Pathology of Lying, accusation, and swindling Part 14

Father alcoholic, insane (?) Defective vision.

Delinquencies: Mentality: False accusations. Ability fair.

Runaway.

Obtaining money by false representations.

CASE 15

Summary: Girl of 16, over a period of some weeks made extreme accusations against several members of her family. She gave detailed account of s.e.x immorality, alleged drunkenness and thieving, and an attack on her own life. She had herself, it was found, begun delinquent tendencies. The family circ.u.mstances and her clearly detailed account gave the color of possibility to her accusations, but investigation proved some of them false, and all of a sudden, after maintaining for long a most convincing demeanor, she withdrew her allegations. Both before and since this episode she has given no marked evidence of being a falsifier.

We were asked to study this case by police officials who thought perhaps the girl was the victim of some delusional state. She appeared at the police station and informed them her adult brother had been thieving from the place where he worked. She lived with him. Investigation by detectives on the strength of her convincingly given details proved his innocence. When the brother appeared on the scene he said he had been intending to report her on account of her being away from home. She herself was then held in custody.

We found a girl in very good general physical condition. Well developed in s.e.x characteristics and a very mature type of face.

Outside of a somewhat enlarged thyroid and moderately defective vision, we found nothing abnormal. Weight 114 lbs.; height 5 ft.

Notable was her strong features, deep set eyes, high, broad forehead and sharp chin.

Our study of her on the mental side led us to denominate her as having fair general ability. She had had poor educational advantages. We noted much irregularity on work on tests. She did comparatively poorly on anything that called for careful attention and concentration. This was especially notable when she was dealing with abstractions or situations to be mentally represented. Although she could do arithmetic up to simple division she made a bad failure in the continued process of subtraction as given in the Kraepelin test of taking 8's from 100. In the work on the Code, Test XI, she found it altogether impossible to keep her mind concentrated. In tests where perceptions were largely brought into play she did very well. We noticed that she was possessed of a very dramatic manner. She sighed frequently as she worked. She was very nervous, continually moving her hands and tapping the table. She was quite satisfied with her superficial efforts. It was very curious that we, as well as others, were able to note her apparent sincere belief in her own statements about her family.

As she made them she looked the interviewer straight in the eyes; there was not a hint of evasiveness.

Her result on the ''Aussage'' (Test VI) was very meager. She only recalled 10 details of the picture. On cross- examination she gave correctly 14 more items and was wrong on 3 of them. She accepted only 2 out of 5 suggestions offered and these were the most probable ones.

A full family history was never to be obtained. The best that we came ultimately to know was that her father and mother had been long dead and she had lived in inst.i.tutions for years, then with a relative who was not at all a good person, and then with her brother and sister, whom she bitterly accused. These were people in decidedly poor circ.u.mstances and living in very congested quarters. Indeed, we were inclined to believe, finally, that crowded housing conditions with the necessary unfortunate familiarity with s.e.x affairs and the like was largely responsible for her trouble. A few months prior to these events she had become acquainted with a girl who had drawn her into running away from home a few nights. During her unsettled home life she had seen a good deal of immorality in other houses, but had not been immoral herself. Conditions of squalor surrounded the whole situation.

Her accusations against her family as told to others, and reiterated to us, involved the drunkenness of her own father and mother. (We were never able to verify whether this charge against her mother was true or not.) Then she went on to allege extreme immorality on the part of her three sisters. She gave these in the utmost detail. (There is little doubt but that one of her sisters was rather free living before she was married.) She constantly maintained that she was the only virtuous one in the family and had withstood all advances. She then recounted much personal abuse and cruel treatment, and accused the brother and his wife of an attempt to poison her because they wanted her out of the way.

Her story was told in such detail, was so well remembered from time to time, and she presented such outward form of sincerity that experienced people were led to believe there must be much in what she said. On one occasion, under observation, she cried nearly all of two days because one good woman would not believe her statements. At least she said this was the reason of her tears. Her general behavior during this period of observation was perfect.

We found her hazy and somewhat incoherent about a number of the details of her life, but she had lived under such varied circ.u.mstances that this alone was not convincing of her insincerity. When we met her brother we were very sure that at least a part of her story was false. He seemed to be a very decent fellow and was really interested in her. Several months earlier he had trouble with her on account of her staying out late at night, and had threatened her. Then there was no more difficulty until her recent acquaintance with this other girl.

He stated that he had been obliged to scold her very severely, and then finally she stayed away for five nights and wound up by going to the police station and making the accusations against him and the other members of the family. When the case came up in court she stated she wished to go back to live with this brother and admitted having continued misrepresentations about him and the others in the family since her acquaintance with this girl. It really was all false. She was placed under probation and the case has been, except for environmental circ.u.mstances, entirely successful. She is now a young married woman, and has had no further delinquent record against her.

Our investigation of the causation showed perhaps self- protection from punishment for her own behavior, but there was apparently much mental conflict about s.e.x affairs and she had a very unfortunate acquaintance with such details, resulting partly, as she acknowledged, from her peeping through keyholes and so on. On account of her peculiar unreliability of statement and many quiet and staring periods, seen while she was under observation, we questioned whether she was not verging on psychotic conditions. However, all this tendency seems to have pa.s.sed away.

--------------------------------------------------------------- Adolescent instability. Case 15.

Girl, 16 years.

Home conditions: Defective through poverty and congestion.

Early s.e.x experiences and mental conflict about them.

Reaction to own delinquencies, self protection phenomenon.

Heredity. Mentality: Delinquencies: Fair ability, poor False accusations. advantages.

CASE 16

Summary: A motherless girl of 9 1/2 years, following her complaint of local symptoms, which proved to be due to vulvitis, accused her father and brother of incest. She was a bright child and normally affectionate, even towards these relatives. Her father and brother were held in jail for several weeks, but were dismissed at the trial because of the ascertained untruth of the charges.

As causative factors of her false accusations our study showed (a) her local irritation, (b) for which her father had treated her, (c) prior crowded housing conditions with her father and brother, (d) her lack of mother's control, (e) early and intimate acquaintance with atrocious s.e.x knowledge and s.e.x habits, and (f) recently becoming the center of interest in a group of friends made through her statement of the vileness of family conditions.

We were requested to study this case by the judge of the court in which the father and brother of Bessie M. were to be tried for the crime of incest with her. At a preliminary hearing the judge had felt that the remarkable statements of the little girl savored of untruth, and that the character sustained by the brother, in particular, was quite out of keeping with the grave accusations against him. The girl's charges, so clearly detailed, together with her local ailment, had proved thoroughly convincing to a group of women who had become interested in her.

Bessie was evidently quite normal mentally and apparently affectionately regarded her only near relatives--this father and brother. Her story appeared thus entirely credible. The judge stated that he had been approached outside of court by these women, who in their righteous indignation were insistent upon the need of dire punishment of the outrageous conduct of Bessie's natural protectors.

We found a rather poorly developed little girl. Weight 64 lbs.; height 4 ft. 4 in. Bright, pleasant, vivacious expression.

Att.i.tude normal. High, prominent, narrow forehead. Head: length 19 cm., breadth 13 cm. Slightly asymmetrical frontal bosses.

Snub nose; eyes fairly bright; ears asymmetrical in size--.6 cm.

difference in greatest length. Thyroid palpable. Tonsils enlarged moderately. No sensory defect of importance. Strength good for size. Color only fairly good. (Results of gynecologic examination later.)

Bessie was given a wide range of mental tests, with the result that we cla.s.sified her as being well up to the ordinary in ability. Indeed, considering her poor school advantages through frequent changes of residence she did very well in the subjects covered by formal education. Her memory processes and ability to testify correctly--in which we were naturally most interested--seemed, so far as we were able to test them, quite normal. Of a standard pa.s.sage about a fire (Test XII), which she read once to herself, she recalled 17 out of the 20 items. A pa.s.sage containing 12 main details (Test XIII), which was read to her in the usual way four times, she recalled with 2 details omitted. The ''Aussage'' test (Test VI) was done very well indeed, with 17 items of the picture given correctly on free recital, and 5 rejections out of the 7 suggestions proffered.

Bessie's conversation was fluent and coherent, her range of information was good. She showed fondness for the dramatic statement.

Her mother died in the old country when she was about four years old, and her father had immediately come to America, but had never established a home of his own. For the last nine months Bessie had been living with a woman, Mrs. S., who was deeply interested in her. Previously to this she roomed for about six months with her father and brother, and prior to that time she had been placed about in different homes by her father. After some months with Mrs. S. she complained of local pain and irritation. When taken to a physician, she said her father was accustomed to touch her, and her story involved incest by both her father and brother. After others had become interested in her case, the matter was turned into the hands of the police. It was notable that during this period Bessie's love of the dramatic was being fostered by her newly found woman friend, who was providing her with lessons in dramatic reading and taking her extremely frequently to moving picture shows and theatres.

When first seen by us, Bessie reiterated her story of s.e.xual relations with her father and brother. As she had done with others, and with the judge, she went into almost convincing details. Her knowledge of such relations.h.i.+ps was apparently complete. She informed us that she had caught ''an awful disease'' from her father. She said that while rooming with them her s.e.xual relations with her father and brother were nightly occurrences. They all slept in one bed.

A careful inquiry into Bessie's earlier knowledge of such things brought forth the most astounding account. One may say that this little girl had the most extensive acquaintance with many kinds of pervert s.e.x practices that one has ever known in a young individual. She now said that the last ones who engaged in such things with her were her father and brother. Her experiences began at 5 years with a boy and a girl, and, she maintained, they had been very frequent ever since, up to within the last 9 months. A number of boys and girls were involved, as well as the men in two households where she had been placed. The practices she had engaged in were many, running all the way from self use of pieces of broom to normal intercourse, and both active and pa.s.sive forms of pervert practices. It is unnecessary, even in this medical case, to go into details or to give her actual phraseology. It is sufficient to say that she frankly stated her early discovery of the pleasures of local stimulation and how she asked others to give it to her in various ways. Then she performed different perversions on boys and men. She told about observing s.e.x relations between husband and wife in households where she had lived. She now says she had a disease before she came home to her father--a doctor had told other people previously. The men in two homes frequently had complete intercourse with her, she maintains, and gives description of it.

The credible substance of Bessie's long story elaborately told upon inquiry into her life history was that she certainly had had many s.e.x experiences. When, in the light of these, it finally came to the question of the charges against her father and brother she said that it was really she who had been the instigator. When in bed she had begun playing with them. She described her method, learned before. She now says they did not have real intercourse with her, but the other men did.

The account of local physical conditions as obtained from several sources is as follows. Bessie was taken to a physician for vulvitis, etc., by some people before she came back to her father. During the period she roomed with her father he regularly treated her locally with a salve and a wash. The physician who later examined her for Mrs. S. found the parts so swollen that he could make no diagnosis of ruptured hymen, but took it for granted. After the father and brother had been in jail for some weeks the inflammation had subsided. (It is only fair to say that the father had clamored for a specialist's examination, which, he contended, would prove his innocence. Of course he was not aware of her earlier experiences or he would not have been so sure.) Then a competent gynecologist found that coitus had never taken place. The hymen was intact. This was at the time we studied the case. On the day of the trial, I with two other physicians examined the girl. It was found that a cotton swab about 3/8 of an inch in diameter could with difficulty penetrate the v.a.g.i.n.al orifice. There was not the slightest evidence of any rupture of the hymen or of any vaginitis. So far as the ''awful disease'' was concerned, repeated bacteriological tests over a considerable period failed to show the extensive vulvitis to be due to gonorrhea. It seemed much more likely that it was due to nonspecific infection following traumatism from the use of the various foreign objects which the girl told she had used. Perhaps it was partly the result of the perversions which, judging by her knowledge of them, had been practiced by others on her.

We were informed later that much indignation at our report to the judge was expressed by the crowd in attendance at the trial. The girl's first story was so well told that many had been irrevocably convinced of the utter guilt of the father.

The father himself, who was brought to us in the course of our study of the case, was rather a low type in appearance. He was a poor earner, evidently had earlier been alcoholic, a small whining figure with tears in his eyes. His appearance would prejudice against him. The brother, on the contrary, made an unusually good impression. He had the best of recommendations.

His sister's first charges ought not to have been believed on the basis of his qualifications. There had been 5 children, 3 died in infancy. No history of any significance was obtained except that the development of Bessie had apparently been normal in all ways. Her mother was said to be normal. Both parents were evidently representative products of the underfeeding and generally poor hygienic conditions of the laboring cla.s.ses in a large Irish city. There was unquestionably a great feeling of affection between the three. Indeed, Mrs. S. stated that it was the excessive kissing of the child by the father which made her suspicious. Bessie always maintained that both father and brother treated her very well and that she loved them much.

It seemed clear to us that Bessie never knew in the least the significance of the charges she so glibly made at first. Her mind had long been so full of these things, and their social import seemed so slight, that it meant no vindictiveness towards her loved ones to say what she did about them. She a.s.serted to us later that she really did not know what she said to the judge at the first hearing. The case ill.u.s.trated well the fallibility of a young girl's accusations coming even from the lips of a normally bright and affectionate daughter or sister.

For her own protection Bessie was given a trial in an inst.i.tutional school. From there it was reported after a few months that her mind was found to be so continually upon s.e.x subjects that it would be most advisable for her to remain long under the quietest conditions and closest supervision.

--------------------------------------------------------------- Physical conditions: Local irritation. Case 16.

Girl, age 9 1/2.

Housing conditions: Crowded.

Early s.e.x experiences: Excessive and pervert.

Parental control failure: No home, no mother.

Delinquencies: Mentality: Serious false accusations. Good ability.

CASE 17

Summary: Boy of 16 years, not living at home, made false accusations of excessive immorality against his own family.

These involved s.e.x perversions, and he implicated even his own sister and brother, and alleged the connivance of his mother.

The main complaint was against the step-father, who he also said was a professional thief. The improbability of such stories being told without good foundation led to much time being spent on investigating the case.

As possible causative factors of the unmitigated lying we found (a) defective heredity leading to (b) typical const.i.tutional inferiority with the peculiar states of mind characteristic of the latter, (c) poor developmental conditions through early illnesses; (d) excessive bad s.e.x practices on the part of the boy himself. Vindictive reaction to charges of delinquency against himself might be considered a factor if his false accusations had not been made without any such stimulus a long time previously.