1 8 CASE HISTORIES 



He was reticent about making me his confidant, saying it took 

 him a long time to decide who was a friend, but that once 

 accepted as a friend, always a friend. He told about his family 

 and how united they were. If he should marry he would bring 

 his wife to his parents' home, he couldn't be separated from them. 

 Or better still, her parents would come also, and they would all 

 live together. He called his parents daddy and mama. In the 

 army he learned to call them father and mother, but now he 

 preferred to use the old names again. I told him the story of 

 Oedipus, and he was intensely interested, but when I went on to 

 narcissism, bisexuality and homosexuality he jumped to his feet, 

 and said he must leave the office, he wanted to lie down and sleep. 

 This was his usual reaction to any attempt to discuss these pain- 

 ful subjects. 



He behaved so well that he was given parole of the grounds. One 

 day, however, he demanded to see the superintendent about being 

 discharged, and when told the latter was not in his office he be- 

 came excited and created something of a scene in the administra- 

 tion building. His physician took away his parole, and he became 

 very despondent. " My confidence has been broken by being 

 kept here like in prison. I don't want to spend my life here. It's 

 a shame. I give up now. After what I did for my country this 

 is the treatment I get." He grew rather careless in dress and left 

 off his collar. He was warned that his physician would regard un- 

 tidiness as a sign he was getting sicker, and he put the collar 

 back on. 



Through promise of good behavior his parole was restored. 

 He said if he should go home now he would go out in the woods 

 and die. The hobo life attracted him. He hadn't known the 

 world could be so harsh and cruel. He refused to acknowledge 

 he was sick and would not become reconciled to waiting until the 

 physicians considered him cured. He began to withdraw more 

 into himself. The night nurse reported he cried a good deal in 

 bed. He refused to join in the occupational work any longer, 

 and said the doctors didn't know anything. One evening he 

 broke parole and went to town. He had no money but got a 

 night's lodging in a mission and saw the sights of the city the 



