The pregnancy with Janet was not entirely healthy, but no worse

than with the other children. Her birth and infancy were normal.

Walked and talked early. Started to school at 6. Menstruated

first at 13; not irregular. She never had any severe illnesses

of any kind. As a child she once fell down some steps and was

unconscious for a few minutes, but the accident was not known to

have left any bad effects. Janet's own stories of fainting are

much exaggerated. In fact, the mother has never really seen her

faint, nor is there any evidence of any minor lapses of

consciousness. At times the girl would feel faint and ask that

water be poured on her forehead--that was all there was to it.

She was removed in the middle of her high school course on

account of general nervousness. The doctor felt she was working

too hard. Her parents are sure she was never a great sufferer

from headaches. Nothing else of importance could be found in her

physical history.

The story of this girl's falsifications and fabrications as

obtained from her people is exceedingly long. As a young child

she was not over-indulged in fairy stories, and the parents

noticed nothing peculiar about her then. She was not regarded as

a child who had any unusual powers of imagination. Somewhere

about 12 years of age, her parents cannot be certain just when,

they noticed she began the exaggeration and lying which has

continued more or less ever since. In the past two or three

years this has grown upon her and she has been making not only

untrue statements, but has been concocting peculiarly long and

intricate fabrications. The curious thing to the family is that

Janet seems to have little shrewdness in lying; of normal ability

in other things, she seems to have the mind of a child in this.

Very many deceptions are discovered in short order, but even then

the girl will sometimes argue at length that what she has said

was really the truth. The parents insist she must know that she

is lying, but her anomalous behavior has been so excessive that

they have long felt she should be studied by a psychiatrist. Her

mother asserts there is some periodicity in Janet's tendencies.

She maintains she has noticed that most of her lies are told in

the two or three days preceding menstruation. (This was

certainly not true during the period we observed the girl.) The

parents are sure there has never been any particular mental

shock, and the mother has always felt that Janet was particularly

free from contamination by bad children. At times she seems to

realize her own bad behavior, and not long ago said she would

become a nun, for in the tranquil life of the convent her

tendency to lying would not be stimulated.

Further inquiry brought out the fact that it was true, as Janet

stated, that in her high school course she became nervous to the

extent of jerking and twitching, and that also for a time she

stuttered. Their physician said, however, that there was no

definite nervous disease.

As a young child the parents never thought this girl in any way

different from the rest of the family. As she grew older she has

been regarded as physically the most robust, but, as she stated

to us, she has done the poorest intellectual work and that has

often been a matter of family comment. The other children are

careful truth tellers.

The type of Janet's lying has been not only in the form of

falsifications about matters which directly concerned herself,

but also involved extensive manufacture of long stories,

phantasies. Meeting people she might give them extensive

accounts of the wealth and importance of her own family. She

once spread the report that her sister was married and living in

a fine home close by, giving many elaborate details of the new

household. Such stories naturally caused much family

embarrassment. Then she worked up an imaginary entertainment and

gave invitations to her brothers and sister at the request of a

pretended hostess. Just before the event she, simulating the

hostess, telephoned that an accident had taken place and the

party would not be given. An extremely delicate situation arose

because she alleged a certain young man wanted to marry her. The

truth of her assertions in this matter never was investigated.

The parents felt it quite impossible to go to the young man about

the facts on account of the danger of exposing their daughter.

They were long embarrassed by the extent to which she kept this

affair going, but it finally was dropped without any social

scandal occurring. In this and other affairs the family

situation was at times unbearable because of the possibility that

there might be some truth underlying the girl's statements. As

the years went on Janet, of course, suffered from her loss of

reputation, but still continued her practices of lying. In the

two years before she left home she worked as a clerk. Previously

she had held two or three situations and was reported to give

good satisfaction in her work, but something would always come up

about money matters, or other things, which would finally give

rise to trouble. It is not known that she ever really took any

money except the last time when she ran away and took a

considerable sum from her parents.

A period of extensive untruthfulness and deception occurred

before she left home. Janet represented to her parents that she

was working at a certain place after she had left. She got into

some mix-up about money matters, the rights of which never were

straightened out. As usual, the affair was too complicated to be

understood by anything short of a prolonged investigation. After

things had come to this pass and her parents hardly knew what to

do with her, she took money from them and ran away. She was

readily traced because the ticket agent in her home town could

give a description of her. She had bought a ticket to an

intermediate point and there stopped over night. Her father

followed her thus far. It seems when she finally got to New York

she hunted up the distant relatives who took her in and informed

the mother. The girl intended to earn her own living and soon

found a good place. She was always able to make a good

presentation of herself, being a quiet and convincing

conversationalist.

Out of the mess of lies surrounding her New York experience, it

was finally found that she had met a young man in a

boarding-house and had become infatuated with him. He was an

honest enough fellow, but fell in readily with her forwardness.

He took her to shows, and letters, intercepted by the mother,

showed that between them there had been some premature love

passages. At that time Janet started making weekly payments on a

gold watch to give to this young man at Christmas, a curious and

quite unwarranted expenditure. Perhaps this was the fact around

which some of her fabrications at that time centered. Perhaps it

was this money which became now the amount she was paying to her

father's pensioner, now what she had to send home to her mother,

and, again, her payments upon an imaginary sewing machine. In

this affair, as at other times, the lying was extremely childish,

inasmuch as the truth, through receipts found in her room, proved

to be readily ascertainable.

A good example of the character of Janet's falsifications was the

story about the death of her lover, told to us at our last

interview with her when she had come to us with the specific

purpose of trying to get herself straightened out once and for

all. She was not aware that her parents had given me any account

of this young man, but she might well have supposed that I had

inquired about him, or at least would inquire. Only a few

minutes previously she had told about her lying and given a very

definite account of its beginnings which was much in accord with

what her parents had said. Mentioning her love affairs, she

maintained that, unbeknown to her parents, she had been engaged

to this man, but that he had proved to be a thief, stealing money

and robbing the mails. She started off on a story of how another

young man was accused, but no evidence was forthcoming about him,

and soon afterward her lover died. Getting him safely buried for

us, she was quite willing to go on to another topic.

The workings of Janet's mind in connection with her alterations

of a story were sometimes most curious. We were interested to

study a long letter quite coherently written to her mother a few

days before we saw the young woman, and about the time when she

first told her long story to the department manager. In the

letter she spoke of the extraordinary opportunities she now had

in this place of employment, exaggerating her salary to $14 a

week. She stated she had already had a raise, and could get work

for other members of her family at good salaries. She was about

to start a bank account, and so on. But instead of making any

remittances to her mother (such as she asserted at one time) she

requested her parents to send her $5 to tide her over. We

counted no less than nine definite falsehoods in this epistle.

We were keen to know if Janet could remember her own

prevarications and so asked her if she could recall what she had

written to her mother. She trimmed her statements most curiously

then, being aware we knew her salary to be $8 a week. She said

she had told her mother her salary was $10, but in answer to our

reply, ``Oh, you said more than that,'' she blurted out, ``Well,

I said $14.'' It was quite evident she remembered this, as well

as certain other exaggerated statements and figures in the

letter.

We were fortunate enough to be able to analyze out much of the

genesis of this girl's career as a pathological liar. After the

immediate situation was somewhat cleared and Janet asserted she

was anxious to make a new start in life, we began our inquiry

into beginnings. Janet showed willingness to enter into the

question of her mental antecedents and tendencies which she

maintained she heartily deplored. To be sure we had evidence

that even in her most sincere moments she was unable to refrain

from occasional falsifying, but the main facts seemed

self-evidently true, and some of them were corroborated at

interviews with the parents.

After considering her own career with us for a time, she asserted

that it now was clear to her just how and when she began lying.

As a child of about 12 years it seems she was wont to meet with a

certain group of girls on a hillside and they indulged in many

conversations about sex matters. Evidently the circumstances

surrounding this important introduction into affairs of sex life

were indelibly impressed upon her mind. She was there instructed

not only in the general facts, but also in methods of

self-gratification. It is clear to her, she states, that it was

exactly at this time that she first began deceiving her mother

and telling lies. She explains these tendencies as the result of

a guilty conscience. It comes out that the mother did not know

this group of girls to be undesirable companions for Janet, but

the latter's consciousness of their frailties always led her to

state that she had been with other children when in reality she

had been in this bad companionship. Through dwelling on their

teachings she began sex practices by herself, and in order to

carry this out she had to indulge in other deceptions. She

remembers distinctly her willful repression of the facts, and

states that the nervousness which she displayed for two or three

years in her school work was undoubtedly due to this cause. In

fact, she thought so at the time, but persisted in deceiving her

mother and her physician in regard to the matter.

Her mental repressions and conflicts did not begin, however, at

this period. By digging further into her memory Janet tells us

about a girl in another town where they used to live, a girl who,

when Janet was about 7 years old, wanted to show her about sex

practices. Janet knew this girl to be bad by general reputation,

and ran away when this offer was made, but it was too late--the

mental impress had been formed. She thinks her mother would

remember this girl. The things which this bad girl started to

tell came frequently up in Janet's mind and she wondered much

about them. No practices, however, were indulged in and even the

thoughts were fought against until the time mentioned above when

other sex ideas were implanted. Janet's mother had neither given

nor received confidences on this subject, and indeed never

throughout the daughter's life has there been anything except

vague warnings on the part of the mother about the general

dangers of sex immorality.

We gradually came to learn that Janet had been subject to much

sex temptation from her own physical feelings. She never was a

good sleeper, she thinks, and she often lies awake, or will wake

up for a time in the middle of the night and think of sex

affairs. She feels sure there has been considerable stress upon

her on account of this temptation which she has felt should be

combated. The occasional giving way to sex habits also resulted

in mental stress and, as she expresses it, worry.

At the time of her failure to do well in school work her internal

conflicts were especially acute. There was before her

continually the success which the other members of her family had

made, which she herself admired, and for which she was ambitious.

She hid at that time the cause of her nervousness and failure;

there was the danger of its being discovered. After thus

reviewing her case with us, Janet reiterated that she was sure

her tendency to prevaricate came on at the time when she first

began her bad sex habits.

This girl was probably not much of a day-dreamer. She denies

being so, saying she had always been too busy for such to be the

case. We also obtained corroboration of this from others who had

closely observed her. She says she had lived no specially

imaginative life beyond occasionally thinking of herself as a

well-to-do lady with many good clothes to wear, or sometimes

lying in bed and imagining she had a lover there. Further

inquiry into her imaginative life seemed futile because she was

not trained in introspection and because even in her frankest

moments we were always afraid that she might fall into her

strongly formed habit of prevarication. We ascertained that in

her home life special efforts had been made to keep her busy and

she could not be regarded as a dreamer. Janet strongly denied

the periodicity in her lying which her mother maintained, but the

girl did state that her periods of sex temptation were mostly

just preceding her menstrual period.

In giving the above account of what was ascertained by analysis

with Janet we have offered such of her statements as are clearly

probable or which are corroborated by the parents. Our many

experiences with the young woman led us to be particularly

careful in accepting as veracious any of her statements unless,

as in what is given above, they clearly followed the type of fact

which may be ascertained in the investigation of other instances

of pathological lying where the individual's word is more

reliable. The parents were able to corroborate many points. The

mother remembers the older girl in the town where they lived when

Janet was 7 years old and that this girl was notorious for her

sex tendencies, although she was not in the least aware that

Janet had been contaminated. Then she recollects that Janet used

to tell her so particularly about going with a special crowd of

girls (those which she now says were not her companions). Both

parents considered the matter at great length in order to help my

study of the case and both are very certain that it was just

about this period when Janet says she was beginning her covert

sex experiences that she began the lying, which was petty at

first, but after a time expanded into the type of detailed

falsifications we have enumerated above. Altogether there was

little doubt in our minds that Janet was giving the truth in its

main outlines. Undoubtedly it was merely her habit which always

led her to alter somewhat the details.

We were interested to note that in her letters and in her

ordinary conversation Janet took up the topics that a fairly well

educated girl would naturally discuss. For instance, she would

give us some account of her recent reading, or a visit to an art

gallery, telling us with normal vivacity about a couple of

pictures which had deeply impressed her. She spoke not only of

their subjective influence, but discussed the details of

composition and coloring. We might mention that in a

characteristic way she interjected some remarks that she herself

used to be very good at drawing and won several prizes at it.

She stated that she thought of going farther in art, but that her

parents could hardly afford to allow her to do this. These

remarks were found later to be quite aside from the truth.

Telling us the story of her school career, Janet insists her

memory had never been good for learning poems or for languages,

particularly Latin, but anything in the way of a picture she

could recall with ease. What she has read she often thinks of in

the form of pictures. Concerning her lying she denied it was

done particularly to cover up things, at least since the time

when the habit was first formed. She feels that it really is a

habit, a very bad one. She hardly knows she is going to

prevaricate; the false statement comes out suddenly. In thinking

about it all she harks back once more to that crowd of girls;

everybody thought they were good, but she knew they were not.

After a time of quieting down in her behavior tendencies,

although there was never complete cessation of the inclination to

falsify, a new exacerbation of lying arose. This time it seemed

to center about a clandestine love affair of a mild type. There

was one trouble with this case which neither I nor any one else

was able to clear for the parents. It was perfectly apparent

that the girl might naturally be expected to marry at some time.

Now, when an honest young man felt inspired to keep company with

this vivacious, healthy, and generally attractive young woman,

what were the parents to do? It was easy enough for them to

decide that she must not go with a man of bad character, but were

they bound in honor to inform any young man, before affairs had

gone too far, that the girl had this unfortunate tendency and

that she had had rather a shady career? It was perfectly clear

to them that she herself would not tell him. This was how the

matter stood at the time we last heard of the case, and while the

parents were holding back, a young man's affections and the

girl's fabrications were growing apace.

Janet had been suffering from a chronic inflammation of the

bladder, which, however, did not cause any acute symptoms. A

chronic pelvic inflammation was discovered, for which she was

operated upon in her home town. The surgeon reported to the

parents that conditions were such that they would naturally be

highly irritative, although there had been no previous complaint

about them. The girl made an exceedingly rapid recovery. It was

after this that her last affair of the affections was causing the

parental quandary and distress.

Our final diagnosis of this ease, after careful study of it, was

that it was a typical case of pathological lying, mythomania, or

pseudologia phantastica. The girl could not be called a

defective in any ordinary sense. Her capabilities were above the

average. She showed good moral instincts in many directions and

was at times altogether penitent. Nor could she be said to have

a psychosis. The trouble was confined to one form of conduct.

The lying, as in all these cases, seemed undertaken sometimes for

the advantages which thereby might accrue. On the other hand, at

times the falsification seemed to have no relation to personal

advantages. Indeed, this girl had experience, many times

repeated, that her lying very quickly resulted in suffering to

her. There were aspects of her falsifications which made it seem

as if there was pleasure in the mere manufacture of the stories

themselves and in the living, even for a short time, in the

situations which she had created out of her imagination and

communicated to others. Frequently there seemed to be an

unwillingness on her part to face the true facts of existence.

In her representation of things as different from what they

really were she seemed to show even the desire for

self-deception. Another point: no student of cases of this kind

should allow himself to forget the potency of habit formation.

There can be little doubt but that a large share of this girl's

conduct was the result of her well developed and long maintained

tendency to trim the facts.

As far as we were able to determine, and we undoubtedly got at

the essential facts, this girl's falsifying trait was based on

the following: The fact that she came of neuropathic stock would

make us think that she possibly inherited an unstable mental

make-up. To be sure, the only evidence of it was in this

anomalous characteristic of hers, namely, her pathological lying.

She seemed sound in her nervous makeup. The idea that the

grandmother passed on as inheritance her prevaricating traits is

open to discussion, but we have seen that environmental

influences from this source may have been the only effect, if

there was any at all. Very important in this case, without any

doubt, is the early sex teaching, its repression and the mental

conflict about it for years, and then the reintroduction into the

subject just before puberty. Probably this is the vital point of

the girl's whole career. The success she early achieved in

deceiving her mother, not by denials, but by the elaboration of

imaginary situations, has been the chief determinant of her

unfortunate behavior. Added to that was the formation of a habit

and of an attitude towards life in which the stern realities were

evaded by the interposition of unrealities. Even the affair of

the imaginary social gathering can be conceived in this light,

for evidently she and her family were not engaged then in social

affairs and the preparation for a gay event would for a time be a

source of excitement and pleasure. Her autoeroticism may have

helped towards the production of phantasies and the general

tendency to evasion of the realities of life.

It was clear from first to last that the exploration of the

genesis of the tendencies in such a case as this could be but one

step towards a cure. What was also needed was prolonged

disciplinary treatment under conditions which were well nigh

impossible to be gained at her age. Willingness on the part of

the individual to enter into any long period of discipline or

education, such as an institution might offer, is not easily

obtained.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Mental conflict: early and severe. Case 6.

Early sex experiences and habits. Girl, age 19 yrs.

Mental habit formation.

Home conditions: defective understanding

and control, although ordinarily good

home. Early acquaintance with lying.

Heredity: neuropathic tendencies on

both sides.

Delinquencies: Mentality:

Excessive lying. Ability well up to

Runaway. the ordinary.

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CASE 7

Summary: A girl of 16 brought to us by her mother, who regards

her as abnormal mentally because she is an excessive liar and

delinquent in other minor ways, proved to be an habitual

masturbator. Under direction, the mother succeeded in curing her

of this habit, with the remarkable result that the young woman

became in the course of a couple of years quite reliable.

We first saw this young woman of 16 with the mother who

maintained that there must be something wrong with the girl's

mentality because of her lying, recent running away from home,

and some minor misconduct. There had been trouble with her since

she was 7 years old. She was the twin of a child who died early

and who never developed normally. Her mother said she seemed

smart enough in some ways; she had reached 7th grade before she

was 14, but even at that time she was a truant and would run off

to moving-picture shows at every opportunity. Her father was a

rascal and came of an immoral family. He had a criminal record,

and that was another reason why the mother felt this girl was

going to the bad. The mother herself was strong and healthy; she

was remarried. The existence of feeblemindedness, epilepsy, or

insanity on either side was denied.

We quickly observed by the physical conditions of this girl that

something was the matter. Expression sad and dull. Long thin

face and compressed lips. Vision almost nil in one eye, but

normal in the other. Hearing normal. Color only fair. Weight

115 lbs.; height 5 ft. 4 in. Most notable was her general

listlessness. ``I feel draggy and tired. I'm yawning all the

time.''

On the mental tests we found much irregularity. Tasks that were

done without effort were done fairly well. The girl was a good

reader and wrote a good hand. A long task in arithmetic was with

difficulty done correctly. When she was able to get hold of

herself she could do even our harder tests with accuracy. Her

failures were apparently from lack of concentration and

attention. Although she did some things well we felt obliged to

call her dull from physical causes, feeling that if she were in

better condition she might give a much better performance.

On the ``Aussage,'' or Testimony Test, 11 items were given on

free recital and 2 of these were wrong. Upon questioning, 17

more details were added and 4 of these were incorrect. 2 out of

5 suggestions definitely accepted.

Under observation it was just as the mother said. The girl was

an extreme falsifier. As one observer puts it, ``she is not

malicious in her lies, but just lies all the time and seems to

try to make herself believe what she is saying.''

``I was in the 7th grade. Had a hundred jobs since then. Can't

keep them because I'm so draggy. They want their money's

worth--they want a more live girl. Sometimes I don't mind my

mother and I get spunky. I feel lonesome and get mad. I feel

tired. I can't please my mother no matter how hard I try. I'd

like to go in some little home where I could have a chance.''

After a few days we found this girl in a decidedly good mood,

wanting to be helped. She willingly entered into the analysis of

her case with us and said she thought most of her trouble came

because she was a day-dreamer. ``Sometimes I dream of things in

the day time. I'll sit and stare and stare and think of

different things. I'll think I'm doing them. I'll dream of

things what I do and if I read a good play I'll dream of that.

When I think of myself or somebody starts looking at me I'll stop

dreaming.''

To another observer this girl gave a vivid description of how she

felt after seeing pictures in the nickel shows. She states that

love-making scenes lead her to practice self-abuse. This matter

was taken up with her mother who stated that when this child was

7 years old she and the father had caught her at this habit and

had severely reprimanded her and had thought she had stopped it.

We were particularly interested to hear this because it was

exactly the time the mother had specified as the beginning of her

lying and general bad behavior. Going farther into the case with

the mother and the girl we ascertained that her bad sex habits

had been continued more or less during all these years, and of

late, particularly under the influence of picture shows, and of

what some other girls were doing in the way of delinquency, the

habit had become worse than ever. It was closely connected

evidently with day-dreaming all these years and with the

development of the fabricating tendency.

The mother who had been apparently so negligent of causes proved

now to be a stalwart in this case and took the girl under her

immediate charge. There was steady betterment. The girl went

back and finished school and at the end of a year was reported as

tremendously improved. There was no further complaint about her

lying. We know that after this she long held a good position

which any hint of untrustworthiness or lack of capacity would

have lost her. Thus the cure of her sex habits brought about

cessation of her extreme untruthfulness.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Bad sex habits long continued. Case 7.

Heredity. (?) Father immoral Girl, age 16 yrs.

and criminal.

Home conditions.

Lack of understanding and

supervision.

Delinquencies: Mentality:

Excessive lying. Dull from physical

Early truancy. causes. (Later

Running away. quite normal.)

---------------------------------------------------------------

CASE 8

Summary: A thoroughly illustrative case of long continued,

excessive pathological lying on the part of a very bright girl,

now 17 years old. As this young woman has well known, her

falsifications have many times militated against the fulfillment

of her own desires and interests. In the face of clear

apperception of her fault, the tendency to react to a situation

by lying sometimes appears to be fairly imperative. The only

ascertained bases of the tendency are her early reactions,

unthwarted by parental control, followed by habit formation; all

in an environment peculiarly favorable to deception. The lying

passed over into swindling.

Gertrude S., who immigrated from England with her parents ten

years previously, was seen by us when she was 17, after she had

been engaged for months in a career of misrepresentation which

had led her case into the hands of several social agencies. Much

difficulty was encountered because repeatedly when people had

tried to help her she had led them astray in their investigations

by telling ridiculously unnecessary falsehoods. Her parents came

to see us and gradually we obtained a detailed and probably quite

reliable family and developmental history. About the evolution

of the young woman's mental life we have unfortunately had to

rely much upon her own word. This has made our studies rather

more unsatisfactory than in other cases where corroboration from

parents was obtained. However, there is much that rings true and

is of interest even in the unverifiable part of the study.

There is not much to be said about the physical examination; it

was negative in most respects. She is of rather slight type;

weight 110 lbs., height 5 ft. 1 in. Delicate features of mature

type. Expression intelligent and decidedly refined for her

social class. Gynecological examination made by a specialist

revealed nothing abnormal and no evidence of immorality.

Menstruation said to have taken place at 13 years and to be

regular and not difficult.

In studying Gertrude's mental powers we gave a considerable range

of tests and found her to be well up to the ordinary in ability.

She showed no remarkable ability in any direction, but gave an

almost uniformly good performance on tests. Concerning her other

mental traits and especially her range of information and reading

more will be said later. No signs of aberration were discovered

by any one.

The record on the ``Aussage'' picture test is as follows: She

gave 16 items on free recital with considerable reference to

functional details and with side comments as to who the little

girl might be, and what the dog wanted, and so on. So far, this

was the performance of a rational, quick-minded person. On

questioning, 28 more items were added, but no less than 12 of

these were incorrect--she evidently supplied freely from her

imagination. Of the 7 suggestions which were offered she took 5.

Twice not only was the main suggestion accepted, but imaginary

details were added. Naturally, this is a very unusual record

from a normal person.

There is absolutely nothing of significance in the heredity,

according to the accounts received by us. All the grandparents

are still alive in the old country. They are small townspeople

of good reputation. Epilepsy, insanity, and feeblemindedness are

stoutly denied and are probably absent in near relatives. The

father is a staunch citizen who feels keenly the disgrace of the

present situation. He is a hard working clerk. We early learned

the mother was not to be relied upon. Our best evidence of this

came from Gertrude. She told us she had always been accustomed

to hearing lies in her own household. According to the father

his wife's falsifications are merely to shield the children and

she only shows the ordinary deceit of woman. We have no history

of this woman ever having indulged in elaborate fabrications and,

in general, she is of thoroughly good reputation. In delicacy of

feature the girl is her mother over again.

Gertrude's birth was comparatively easy after a normal pregnancy.

After a healthy first infancy she had an illness at 2 years which

lasted for three or four months. The exact nature of this is not

plain, but it was probably bronchitis with complications. There

were no evidences of any involvement of the nervous system. She

walked and talked early, at about 1 year of age. She has had no

other serious illness in all her life and has had no convulsions.

None of the children has suffered from convulsions. Gertrude is

one of five, all of whom are alive and well. In the last couple

of years she has complained a little of headaches and some other

minor troubles. It was typical of the family situation that

after Gertrude had told us of a series of fainting spells a year

previously, the mother corroborated her and, indeed, made them

out even worse. But when the reliable father was consulted on

the matter it turned out there had been no such fainting attacks,

nor could they be verified by communication with a doctor who is

said to have attended Gertrude. Unquestionably they never

occurred. Gertrude went to school at the usual age, but on

account of poverty and immigration missed many long periods.

However, at 14 she had gone through the 6th grade.

About Gertrude's moral evolution we got very little aid from the

parents or indeed from any others. It was very evident that from

earliest childhood the girl had led a mental life of which her

relatives knew nothing. Naturally, the mother gave us no account

of the development of the tendency to lying; she merely glossed

over her daughter's deceptions. The father, who had been obliged

to work away from home much during Gertrude's early years, merely

knew that at about the time she left school, namely 14 years, she

began to lie excessively.

Anything like a complete account of Gertrude's prevarications,

even as we know them, would require much space. Some idea of

their quantity and quality may be gained from the facts which we

have gleaned from several sources. As might be supposed,

Gertrude has established a reputation for falsification among

many of her acquaintances. One friend tells how she represented

herself as a half orphan, living with a hard-hearted step-mother.

Demanding promises of secrecy, Gertrude told this girl about a

sum which she had with much difficulty gradually saved from her

earnings in order to buy needed clothes. She asked the friend to

come and help her make a selection. (Now the $20 or so that was

spent Gertrude had stolen. By following her strange impulse she,

with danger to herself, related a complicated story to this other

girl who needed to know nothing of any part of the affair.) We

have knowledge of scores of other fabrications which were

detected. They include her alleged attendance at a course of

lectures, her possession of a certain library card, and her

working in various places. For many of these stories not a

shadow of a reason appeared--especially during the time we have

known her she has had every incentive to tell the truth about

everything.

When by virtue of our court work we first knew the case, her

lying centered about her other delinquencies, but even so its

peculiar characteristics stood out sharply.

Gertrude was held to the adult court in the matter of the forgery

of a check, which had been presented in an envelope to a bank

teller by her and cashed as in the regular line of business

between the bank and the firm for which she worked. Finding the

girl had lied about her age, she was held, after the preliminary

hearing, to the proper court. There, in turn, she did not appear

at the right time, it being stated that she was sick in a

hospital. One officer knew better and further investigation

showed that Gertrude herself had come to the court, represented

herself as her sister, and made the false statement about the

illness. A telephone call the same afternoon to her house

Gertrude answered.

Months of difficulty with the case began now. Her employer and

all concerned experienced much difficulty in getting at the truth

of the forgery, particularly through her clever implication of a

man who had no easy task in freeing himself. Even after the girl

confessed herself a confirmed liar she told more untruths which

were peculiarly hard to unravel. Gertrude's firm bearing, her

comparative refinement and her ability made every one unusually

anxious to do her justice, and to save her from her own

self-damaging tendencies.

During the continuance of the case, when all her interests

demanded her good behavior, Gertrude could not refrain from what

were almost orgies of lying and deceit. She well realized how

this would count against her and, indeed, wrote letters of

apology repeatedly for her misconduct.

``Let me come and tell you all. The time has come when things

must stop, therefore I feel that I must talk to someone. I have

lived a lie from the day I was born until now.''

After these letters she went on making false statements which

could readily be checked up. Nothing is any more curious in

Gertrude's case than the anomaly of her telling several of us who

tried to help her that up to the time of the given interview she

had not thoroughly realized how bad it was to lie, and how she

now felt keenly that she must cease, while perhaps at the end of

the very same interview a reaction to a new situation would

produce more fabrications. Personally I have seen nothing any

more suggestive of the typical toper's good resolutions and

sudden falling from grace.

The story of the forged check was fancifully embellished and ever

more details were supplied at pleasure. While this matter was

under investigation Gertrude stayed away from home several

nights, two of which have never been accounted for. She told

fairly plausible stories about going out of town, but she first

should have studied time tables to make them wholly convincing.

The mother, too, told that the girl had been out of town, but in

this she was caught, for it was found that Gertrude had been part

of the time with other relatives.

The main story of the check involved a man who worked in the same

office. She stated that he made an immoral proposal to her on

the basis of immunity from prosecution. After a couple of months

Gertrude got round to confessing that she alone was responsible

for the entire forgery and that her previous quite clever stories

were not true. Her main confession was made in the form of a

long letter written entirely aside from the influence of any one.

In this she also stated that she had stolen money and jewelry,

which was known to have been taken. There was no untrue self-

accusation, except that she may have exaggerated her own tendency

to falsify at a very early age. Naturally, in such a case as

this, even the latest confession must always be taken cum grano

salis.

Passing from the above probably sufficient account of Gertrude's

falsifications as we knew them, we can take up her mental life

and traits. We have had to rely on the girl herself, as we

stated above, for many of these facts. She was brought up in

poor circumstances in a manufacturing town in England where there

had been many labor troubles. On two occasions when she was a

child she had seen encounters on the street, and during one riot

in their neighborhood her uncle was injured. She was

considerably frightened, but, so far as we could learn, this was

the only time in her life that she experienced any fear. Very

early she found that stories told to frighten her were untrue,

and what was said about the undesirability of certain children as

playmates proved false when she came to know them. She early

discovered that for self-satisfaction she would have to live a

mental life of her own. There were many things which she could

not discuss with her mother. In early childhood she was a great

reader of novels and spent many hours lying on the bed living an

imaginary life. She never discussed her ideas with any one.

Later she took to more serious reading, and of recent years she

has assailed many of the world's greatest problems. Particularly

she tells of the influence of Tolstoi's ``Kreutzer Sonata'' upon

her. During two years she has read it four times and it has

convinced her of the shams of character and that people lead dual

lives.

When she was about 9 or 10 years old she began talking with other

girls about sex problems and up to the present time has never

consulted any grown person about them. Her first information of

this kind was obtained from a crowd of girls who used

successfully to lie to their teachers and mothers to get out of

school work. Going further into the question of this hidden

knowledge of sex things, she tells us she has never worried much

about the things she has heard, but she has wondered a great deal

and they have often come up in her mind. She pursued the course

of asking many girls what they knew about this subject and then,

getting unsatisfactory answers, picked up what she could from

ordinary literature. Gertrude maintains that all her dwelling

upon sex affairs never aroused within her any specific desires.

(Gertrude is anything but a sensuous type and it may be that her

statement in this respect is true.) When she went to work she

fell in with girls who talked excessively about boys and sex

affairs, but at this time she had a mental world of her own and

so did not pay much attention to them. Gertrude talked much to

us of the possibility of her studying civil law, history,

economics, and so on--it is very clear that she has really dwelt

on the possibility of being a student of serious subjects.

Very willingly this young woman entered into the problem of

solving the genesis of her own tendencies. She repeatedly said

that she, of all things, wanted to break herself of this. She

maintains she can perceive no beginnings. It seems to her as if

she has always been that way. She spoke at first of this crowd

of girls who successfully lied to their parents and talked to her

about sex things, and we are inclined to believe that this really

may have been the beginning, but later she affirms this was not

the beginning and that her lying began in earlier childhood. All

that she knows is that it has grown to be a habit and now ``when

I speak it comes right out.'' After she has told a lie she never

thinks about it again one way or another. Her conscience does

not trouble her in the matter. She does not tell lies for what

she gets out of it, nor does it give her any particular pleasure

to fool people. She does not invent her stories, but at the time

of talking to people she simply says untrue things without any

thought beforehand and without any consideration afterward. To

one officer she flung the challenge, ``Oh, I'm clever, you'll

find that out.'' After months of effort and when it was clear

that the girl for her own good must be given a course of training

in an institution she quite acquiesced in the wisdom of such

procedure, after a few hours' rebellion.

It has been noted by many that one of Gertrude's outstanding

traits is her lack of emotion. She never cries and only rarely

does the semblance of a blush tinge her cheeks. She neither

loves nor hates strongly. She seems remarkably calm under

conditions where others storm. She says she never is frightened,

that she never worries, or is sorry. She is well aware of her

own ego; that she may be trespassing upon the rights of others

never seems to enter her head. Certain simulations of physical

ailments, which at times she showed, we could only interpret as

part of her general tendency to misrepresent.

Our summary of the causative factors in this case, made,

unfortunately, partly on the basis of this unreliable girl's

testimony, offers the following explanation of her remarkable

tendencies:

(a) There was early development of an inner life which dealt

vividly in imaginary situations. This grew into a mental

existence hidden entirely from the members of her family.

(b) There was early experience with successful lying on the part

of others, and this as a main episode probably occurred at the

time when the emotion natural to first knowledge of sex life was

present.

(e) There was frequent experience with the falsifications which

were her mother's frailty.

(d) For her lying there were no parental disciplines or

corrections at any time, so far as we have been able to learn.

(e) The young woman shows unusually little emotion, and only

sporadically demonstrates conscience.

(f) There is unquestionably marked habit formation in the case.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Habit formation: Very strong. Case 8.

Lack of parental correction. Girl, age 17 years.

Early experience with lying.

Development of inner life: Imaginative and

hidden.

Delinquencies:

Excessive lying and misrepresentation.

False accusations.

Forging. Mentality:

Stealing. Good ability.

---------------------------------------------------------------

CASE 9

Summary: A girl of 14 had been notoriously untruthful for years.

She had created much trouble by her petty false accusations, and

her lying stood often in the way of her own satisfactions and

advantages. Analysis of the case shows the girl's dual moral and

social experiences and tendencies, her inner conflicts about the

same, and her remarkably vivid mental imagery-- all of which

leads her to doubt sometimes concerning what is true and what is

false.

A strange admixture of races, of religion, and of social and

moral tendencies was brought out in the study of Amanda R. and of

her family conditions. We were much helped in the study of this

case, which has long been a source of many social difficulties,

by the intelligence of certain relatives who knew well the family

facts, and also by the good mental capacities of the girl

herself.

Amanda is an orphan and has been living for years with relatives.

She has caused them and others, even those who have tried to help

her, extreme annoyance on account of her quite unnecessary lies,

her accusations, and some other delinquent tendencies. The main

trouble all concede to be her falsifications, which vary from

direct denials to elaborate stories invented without any seeming

reason whatever. Reports on her conduct have come from a number

of different sources. Neighbors have complained that she has

come to them and borrowed money with the statement that her

family was hard up. At school she stated for a time that she had

come unprovided with lunch because her people were so poor, but

it was ascertained that she had thrown away her lunch each day.

The lies which she told to the other school children were

extraordinarily numerous and fertile; unfortunately they

sometimes involved details about improper sex experiences. A

long story was made up about one of her relatives having

committed suicide and was told to the school teachers and others.

She defamed the character of one of her aunts. To her pastor she

told some outrageous falsehoods. A home for delinquent girls,

where she was once placed on account of her general bad behavior,

would not put up with her, so much trouble arose from her

prevarications. She accused the very good people there of not

treating her well because she was not of their race. All of the

above is quite apart from the girl's own romantic stories which

have been told in her family circle and have done no especial

harm. Of these we had the best account from the girl herself.

An intelligent relative gave an account of the facts. Amanda has

been tried in a number of households, but has been given up by

everyone after a short period of trial. Her word is found so

unreliable that in general she is regarded as thoroughly

untrustworthy. This particular relative, who is most interested

in her, tells us she thinks the girl is mentally peculiar. She

states that in general her mind is both romantic and rambling.

She constantly has the idea that her beauty will bring her a

wealthy husband. She lies about other people to these relatives

and about them to others. They have a comfortable home and are

very anxious for Amanda to do well, and many times have had

serious talks with her, all to no purpose. They themselves have

attempted to analyze the nature of the girl's characteristics,

and say it is quite evident that the telling of untruths with

this girl is the result of quick reaction on her part. Fictions

of all kinds come up in her mind constantly and are uttered

quickly. It is doubtful whether she premeditates her stories.

She has threatened suicide. They think she is the biggest liar

that ever lived and can't understand how she can engage in such

unforesighted behavior unless she is somewhat abnormal. Only

once did they ever notice anything suggestive of a mental

peculiarity other than her lying. Then she did talk quite

incoherently and at random for a time (she is a great talker

anyhow), but later she said she realized what she had done, and

said not to mind her--she had just let her tongue rattle on and

did not mean anything by it.

On two or three occasions Amanda has started to school in the

morning and wandered off and kept going all day. She had been

immoral with boys, but not to any great extent. She undertook to

be religious for a time, but her sincerity was always in

question. She knows the character of her own mother and

threatens at times to follow in her tracks.

The racial heredity of this girl is a strange mixture. Her

father was a Scandinavian and her mother colored. The maternal

grandfather was colored, and the maternal grandmother was an

alcoholic Irish woman and died in an insane hospital. It is

possible, also, that there is Indian blood in the family. The

mother kept an immoral resort and drank at times. The father is

said, even by his wife's relative, to have died some years ago of

a broken heart about her career. She died of tuberculosis a few

years after him. Amanda was the only child. About the early

developmental history we have no reliable information. The girl

was taken by relatives before her mother died, but was allowed to

visit her, and there was evidently real affection between mother

and daughter. Long contention over religious affairs in the

family led to some bickering about placing the girl.

We found Amanda to be rather a good looking girl with very slight

evidences of colored blood. Quiet and normal in her attitude and

expression. Slightly built--weight 93 lbs.; height 4 ft. 10 in.

Vision R. 20/80, L. 20/25. Coarse tremor of outstretched hands.

No evidence of specific disease. All other examination negative.

The girl complains of occasional sick headaches with photophobia.

Pelvic examination by a specialist negative.

On the mental side we quickly found we had to deal with a girl of

decidedly good general ability. Tests were almost uniformly done

well. Memory processes decidedly good-- span for eight numbers

auditorily and for seven numbers visually. No evidence whatever

of aberration.

Results on the ``Aussage'' test: Amanda on free recital gave 12

details of the picture; on questioning she mentioned 32 more

items, but a dozen of these were incorrect. Of 7 suggestions

offered she accepted 6. This was an exceptionally inaccurate

performance.

In the course of our study of this case we obtained from Amanda a

very good account of her own life, deeply tragic in its details,

and a probably correct analysis of her beginnings in lying. It

seems that she remembers well her mother, particularly in the

later visits which the relatives allowed. These must have been

when she was about 5 or 6 years old. ``I know a lot. There

isn't anything bad that I have not seen and heard. I try to

forget it, but I can't. What's the use anyhow? When I think of

my mother it all comes up again. When I was very little I would

sit in a room with my mother and a crowd of her friends and they

would say everything in front of me. I would see men and women

go into rooms and I kept wondering what they did in there. I

think I was quicker and sharper then than I am now. I think I

was about 3 when I used to see them smoking and drinking. Then I

used to think it was all right. I thought it was swell and that

I would like to do it too. I thought about it a lot. Mother,

you see, would tell me to be good one minute and the next would

teach me how to swear. I remember once when I was about 7 they

brought her home drunk. She looked terrible. I can close my

eyes and see her just as plainly as if it is there before me. A

protective society once found me and took me to their place.

Then I lived with my grandfather. Mother stole me from them and

then my uncle took me. I lived around in lots of places. I have

done lots of bad things. . . . .

``I picture these things too--I can't help it. The pictures come

up in my mind as plain as can be--not just at night, but in the

daytime too. The only thing I have ever been really afraid of is

the dark. Then I imagine I hear people talking. I see things

too. I see whole shows that I have been to. But then, as I have

said, I see them when I'm awake and in the daytime. I dream

about them also. Sometimes they are so real I don't know whether

I'm asleep or awake. For instance, a long time ago I read Peck's

Bad Boy and I can see those pictures now just as plain as when I

read the book. It is always that way about what I read. The

things I read I always see in pictures. It's that way with the

love stories too. I used to read lots and lots of them. I like

to read about murders. I can see those too. When I read about

the R. murder in the papers lately I just felt like I was there.

I could see everything he did. I don't know why I like to read

such things so much. It was the same way last winter. I read a

story with suicide in it and someway I just wanted to commit

suicide myself. I did go to the railroad tracks and stood around

until the train came and then walked away. . . . .

``My aunt says that I am too attractive and that I stare at the

men. Well, when she was with me a man did stare at me and I

stared back at him. I could have turned my head away, but I'm

not that kind of a girl. I'm a bad girl. Everyone believes me

so and I might just as well be. When I was little in my mother's

place I used to smoke and drink. I dream every night--often

about men doing bad things. I wake up and sit up to see if men

are there or if they are gone. My dreams are always just that

plain. If I read a book I can sit down and imagine all the

people are right before me. I can get it just by reading. If

anybody speaks to me I jump, and it is all gone. When I go to

the theatre or the nickel show I can come home and see the whole

show over again. I have been that way ever since I could

understand things. When I was small and people would tell me

things I could imagine them right in front of me. Even now I

will be sitting still and I will imagine I see my mother taking

me up in the way she used to. When I came to see her she would

rock me to sleep, and I can plainly see her lying in the coffin.

Often I think I see my mother brought home drunk.

``If I have anything to recite in school I just think of it all

the time. I dream a good deal about what that boy did and about

these other things. I can sit and think of everything he did to

me. I go to bed and I lie awake and think all these things and I

can't get them off my mind and then I start to dreaming about

them.

``There is always this trouble--my mother wasn't good and I can't

be good. That's what people say, but, of course, that's not so.

I know I start talking to girls about these things when they are

talking to me. I sometimes think that things will come

back--that the Chicago fire is coming back, and that slavery is

coming back.

``About my lying? I don't know why I tell things like that about

my aunt committing suicide--it just came into my head. Oh, I've

got lots of things in my head. I never had any chance to forget.

I can't forget at school. School does not interest me any more.

That's why I want to go to work. Perhaps then I should be

interested in something new.

``I used to tell lots of things that were not so out there at P.

Sometimes I did it as a joke and sometimes I meant it. It is

hard sometimes to tell just what is the truth, I imagine things

so hard. I can remember lots that I've read.''

Amanda in several interviews went on at great length in a very

rational way, but altogether the gist of her view of her case is

to be found in the above. She told that she was a masturbator,

as might be supposed. She feels she can't help this and never

felt it was so particularly bad. Apparently it is a part of her

life of imagination at night. She insisted frequently on the

vividness of her mental content, and indeed was anxious to talk

about her peculiarities in this respect. It was very apparent

that she showed real understanding of the forces which had

influenced her. It should be noted that we felt sure that it is

not only the strength of imagery, namely, of actually recollected

material, but also of imagination which is characteristic of this

girl's mental make-up. This was noticeable, as we have shown

above, in the ``Aussage'' Test. In our notes on psychological

findings we stated that the girl has both strong emotions and

strong convictions, together with her other qualities. She

expressed herself with considerable vehemence, and under

observation we noted changes from pleasantness to extremely ugly

looks when her relatives were mentioned. It was true that she

had seen immorality in other households than that of her mother,

and this, of course, rendered her even more skeptical about true

values in life.

It seemed clear that this bright girl had experienced so many

contradictions in life that she was much mixed about it all. We

might venture to suggest that the delinquency involved in lying

could seem very little compared to the actual deeds with which

she had come in contact. No idea that falsification was wrong

was expressed by her. She had used double sets of standards in

behavior all through her life. What she was urged to be and to

do seemed impossible in the light of her past and its

connections. Even her apparent decency belied the reality

underlying her career, she thought. With all this and her vivid

imagery it is little wonder that her magnificent powers of

imagination had full sway and that she said and half believed all

sorts of things which were not true. Then, probably,

habit-formation of indulging in day-dreams accentuated the

falsifying tendency.

It is too early to report on further progress of this case. For

some months she has been in a school for girls where discipline

and education are both emphasized.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Mental traits: special powers of imagery Case 9.

and imagination. Girl, age 14 years.

Early immoral experiences: much later conflict

about them.

Home conditions: unstable for many years.

Heredity (?): mother immoral,

maternal grandmother

alcoholic and insane.

Delinquencies: Mentality:

Excessive lying. Good general ability,

Sex. special capacities.

---------------------------------------------------------------

CASE 10

Summary: A boy of 14, supernormal in ability, coming from family

circumstances which form a remarkable antithesis to his

intellectual interests, is found to be a wonderful fabricator.

His continuous lying proves to be directly inimical to his own

interests and, indeed, his own satisfactions are thwarted by the

curious unreliability of his word. The case unfortunately was

not followed far, but study of it clearly shows beginnings in the

early obtaining of advantages by lying, and brings out the

wonderful dramatic and imaginative traits of the boy and his

formation of a habit of falsification.

This case in its showing of intrinsic characteristics and

incidental facts is of great interest. Robert R. for about a

year when he was 14 years old we knew intimately, but after that

on account of the removal of the family we have no further

history of him. Intellectually and in his family and home

background he presented a remarkable phenomenon. His parents

were old-country peasants who just before Robert was born came to

the United States. The father had never been to school in his

life and could not read or write. Here he was a laborer; before

immigration he had been a goose-herd. The mother was said to

have had a little schooling at home and could read and write a

little in her native language. In 15 years in the United States

she had failed to learn to speak English. It is needless to say

that our knowledge of the forebears is almost nil. Inquiry about

mental peculiarities in the family brought negative answers.

These parents had had nine children, seven of whom had died in

early infancy. Robert was the older of the two living. We did

not learn that the other child displayed any abnormalities. The

mother helped towards the support of the family by doing coarse

sewing.

About the developmental history we had the assurance that it was

entirely negative as regards serious diseases. Pregnancy and

birth were said to have been normal. For long, Robert had been

very nervous and frequently slept an unusually small number of

hours. Sometimes he would go to bed very late and get up early.

Although he was a very small boy he was accustomed to drinking

six or seven cups of coffee a day. No suspicion from any source

of other bad habits or of improper sex experiences. The boy's

home was clean and decent. The father was accustomed to

celebrate once a month or so by getting intoxicated, but

otherwise was a well behaved man.

On physical examination we found the boy in fair general

condition, although very small for his age. Weight 80 lbs.;

height 4 ft. 7 in. Well shaped, normally sized head. No

prematurity or other physical abnormality. Somewhat defective

vision. No complaint of headaches. All other examination

negative. Regular sharp features. Much vivacity of expression.

A nervous, alert, responsive, apparently frank and humorous type.

Speech notably rapid.

Our acquaintance with this boy on the intellectual side proved to

be a great treat. He was only in the 4th grade. His retardation

was the result of having been changed back and forth from

foreign-speaking to English schools and having been sent away to

an institution for truancy. In spite of his backwardness Robert

had a fund of remarkably accurate scientific and other

information which a mature person might envy. We found our

regular series of tests were all done unusually well, except

those which called for foresight and planfulness. It was

interesting to note that when a problem in concrete material was

given that required continuous thoughtful effort he proceeded by

a rapid trial and error method and without the application of the

foresight that many a slower individual would show. He

consequently did not always make a good record.

It seems an important fact that on the ``Aussage'' Test this

exceedingly bright lad gave a fairly good detailed narrative

account of the picture and proved himself not in the least

suggestible, but he added a number of items which were not seen.

It was in the field of general information, obtained from a

really wide range of reading, that this young boy shone. We

found that he remembered an unusual amount of history he had

read, that he had a lot of knowledge picked up from the

newspapers, and that he had digested considerable portions of

scientific works. He described correctly the main principles

involved in the use of telescopic and other lenses, he knew well

the first principles of electricity, and he could draw correctly

diagrams of dynamos, locomotives, switchboards, etc. We noted he

had read books on physiology, astronomy, physics, mechanics, etc.

It seems that neither his school nor his home offering him much

intellectual satisfaction, he had frequented the public library,

sometimes being there when he was truant from school, and staying

there in the evening when his mother supposed he was out in a

street gang. In regard to his selection of reading: he had

perused novels and books on adventure, but ``I wanted to read

something that tells something so that when I got through I would

know something.'' He copied plans and directions, and with a

hatchet, hammer and saw attempted at home to make little things,

some of which were said to have been broken up by the parents.

The boy had much in mind the career of great men who had

succeeded from small beginnings, and he spoke often of Benjamin

Franklin, Morse, and Bell, all of whom had started in the small

way he had read of in their biographies. Robert had not been

content with book knowledge alone, but had sought power-houses

and other places where he could see machinery in actual

operation.

Our acquaintance with Robert began and continued on account of

delinquencies other than lying. He had run away from home at one

time, he had stolen some electrical apparatus from a barn and was

found in the middle of the night with it flashing a light on the

street. He also had taken money from his parents and had

threatened his mother with a hatchet. After much encouragement

and help he yet stole from people who were trying to give him a

chance to use his special abilities, and he began various minor

swindling operations which culminated in his attempt to arrest a

man at night, showing a star and a small revolver. Before we

lost sight of him Robert had gained the general reputation of

being the most unreliable of individuals.

Given splendid chances to use his special capacities, his other

qualities made it impossible for him to take advantage of them.

His wonderful ability was demonstrated in the school to which he

was sent; there the teacher said that if she had the opportunity

she really believed she could put him through one grade a month.

His mental grasp on all subjects was astonishing and he wrote

most admirable essays, one of the best being on patriotism. But

even under the stable conditions of this school for six or seven

months the boy did not refrain from an extreme amount of

falsification and was much disliked by the other boys on account

of it.

Robert had continued his lying for years. At the time when we

were studying his case his prevaricating tendencies were shown in

the manufacture of long and complicated stories, in the center of

which he himself posed as the chief actor. These phantasies were

told to people, such as ourselves, who could easily ascertain

their falsehood, and they were told after there had been a

distinct understanding that anything which showed unreliability

on his part would militate against his own strongly avowed

desires and interests. After special chances had been given this

boy with the understanding that all that was necessary for him to

do was to alter his behavior in respect to lying, on more than

one occasion new fabrications were evolved in the same interview

that Robert had begged in fairly tragic fashion to be helped to

cure himself of his inclination to falsify.

A great love of the dramatic was always displayed by this boy,

which may largely account for the evolution of his lying into

long and complicated stories. When truant one day he boldly

visited the school for truants, and when under probation, after

having fallen into the hands of the police two or three times, he

impersonated a policeman. The latter was such a remarkable

occurrence and led to such a peculiar situation that much notice

of it was taken in the newspapers. The incongruity between

apperception of his own faults and his continued lying,

considering his good mental endowment, seemed very strange. One

day he sobbed and clung to my arm and begged me to be a friend to

him and help him from telling such lies. ``I don't know what

makes me do it. I can't help it.'' Over and over he asserted

his desire to be a good man and a great man. This was at the

same time when some of his most complicated fabrications were

reiterated.

No help was to be had from his parents in getting at the genesis

of this boy's troubles; we had to rely on what seemed to be the

probable truth as told by the boy himself. It is only fair to

say that in response to many inquiries we did receive reliable

facts from the lad. My assistant also went into the question of

beginnings and was told at an entirely different time the same

story. Robert always maintained that his lying began when he was

a very little boy, when he found out that by telling his

grandmother that his mother was mean to him he could get things

done for him which he wanted. Later it seems he used to lie

because he was afraid of being punished or because he did not

like to be scolded. We found there was no question about the

fact that his parents never were in sympathy with his library

reading and his attempts to learn and be somebody in the world.

At first, then, there seemed to be a definite purpose in his

lying. At one time he pretended to be hurt when taken in custody

and thought because of this he would be allowed to go home.

On many occasions this boy made voluntary appeal to us,

describing his lying as a habit which it was impossible for him

to stop, and implored aid in the breaking of it. Up to the last

that we knew of him he occasionally made the complaint to

strangers of mistreatment by his family, which in the sense in

which he put it was not true at all. The dramatic nature of his

later stories seemed to fulfill the need which the boy felt of

his being something which he was not, and very likely belonged to

the same category of behavior he displayed when he attempted to

impersonate a policeman in the middle of the night, and to pose

as an amateur detective by telling stories of alleged exploits to

newspaper reporters. A long story which he related even to us,

involving his discovery of a suspicious man with a satchel and

his use of a taxicab in search for him, was made up on the basis

of his playing the part of a great man, a hero. When we ran down

this untruth (it was long after he had told us what a liar he

was) it seemed quite improbable that he had suddenly improvised

this story. It was too elaborate and well sustained. Later,

when the boy again tragically begged to be helped from making

such falsifications, he said the incident had been thought out

some days previously and it seemed an awful nice story about the

things that he might do. Daydreaming thus masked as the truth.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Environmental maladjustment: Case 10.

incongruity between Boy, age 14 yrs.

supernormal ability and home

conditions.

Innate characteristics: nervous, active,

dramatic type.

Stimulants: excessive use of coffee.

Mental habit-formation.

Delinquencies: Mentality:

Lying excessive. Supernormal in ability.

Petty stealing.

---------------------------------------------------------------

CASE 11

Summary: An orphan girl of 10 had been in several institutions

and households, but was found everywhere impossible on account of

her incorrigibility. The greatest difficulty was on account of

her extreme lying which for years had included extensive

fabrications and rapid self-contradictions, as well as defensive

denials of delinquency.

We were asked to decide about this girl's mentality and to give

recommendations for her treatment. We need take little space for

describing the case because the facts of development and heredity

and of earliest mental experiences are not known by us. The case

is worthy of short description as exemplifying a type and as

showing once more the frequent correlation of lying with other

delinquency, and especially with sex immorality.

We found a girl in good physical condition, small for her age,

but without sensory defect or important organic trouble.

Hutchinsonian teeth. High forehead and well formed features.

Expression old for her years and rather shrewd, and notably

unabashed. No evidence of pelvic trouble. Clitoris large. All

the other examination negative.

Mentally we found her rather precocious. Tests well done. Reads

and does arithmetic well for her age, in spite of much changing

about and other school disadvantages. No evidence whatever of

aberration. The examiner noted that she seemed a queer,

sophisticated child, laughing easily and talking fast and freely.

Evidently tries to put her best foot forward. Cooperates well on

tests.

On the ``Aussage'' test this little girl did remarkably well both

as to the details and general ideas expressed in the picture.

Absolutely no suggestibility shown. The examination was made

before our later methods of scoring this test, and the

inaccuracies were not counted, but even so the positive features

are of interest, namely, the good memory and non-suggestibility .

We found this youngster all along to be evasive, shifting and

self-contradictory, even on vital points. She glibly stated

anything that came into her mind, and ideas came very rapidly.

She told us stories that with a moment's thought she must have

known we could discover were false.

This child was a foundling, and was adopted by people whose

family was broken up by death when she was about 6 years old. By

the time she was 8 years old she was expelled from school and was

generally known as an habitual liar and a child who showed most

premature sex tendencies. She then went much with little boys

and was constantly in trouble for stealing as well. Occasionally

good reports were made of her, but sometimes she was stated to

have a perfect mania for taking things. A number of people who

have tried to help her have spoken of the elaborateness of her

verbal inventions. At one place she destroyed letters and took a

check from the mail and tore it up. She talked freely of sex

affairs to many people, particularly to women, and showed

evidence of intense local feelings. At one time she expressed

great desire to be spanked, probably from a sex impulse. One

intelligent person reported her as being simply animal-like in

her desires. In a country home a thoroughly intelligent woman

was unable to cope with her and she was finally delivered into

the hands of an institution.

Through dearth of reliable information about the antecedents in

this case we were unable to make a card of causative factors. It

is sure, however, that the pathological lying and other

delinquencies sprang from a background of congenital defect,

probably syphilitic in nature, of lack of early parental care, of

precocious sex desires, and sex experiences.

In the school for girls, where this unfortunate child remained

for four years, it is stated that her tendencies to prevarication

were mitigated, but never entirely checked. Her school record

was decidedly good; she was regarded as a bright girl, and

advanced rapidly to the eighth grade. She was tried again in the

world midway in her adolescent period with the most untoward

results. She found temptations offered by the opposite sex

irresistible and began a career of misrepresentation concerning

her own conduct. Through her lies, proper oversight was not

given in the home which received her once more. Pregnancy ensued

and again she had to receive institutional care.

CASE 12

Summary: An extremely interesting case showing strong

development of a tendency to swindling on the part of a young man

of curiously unequal mental abilities, a subnormal verbalist.

Pathological lying in this case quite logically developed into

swindling. The main behavior-tendencies of this individual

closely follow the lines of least resistance, the paths of

greatest success. As a matter of fact, the use merely of his

general subnormal abilities would never have led to as much

advancement as he has enjoyed. His special capabilities with

language have brought him much satisfaction at times, even if

they have also led him into trouble. An astonishingly long list

of legal proceedings centers about this case, illustrating very

well the urgent need for cooperation between courts.

Adolf von X., now just 21 years old, we, through most unusual

circumstances, have had more or less under observation for a

number of years. Correspondence with several public and social

agencies has given us close acquaintance with his record during

this time, and earlier. Our attention was first called to Adolf

in New York, when he was a boy under arrest in the Tombs. A fine

young lawyer, a casual acquaintance of Adolf's through court

work, asked us to study the case because he felt that perhaps

grave injustice was being done. Before his arrest the boy, who

seemed to be most ambitious, had been about the court rooms

looking into the details of cases as a student of practical law.

He had attracted attention by his energy and push; he earned

money at various odd jobs and studied law at night. At this time

the boy was under arrest charged with disorderly conduct; he had

beaten his sister in their home.

We found a nice looking and well spoken young fellow who said he

was 17. Although he had been in this country only three years

from Germany, he spoke English almost without an accent and did

quite well with French also. He had been brought up in Hamburg.

His statement added to that previously given by the lawyer

aroused in us great interest concerning the constructive

possibilities of the case. It seemed as if here was an immigrant

boy for whom much should be done.

``I was taking up law suits, little law suits. There was a case

on before Judge O. and I wanted a new suit of clothes to wear to

go to court in. My sister said I could not take my brother's

suit. He told me to take it and bring it home in good condition

at night. My sister is supposed to be the plaintiff, but she did

not make the complaint. The landlady came in and hit me three

times in the head with a broom. My sister called her in and then

she threw a piece of wood after me. Sister started crying, but

she did not get hit. The landlady got hit. When I fell down I

striked her with my head and hurt my head bad. I think I hit her

with the left side of my head. The landlady made complaint in

German to an Irish policeman. He could not understand. The

officer did not do what the law tells because he took a complaint

from a boy of the age of 6 years. He translated for her.

``The trouble started because I wanted to get my brother's suit

because I wanted to appear before Judge O. to protect a party in

the hearing of a case. I took a few lessons over in the Y.M.C.A.

class and in a law office I read books through. I have books at

home, rulings of every court. I know I got a good chance to work

up because I know I have a good head for the law. My father he

wont believe it, that's the trouble. I know I could stand my own

expenses. I said, `Officer, wait here a minute. I'll explain

how this is.' He began stepping on me. He threw me on the

floor. I wanted to go out the back way so nobody would see me.

He kicked me down the front way. There was a big crowd there.

Another rough officer pinched my arm. At the station when the

officer said this boy hit his sister, my sister said, `No, he did

not hit me,' but she said it in German.

``I was in court awhile ago because father thought I would not

work. I was paroled. I was trying to find a position. This man

that had the rehearing said, `You wont lose anything.' He made

as much as a contract with me. He said to another person in my

hearing, if that fellow wins my case I will pay him $10 for it.

The first case I had was in X court. I was interpreter there. I

want to make something out of myself. Labor is all right, but I

like office work or law work better. I tell you, doctor, if I

come up before the judge I will tell him just the same story I

tell you. I can remember it just that way.''

This young man told us he had graduated from intermediate school

in Hamburg; in this country he had attended for about a year and

a half and, in spite of the language handicap, he was in sixth

grade. There is a brother a little older and an older sister.

Mother has been dead for 5 years. His father is an artisan and

makes a fair living.

We soon found means of getting more facts concerning this case.

The first point of importance was concerning his age. It

appeared that he at present was lying about this, probably for

the purpose of concealing his previous record in the Juvenile

Court and in other connections. There had been previously much

trouble with him. He had been long complained of by his father

because of the bickering and quarreling which he caused in the

household and on account of his not working steadily. He had

shown himself tremendously able in getting employment, having had

at least twenty places in the last year and a half. He was known

to lie and misrepresent; on one occasion when he was trying to

get certain advantages for himself he falsely stated that he was

employed by a certain legal concern, and once he tried to pass

himself off for an officer of a court.

The father willingly came to see us and proved to be a somewhat

excitable, but intelligent man of good reputation. We obtained a

very good history before studying the boy himself. Mr. von X.

began by informing us that we had a pretty difficult case on our

hands, and when we spoke of the boy's ambition he became very

sarcastic. He stated that up to the time when the boy left

school in Hamburg he had only been able to get to the equivalent

of our third grade. To be sure, it is true that Adolf had

learned English quickly and much more readily than any one else

in the family, and in the old country had picked up French, but

``he hasn't got sense enough to be a lawyer.''

Both the older children did very well in school, and the father

and mother came from intelligent families. All the children are

somewhat nervous, but the two older ones are altogether different

from this boy. They are quiet and saving. A grandfather was

said to have been a learned man and another member of the family

very well-to-do. The mother has one cousin insane and the father

one cousin who is feebleminded. All the other family history

from this apparently reliable source was negative. Both the

father and mother were still young at the birth of this child.

The mother died of pneumonia, but prior to this sickness had been

healthy.

The developmental history of Adolf runs as follows: His birth

was preceded by two miscarriages. The pregnancy was quite

normal; confinement easy. When he was a few days old he had some

inflammation of the eyes which soon subsided. Never any

convulsions. His infancy was normal. He walked and talked

early. At three years he had diphtheria badly with delirium for

a couple of weeks and paralysis of the palate for some months.

After this his parents thought the boy not quite normal. He had

slight fevers occasionally. At 9 years he was very ill with

scarlet fever. Following that he had some trouble with the bones

in his legs. Before he left Hamburg he had an operation on one

leg for this trouble which had persisted. (It was quite

significant that in our first interview Adolf had told us his leg

had been injured by a rock falling on it, necessitating the

operation.) Up to the age of 14 this boy, although apparently in

good physical condition, used to wet the bed always at night, and

sometimes during the day lost control of his bladder. Also lost

control of his bowels occasionally after he was 10 years old. He

sleeps well, is moderate in the use of tea and coffee, and does

not smoke.

When young he played much by himself. After coming to this

country his chief recreation was going to nickel shows. He was

fond of music as a child. He had been a truant in Hamburg. As a

young child he was regarded as destructive. The general

statement concerning delinquency is that Adolf is the only one of

the family who has given trouble and that the father was the

first to complain of the boy to the authorities. Before he

reported it there had long been trouble on account of frequent

changing of employment and misrepresentations. The boy had

forged letters to his family and others. In the office of a

certain newspaper he once represented himself to be an orphan,

and there a fund was raised for him and he was outfitted. The

father insists that the boy, in general, is an excessive liar.

Further inquiry brought out that other people, too, regarded

Adolf as an extreme falsifier. The principal of a school thought

the boy made such queer statements that he could not be right in

his head. In the office of a clerk of a court he represented

himself to be employed by a certain legal institution and

demanded file after file for reference. Everybody there was

friendly to him at first, but later they all changed their

attitude on account of his unscrupulous and constant lying.

Physically we found a very well nourished boy, rather short for

his age. Weight 121 lbs.; height 5 ft. 1 in. Musculature

decidedly flabby; this was especially noticeable in his

handshake. Attitude heavy and slouchy for a boy. Expression

quite pleasant; features regular; complexion decidedly good. A

North European type. Eyes differ slightly in the color of the

irides. Noticeable enlargement of breasts. Well shaped head of

quite normal measurements; circumference 54.5, length 18, breadth

15 cm. No sensory defect, nor was anything else of particular

interest found upon examination.

The mental study, particularly the testing for special abilities,

has been of very great interest. Fortunately for the scientific

understandings of the problems involved we have been able to see

Adolf many times at intervals and to check up previous findings.

Our first statement will be of the results obtained at the

earliest study of the case.

When we first saw Adolf, although he talked so intelligently, we

asked him to give us some evidence of his educational ability,

and to our tremendous surprise he failed to be able to multiply

simple numbers or even to do addition correctly. There was no

evidence of emotional upset, but we waited for further testing

until we had seen the father, that we might be sure of the school

history. As mentioned above, we found that the boy had entirely

misled us.

We then entered upon a systematic study of the boy's abilities

and found some strange contrasts. Perceptions of form and color

were normal. Given a very simple test which required some

apperceptive ability, he did fairly well. Given simple

``Construction Tests'' which required the planful handling of

concrete material, Adolf proceeded unintelligently. He showed no

foresight, was rather slow, but by following out a trial and

error procedure and with some repetition of irrational placing of

the pieces he finally succeeded. Moderate ability to profit by

trial and error was shown, but for his age the performance on

this type of test was poor. On our ``Puzzle-Box,'' which calls

for the analysis of a concrete situation, a test that is done by

boys of his age nearly always in four minutes or less, Adolf

failed in ten minutes. He began in his typically aggressive

fashion, but kept trying to solve the difficulty by the

repetition of obviously futile movements. On a ``Learning

Test,'' where numerals are associated in meaningless relation

with symbols, Adolf did the work promptly and with much

self-confidence, but made a thoroughly irrational error, inasmuch

as he associated the same numeral with two different symbols--and

did not see his error. His ability to mentally represent and

analyze a simple situation visually presented in our ``Cross Line

Tests'' was very poor. In this he failed to analyze out the

simple parts of a figure which he could well draw from memory.

This seemed significant, for the test is practically always done

correctly by normal individuals, at least on the second trial, by

the time they are 10 or 12 years of age. A simple test for

visual memory of form also brought poor results.

As an extreme contrast to the above results, the tests that had

to do with language were remarkably well done. A visual verbal

memory passage was given with unusual accuracy, also an auditory

verbal passage was rendered almost perfectly. Considering that

the former has 20 items and the latter 12 details, this

performance was exceptionally good. Also, the so-called Antonym

Test, where one is asked to give as quickly as possible the

opposite to a word, the result, considering his foreign

education, was decidedly good. Three out of twenty opposites

were not given, apparently on account of the lack of knowledge.

The average time was 2.3 seconds. If two of the other

time-reactions were left out, which were probably slow from lack

of knowledge, the average time would be 1.6 seconds for 15

opposites. This shows evidence of some good mental control on

the language side. Motor control was fair. He was able to tap

75 of our squares with 2 errors in 30 seconds, just a medium

performance. A letter written on this date contains quite a few

mis-spelled short words: ``My father Send me to This Court for

The troubels I had with my sister,'' etc.

While awaiting trial Adolf, stating that he was desirous of doing

so, was given ample opportunity to study arithmetic. After a few

days he told us unhesitatingly that he now could do long

division, but he utterly failed, and, indeed, made many errors in

a sum in addition. He had acquired part of the multiplication

table.

Study of his range of information brought out some curious

points. He told of some comparative merits of law schools, had

some books on home-taught law, and was a great reader of the

newspapers. In the latter he chiefly perused reports of court

cases. He was quite familiar with the names of various attorneys

and judges. He could give the names in contemporary politics,

and knew about sporting items. His knowledge of the history of

this country was absolutely deficient, but he does not hesitate

to give such statements as the following: ``The Fourth of July

is to remember a great battle between President Lincoln and the

English country.'' Again he makes a bluff to give scientific

items, although he has the shallowest information. When it comes

to athletics, much to our surprise, we hear that our flabby boy

is a champion. Of course, he knows some of the rulers in Europe

and by what route he came to New York, but he informs us that

Paris is the largest country in Europe.

Adolf says he plays a very good game of checkers, that he had

played much, but on trial he shows a very poor game, once moving

backwards. When purposely given chances to take men he did not

perceive the opportunities.

We asked him to analyze out for us a couple of moral situations,

one being about a man who stole to give to a starving family. He

tells us in one way the man did right and in another way wrong.

It never is right to steal, because if caught he would be sent to

the penitentiary and would have to pay more than the things are

worth, and, then, if he was not caught, a thief would never get

along in the world. The other was the story of Indians

surrounding a settlement who asked the captain of a village to

give up a man. Adolf thought if he were a chief he would say to

give battle if the man had done no wrong, but on further

consideration states that he would rather give up one man than

risk the lives of many, and if he were a captain he would surely

rather give this man up than put his own life in it. He thinks

certainly this is the way the question should be answered.

On our ``Aussage'' or Testimony Test Adolf gave volubly many

details, dramatically expressing himself and putting in

interpretations that were not warranted by the picture. Indeed,

he made the characters actually say things. On the other hand,

he did not recall at all one of the three persons present in the

picture. He accepted three out of six suggestions and was quite

willing to fill in imaginary details, besides perverting some of

the facts. This was unusually unreliable testimony.

Our impressions as dictated at this time state that we had to do

with a young man in good general physical condition, of unusually

flabby musculature, who showed a couple of signs that might

possibly be regarded as stigmata of inferiority. Mentally, the

main showing was irregularity of abilities; in some things he was

distinctly subnormal, in others mediocre, but in language ability

he was surprisingly good. No evidence of mental aberration was

discovered. The diagnosis could be made, in short, that the boy

was a subnormal verbalist. His character traits might be

enumerated in part by saying that he was aggressive,

unscrupulous, boastful, ambitious, and a continual and excessive

liar. In the exercise of these he was strikingly lacking in

foresight. This latter characteristic also was shown in his test

work. The abilities in which he was overbalanced gave him

special feelings of the possibility of his being a success and

led him to become a pathological liar. From the family history

the main suggestion of the causation of the mental abnormality is

in illness during developmental life, but neither ante-natal nor

hereditary conditions are quite free from suspicion.

At the time of this first trial Adolf maintained a very smart

attitude and tried to show off. He had succeeded in having two

witnesses subpoenaed in order to prove that he did not hit his

sister, but on the stand it came out that one of them was not

there at all, and the other, who was a little girl, stated that

she saw Adolf hit some one. Just why the boy had these witnesses

brought in was difficult to explain. Perhaps he had the idea

that some one ought to be called in every case, or perhaps he

thought they would be willing to tell an untruth for him. His

statement in court did not agree with what he had told us and was

utterly different from what his sister stated. It came out that

he had struck her on a number of previous occasions. It was

shown clearly that the boy was a tremendous liar. The case was

transferred to the Juvenile Court and from there the boy was sent

away to an institution for a few months. After the trial his

father said in broken English, ``To me he never told the truth.''

Just after his release the family moved to Chicago and Adolf soon

put himself in touch with certain social agencies. He found out

where I was and came to see me, bright, smiling, and well. He

had gained eight pounds during his incarceration. He wanted to

tell all about his life in the institution and because we were

busy said he would come the next day. He did not do this, but a

few months later came running up to me on the street with a

package in his hands, saying he was already at work in a downtown

office and was doing well and going to night school. Five years

more would see him quite through his law course. A few months

after this he applied at a certain agency for work as an

interpreter and there, strangely enough, some one who knew him in

New York recognized him. He, however, denied ever having been in

court and produced a list of twenty or twenty-five places where

he worked and gave them as references. It is to be remembered

that at this time he had already been brought up in court at

least three times, that he had been on probation, and been sent

away to an institution.

During the last four years we have received much information

concerning the career of Adolf, although his activities have

carried him to Milwaukee, Cleveland, St. Louis, and other towns,

in several of which he has been in trouble. He has very

repeatedly been to see us and we have had many opportunities of

gauging his mental as well as his social development.

His family continued to live in one of the most populous suburbs

of Chicago and Adolf maintains that his residence is there, an

important point for his political activities which are mentioned

later.

What we discovered in our further studies of Adolf's mental

condition can be told in short. We have retested him over and

over. (When he has been hard up we have given him money to

induce him to do his very best.) There are no contradictions in

our findings at different times. Once, in another city, in

connection with his appearance in court, Adolf was seen by a

psychiatrist who suggested that he was a case of dementia precox,

but nothing in our long observation of him warrants us in such an

opinion. His mental conditions and qualities seem quite

unchanged in type during all the time we have known him, and

instead of any deterioration there has been gradual betterment in

capacities, certainly along the line of adjustment to

environment. His wonderful ability to get out of trouble is

evidence of these powers of adjustment, as is also, perhaps, his

keen sensing of the utility of the shadier sides of politics and

criminal procedure.

In work with numbers Adolf is still very poor. He is unable to

do long division or multiplication, and cannot add together

simple fractions. Addition he does much better, but even at his

best he makes errors in columns where he has to add five

numerals. He now can do simple subtraction such as is required

in making change, but fails on such a problem as how much change

he should get from $20 after buying goods costing $11.37. His

memory span is only six numerals, and these he cannot get

correctly every time.

After numerous attempts to mentally analyze our simple ``Cross

Line Test,'' with much urging and extreme slowness he finally

succeeded at one time in getting it correctly. As stated above,

this is a test that is done with ease usually by normal

individuals 12 years of age. On our ``Code Test,'' requiring

much the same order of ability, but more effort, he entirely

failed. For one thing, he has never known the order of the

alphabet either in English, German, or French. Our ``Pictorial

Completion Test,'' which gauges simple apperceptive abilities, he

failed to do correctly, making three illogical errors.

The result on the Binet tests are most interesting. From years

of experience with them we ourselves have no faith in their

offering sound criteria for age levels above 10 years. Adolf

goes up through all of the 12-year tests (1911 series) except the

first, where he shows suggestibility in his judgment of the

lengths of lines. In the 15-year tests he fails on the first,

but does the three following ones correctly. Two out of the

adult series are done well--those where the definition of a word

is required and the statement of political ideas. Two or three

of his specific answers are worth noting: ``Honor is when a

person is very honest. It means he will never do what is wrong

even if he can make money by it.'' ``Pleasure is when everything

is pleasant, when you are enjoying yourself.'' Adolf tells us

that the king is head of a monarchy, he has not the power to

veto, and he acquires his position by royal birth. In contrast

to this he says the president is the presiding executive of a

republic, he has the power to veto, and he gains his position by

election. It is perfectly clear in this case, as in many others,

that the Binet tests show very little wherein lies the nature of

a special defect or ability. Adolf's capacity for handling

language has grown steadily. He has been reading law and knows

by heart a great deal of its terminology. In a short

conversation he talks well and is coherent. The aggressiveness

which is ever with him leads him to stick to the point. He has

had very little instruction, his pronunciation is often defective

and he does not know the meaning of many of the longer terms with

which any lawyer should be acquainted. He speaks fluently and

has now long posed, among other things, as an interpreter.

Our final diagnosis after all these mental tests is, that while

he could by no means be called a feebleminded person, still Adolf

is essentially subnormal in many abilities--we still regard him

as a subnormal verbalist. Probably what he lacks in powers of

mental analysis has much relation to the lack of foresight which

he continually shows in his social career. His lying and

swindling have led him almost nowhere except into difficulties.

Adolf has been steadily gaining weight, although he has grown

only an inch and a half in these years. He is stout and

sleek-looking and as flabby as ever. He has not been seriously

ill during this time. Whereas before he used to be untidy in

dress he now gets himself up more carefully.

The following are examples of Adolf's conversation and show many

of his characteristics: (Soon after he came to Chicago we spoke

to him of his progress.)

``The other day I met a fellow and he says, `How long have you

been in this country?' and when I says four years he says,

`You're a liar. There never was a fellow I ever heard of who got

hold of the language and was doing as well as you are in four

years.' '' A few months later he tells us he is selling goods on

commission and descants on how much he can make: ``That's

`Get-rich-quick-Wallingford' for you. There's Mr. A. and

Congressman X., they started out from little beginnings just the

same as me. I'm going along their line.

``Do you know I got sued by the Evening Star for libbel. That's

what I got for testifying in that case. I tell you what I would

like and that's vice investigation work.''

At another time: ``Well, doctor, I am general manager for my

brother's business now. He's got a bottle business. There's

money in that, ain't there? I was down in court to-day. I tell

you, there was a fellow who got what was coming to him. It was a

case before Judge H.--assault and battery. He was fined $10 and

costs--all amounted to about $30. Well, I had a little dog and I

tell you I have a heart for animals just the same as persons. He

kicked the dog and I told him not to do it and he says, `You're a

liar,' and then he ran down stairs and pushed me along the stones

over there. I called the police and they did not come for about

three quarters of an hour.

``I'm studying law. Taking a correspondence course. They give

you an L.L.B. It's a two years work and you get all the volumes

separately,'' etc. ``Then we have a slander suit. A neighbor

called my sister dirty names. I am going to file a $5000 slander

suit. I would not let that man call names like that, and then

he's got about $5000 in property.

``Some people are down on me, but I tell you I have been a leader

of boys. We got the Illinois championship--you know, the boy

scout examinations. There was an examination on leaves. I was

their leader. I had 9 boys up and there were 117 leaves and

every boy knew every leaf. Of course I told them or they would

not have known. Some people are down on me for what I do for the

boys, but I tell you I've been in court and I've made up my mind

I will help other kids. Sometimes kids can be helped by talking

to. Then there is me. I won the boxing championship this

year.'' (At this period I enquire about his prowess and the

recent encounter with the young boy who dragged him over the

stones. With a blush he says he never was any good at real

boxing or real fighting.) ``I'm this kind of a fellow. If they

let me alone I'm all right, but if they start monkeying with me

something is going to happen. When you start a thing don't start

it until you can carry it through. These people that started

with me were not able to do that.''

Later it came out that the alleged fighting with the boy is all

in Adolf's mind. He tells us, without noticing any discrepancy,

that no complaint against this boy, who he said had been already

tried and fined, would be received by the police authorities, nor

will they issue a warrant.

Within the last year or two there has been almost complete

cessation of Adolf's attempt to become a lawyer. At an earlier

time he came to us with a speech written out in a book. He was

going to recite it when a certain case came up in the Municipal

Court. As a matter of fact we heard that the boy said nothing on

the occasion. At various times we have heard of his getting

mixed up in different ways in a number of cases. Once he

succeeded in giving testimony in a notorious trial. His own

account of his interest in the case is shown in the following:

``Doctor, you remember that X. boy and that Y. boy. Judge B. is

going to try them. They are down in the S Station and they are

going to stay there unless they sign a jury waiver and they can't

do that. They are only 15 years old--I got their ages--it cost

me $1 to get their ages and I am going to be there when they are

being tried.'' (The statement of the ages is untrue.) ``It

ain't right to keep these boys down there. They look pale. They

don't give them anything but black coffee. I'm going to

represent them boys. You know, doctor, I'm working in three

places now--holding three jobs. Two days in the week I work for

the A's, two for Mr. B.--he ain't exactly my boss--and then for

myself. The A's pay me $6, Mr. B. pays $3, and then I make $7 or

$8 myself interpreting. I'm saving it up to go to law school.

In three years I graduate. They are going to hold it up against

them boys, their records, and I am going to deny it. It ain't

right. I was talking to the detective that arrested X. and I

says to him, `Look here, you took the knife. What right have

they got to take in one fellow without the little fellow?' I

want to represent this case myself.''

Adolf has worked for law firms and aided at times as an

investigator of criminal and vice situations. Occasionally he

has been much worried about his own court record. He did not

want it to stand against him. He thought he could get his sister

to swear that he never quarreled at home. Shortly afterwards he

served a short sentence for stealing from a law firm. Later he

came in and said he had a job in the legal department of a large

concern and that he had changed his name because he believed his

old name was ruined. ``I'm determined to be a lawyer. Ever

since a little fellow I have wanted to be--ever since I have had

an understanding of what the law means. I used to play court

with the other little ones and talk about law.'' At this time he

wanted a little loan. He had become particularly interested in

philanthropic work and thought he could do something on the side

about that--perhaps become a leader of boys, or help the

unprotected in some way. Adolf was really employed now to

investigate cases by some lawyer. About this time he had been

wearing a badge, impersonating an officer of a certain

philanthropic society.

For long this young man was concocting all sorts of schemes how

he might work in at the edge of legal affairs, as an interpreter,

a ``next friend,'' an investigator, etc. More recent activities

have taken Adolf away from the field of his first ambitions and

he has tried to use his talents in all sorts of adventuresome

ways. The accounts of his lying and impostures belong logically

together, as follows.

During all our acquaintance with Adolf we have known his word to

be absolutely untrustworthy. Many times he has descended upon

his friends with quite unnecessary stories, leading to nothing

but a lowering of their opinion of him. Repeatedly his

concoctions have been without ascertainable purpose. His

prevaricating nearly always centers about himself as some sort of

a hero and represents him to be a particularly good-hearted and

even definitely philanthropic person--one who loves all creatures

and does much for others. Pages might be taken in recounting his

falsehoods. Most of them, even when long drawn out, were fairly

coherent. I remember one instance as showing how particularly

uncalled for his prevarications were. After hearing one of his

tales, we started downtown together, but missed a car. Adolf

walked to the middle of the street and said he could see one

coming just a few blocks away. Being doubtful, I a minute later

went to look and no car even yet was in sight. Adolf sheepishly

stared in a shop window. He never took any pleasure in his

record of misdeeds. He was never boastful about them and indeed

seemed to have quite normal moral feeling. But so far, none of

his perceptions or apperceptions has led him to see the

astonishing futility of his own lying and other

misrepresentations.

Already this young man's court experiences we know to be very

numerous and possibly we are not acquainted with all of them.

Early we knew of his forging letters and telegrams and engaging

in minor misrepresentations which were really swindling

operations. Later his transactions have been spread about in

different cities, as we have already stated. The young man

borrowed small sums frequently on false pretenses. He has found

the outskirts of legal practice a fruitful field for

misrepresentations galore. For instance, at one time he stood

outside the door of a concern which deals with small legal

business and represented to the prospective patrons that he as a

student of the law could transact their business with more

individual care and for a less sum. He really succeeded in

getting hold of the beginnings of a number of legal actions in

this way. In one city he posed as the officer of a certain

protective agency and posted himself where he would be likely to

meet people who knew of this organization, in order to obtain

petty business from them. We have heard that he has been a

witness in a number of legal cases and has earned fees thereby.

In Cleveland Adolf succeeded in starting a secret service agency

and obtained contracts, among them the detective work for a newly

started store of considerable size. This was a great tribute to

his push and energy, but his agency soon failed. In St. Louis,

where he stayed long enough to become acquainted with not a few

members of the legal fraternity, he forged a legal document. A

great deal was made of the case by the papers because of its

flagrancy and amusing details. It seems Adolf had become

enamored of a certain woman who was not living with her husband.

The account runs that he urged his suit, but she refused because

she was not legally free. Adolf replied that he would make that

all right and in a week or two produced papers of divorce. These

were made out in legal form, but it seems that he over-stepped

the mark. The alleged decree stated that the fair divorcee must

be remarried inside of a week. This seems to have aroused her

suspicion, as had also some violence which Adolf had prematurely

displayed. The young man was duly sentenced for the fraud.

Concerning punishments we can say that in the five years since he

left New York he has served at least four terms in penal

institutions and has been held to trial on one other occasion.

This latter event concerned itself with Adolf's impersonating a

federal officer. He made his way into a home under these

conditions, just why we do not know. The case was difficult to

adjust and was dismissed because no statute exactly covered it.

Perhaps nothing in his remarkable history shows Adolf's

aggressiveness and peculiar tendencies any more than his

political career. He had been voting long before he was of age

and had even succeeded in getting a nomination for a certain

party position during his minority, polling a considerable vote

at the primaries. Following his defeat at election, which was at

the time when the new party showed marked weakness, Adolf told us

that he, after all, was only in the Progressive Party to wreck

it. He felt that the leaders belonged back in the Republican

ranks, and he thought he could help to get them there.

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Mentality: Subnormal verbalist type. Case 12.

Man, 21 years.

Developmental: Early illness with

involvement of nervous

system.

Delinquencies:

Lying excessive.

Swindling.

Stealing.

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