38 CASE HISTORIES 



him, saying people wanted to shoot and kill him. He was sent 

 home, and arrived there in great terror. They soon took him to 

 a state hospital, where he remained for a couple of years during 

 which he made long visits home but could not adequately adjust. 



He had some delusions about his eyes, and hung up a picture 

 of a skull on the wall with eyes punched out and strings running 

 from the holes to all parts of the room. A photograph of his 

 father he called the devil, one of his mother was God, and one 

 of himself was Christ. He said he could turn anything into 

 stone. He got careless of his personal appearance, slept on the 

 floor, and ate with his fingers. The family noticed that he 

 didn't like to be kissed by his mother, aunt, and brothers, and 

 his attitude toward his mother alternated between strong affec- 

 tion and angry aversion. He would spend two hours in the tub 

 and lay with his head also under water. Several times he ran 

 away from home and came back a day or two later disheveled 

 and famished. He never would give any adequate explanation 

 of his behavior. They tried him on farm work as a last resort, 

 but he could not keep his mind on his work. He would stop and 

 laugh to himself. When asked what he was laughing at, he 

 would say at the dog or give some other transparent excuse. He 

 was finally brought to St. Elizabeths. 



Sex life: He had no intention of giving out any information 

 he could possibly hide, and probably feared that he might divulge 

 something that would prove he was sick. He insisted he was all 

 right and ought to be let out. I managed to draw out that he had 

 masturbated about once a month (he told a brother he had done it 

 as often as two or three times a day), and that he had tried 

 heterosexual intercourse at twelve. That was the only attempt, 

 he hadn't much desire later and he felt bashful with girls. 

 Perversions he denied. 



Fantasies: He denied all hallucinations and delusions and 

 gave no outward sign of any. I told him the story of (Edipus, 

 and at the mention of mother incest dreams he broke into a 

 sudden knowing smile. ("Did you ever have one?") "Not 

 often, not for a long time." When I pushed the question, he 

 denied he had ever had one. 



