7O CASE HISTORIES 



These escapades infuriated his father who punished him brutally. 

 He was tied up by the thumbs naked and beaten with straps, and 

 chained in the attic and fed only bread and water. The boy 

 would loose himself and escape by climbing down the water 

 spouts. When his father was drunk he was knocked and kicked 

 about. The mother tried to protect him and even stepped between 

 them, receiving the blows herself. The next brother two years 

 younger, was a pet and didn't get such abuse, so the patient felt 

 jealous and used to beat him up himself, though he would not 

 allow the other boys to do it. 



When he was seventeen he was framed up on a charge of 

 stealing coal from cars, while all he had really done, he claimed, 

 was to pick it from the tracks. He was sentenced to reform 

 school for a year, and this injustice started his tendency to be 

 suspicious. He was unruly in the school and was frequently 

 punished. This lengthened his term from one year to three. 

 From his associates he received a thorough schooling in crime 

 which he never put into practice however. 



Before his term was up, his father was accidentally electro- 

 cuted, and he was pardoned. He realized now that he ought to 

 take his father's place in the family, but he lacked self-confidence 

 and felt unworthy and unequal to the task. He noticed that his 

 affection for his mother seemed to change over to the memory 

 of his father. He wanted him back and cooled down towards 

 her. 



The Spanish War broke out a few months later and he en- 

 listed gladly as a means of escape. On his return from Porto 

 Rico he had fever and was depressed. He felt that humanity 

 was cruel and that life was a fight. He was not skilled in any 

 trade and had trouble in getting work. The next youngest brother 

 was away at work and the other boys were in charity institutions, 

 so he and his mother lived alone. When she got drunk she 

 had spells of raving during which he held her on the floor. This 

 made him feel very badly. He had contracted gonorrhea in the 

 army and began to worry over whether he might infect her with 

 it. When I asked him just how he feared he might infect her, he 

 said through using the same towels. Finally he abandoned her in 



