12 CASE HISTORIES 



ported them was a protective device against the painful realiza- 

 tion that he had done nothing but sponge off them for fifteen 

 years. He gave up in early adolescence the struggle for a con- 

 structive life and retired into himself and the easy satisfactions 

 of autoeroticism. 



CARHART 



History: He was a pleasant, courteous little fellow nearly 

 twenty-one years old. He was the second of five children. The 

 father was a musician. Nothing was known of the family 

 history, but a photograph of the mother showed a woman with 

 a tense, high-strung face. As a child he said he was active, play- 

 ing first with hoops and carts, and later bicycling and playing 

 baseball, football, tennis and swimming. He was very imagina- 

 tive and loved fairy stories. He would imagine toys he did not 

 possess and play with imaginary toy forts and soldiers. He 

 wanted the things money would buy and envied the rich riding 

 past in their automobiles. 



He said he was happy as a schoolboy, got along well in 

 school, and was considered a good fellow. He never failed to 

 pass and finished the eighth grade at the age of fourteen. He 

 wanted to continue into high school, but his father said he could 

 not afford to support him any longer and got him a job as office 

 boy. For two years he attended night business school. He was 

 very ambitious to earn money. At the outbreak of the war he 

 enlisted and saw service at the front in a machine gun unit. The 

 horrors of battle, the noise and blood and death made a deep 

 impression on him, but he did not break down under the strain. 

 After the armistice he was sent to Coblenz in the army of occupa- 

 tion. He returned with his regiment to the United States in the 

 summer of 1919 and was discharged from the service. The 

 family had moved to Chicago during his absence. He rejoined 

 them there and got a position as clerk in an office. 



He didn't get on well in his work and suffered a great deal 

 from "nervousness." His mind began to be "torn up, and he 

 couldn't look people in the face." He became depressed and 

 once stepped purposely in front of an approaching automobile, 

 "but something seemed to pull him back." He entered a local 



