Studies in Forensic Psychiatry Part 7

We are here especially concerned with criminals who, because of a mental breakdown, have come under the observation of a psychiatrist, and if we agree with many eminent criminologists that the present juvenile state of this science and the ineffective methods of dealing with crime are due to a lack of proper scientific understanding of that anomalous species which is grouped under the term "criminal man", why not endeavor to solve this problem by approaching it from the psychiatric point of view. If the study of psychopathology has given us such valuable data concerning the normal mind, why not expect that a similar study applied to the insane criminal will bring to light some important facts concerning crime and the criminal in general. It is for this reason that that large group of mental disorders developing in criminals during imprisonment which has been included under the term "prison psychoses"

is of special importance to the psychiatrist.

The older extensive literature on this subject, although very interesting from an historical standpoint, offers very little that is of scientific value, and it is only within recent years that a more rational approach to this problem has been attempted. It is easily conceivable that this branch of mental medicine must have shared the fortunes of psychiatry in general in its various phases of evolution, so that in the history of the prison psychoses are reflected the various views which in their day have dominated psychiatry. At present it is the school of degeneracy of Magnan and Moebius which is especially concerned with this problem.

Briefly stated, the exponents of this subject belong in a general way to either of the following two schools. The one maintains that the mental disorders occurring in prison differ in no way from those met with in freedom and that imprisonment at most but lends to them a peculiar common coloring which in itself, however, is not of essential importance. The other school takes a directly opposite view. The followers of the latter maintain that the mental disorders which they are wont to term "prison psychoses" are products of predisposition plus external factors. They differ from the true endogenous psychoses in that they are purely psychogenetic in character, and that their highly colored and extremely variable symptomatology is nothing more than a reactive manifestation of a particularly predisposed psyche to definite environmental conditions. According to them we are not dealing here with mental disorders whose origin, course, and termination are independent of the crime and imprisonment, as is the case in the ordinary well-known forms of functional and organic disorders developing in prison, but with psychotic manifestations which bear the most intimate relation to some definite situation, and which are characteristically colored and shaped by the prison milieu.

As a matter of fact, the population of inst.i.tutions for insane criminals divides itself into two distinct and unmistakable groups. On the one hand we meet with the well-known functional and organic psychotic ent.i.ties such as occur in individuals in freedom; we see patients who in the course of their careers as insane people have come in conflict with the law either accidentally or because of their insane ideas. In them the psychosis develops and takes its definitely determined course independently of the milieu in which the individual happens to be placed. In the majority of instances they suffer from the various forms of dementia praec.o.x and progress toward demential end-results in the same proportion as the general run of dementia praec.o.x cases do, whether or not they have come in conflict with the law. Occasionally we also see a case of organic brain disease or manic-depressive psychosis, and in more frequent instances a case of epilepsy. The other, and according to many authorities, by far the most predominant group of mental disorders met with in imprisonment, belongs to the so-called "prison psychoses", and bears definite, unmistakable ear-marks which differentiate it from the former group. These are, as we have stated, products of a particularly degenerative soil plus definite environmental conditions, and are of the utmost importance both from a purely clinical and an administrative point of view.

The term "reactive manifestation", as applied here, is a happy one, and inasmuch as the accidental criminal differs from the habitual criminal as day differs from night, we will expect a different sort of reaction to a more or less similar situation in the two instances. To ill.u.s.trate:--An apparently healthy and in most instances law-abiding and non-corrupt individual, as a result of a series of overwhelming and uncontrollable circ.u.mstances, commits murder in a fit of pa.s.sion. Upon being arrested and upon the sudden realization of the enormity of his deed the entire const.i.tution experiences a tremendous shock and reacts to it accordingly. He falls into a stupor, into utter oblivion of the world about him, becomes in turn excited and confused, his senses begin to functionate in a fallacious manner, and he thus succeeds in shutting out from consciousness, for the time being at least, the entire unbearable situation. Upon emerging from his stupor he has a more or less complete amnesia for the deed and its attending circ.u.mstances, and finding himself confronted with accusations, cross-examinations, and lastly, conviction, he at once sets about, so to speak, to square himself with the situation. What does he do? He develops a quite limited, well-organized delusional system in which he finds himself absolutely innocent, his accusers are the guilty ones, and the entire situation is nothing more nor less than a well-planned plot to destroy him. His supposed victim has not been murdered at all, but is living and secretly active in plotting and scheming against him, the accused.

In this artificially created world he lives with comparative ease, and has thus succeeded in reaching a proper adjustment to the situation.

The most interesting part of it all is that this so well-organized and apparently fixed delusional system may disappear at once and the various false ideas may become entirely corrected as soon as the provocative agent which is at the bottom of it all is removed. This is a fair example of what has been termed an acute prison psychosis, and occurs with considerable frequency among prisoners awaiting trial. Naturally, these psychoses, being, as they are, psychologically motived, are extremely variable in their manifestations, but at the root they are all alike and impress the observer as something entirely different from the pure endogenous mental disorders. They are all psychically evoked reactive manifestations of a particularly predisposed const.i.tution to definite deleterious environmental conditions. Some of the cases reported in the first paper of this series are good examples of this type of mental disorder.

We owe our knowledge of these disorders to the contributions of Reich, Moeli, Kutner, Ganser, Rish and others, authors who, although describing a more or less identical symptom-complex, have given to it different names, such as hysterical stupor, Ganser symptom-complex, catatonia of degenerates, etc. The distinguis.h.i.+ng features of this disorder are its psychic origin, that is, its development in consequence of some strongly affective experience, and its high grade of impressionability to things in the environment which may at any time suddenly cause a complete transition from deep stupor to normal manner and behavior.

The symptomatology consists of an acute delirioid, hallucinatory episode, usually followed by a more or less complete amnesia which may go back far enough to include the experience which provoked the disorder. Such delusional formation as takes place after the disappearance of the fulminant symptoms may well be considered as part of the repair process, a mechanism which in most instances reflects the individual's endeavor to adjust himself to an unpleasant, unbearable situation, and must not be looked upon necessarily as an indication of the progressiveness of the disorder.

As we have stated before, complete correction of all delusional ideas may suddenly take place upon the removal of the causative factor at the bottom of the entire situation.

As to the treatment of this acute prison psychotic complex theoretically, we should have no difficulty in deciding this question.

We are dealing with the sequelae of some definite situation, and the removal of that situation may be, and actually is, in most instances, sufficient to bring about recovery. When we come, however, to deal with concrete instances in daily practice, the problem does not lend itself so easily to solution.

What of the man who upon being arrested following the commission of murder, develops a psychosis while awaiting trial, or who having been found guilty of murder develops a psychosis while awaiting execution?

The first question which the psychiatrist is called upon to decide in many instances is that of malingering. To the lay mind and to the minds of many of our eminent--but psychiatrically uninformed--jurists the question of malingering suggests itself at once. To them it is perfectly evident that this development of a mental disorder, in the wake of a criminal act, is nothing but a timely preparation for the "insanity dodge." The clinical pictures presented by the acute prison psychosis are especially apt to awaken suspicions of malingering in the minds of the untrained. We see individuals who apparently never before showed any evidence of mental disorder, and who immediately following the commission of a criminal act manifest pictures of grave alienation. Many of them don't know how much twice two is, are absolutely ignorant of the most elementary subjects, remember nothing of the deed, and most important of all fas.h.i.+on their deliria in such a way as to entirely negate the deed, or at any rate justify it.

But why cannot all these manifestations be genuine? Many of us no doubt recall the effect which examinations have upon certain students. The emotional accompaniment of the examination, especially the emotion of fright, causes many a student to forget facts which he knew as well as his own name, and which he is able readily and fully to recollect as soon as the examination is over. Are we to a.s.sume that these students are malingering? Decidedly not. Why then should we question at all the genuineness of a mental disorder developing in an individual who faces the gallows or a life-long imprisonment? As a matter of fact cases of pure malingering are among the rarest things which the psychiatrist observes. Wilmanns,[1] in his study of 277 cases of insanity of prisoners, found but two cases of simulation, and in a later review of the diagnoses of the same series of cases, the two cases of malingering do not appear at all. Bonhoeffer[2] in a study of 221 cases of insane criminals found 0.5 per cent of malingerers. This is the experience of everyone who comes in contact with these cases, and there are others who go so far as to maintain that every malingerer of mental symptoms is mentally defective.

But let us a.s.sume that we have succeeded in convincing those concerned of the genuineness of the disease at hand; what line of treatment should be recommended? In the first place, we must remember that the mental disorder, if it belongs to the group we are discussing here, is the result of a criminal act, and following in its wake, and that therefore the plea of insanity as an excuse for the deed must manifestly be excluded. But may not this type of reaction furnish us an index to the original personality of the culprit? In other words, should we consider an individual absolutely normal, if, in reaction to some stressful situation, he breaks down mentally and develops a psychosis? The majority of authorities maintain that these individuals are decidedly abnormal, and that it is only a poorly-knit organism which permits of that sort of reaction. Birnbaum,[3] for instance, insists that the possibility of a psychic incitation of a mental disorder is the criterion of a degenerative soil. This is undoubtedly too extreme a view, but the more one observes these cases, the more one is inclined to hesitate in calling these individuals normal in the accepted sense of the term. Let us a.s.sume for the moment that these psychotic reactions are indices of an abnormal personality. Is this defect of sufficient import to render the individual irresponsible in the eyes of the law?

This question, I fear, cannot be answered very readily. Looking at it from a purely juridical standpoint, we must say no; because an individual is so loosely organized as to break down mentally under a given stress, does not at all imply that a knowledge of the difference between right and wrong is excluded. The jurist is willing to concede to the proposition of a poorly-organized nervous system, a degenerative make-up, a psychopathic const.i.tution; but if these defects are such as to manifest themselves in crime, society must be given the inalienable right to protect itself from such defectives. The result is that either no extenuating circ.u.mstances are considered at all, and the individual is dealt with in the ordinary way, or he is adjudged insane and committed to a hospital for the criminal insane, whether or no insanity exists at the time of trial. Thus we have on the one hand a prison population which more properly belongs under the regime of a hospital, while on the other hand, we insist on keeping individuals locked up in hospitals for the insane, whether or no they show actual psychotic symptoms. If one of the latter cla.s.s endeavors to obtain his release by habeas corpus, a tremendous howl is immediately raised by the public about the "insanity dodge", the worthlessness of expert testimony and the unpardonable offense of letting loose upon society a dangerous criminal. If we stop to consider for a moment, we must admit that in the great majority of instances, we are not dealing here with dangerous criminals. The man who as a result of a series of overwhelming circ.u.mstances over which he had little or no control, kills another in a fit of pa.s.sion, is not necessarily a dangerous criminal. In the majority of cases it is fair to a.s.sume that such an individual will never again in his life have to cope with a similar set of circ.u.mstances. The great majority of these people have led, up to that single crime of their life, an honest, peaceful existence, and the instances of an accidental criminal turning recidivist are extremely rare.

Society looks on complacently at the repeated sentencing of the habitual criminal and watches without alarm the never failing phenomenon of how each successive imprisonment only serves to deprave him more profoundly; it never considers the danger of letting this type of criminal loose to prey upon it; just so he has served his just and legally prescribed sentence. But let the victim of the "insanity dodge"

prejudice endeavor to gain his freedom, and society is at once up in arms.

Thus the matter stands, and until the public learns to know its criminals as they actually are, this problem will remain unsolved. The prognosis of the acute prison psychotic complex is good in the majority of instances. The removal to a hospital regime usually serves to put a stop to the process and it is important for the expert witness to bear this in mind for obvious reasons.

We have thus far discussed the psychoses developing in prisoners awaiting trial, and we shall now turn to that group of cases which are sent to us from penal inst.i.tutions which serve for the confinement of the convicted criminal.

At the outset we shall endeavor to draw a distinction between the cla.s.s of individuals we have just discussed, and that which we are about to consider now. We have seen that the former is made up of individuals who in most instances have come in conflict with the law for the first time, and that the mental disorder which they develop stands in the closest relation with some definite experience in their life. The patients who come to us from prisons and penitentiaries on account of some mental disorder which developed while they were undergoing sentence are in most instances habitual criminals with a marked criminal career back of them.

They differ so essentially from the preceding group, that what has been said about the former can hardly apply here.

The first really worthy contribution to this subject was made by Siefert,[4] the physician in charge of the psychiatric department of the penitentiary at Halle. He published, in 1907, the results of a study of eighty-three prisoners who became insane while serving sentences. He divided his patients into two sharply differentiated groups, the true psychoses, _i.e._, the well-known forms of functional and organic mental disorders, and the degenerative psychoses, _i.e._, psychotic episodes developing upon a soil of degeneracy and which according to him form the typical prison psychoses. Before we go any further it must be mentioned that Siefert did not take into consideration the mental disorders developing in prisoners awaiting trial.

"The true psychoses develop out of endogenous causes, attack and manifest themselves in the prisoner in the same way as in any law-abiding individual in freedom. They are not essentially influenced by changes of environment and there exists no intimate relation between the coloring of the symptomatology and the influence of the imprisonment. The degenerative psychoses, on the other hand, develop upon the well-characterized degenerative soil of the habitual criminal, and are products of predisposition plus environmental influence. They stand in the most intimate relation to the deleteriousness of prison life, and are therefore influenced to the greatest extent by change of environment."

On studying critically Siefert's work one gains the conviction that the author not only undertakes to solve certain clinical questions, but endeavors to investigate the problem of the relation between crime and mental disorder. Although he paid the strictest attention to the individual symptoms and described in an excellent manner the manifold and varying symptomatology of these psychoses, he did not succeed in isolating a symptom-complex which might be considered as typical of the degenerative psychoses, and thus deserve the independence of a distinct clinical ent.i.ty. Above all he occupied himself with the investigation and delineation of the various anomalous individualities, the degenerative const.i.tutions upon which these psychotic manifestations engraft themselves. Thus he divided his prison psychoses into groups like the "simple degenerative", "hysterical degenerative", "phantastic degenerative", etc. Siefert undoubtedly overshot the mark in his clear-cut differentiation between the various types, but he unquestionably contributed a most important work on this subject.

Let us now endeavor to ill.u.s.trate what he means by this degenerative soil giving rise to these psychoses. As we have stated, the great majority of them are full-fledged habitual criminals and can be easily recognized by their "degenerative habitus." They are that indolent, obstinate, querulent, unapproachable, and irritable cla.s.s of prisoners who form the bane of prison officials. Constantly in trouble of some sort, they are subject to frequent disciplinary measures, which, however, serve not in the least to improve their conduct. Their extremely fluctuating mood and emotional instability calls forth a quite unfounded wild rebellion against the prison regime. They are constantly after the physician with numerous hypochondriacal complaints, such as a nervous heart, digestive disturbances, insomnia, etc. In short, they impress one as something abnormal, something entirely different from the ordinary prisoner. On this basis, now and then more marked, definite psychotic manifestations engraft themselves. Here and there one of them starts to speak of nightly visions, complains about a feeling of anxiety, speaks of suspicious noises and voices in the vicinity, and finally makes a superficial, ineffectual attempt at suicide. Others become suddenly more antagonistic, vehemently a.s.sert their innocence, speak of being the victims of false accusations, etc. Still others suddenly develop a wild, maniacal state, destroy everything within reach, become markedly hallucinated, elaborate various persecutory ideas, and finally have to be transferred to an insane asylum. Here they soon quiet down, the active symptoms subside without leaving any trace behind them, insight may or may not be complete. The characterological anomaly which is at the bottom of the disorder, however, remains, and any necessity for the application of more stringent administrative measures may serve to set the entire process aflame again.

Another group of psychopaths who are p.r.o.ne to develop prison psychoses are those primitive, superficially endowed individuals with a high degree of auto-suggestibility, a marked tendency to phantastic lying, and instability of mood, individuals who have always led a sort of humdrum existence without aim or goal of any kind in view. They drift very early into a life of crime and vagabondage, become addicted to all of the vices which cross their path, are markedly egotistical, have no conception of social life, frequently desert their wives and families, and a great many of them finally end their days in jails or poorhouses.

Upon being imprisoned they are unable to adjust themselves to the strict regime, find difficulty in acquainting themselves with the prison regulations and in consequence have to be frequently disciplined. As a result they begin to misinterpret things in the environment and see in these disciplinary measures nothing but persecution on the part of the prison officials. They become suspicious, seclusive, introspective, spend sleepless nights, until suddenly, in the stillness of night, they perceive isolated phonemes. This strengthens their suspicions. They refuse food, become apprehensive, the hallucinations reach a more definite character, until finally they manifest a well-marked persecutory delirium, or may fall into a semi-delirious stuporous state, show numerous catatonic symptoms, become destructive and untidy, and in general present a picture very similar to true catatonia.

Removal to the hospital ward frequently serves to put a stop to the process at once, and often before reaching the hospital for the insane they show no traces of the acute mental disorder.

The foregoing are types of degenerative psychoses met with in imprisonment, and there can be no question that the prison milieu is the etiologic factor here.

To speak here of a progressive disorder to which imprisonment only gives a characteristic coloring is entirely erroneous. A psychosis which is definitely brought on by a certain environment and which is corrected as soon as the environment is changed, must be looked upon as the product of that environment. That the degenerative soil which permits of the development of these disorders cannot be looked upon as a basic disorder, something like dementia praec.o.x, is likewise unquestionable.

These individuals have always shown the same traits of character; it is these very same anomalies which brought them in their childhood days in conflict with the school authorities, which later made them inmates of reformatories, and which finally were at the bottom of their habitual criminality. Finally, the total absence of progression to more or less definite end-results excludes the possibility of an organically determined progressive disorder. A psychosis which develops in imprisonment and progresses irrespective of the change of milieu is not a prison psychosis in the sense that this term is here used. The following cases are ill.u.s.trative of the type under discussion.

CASE I.--A. F., aged 31 years; admitted to the Government Hospital for the Insane April 7, 1911. Father alcoholic; died of cancer of liver and stomach. Mother died of tuberculosis. One brother has been confined in the Gowanda State Hospital for the Insane for past five or six years; has always been an excessive alcoholic. One sister, aged 42, has tuberculosis. One of her children died of tuberculosis of the bones. Another sister is hyper-religious and eccentric.

Patient was born at Olean, New York, in 1871. He knows of nothing unusual attending his birth or childhood. He entered school at the age of six, and attended irregularly for six or seven years. He was usually older than the other children in his cla.s.s, and was held back a year in the third and fourth grades. He left school at the age of fourteen, while in the fourth grade. He then worked in a shoe store, commencing at a salary of four dollars per week, and receiving six dollars per week at the time of his separation. As far as is known he did his work well, as he was promoted during his stay there. Soon after commencing to earn money he began to indulge in alcoholics. He became intoxicated one day and set fire to a store, which resulted in the death of a human being. It did not take much at that time to intoxicate him--two or three gla.s.ses of whiskey being sufficient. He does not definitely say why he set the place on fire; adding, "Perhaps I was drunk and did not know what I was doing and maybe I just wanted to see the fire. I always did like to see fires. Of course, I did not know that somebody was going to get burned to death." He is not certain whether he felt sorry for the deed, adding: "Why should I care? I did not know the man that was burned. He was no relative or friend of mine; anyway, the people around there said he was no good, and that it served him right." He was sent to the Elmira Reformatory, where he remained three years, when he was transferred to the New York State Hospital for Criminal Insane at Matteawan. He did not like the Reformatory a bit, they were nagging him all the time. He says it was like a deaf and dumb asylum; a fellow could not even talk when he wanted to, and if he did he was paddled for it. The paddling didn't make him behave, because, he adds: "You can't make a fellow behave by beating him all the time." He was later transferred to Dannemora, spending about two years in all, in both these inst.i.tutions. He did not like it at the hospital either, because they made him work, and he hated to work; so finally he asked to be transferred back to Elmira, which request was granted him. On returning there he was put to work at brick-laying, but could not get along with the fellow in charge, the latter was too much of a bully and worked him too hard, so finally, they s.h.i.+pped him to the new reformatory at Napanoch, New York. Here he was given employment by the physician in charge of the hospital, and after ten months of good conduct, was paroled. He says he behaved well these ten months because he was treated well by the doctor. Upon being paroled, he returned to Olean and obtained a position in a tannery where he worked for six months, receiving two dollars per night. He was drinking heavily all this time, and one night, failing to return to work, owing to his intoxicated condition, was discharged. He states that the above is the longest he ever worked at any occupation since. Shortly after being discharged, he was arrested in company with several others for robbing a post office. He was about twenty-three years of age then. He claims that he had nothing to do with this robbery, and it was just an unfortunate accident that he got mixed up in it. He was placed in the jail, and while there the warden tried to poison him. He developed various ideas that poison was placed in his food, that his stomach was all dried up, and because he would not eat, he adds: "They sent him over to this Hospital,--the Government Hospital for the Insane."

He was admitted here the first time on May 29, 1904, on a medical certificate which stated: "About April 19, 1904, he refused to take food and claimed to be kidnapped. He had delusions of persecution--said his head was full of nails and requested that his brain be cut up. Said the President was his friend."

On August 1st, he eloped while at work in company with another patient. The record of his mental disturbance at that time is very meagre, and nothing of a definite nature can be obtained from it.

From here he beat part of his way, and walked part of the way to Cincinnati, where he had a sister living. One night he heard her talking to her husband about sending him back to the hospital, so he robbed them of what money they had in the house, bought a revolver and returned to Olean. He says he bought the revolver to protect himself from a certain police captain at Olean. He frequently refers to this man in a vindictive and abusive manner. States that this police captain was after him all the time; that whenever any crime was committed in the city, he was immediately suspected. He was "tired of this" and bought the gun, intending to kill the police officer if he should bother him any more. Here he adds: "Anyhow, the cur was killed afterwards, I am glad of it." After a series of crimes, tramping and debauchery, during which he suffered from an attack of delirium tremens, and served a sentence of nine months in a Pennsylvania jail, he was again arrested for a post office robbery and sentenced to five years at Leavenworth, whence he was transferred to this inst.i.tution April 7, 1911.

As has been stated, he commenced to indulge in alcoholics at a very early age and has continued this habit during his lifetime. He states that he had an attack of delirium tremens, during which he received a severe burn on his left arm by jumping out of a window into a bonfire, while trying to escape imaginary persecutors. During the years 1903-04, he was addicted to the steady use of morphine and cocaine. He has led a very loose s.e.xual life; has been infected with gonorrha on numerous occasions, and contracted syphilis several years ago. He has never married. He intended to marry once, but the girl, he discovered, was not true to him, so he gave her up. He is a Catholic, attends church occasionally when at liberty, and was in the habit of going to confession while at the Penitentiary.

The medical certificate on his present admission stated that on the night of March 20, 1911, the patient was reported for shouting while in his cell, claiming that invisible enemies were shocking him with electricity. There were no symptoms observable before that. Has delusions of persecution in which invisible enemies are continually shocking him with electricity and other means and are planning to do him other bodily harm.

He complained of not being able to sleep and of being tortured. Said they wired his cell and gave him an electric shock; that he spoke to the President of the United States and was told that the latter would visit him.

On March 22d, complained of being choked by supposed workmen. Later he stated that he had been kidnapped at Erie, Pennsylvania, and expected the President of the United States to get him out in a few days. He requested the doctor to send for a priest, complained that they had failed to send for the President as promised. Said that he had received a severe shock the night before from the people upstairs, and stated that they had stored two thousand volts to turn on him.

Following this, he was restless at night and was apprehensive of being burned to death. Finally he wrote a letter to the President in which he complained that his life and health were in grave danger; that he was the victim of a conspiracy, and was being detained illegally at the Penitentiary, stating that when he was walking peaceably along the railroad track, he was kidnapped by enemies who had a design upon his life. He was arrested and while in jail these same officers robbed the post office and later accused him of the crime. They bribed a witness to testify at the trial against him and because of this he received an unjust sentence of five years. He believed that the friends of the chief of police of his home town, Olean, New York, were paying large sums of money to the warden of the Leavenworth Penitentiary in an endeavor to have him electrocuted, and that their efforts had nearly proven successful, as he had been tortured night and day for the past month, in fact he was unable to stand it any longer, and if the President did not come to his relief at once, he intended to take the matter in his own hands and make short work of the warden. He thought he was accused of the murder of the police officer who was killed in his home town, but he insisted that at the time of the murder he was locked up in jail, hence could not have done this.

The patient continued in this trend of thought and conduct until his transfer to this inst.i.tution, April 7, 1911.

On admission here he talked in a coherent manner, was clear mentally and quite well oriented. He reiterated the story given above, namely,--that he was kidnapped in Pennsylvania on a trumped-up charge of post office robbery, was tried by a "phony" court and sentenced to five years at Leavenworth. Soon after arriving there the warden had an electrical apparatus rigged up with which he was tortured constantly.

He complained to the doctor about this and begged to be put in a cell so he could get some sleep as he could not sleep in his cell on account of these electric shocks. He heard them saying from above that they were going to torture him. One night they had him paralyzed on one side.

In an endeavor to explain these persecutions he stated that probably the railroad police who arrested him were friends of the police captain at Olean with whom he had had trouble for a long time, and who was later killed by someone; that probably they blamed him for this killing, and that for this reason they framed up the charge of post office robbery against him. He believed that the electrocuting which he was receiving at Leavenworth was a part of this scheme to get rid of him, as he knew that the police captain at Olean was a friend of the warden of the Penitentiary. In giving this recital he was somewhat irritable and nervous, constantly rubbing his head and face in a troubled manner. He kept to himself, making no acquaintances with those about him and was apparently somewhat worried and apprehensive.

He slept well the first night, stating that n.o.body bothered him. He stated that he was not insane, that there was nothing wrong with his mind. When asked why he was sent here, said simply because of a trick, that he was told that he was coming to the President to secure a pardon, and instead of this, was brought to this inst.i.tution. He was quite unstable emotionally, very surly and irritable, and soon transferred his persecutory ideas to the officials of this inst.i.tution. He complained of having electricity on him; stated that the warden at Leavenworth rigged up a wireless apparatus whereby he could send wireless messages to him constantly. Stated that he had been chloroformed at night and that his body was lined with electric wires through which electricity was running all the time. He became very abusive to the physician, stating that the latter was in league with the officials at the penitentiary to torture him. This state of affairs continued, with the addition of the delusional idea that the physician was endeavoring to hypnotize him, until the early part of September, 1911, when he acquired full insight into his mental disturbance, realizing fully that the various ideas which he expressed were delusional, and that he must have been suffering from mental disorder at the time.

Mental examination revealed no defect, and his knowledge was quite in accord with his educational advantages. Morally, he was distinctly defective. Physical examination showed various stigmata of degeneration, such as asymmetry of the face; large outstanding and flattened ears; narrow and dome-shaped palate; irregularly placed teeth; prominent parietal bones; two symmetrical depressions on the occiput; congenital flat-footedness; and a sullen facial expression.

His arms were covered with tattoo marks. Sense of pain somewhat diminished. Sympathetic reactions could not be elicited. Wa.s.sermann reaction with blood serum nearly complete positive.

The patient finally recovered from his mental disorder, and on January 16, 1912, was returned to the penitentiary to serve out the remainder of his sentence. At this writing, November, 1915, nothing further has been heard from him.

We have before us an individual who to start with, is badly tainted hereditarily. His childhood history is indefinite, aside from his statements of having been usually the lowest in his cla.s.s at school. He launched upon an industrial career at a very early period in life and simultaneously with commencing to earn money he began to indulge in alcoholics. His industrial career was cut short soon after. He gets drunk and sets fire to a store, causing the death of a human being.

This, at the age of seventeen. His moral status can readily be surmised when we remember his reply to the question as to whether he was sorry for the deed. "Why should I be sorry? I didn't know the man that was burned." The usual course of the law was taken in the case and he was placed in a reformatory. He spent nearly six years between that inst.i.tution and hospitals for the criminal insane, when he was released on parole. It is of interest to note here how he reacted to the stress of confinement in the reformatory. We find that on two occasions during this period it became necessary to transfer him to an insane asylum. We shall have occasion to refer to this again later.

If there ever existed in him any chance for reform, the reformatory apparently killed it, for his life since then has been an uninterrupted chain of crime and debauchery. He has been a prey to all the vices of modern civilization; he is a confirmed alcoholic, was addicted to the habitual use of morphine and cocaine; has been infected on numerous occasions with gonorrha; has contracted syphilis and received a serious burn during an attack of delirium tremens. In all, he spent eight of the past fourteen years in penitentiaries, jails, and inst.i.tutions for the criminal insane, and has, now, an indictment for larceny hanging over him. Released from a six years' confinement he finds himself thrown upon his own resources and is confronted for the first time with the problem of providing for himself. The poorly-begotten organism, whose start in life, already deficient in those attributes and forces which are so essential for an effective struggle for existence and which was rendered still more deficient by a six years' sojourn among criminals, finds himself unable to cope with conditions as they exist, and several months after his release from imprisonment we again find him arrested for robbery. Being taken hold of by the law does not mend matters in the least. On the contrary, we see the same tendency to break under the stress of imprisonment, with the overwhelming burden of an enforced routine existence, rea.s.sert itself as on the former occasion, and in reaction to the situation he develops a psychosis which necessitates his transfer to an insane asylum. Placed under the less exacting regime of a hospital, he soon recovers and avails himself of the first opportunity for an escape which presents itself. Finding himself again at freedom he endeavors to find some explanation for his unfortunate position in life and in the midst of this he discovers that his sister is planning to return him to the hospital. Even his own sister is against him. He begins to a.s.sume that paranoid view of life which characterizes his later existence. Now he knows where the trouble lies. The whole world is against him; no wonder he can't get along; his own sister is trying to force him back into the hands of his persecutors. His own deficiencies and incapacities he projects upon the environment. It is the world about that is at fault; not he. They are after him all the time. He buys a gun with which to protect himself, and with renewed antagonism against society in general he defiantly launches upon a career of crime and vice. Again taken hold of by the law, the old story repeats itself. He lands in an insane asylum.

Upon an a.n.a.lysis of the content of his psychosis, we find that he elaborates a story of having been kidnapped in Pennsylvania, upon a trumped up charge of robbery, taken before a "phony" judge and given an unjust sentence of five years. The police officers who arrested him were friends of the murdered police captain at Olean and were hired to do this job, because he (the patient) was suspected of having had something to do with this murder. He dreads being placed in the penitentiary because he knows the warden is likewise against him, being a friend of the murdered police captain and might perhaps be in league with his persecutors and take this opportunity of avenging himself upon the suspected murderer, and sure enough, soon after his arrival at the penitentiary, the warden has an electrical apparatus rigged up with which to torture him, etc. His psychosis takes the usual course, he recovers soon after having been removed from the oppressing environment.