CASE HISTORIES 83 



In the following interviews he aired lengthy grievances about 

 his detention and mistreatment. To contradict or reason with 

 him led to an unending maze of argument in which he delighted. 

 I finally stopped it short and said I was more interested in his 

 owr 'Noughts than in what other people had done to him. He 

 reproached me for not taking more interest in his grievances. 

 " If I had been a pretty girl, you'd have waked up, straightened 

 your back, and said, ' Miss Quitner, we'll look into this and see 

 what can be done.' ("But you wouldn't want to be treated like 

 a girl.") Yes I would. ("That would be favoritism, not jus- 

 tice.") Then I want favoritism. I'm looking out for number 

 one. I want sympathy. 



" In tough neighborhoods one has to be tough because if one 

 is too pleasant and soft, they may take you for a fruiter (fella- 

 tionist) or a bushwhacker (cunnilinguist). Such fellows are 

 soft and easy and dreamy like Engel. I found out in the navy 

 that there were two classes of men, those who stood up for their 

 rights and those who gave in. (It was clear that he had trained 

 himself to be touchy and instantly to resent with force any slight, 

 an overcompensation for feelings of inferiority and fear of being 

 considered a pervert. Ulster in his restlessness struck him one 

 day, and he reacted exaggeratedly, attacking Ulster so violently 

 that he broke one of his own fingers.) Middle-aged pederasts are 

 called Turks. They go insane. They suffer from it more than 

 the boy they do it to. It's dangerous on board ship for boys. I 

 used to warn them of the danger, and the Turks in revenge made 

 things disagreeable for me." 



He showed some antipathy to the women nurses and the 

 occupational therapist, and was exceedingly conceited, believing 

 he knew more than the physicians. This made psychoanalytic 

 work with him difficult. He already was aware, however, that 

 children had attributes of both sexes and must develop those of 

 their own sex, neglecting those of the other sex. This he had 

 striven to do. He was intelligent enough to grasp the conception 

 of mental mechanisms well, but he felt reluctant to give up his 

 dearly loved spirit voices. He even wrote a poem about them 

 which he called Babies in Fairyland. 



