Psychological analysis in such a case is most difficult because of the unreliability of the individual's own statements about her life, inner and outer. Psychoanalysts will be delighted, in the light of what we long afterward found out, at the pregnant opening sentence of an interview, recorded above, when Inez blurted out that she was once in a State hospital. However, from what we ascertained, we may see clearly that here is an individual with a past that she desires to cover up. Much more delinquency may be involved of which we know nothing. As the result of circumstances and traits she finds herself, despite her very good ability, inadequately meeting the world. Her forceful personality carries her into situations which she is incompetent to live up to. The immediate way out is by creating a new complication, and this may be through lies or the simulation of illness, at which she has become an adept. Altogether, Inez must be thought of as one who is trying to satisfy certain wishes and ambitions which are too much for her resources. Towards the goal to which her nature urges her she follows the path of least resistance. Being the personality that she is, the social world offers her stimulation which does not come to others.
To discuss the problem of her responsibility would be to introduce metaphysics—it is sure that in the ordinary sense she is not insane. The cause of her career is not a psychosis, although we readily grant that out of the materials of her mental experience she may ultimately build up definite delusions.
Summary: A girl of 16 had been engaged in an extraordinary amount of clever shoplifting under the influence of her ``mother.'' In the courts where the cases against her were heard there was much sympathy with the girl, but it was difficult to carry out any measures for her benefit because of the excessive prevarications which had characterized her for a long period. Under oath she falsely accused her ``father'' of sex immorality with her. She was removed from her home, and with knowledge of the mental conflicts which beset her, splendid efforts to ``cure'' this girl met with success. It is another case where supposed inherited traits turn out to be the result of environmental influences.
Through frequent communication with the highly intelligent woman with whom Edna F. was placed in a small western city after she was taken from her previous miserable environment, we have been able to keep close check on the progress of the case for several years. It was also very fortunate for our understanding that a nurse who knew the girl's real mother in New York, where Edna was born, appeared on the scene and gave us data upon which we could base some opinions of the outcome. The case in its entirety had proved very baffling to detectives because of the mass of contradictory lies told by both the girl and her ``mother.''
Our attention was first called to this girl when a number of court people were trying to solve the mystery. She had been arrested for shoplifting and her curious attitude and statements had made some believe she was not quite right mentally. Once before she had been detected stealing things in a shop. One of her remarkable statements this last time was that her parents were implicated in the thieving and she named certain stolen articles which might be found at their home. She went with the detectives and accused her ``mother'' of wearing a dress which she, Edna, had stolen. The woman was forced to give up the dress and other articles, but it was found later that these goods had been actually bought and paid for by the parents. Later it was found that the woman was a party to the girl's stealing and this made the girl's story seem all the more strange, for if she were going to involve the people at all why did she not pick out the actually stolen articles? However, long study of the case brought out the fact that this type of statement was a characteristic of Edna's. Her word on even important points was absolutely unreliable and her own interests were frequently thwarted by her prevarications.
The case in its different aspects came up in court again and again until finally most of the truth was ascertained, enough to justify radical measures being undertaken. During this period the mother was discovered to be an atrocious liar; even with her last bitter confession that all she had said about her motherhood had been untrue, she manufactured more quite unnecessary falsehoods. In the meantime the family physician and the family lawyer had both informed me of the peculiar mysteries of the case and of the perfect mass of lies into which the statements of both mother and daughter led. This sort of thing had been going on for years. It is of no small interest to note that the woman was greatly over-dressed and made up. On numerous occasions she appealed to us to study the girl and find out why she lied so much and why she had such an inclination to steal, in the meantime attempting to fill us up with many inventions about the girl's antecedents.
Physical examination showed a perfectly normally developed girl. No sensory defects. Pleasant features. Well shaped head. Weight 101 lbs; height 5 ft. 1 in. We found no hysterical stigmata. Menstruation had first occurred at 14. No trouble or irregularity was reported. We learn the girl has never had any serious illness. She herself told of fainting spells after being whipped and so on, but these were undoubtedly falsifications. The family physician informed us he had operated on the girl for appendicitis about three months previous to the time we first saw her. He had found some evidences of an old appendiceal inflammation, but it is quite likely from the various accounts which we heard that her symptoms recounted to him were largely fabrication and that the signs which he found, at least in their excessive phases, were partly deceptions. The most important point for the court proceedings was his findings that the girl had never been sexually tampered with and had no local disease. At the time when we knew Edna she was being treated for a local infection which must have been recent and superficial, for it rapidly subsided.
We had ample opportunity to test Edna's ability and found it quite normal. She had been out of school much and had been careless in general about her education, but she had finally finished the grammar school. A long list of tests was done almost uniformly well. Where a prolonged task which required concentration was asked, Edna was inclined to work carelessly, but in general her capacities proved to be decidedly good. She was accustomed to read nothing but the lightest literature and fairy stories and her interests were of the superficial sort. Neither in powers of imagery or imagination, nor by anything else ascertained about her mental abilities did we come to know of any point of special bearing upon her behavior.
On the ``Aussage'' picture test, she gave only 12 details, all correct, on free recital. Upon questioning she gave 28 more items and almost the only variation from accuracy was in respect to the colors. Evidently she let her fancy run when she could not remember correctly; through this she got 6 items incorrect. She readily accepted 3 out of 4 suggestions.
Our earliest impressions of Edna state that she seemed much confused in her stories and in her manner of telling them, leaving sentences unfinished and trying to explain inconsistencies by other inconsistencies. At this time she was referring constantly to her doubts about her age, her family, and her origin. She then seemed highly suspicious of every one and talked of suicide. However, when she was showing these signs she could be diverted, for she worked with much pleasure at the tests, particularly certain memory tests on which she did well.
On account of the difficulties of the solution of this case under the law considerable time and effort were spent in looking up her record. It was found that some years ago Edna had run away from home and there was a newspaper article published about her. Even at that time an officer who went to the home was unable to ascertain the truth in the case. The family had frequently moved and the mother asserted it was because of the bad reputation which the girl's actions had given them. The neighbors complained of the cruelty of the parents to Edna, but this meant only the whippings which the mother had given her. By all accounts the father was a good man who insisted that affairs between his wife and Edna were not his own. (Edna always maintained that this man had been unusually good to her, although she so strangely made in court the false accusations of prolonged sex immorality on his part and reiterated these statements even to us. It was not until many months afterward that she acknowledged the falsity of her accusations, although we knew from her physician that they were not true.)
The first time Edna was in court was when she was about 14 years old. At that time she had been observed by a department store detective stealing hosiery and a bracelet. She perceived she was being shadowed and walked up to the counter and ordered some children's garments, having them charged and sent to a fictitious name and address. The detective thought this a masterpiece of slyness, this endeavor to throw them off the track. Since the family, who really kept an account at this store, appealed to the manager to have Edna let off as it was an ordinary trick of a growing girl, the charge was withdrawn. Detectives who had been employed from a private agency made a very poor showing on getting at the real facts. The husband was doing well in his business and there never seemed to be any reason to suspect his wife of being directly or indirectly connected with the shoplifting. Earlier there was some intimation that Edna was not the child of these people, but the persons who suggested this did not know the true facts and were found to have a grudge against the mother. In the meantime the latter had strongly maintained her relationship.
It was months after this and just before we saw the case when a detective, who had kept the case in mind, went to the house to get the goods which Edna maintained had been stolen. There he found the ``mother'' and another woman smoking and thought he detected signs of their being drug habitues. Later, I myself felt sure of this point, but we were never able to state to what drug they were addicted. Edna frequently stated she had been accustomed to buying morphine for these women, but her statements about its appearance and its cost were so at variance with the facts that though it is likely she had bought something of the kind, yet no amount of inquiry brought out the definite facts. The woman's appearance and her remarkable lack of veracity were both highly suggestive of a drug habit.
In our several interviews with this woman we were amazed by her strange self-contradictions. It was not only that she stated something different from what she had said a week before, but even at different times on the same day her statements would be changed. Concerning her relationship to Edna she gave us the facts of the girl's birth and laughed off the idea that she was not the girl's mother. ``Why, I can remember every moment of my pregnancy with her.'' It was anomalous that this woman had hired a righteous man as a lawyer to represent her and the girl. This attorney, consulting with me, soon came to the conclusion that the only interest he would serve in the case was that of the girl, and then only in the effort to save her from the miserable influences of her mother.
Edna's school record was most peculiar. She had been frequently changed on account of her dishonesty. In one sectarian school she was said to steal all sorts of useless things—bits of string, pieces of pencils, and articles no one else would want. She also stole a two dollar bill from a grocery store; the cashier followed her and recovered the money from her person right there in the school. Edna always denied that she took things. While in another school she had flowers sent to all the teachers and the florist's bill was presented to her there. In still another school she took a pair of shoes from a boy at recess, wore these and left her old ones in the locker room. Her word was everywhere recognized as being most unreliable.
After the case had long been in court and Edna still stoutly maintained that she was not the child of these parents, but had complicated her story by adding incidents which were known to be untrue, such as her ``father's'' immorality with her, that there had been another adopted child in the family, that even the dishes the family used were stolen by her, and so on, the woman came and suddenly blurted out that she herself had been lying all along and that this was not her child. She then alleged the parentage was so and so, but this matter was in turn looked up and found to be false. It was adjudged that these people had absolutely no parental rights, and then work was begun on constructive measures of redeeming the girl if possible. It was not long after this that the nurse came to us who had known the girl's real mother in New York and who had taken charge of Edna as an infant before her foster mother had taken her. It seems that the mother was an American, that this child was illegitimate. A few months after her birth the mother abandoned her, became dissolute and is said to have since died.
Edna had run away from home on several occasions and slept in hallways for a night or two at a time. She had not been sexually immoral until just previous to our seeing her. Then while away from home she had gone with a man to a hotel, and probably had also been with boys. These were her first and last experiences of the sort, but how much these affairs had been on her mind we obtained some intimation of from herself.
``My mother took me to S's when I was 8 years old and told me to take anything I could and I got into the habit of it. I can't stop myself. I take anything I want. Mother said she would kill me if I told the truth. I had to say lots of things that were not so. I had to lie and say mother did not beat me, but she had a horsewhip that was plaited, father burned it. Then they bought a little one, but she beat me with a rubber hose and everything. The first thing I think I stole was jewelry in a store down-town. The woman I call `auntie' said if I would give her the goods she would pay me for them.''
``My mother fixed it up that if she got the goods and got caught she would get a clerk to make out receipts and get them stamped paid. She has not done this yet, but I think she will in this case.'' (This was a statement at the very first interview with Edna and no doubt had reference to the fact that the mother could produce receipted bills for the dress and other articles which Edna had maintained to the detective she herself had stolen. Of course the girl's story of this was untrue; the receipts were genuine.)
``One of my sisters is adopted, but my father does not know it. She ain't real. It was this way. When my pa was out west for a year ma asked me to look in the papers for a baby and I looked and found an advertisement about one. Ma said she must not be redheaded because that ain't like the family. We went and got her and ma went to bed for nine days and pretended it was her baby. She took a shawl and gave the nurse $25 and made out adoption papers. She took me with her. It was a month old. She made me go and tell my aunt I had a little sister. My aunt said it looked kind of big for 3 days old, but ma said she had been keeping it in an incubator. She had padded herself out before, and pretended it was her own child. Pa came home when it was six months old and he loved the baby just like his own. I ain't jealous, but it makes me sick to hear such lies.''
This alleged fact, reiterated to us and testified to in the court, was in itself a source of the whole case being farther followed up. The nurse was found who took care of Edna's ``mother'' during her confinement and it was found that Edna's whole story was quite untrue. It was evidently an elaborate fabrication representing the facts as they might have been about Edna herself. The only part of it that was true was that one of the younger children had been for a time in an incubator.
``Since I was 10 years old I have known about that. I have known I was not her child. She said something that sounded queer to me once when I ran away. It made me think she was not my mother.
``Why do I tell lies? I got started at it when I was small. She used to make me tell lies to my father. I began to steal when I was about 8 years old. My little sister has started to take things already. She is only 4. I was trying to break her and mother said, `Let her alone.'
``She's had about nine different servants. She never can keep any. She used to make me forge letters. She made me sign a girl's name to a receipt for wages which the girl never received. The girl had no case against her because she had the receipts. The poor girl lost it.
``I am going to tell the truth. There's going to be lots of things come out. I am going to tell the judge I lied when I told him I did not steal the things. Why did I lie? Well, she gave me just one look and I knew what she would do to me when I got home. Everything I told you about my father is the truth. Where else would I get that disease? I was never allowed to go out with boys.''
At another time when we inquired what bothered or worried her more than anything else we obtained an account of her sex repressions. Of course there would always be difficulty in knowing just how true the details were but probably she gave us the main factors in her mental life.
``I used to be out in the streets all the time. There were hardly any houses around there then. I used to hear mother talk about things. She would send me out of the room and say it was not for me to hear. Then boys lived near me and they asked me to do bad things. I first heard about those things from a boy on the porch. I was 7 or 8. I was always thinking about it—what my mother said at that time, I mean. She did not explain it enough. I am always fidgety, always nervous. My hands and feet are always going. Whenever I would see a boy it would always come up in front of my eyes. It was mostly when I saw boys. If she had explained it more it would not have come up that way. I know a girl who does that thing. She's bad. She does it with boys too. The people said so. When I was little I imagined there were some bad girls. You can't tell, but you can guess a little. That boy had lots of things. I don't know if he took anything. It was when I was about 4 until I was 8 that I played with him. These things never came up in my mind when I was taking things. It was only when I was not busy. I was always thinking about it when I haven't anything else to do. These few little words were not enough to explain. I remember I asked my aunt once. I tried to put things together what I heard, and what words about it meant.''
The above excerpts from many interviews with this girl represent points upon which there is the least contradiction. It is obviously useless to give any more of her story because of the variation from time to time. Even on the last occasion when we talked earnestly to her before she was taken to her new home, she lied to us about a number of points. Any attempt at an accurate analysis of her impulse to steal seemed quite beyond the mark in the light of her ever-ready fabrications.
The after-history of this case is of the utmost importance. A woman of strong character took Edna and surrounded her with new interests. Conference was had with us on the nature of the case. For the next few months reports came that the girl was a liar through and through and grave doubts were entertained of ultimate success. It was after she had been tried in her new environment for 3 months that, seeing us again, she confessed that her stories about her foster father were absolutely untrue. From about this time on there has been steady improvement. No more elaborate fabrications have been indulged in. On several occasions when Edna has been late from school she has lied about it, but even that tendency for the last year has been nearly obliterated. A good deal of interest in boys has been maintained, but not with any show of immorality. There has been nothing but normal flirting; accounting for the occasions when Edna has been late from school.
At two or three periods during her new life Edna has engaged in stealing. She has taken articles for which she had no particular use and has told lies about the matter. The thieving has not been a single event, but each time has seemed to represent a state of mind she has been in, and for a week or so numerous articles have been taken. We warned her good friend to make a study of her social and mental influences at such periods. It was found then that Edna was undergoing special stress on at least one such occasion. A young man had been making up to her, and later she confided that this given period was one of great turmoil because of the renewed arousal of many ideas about sex affairs. After this there was still more attempts to win Edna's confidence about her daily experiences, including such as the above. There has been the gradual development of character, and Edna is now, two years after she was taken from her bad environment, only very occasionally guilty of falsifying, and she is otherwise trustworthy.
Our study of the causative factors of this girl's delinquency and particularly of her extraordinary lying led us to see that perhaps all of the following have a part: (a) Heredity. Father unknown. Mother a free-living woman. (b) Home conditions. Mental and moral bad influences in the home life on account of the foster mother conniving at stealing and being herself an extreme liar. (c) Psychic contagion from the atmosphere of lies in which the girl has been brought up. (d) Mental conflict arising from the suspicion of her parentage, early acquaintance with sex knowledge, and the irregular morale of her home life. (e) Bad companions, including her foster mother's friends, and boys and girls.
———————————————————————————————-Mental Conflict. Case 4.Girl, age 15 yrs.Home influences: Extremely bad, includingexcessive lying.Bad companions.Heredity (?).Delinquencies: Mentality:Much stealing. (Shop lifting, etc.) Fair ability.Excessive lying.False accusations.Sex immorality.———————————————————————————————-
Summary: A young woman of 20, bright mentally, strong physically, ``confessed'' to a professor of a university where she was studying that she had shot and killed a man. The facts were known to only three or four people and she was terribly worried about it all. Upon her information the affair was taken up by a group of professional men, one of them a lawyer of large practical experience. She aided in an investigation which attempted to uncover the ``white slave'' feature of the case. The data of verification proved most elusive. Later, the young woman implicated herself in a burglary, and altogether an elaborate story of her life was evolved. It was found that from early years she had been a great fabricator.
While a first year student at a university Marie M. begged for an interview with one of her instructors at his home and there, with him and others, she told a detailed story of how some months previously she had escaped a difficult situation by killing a man.
The exceedingly long account which was given at intervals to several professional men and enlarged upon in response to inquiry, or as the occasion otherwise demanded, we are not justified in taking space to retell. This case figures, as a whole, in somewhat anecdotal fashion among our others, we freely confess; it is cited to show the extent to which apparently purposeless fabrication can go. It has been found impossible to gain a satisfactory idea of the genesis of this young woman's tendency, quite in contrast to the other cases we have cited. It forms the only instance where we have drawn from our experience with merely partially studied cases.
Marie's story involved many items of her life since she was about 12 years of age. A distant relative who had come to know her whereabouts (she was an orphan living with friends) figured extensively in her narrative. This relative had hounded her in an effort to get her to engage in an evil life. His attentions varied greatly; sometimes for months she was not bothered with him. Once when she was on her way to Milwaukee a gray haired man approached her on the train, said he knew her relatives, they were rather a bad lot of people, and he wanted to protect her from them. Then came a long account of being driven in a carriage, changing her clothes in a hotel, having her picture taken in an immodest costume, signing a paper at police headquarters, and, at last, safely returning home, all guided by the mysterious gray haired man. Another trip led to an encounter with a man who took her in an automobile under the promise of meeting a friend. Entering a building where men carried revolvers and girls were given hypodermic injections, just as she was about to receive the needle in her arm, she reached the man's revolver and shot him in the back. Events follow swiftly in her tale, but all is thoroughly coherent, and a number of facts are included which could be substantiated. The professional men could not help being impressed and spent much valuable time before they felt convinced that it was a fabrication. The exact locations could not be discovered, but then Marie was a stranger in the city.
When we saw her the whole story was reiterated with but few changes, which, however, from the standpoint of testimony were most important. We soon found we could get direct testimony on physical features which were provably untrue. For instance, the description of a certain hallway in a building where she had gone with one of the men interested in the events was totally unlike anything that existed there. Then, too, certain embellishments, which by this time included the payment of a large check to her as hush money, a check which she as easily gave away again, seemed altogether improbable. Marie by this time was implicating herself in a burglary with this relative, and some other curious incidents were given. In all of these, as we later found, there was a central event about which her statements MIGHT have been true. There was such a burglary; she had said in previous years that she was hounded by a man, and so on. We, too, were struck by the uselessness and lack of purpose in the lying—for we soon felt assured that it was such.
Physically we found Marie to be a decidedly good specimen. She weighed about 140 lbs. Strong and firm in carriage. Vivacious in expression. The physical examination at the university had shown her to be without notable defect of any kind. We can summarize Marie's characteristics by stating that from the earliest age of which we can get satisfactory record, when she was about 10 years old, she has been persistently addicted to falsehoods. Even then she made up, without any basis, stories which puzzled many people. It is much to the point that she has been a great loser on account of this tendency; it has injured her reputation on numerous occasions and destroyed many of her good chances. When she was about 15 it was noticed that she was a great day-dreamer. She thought she could write stories and once began a novel. Much more peculiar than this was the fact that she repeatedly wrote letters to her friends which were simply a mass of fabrications, describing such things as imaginary excursions.
Tests for mental ability were not given in this case, there was no need for it. Her marks in the preparatory course were just fair. It had been noted by her teachers, as well as by her foster parents, that she was prone to have periods when attention to her work seemed difficult. Aside from her peculiarities, which showed themselves entirely in her fabricating tendency and her assumed illnesses, nothing much out of the way in her mental life had ever been noted. On several occasions she had taken to her bed, but when a physician was called, a diagnosis was given of simulation, or hysteria. Nothing like major hysterical attacks at any time occurred,
From most excellent sources of information we have obtained an account of the family history. No instance of insanity is known, but it is said there is much evidence of ignorance and superstition. Marie's mother bore a good character, but was decidedly ignorant. At about the age of 50 she made a homicidal attack upon a second husband and then killed herself. The father was an industrious and sober laborer, but unable to support his large family. At his death in Marie's early childhood the family was broken up and the ten children were distributed about. None of the children is said to be abnormal mentally, but there has been a tendency to free living, even on the part of the older sisters. It seems very sure that no other member of the family was given to telling false stories. The brothers have been inclined to be shiftless and to roam, but then the environmental conditions often have been against them. However, some of them have done well. In general, as far as Marie is concerned, it may be said early home environment was not bad except on account of poverty. Marie bears no traces of having suffered from defective conditions before or after birth. Her early developmental history appears to be negative. She has lived about in several different homes, the longest stay being about seven years. In one place she was suspected of masturbation, but we were unable to get a perfectly definite statement that she was addicted to the habit.
Two years prior to the time we knew Marie she had worked up a story of adventure in which she was the heroine. She used the telephone to call for help, stating that she stood with a revolver covering a burglar. From this incident she gained a good deal of notoriety. The police found there was nothing to the case and later Marie herself made a confession. By the time we saw her this story varied somewhat from her original statement, but was still persisted in, although she must have known that we could readily trace the actual occurrence.
After Marie had continued her stories for a few weeks while attending the university they had grown so that they included night visitations in her boarding-house from the man who was said to be hounding her, she was found once more impossible to deal with and, as her work became poorer, she had to leave. At this period it was most significant to us that in spite of her expressed desire for freedom from persecution she did not want us to look further into her case because of certain mysterious letters which would incriminate her. We felt entirely convinced that the several reports which we received of her career in preceding years gave a satisfactory clew to her character, although we were never able to analyze the case far enough to ascertain the genetic features. Thus it is impossible to make any summary of causative factors.
Summary: A thoroughly characteristic example of the type of pathological lying which led to the invention of the term pseudologia phantastica. A young woman, well endowed physically and mentally, for years has often been indulging in extensive fabrications which have no discernible basis in advantages accruing to herself. The peculiarities of the falsifications have given rise to much trouble for her, her family, and for many others who have been incidentally connected with the situation. The genesis of the tendency was finally found in early experiences about which there have been much mental repression and conflict. In the background there was also defective home control and chronic neuropathic tendencies in both parents and in their kin.
Janet B., 19 years old, we saw first in an eastern city at the request of her parents. There she had become involved in troubles which seemed particularly hard to unravel. However, we were told that this was an old story with her. A diagnosis of her mental condition was asked, and recommendations for the future. Janet had told some very peculiar stories at her place of employment where she was doing very well as a newcomer, without any seeming reason for fabrication. Several who had become interested in her were wondering if she were quite sane.
After having made her way alone to New York, Janet readily obtained employment. After a couple of weeks she approached a department manager of the concern for which she worked and related a long story, which at once aroused his sympathy. She told him that her father and mother had died in the last year and that she was entirely dependent upon herself. When she was about four years of age she had been in a terrible accident and a certain man had saved her life. Naturally, her father had always thought very highly of this person and had pensioned him. Formerly he lived up in the country with his family, but at present was old, penniless, and alone in the city. Now that her parents were dead she was in a quandary about keeping up her father's obligation to the old man. Out of her $8 a week it was hard to make both ends meet. She had to pay her own board and for this man also. She found that he needed to be taken care of in every way; she had to wash his face and dress him, he was so helpless. She made no demand for any increase of salary and the story was told evidently without any specific intent. The services of a social worker were enlisted by the firm and the girl reiterated the same story to her, even though it was clearly intended that the case should be investigated. Janet's boarding-house was visited and there she was found to be living with distant relatives whom she had searched out upon her arrival in the city. They knew she had run away from home and, indeed, by this time the mother herself was already in New York, having been sent for by them.
The situation then became more complicated through the girl's giving more explanatory details to the social worker, somewhat accusing her own family. It was at this time I first saw her. She then acknowledged that this story of a man who had saved her life was purely an invention. Now she stated that in the western town where she lived she had been engaged to a young man who was discovered to be a defaulter and who had recently died. When this fellow was in trouble, his mother, while calling on Janet's family, used to make signals to her and leave notes under the table cover, asking for funds with which to help him out. This was a great strain upon Janet and even more so was his death. She could stand it no longer and fled the city. Her lover's stealing was a secret which she had kept from her own family.
Before we had become acquainted with the true facts about the family this girl gave us most extensive accounts of various phases of her home life which included the most unlikely and contradictory details. For instance, they had a large house with beautiful grounds, yet before she left home she bought a sewing machine for her mother, which she is paying for on weekly installments. Her $8 a week is very little for her to live on because she is paying this indebtedness. Janet wishes now to take out a twenty year endowment policy in favor of her mother. Her brothers and sister are all very bright, she tells us, but she has never been particularly close to any member of her family except her mother. The others always remind her that they are better educated than she is. She expects to take up French and Spanish in the evenings because they would be very helpful to her commercially. She does not care to grow up, prefers simple enjoyments, and has no desire for social affairs. She is only desirous of improving her education. She relates her success as a Sunday School teacher. She thinks at times she is very nervous, and especially when she was in the high school she showed signs of it. Then she used to stutter much, but of late she has been able to control this.
At another time, very glibly and without the slightest show of emotion, she continues with her story. Tells of frequent fainting spells when she goes from one attack into another. She has not had them just recently, but she used to have them at home. Tells us now that her mother has been very sick and she has been worrying much about her. She wanted to send money to her and help support her. `It's awfully hard on one to know your mother is terribly sick and to think you can't reach her if anything should happen.'' (It is to be remembered that all this was told when the girl must have known, if she had thought at all, that we would certainly get the full facts in a day or so.)
On the physical side we found a very well developed and well nourished young woman. Weight 148 lbs. No sensory defect noted. Moderately coarse features, broad deep chest, quiet and strong attitude. No signs whatever of nervousness. Her only complaint at present is of headaches and ``quivering'' attacks. (We could get no corroboration at all of either of these from any one else.) She frequently spoke of herself as entirely healthy except for these slight ailments. Some months later, vide infra, it was discovered that Janet had a chronic pelvic trouble. The most notable finding was Janet's facial expression when confronted by some of her incongruities of behavior. Then she assumed a most peculiar, open-eyed, wondering, dumb expression. When flatly told a certain part of her story was falsehood, she looked one straight in the eyes and said in a wonderfully demure and semi-sorrowful manner, ``I am sorry you think so.'' Her expression was sincere enough to make even experienced observers half think they must themselves be wrong.
On the mental side she demonstrated good ability in many ways. She had been through two years of high school and showed evidences of her training. We tested her for a number of different capacities and, with one exception, we found all through that she did fairly satisfactory work, showing herself to have normal mental capabilities and control.
This exception was in the ``Aussage'' or testimony test. Here in reporting on our standard picture she gave in free recital 17 items, which is a fair result, but she added several incorrect details. On questioning she gave 12 more items, but invented still more details. Of the seven standard suggestions offered she very curiously accepted only one, and that not important. As an example of how she would supply details from her fancy is the following: The picture represents a little girl standing by the side of an older person. Janet said it was a little boy, that he had his hands in his pockets, a muffler on his neck, a stocking cap on his head, and black shoes and stockings. All of these were voluntarily offered and all were incorrect.
Beyond this curious performance, and her peculiar lack of foresight and shrewdness, or whatever it is that causes her so readily to falsify and fabricate, we found not the slightest evidence of aberration. Her conversation was coherent and to the point.
In the information obtained from the intelligent parents the following points stand out clearly. The heredity is of interest. There has been no known case of feeblemindedness, insanity, or epilepsy on either side, but there is a great admixture of very good with quite unstable qualities. This is true of both sides. Some members of the family have taken high positions in the community, and been exceptionally endowed mentally. Others have been notoriously lacking in stability. We are informed that on one side some have shown a marked inclination for tampering with the truth, and it is suggested that Janet's tendency is the result of early influence. The care of an incompetent grandmother, whose word was notoriously untrustworthy, devolved upon the family and it was impossible to prevent Janet from being much with her. All of the children were aware of the old lady's untruthfulness. One of Janet's parents had been addicted to narcotics, but had managed to shake off the habit. The other parent has had a severe attack of ``nervous prostration,'' largely induced, it is maintained, by worry over family affairs. It is most interesting to note that the other children, two boys and one girl, have turned out remarkably well; two being university graduates, and all being very stable in character. Both parents are people of good moral ideals, and in spite of their own nervous defects have given their children very good care.
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 understandingand control, although ordinarily goodhome. Early acquaintance with lying.Heredity: neuropathic tendencies onboth sides.Delinquencies: Mentality:Excessive lying. Ability well up toRunaway. the ordinary.———————————————————————————————-
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.) ———————————————————————————————-
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.