CASE HISTORIES 53 



threatened to kill him, said the devil must keep away from him, 

 ordered him to commit fellatio and cunnilingus and submit to 

 fellatio, and compared a mouth to a vulva and wanted mouths 

 and vulvas to kiss one another. They never mentioned pederasty. 



He dreamed of his parents as he remembered seeing them at 

 the time of their death, on bed and in casket, and it made him 

 feel badly, for if they had lived he would have had more advan- 

 tages and not been forced to go to work too young. 



General observations: He was a thin nervous fellow, awk- 

 ward, restless, and emotional, and with protruding eyes. His 

 behavior was unvaryingly good, but he said he often felt very 

 irritable and just like springing at people and walloping them. 

 He had no insight into his psychosis and insisted that he really 

 did see and hear these things. If other people couldn't, they 

 were the ones that were crazy, not he. He was very stubborn 

 and obstinate in clinging to his delusions and did not want to 

 listen to any psychological explanations, but interrupted constantly 

 to give the true version, namely his. He was, nevertheless, 

 always courteous, friendly and humorous. 



After working for two months I had made no progress what- 

 ever with him. Then he pricked his thumb and got a severe 

 infection of his whole left hand and wrist during which part of 

 the thumb had to be amputated. He was sick for a month 

 and meanwhile his psychosis evaporated. "The voices and all 

 are dying away, and I see no more visions. The voices told me 

 those strange things. Perhaps they were fakers and didn't tell 

 the truth. I don't believe them now. Once in a great while I 

 hear a voice but I pay no attention to it. I had a mental disease, 

 I guess. After they put me under ether to cut off my thumb the 

 visions began leaving. There was something inside me, talking 

 to me and trying to control me. It sets your brain on fire. You 

 don't know what you are doing. You might go out of your 

 head completely. I wouldn't give in, I fought it. The voices 

 asked if I did fellatio and cunnilingus as if they wanted me 

 to start doing them." 



During the month following this explanation he gained phys- 

 ically and in emotional control, and then gave this version, "There 

 was a struggle on all the time, some force trying to get control 



