervous and irritable.

The records accompanying him stated that for years he had had a particularly bad and dangerous temper. That he had had several previous attacks of mental disorder; had repeatedly committed a.s.saults, and was found not guilty of murder seven years ago--an act of insanity. Had been arrested by the Washington police about seventy-five times.

His mental disturbance soon cleared up, and on admission to the hospital he was absolutely free from any psychotic manifestations.

He was a well-developed man of average intellectual attainments. He was somewhat unstable emotionally, and his promises to lead a better life in the future were usually accompanied by a good deal of crying.

He was a monumental liar, and although endeavoring to impress the examiner with the idea of being quite remorseful about his past life, it was clearly evident that his moral status was a very low one and that his promises and resolutions were merely brought forth to aid him in securing his freedom. He was extensively tattooed and showed remains of an old syphilitic lesion.

Upon his release from the Government Hospital for the Insane, he was given a year's sentence in the workhouse, and the Press has been reporting frequent misdemeanors performed by him in the workhouse.

This case is interesting only in so far as it ill.u.s.trates exceptionally well the role of alcoholism in the habitual criminal. It is, however, very difficult to decide whether the alcohol should be considered here the cause of the man's degeneracy or its result. It would appear that whatever injurious effect inebriety had upon this man, and unquestionably it had, he owes his anomalies of character to causes over which he had no control. We find that his father was a chronic alcoholic, his mother a neurotic, a maternal aunt insane, and an uncle a suicide. That these pathological traits in the antecedents left their impressions on him cannot be doubted for one minute. He was abnormal before environment and personal habits had had time to make themselves felt. He, too, oscillated between penal inst.i.tutions and the Hospital for the Insane all his lifetime. That the same degenerative basis lies at the bottom of both his moral and mental alienation, cannot be doubted. Here, too, we are able at this date to furnish other additional information. The patient was eventually discharged from the Hospital for a similar reason as in the preceding case, and in spite of all his promises and new resolutions was readmitted to the Hospital on October 13, 1913 with an attack of delirium tremens.

Let us endeavor to see now in what respects the above individuals simulate one another, and whether this similarity is of sufficient import to warrant the grouping of them into one category. Commencing with the family history we find disease and crime manifest in the antecedents, either direct or indirect, of all of them, that in all probability because of this, not one of these unfortunates was brought into the world with a sufficient impetus to carry him successfully to his goal. In every instance we find that the characterological anomaly became manifest already during their school career. It was the persistent truancy, disobedience and antagonism to submission to a well-regulated existence and not so much the incapacity to learn, which distinguished them from the other children in school. The same attributes of character which were at the bottom of their conflicts with the school authorities brought them into the hands of the police authorities soon afterwards. The contact with the outside world soon served to bring out other pathological traits of character. We now see them manifest a pathologic emotionalism, an unbounded egotism, a relentless vindictiveness and an apparently total disregard of consequences. Frictions with the surrounding world, which a normal individual meets in an ordinary manner with a view towards an efficient adaptation to existing conditions, were reacted to by them in a distinctly antisocial manner, with methods entirely void of consideration of the rights of others, an attribute so essential for a proper concourse with man. Thrown finally upon their own resources, when they had to rely for their existence upon some industrial pursuit, we find them lacking the most essential prerequisite for the efficient struggle for existence--definiteness of purpose, and continuity and persistence of effort. We find them leading a harum-scarum existence, drifting from place to place, and from occupation to occupation, never able to remain at any one undertaking for any length of time.

The next features which stand out prominently in the lives of these individuals are their recidivism and the fact that every one of them came under the observation of an alienist on one or more occasions in his life. What is at the bottom of all this? We cannot, of course, deny the very evident fact that these individuals differ from normal man and that this difference is due to their inferiority. But what characterizes this inferiority? Is it the lack of something which normal man possesses, or is it rather a disproportion, a disharmony between the various individual mental faculties of these individuals? In other words, is their inferiority a quant.i.tative or qualitative one? Taking pure intelligence into consideration we find that they show no deficiency in this particular sphere. On the contrary, most or all of them show a degree of shrewdness and keenness which absolutely precludes the existence of an intelligence defect _per se_. Their recidivism is not due to an inability to distinguish between right and wrong. They know very well what is and what is not right, at any rate, as well as the average person, but they feel decidedly different from the average person about this distinction. They are what they are because of a discord, a disproportion between their various psychic attributes. The exaggerated egotism, which is so common to these individuals, serves to establish a pathologic degree of self-consciousness. This in turn makes them feel with an extraordinary keenness the everyday frictions in life, and now the pathologic emotionalism comes into play and being unsupported by any sense of altruism and morality they give way to their feelings in some criminal act. Their pathologic vindictiveness should also be mentioned. A sustained real or imaginary injury can never be forgotten by them.

These, in brief, I believe to be the characterological anomalies which distinguish the individuals herein reported from normal man and which at the same time are sufficiently common to all of them to justify their segregation into one distinct group of criminals.

I shall not enter here into a discussion of what part, if any, environment played in the shaping of the lives of these individuals, for several reasons, chief among which, however, is the fact that I have not had the opportunity of investigating thoroughly the environmental conditions in which they grew up and am therefore unable to evaluate properly this phase of the question. The fact, however, that my cases were culled from various sources and that the anomalous traits manifested by them were already present at an age when environment could hardly have had any lasting influence upon them, leads me to believe that it is heredity that is responsible for the major portion of this anomalous product. However, we shall leave this question to the decision of the practical eugenists. Personally I fully believe that we are dealing here with a type in which heredity plays an important role. I fully believe that these individuals were always the same as they are now and that the probabilities are that they will always remain so.

a.s.suming then, for the moment, that we are correct, the question arises:--"Has society dealt with these individuals in a proper manner?"

This question must be answered decidedly in the negative. I will not enter here into an extensive discussion of a system of penology which might be specifically applicable to this cla.s.s of individuals. I can only agree fully with the current opinions of eminent criminologists on this subject.

At the 1911 Congress of Criminology and Anthropology at Cologne, the following resolution among others was adopted:--"Hardened and professional criminals, recidivists, who present a great danger to society must be deprived of their liberty for as long a time as they are dangerous to the ma.s.s. Their liberty should be as a general rule, conditional."

Archibald Hopkins, Esq., has been recently quoted by Gault as follows:--"The Head of Scotland Yard, in London, said not long ago that nine-tenths of the serious crimes there were committed by men who had served one or more terms of imprisonment and who might be regarded as belonging permanently to the criminal cla.s.s. His judgment was that if they could be eliminated from such a situation, violation of the law would be diminished to less than a third of what it has been. Why cannot this be done? Let the Courts be clothed with power, after two or more offenses, in its discretion, to p.r.o.nounce a man incorrigible, who shall be sentenced for life, to whom no pardon shall issue. By an arrangement between the general government and the states, a colony could be established, say in the Island of Guam, where escape would be impossible, and where, under military guard, convicts could be made to earn their own living. Surely society has the right to protect itself from these incorrigibles, who are released only to prey on it again.

They also are the cla.s.s who rapidly produce their kind, and at present society puts no obstacle in the way.

"It is exactly as if, instead of forming colonies to which all lepers are compelled to go and remain, we permitted them, after a brief term in the hospital, to go where they please and to marry and produce more lepers. The incorrigible criminal is worse than the leper because he deliberately and purposely defies society and spreads his contagion.

It can hardly be questioned that the permanent segregation of the professional criminal cla.s.s would very greatly diminish crime, nor can it be questioned that society has the right to adopt such a measure of protection, nor that it would not be entirely practicable." (See Journal of American Inst.i.tute of Criminal Law and Criminology, April, 1912, pp. 821 f.)

The only argument, and a very weighty one it is, which can be raised against the foregoing proposition, is whether the incorrigible criminal is sufficiently characterized by such unmistakable features as would enable us to recognize him when we see him, and thus justify his permanent isolation from the community. I believe he is, and the cases here reported are fair representatives of that cla.s.s. Another problem which presents itself is: "Where shall we put the incorrigible criminal?" If we agree that he owes his criminality to causes over which he has no control and that the crime here is the outgrowth of a degenerative personality, a personality which is distinctly abnormal, it would seem that he belongs in a hospital rather than a penal inst.i.tution, but is this unequivocally so? It is unquestionably true that these individuals are abnormal, that without actually being insane they evidence from their earliest childhood a more or less distinct deviation from the normal; they may therefore be considered as "border-line cases," _i.e._, cases which deviate from normal man and incline toward the insane through numerous gradations. As soon, however, as their abnormality manifests itself in distinct incorrigible antisocial tendencies, the right of society to protect itself from such an element must be considered. When free from actual psychotic manifestations (which very easily engraft themselves upon this degenerative soil) these individuals do not belong in a hospital for the insane. Here they serve only as a very troublesome and disturbing element, and wield an undesirable influence over many easily impressionable insane patients. They do not belong in a general penal inst.i.tution because of the very deleterious influence they exert on the accidental but uncorrupted convict with whom they come in close contact in these inst.i.tutions. It is my opinion that these individuals, forming as they do a distinct species of humanity, should be segregated into colonies especially designed for them, where under proper medical supervision, they should be made to earn their subsistence by means of some useful occupation. It is very obvious that an indeterminate sentence is the only rational way of approach to this problem and this should be supplemented by the vesting of the parole power in the hands of a board composed, not exclusively of members of the legal profession, but largely of physicians, and particularly those trained in psychopathology.

The foregoing cases, while distinctly abnormal mentally, owe their recidivism to a qualitative rather than a quant.i.tative defect.

Since the original publication of this paper, I have had occasion to observe a number of recidivists in whom the defect was essentially a quant.i.tative one, _i.e._, patients ranging in intelligence all the way from idiocy to moronism.

The following case is a good ill.u.s.tration of this type:--

R. W. (colored) was admitted to this Hospital for the first time from the District of Columbia Reform School on February 8, 1898. He was at that time serving a sentence for housebreaking. He was twenty years of age at that time and examination showed him to possess the intelligence of an imbecile. During his sojourn here he had several maniacal outbreaks, but recovered from these and was discharged into the care of his parents on November 23, 1898. Sometime in 1900 he was again sent to the Reform School and was readmitted to this Hospital on November 17, 1900. He suffered at this time from an acute hallucinatory episode from which he soon recovered and was allowed to go out on a visit on February 20, 1901. He never returned from this visit but on July 23, 1902, was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment for larceny. While serving this sentence he was admitted to the State Hospital for the Insane at Norristown, Pennsylvania, where he suffered from an acute maniacal attack with persecutory delusions. He was discharged from that inst.i.tution, by order of the Court, on September 29, 1903. On January 1, 1904, he was arrested for housebreaking and sentenced to three years imprisonment at the United States Penitentiary at Moundsville, Virginia. From the above inst.i.tution he was admitted to this Hospital on May 8, 1905, suffering from an acute maniacal attack. He soon recovered again and was discharged on August 18, 1906, with a diagnosis of imbecility with recurrent mania. He was readmitted here October 3, 1907, and discharged April 1, 1909. On January 23, 1910, he was given a two months workhouse sentence for petty larceny. On September 7, 1912, he was again sentenced to four years in the Penitentiary for grand larceny, from which inst.i.tution he was readmitted here on January 19, 1915.