MENTAL CONFLICTS AND MISCONDUCT The Individual Delinquent Mental Conflicts and Misconduct Jgj> William l^ealp, M.'B, anb iflarp tKenncp ^ealp Pathological Lying, Accusation and Swindling MENTAL CONFLICTS AND MISCONDUCT BY WILLIAM HEALY DIRECTOR PSYCHOPATHIC INSTITUTE JUVENILE COURT, CHICAGO 46G35 BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1923 Copyright, 1917, Bt Little, Brown, and Company. All rights reserved I ti l,*tt, «.fc<.». I V tl vvt,l. ,. etc £ C t .<•.>. I I ^' t ^ eel c- c TO ELMER ERNEST SOUTHARD IN TOKEN OF ADMIRATION WHICH A LONG STRETCH OF YEARS HAS NOT DIMMED ■> ■ ■-Ji ■>v. The endowment of the Juvenile Psychopathic Insti- ^ tute for five years through the generosity of Mrs. W. F. Dummer first made possible the studies of which this . volume represents a part. ^ ^»- PREFACE The great value of understanding] the foundations of conduct is clearly shown by such living facts as are gathered together in this volume. Bearing upon one type of causation of misconduct, we have here not only a rational psychological theory, but also abundant concrete material. An important field is opened before us, especially interesting because of the revelation (a) of potent subconscious mental mechanisms working ac- cording to definite laws of mental life, and (6) of types of hidden early experiences which definitely evoke these mental processes that are forerunners of misconduct. Troublesome behavior, originating in the experiences and mechanisms here under discussion, ranges widely from mere faults of social attitude to severe delinquency and crime dependent upon uncontrolled anti-social motivation or impulse. Cases having this causation occur so frequently that specific knowledge of their nature should be part of the equipment of all who have to pass judgment or to advise concerning mis- doing and misdoers. Much reliance has always been placed upon the idea that admonition and punishment is an effectual way of meeting undesirable conduct. However, even X PREFACE the simplest observations show the very great failure of these methods. No thoroughly effective scheme of punishment can be part of our civilization. We have set our faces against barbaric retribution and absolute prevention of offense. Some of us even hesitate at corporal punishment of children. So far as delinquency and crime are concerned, with more or less self -con- sciousness and with much groping towards progress, we stand nowadays, with our reformatories and pro- bation systems and what-not, definitely for the prin- ciple of inducing in the offender self -directed tendencies towards more desirable behavior. It requires little discernment to see how deeply the success of such undertakings must depend on wise adaptation to the causes of misconduct. The remarkable results following upon exploration of mental conflicts, at least when there has been any fair chance for building up better impulses in these cases we have been studying, show most concretely how earnest seeking for causes forms the effective approach to treatment of misconduct. Before the reader goes into the body of the work, I would have It thoroughly understood that our studies are tied to no one psychological school. The efforts at mental analysis which are here represented have been stimulated more by uncovering facts than by any theories, although I gratefully acknowledge the help to appreciation of principles which has been derived from various writers on psychoanalysis and kindred topics. It has been no small aid to scientific convic- tion that many others, even though working In sepa- rate fields, clearly discern that often there are covert mental mechanisms basically affecting attitudes and conduct. PREFACE xi The reader who profits by this work is, with the author, especially indebted to Doctor Augusta F. Bronner for her studies of cases and her aid in the preparation of this volume. WILLIAM HEALY. WiNNETKA, Illinois, November, 1916. I I CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Preface ix I Introduction 1 II General Principles 15 III Applications 34 IV Methods 55 V Conflicts Accompanied by Obsessive Imagery . 78 VI Conflicts Causing Impelling Ideas ... 97 Vll Criminal Careers Developed from Conflicts . 113 VIII Cases Readily Analyzed 148 IX Difficult Cases 167 X Conflict Arising from Sex Experiences . .183 XI Conflicts Arising from Secret Sex Knowledge 194 XII Conflicts Concerning Parentage or Other Matters , . 213 XIII Conflicts in Abnormal Mental Types . . 226 XIV Conflicts Resulting in Stealing . . . 243 XV Conflicts Resulting in Running Away . . 275 XVI Conflicts Resulting in Other Delinquencies . 292 XVII Conclusions 312 Index . " 327 MENTAL CONFLICTS AND MISCONDUCT CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A REMARKABLE, dynamic quality characterizing certain hidden mental reactions to experiences is responsible in some individuals for the production of misconduct, or, indeed, whole careers of delinquency. These experiences and reactions not only develop as an unrecognized background in the special case (they often are not even consciously framed as causal in the offender's own mind), but the fact of the existence of this type of mental causation is yet to be made a part of general knowledge. It is my task to set forth with abundant illustration the nature of these most im- portant mechanisms of mental life. In view of the newness of the idea of searching out mental factors of conduct, we have waited several years to see if the discovery of these apparently defi- nite psychological principles held true for an ample number of cases ; meanwhile watching the effects of attempts to adjust affairs in the mental life of certain offenders. Sufficient time has thus elapsed, and our studies are now ready for detailed publication. They 1 2 MENTAL CONFLICTS will have for many the greatest interest of any of our findings. Some general facts may first be stated. In the consultation room with parents and even with delin- quents themselves, or during court hearings, or in considering the statements of probation oflBcers who have striven to avert further misdoing, sometimes a curious aspect of the case becomes apparent. It may stand out clearly that the individual experiences a distinct inner urge towards misdoing — misdoing that often leads to little else than anxious apprehen- sion and other suffering on the part of the misdoer. The painfulness of these effects, even as a repeated experience, is not only apparent to the observer, but may be well recognized by the delinquent. This untoward drive of something in the concealed mental Jife is seen already in young children, is much more frequent in adolescents, and undoubtedly exists in many adults. In the last, however, the long and strong effects of environmental conditions and habits cover deeply the evidences of original forces. What do such formidable urgings represent.'* It is clear to the onlooker that the inner driving force does not proclaim itself in any way as such, that it takes little heed of reason or prudence, that it ex- hibits a strange energy from a source so unsuspected. Then, if sincere and patient investigation is under- taken with the delinquent, the whole phenomenon may be revealed as a reaction to component parts of mental life and to certain prior experiences. Hardly ever is the chain of causation found to have been self- perceived or self-formulated. Relationship of the active misconduct, regarded as effect, to the under- lying cause, is anything but obvious on account of INTRODUCTION 3 repression of the original trouble-producing ideas and emotions. Here superficial facts are thoroughly mis- leading in regard to antecedents. The displayed energy is only to be traced back along devious or vicarious paths to a distant, pent-up source, where the tendency to action is generated through the high emotional import of the original experience and of the mental states superimposed. In such a case the re- pressions, the escape of energy along undesirable channels, the outcome in misconduct truly represent mental strife, mental conflict. For readers unfamiliar with certain trends of thought now influencing psychology and particularly psycho- logical medicine I may say that if the above terse statement does not seem entirely comprehensible, the subject receives further elucidation in the dis- cussion of principles and] methods of studying cases offered in following chapters. There is no need for lack of clarity in treating this most interesting phase of mental life ; I deal with it only along a road that is well lighted by ascertained data. The concrete- ness of the case illustrations will certainly serve to bring about good understanding of what can be dis- covered and what can be done in cases of misconduct of the type we have under consideration. The study and interpretation of these specially in- volved mental mechanisms, for so they are well-termed, in their relation to misconduct, I have all along felt should proceed with full conservatism. It can read- ily be seen that we have not in the least overdone the central idea, have not drawn far-fetched conclusions, or been carried away by the dicta of writers who perceive the wealth of possible theory involved in discussion of hidden mental backgrounds. It is likely, rather, 4 MENTAL CONFLICTS that some students ardently seeking mental causa- tions in the field of medical psychology will feel that we have not done justice to the interpretation of many subtleties. More concerning the intricacies of the subject will be developed in later parts of this work, but such points always appear to us of much less importance than grappling the main issue. The evolution of our own thought concerning the relation of mental conflicts to misconduct has been singularly simple and direct. It proceeded from no a priori expectation or formulation of principles. Indeed, until quite ingenuous inquiry into the springs of conduct elicited this type of fact for us, we were not aware that mental conflict played any part here. The analogy to what has been discovered in other fields by mental analysis or psychoanalysis, particu- larly as applied to functional nervous disorders which are, after all, largely problems of conduct, was per- ceived later. Starting thus firmly with actual facts, we have continuously attempted further investigation only with our feet well on the ground. I speak par- ticularly of this because in some quarters the concept of mental conflicts seems to have offered wings for soaring high in the realms of speculative thought. Many nonprofessional people will balk, no doubt, at the diflSculties implied in our insistence on the necessity for such intensive study of not a few cases of misdoing. Certainly parents and others most intimately concerned, while often the very ones who suggest investigation, too frequently show themselves, as may be seen by our case material, quite unable to grasp the purport of the results of investigation. And seriously significant here is the well-rooted general supposition that tendencies to misdoing can be cor- INTRODUCTION rected by superficial attitudes towards them, such, for instance, as the administration of ordinary forms of retribution. But, indeed, in view of failures to induce moral reconstruction, ranging from attempts in family life to those undertaken by the law, failures shown by statistics and by individual cases, there should be no objections because of the comparative difficulty of getting at underlying causes. The main situation to be comprehended is that the human mind is an immensely complex organism, and that if we are to cope with its conduct-producing powers, we must know them. Obstacles to knowledge may be encountered, but form no excuse if they are not insurmountable. After all, in at least fairly intel- ligent and young individuals, our experience shows that the deep-lying essentials may usually be ascer- tained. The task requires skill in appreciations and discernments, and acquaintance with special methods ; the time demanded is only such as any serious human problem deserves. There is no reason, with the spread of knowledge concerning this subject, why we may not rationally expect a rapid growth of demand for such thorough study of difficult cases of delinquency as may bring to light the fact of mental conflict when it exists. It would hardly do to define "difficult cases" as merely those instances of delinquency generally regarded as hard to explain, because superficial accounting for wrongdoing is altogether too common. We con- tinually meet all sorts of rough-and-ready explanations of delinquency offered by everybody, from parents to experienced judges — explanations which seem en- tirely satisfactory as a theory to the person offering them, even when the field of inquiry in the given case 6 MENTAL CONFLICTS has not in the least been covered. In our case-histo- ries, if it were worth while, considerable space might be given to citing the various false causal interpreta- tions which had been passed along as if they represented known facts. As a contrast to this, I may insist that other workers will have just our experiences in discovery if they assume the highly practical task of intimately study- ing the causative factors of delinquency. It was not long before we were forced to the conclusion that such information as might be obtained by mental testing, physical examination, by learning the main points of developmental and family history, and by inquiring into companionship and other environmental condi- tions, was absolutely insufficient to explain the essen- tials of the development of a marked tendency to delinquency in certain cases. Certain elements of inner mental life had to be sought out and invoked for explanation, even if practical issues alone were in view. If there Is practical value in this deeper investigation it must be evidenced by positive, determinable, thera- peutic results. Not only do I grant this point, but I have always insisted on it since I first realized how mental analysis, as a general method, tends to work over into the field of psychology of conduct. It may be said at once that some early cases gave such un- mistakable proof of the possibility of great service being rendered through ascertaining the mental con- flict back of the misconduct, that since then there has never been with us serious doubt of the worth of this method. Our case-studies, as given later, will sustain the point. In fact, even the failures — from which I contend we may learn nearly as much as from sue- INTRODUCTION 7 cesses — often show the continued existence of just those elements which we clearly recognized it was nec- essary to eliminate from the environment or from the mind in order that the correlated conduct-tendencies might be altered. In the literature dealing with delinquency and crime we must plead that practically no help or hint was to be found concerning the import of mental conflicts for the production of misconduct ; as a matter of fact the present volume offers the first approximation to a careful study on the subject. However, in the pub- lications of a number of students of mental analysis or psychoanalysis, we have found much that has aided our understanding of the mental life uncovered to us by our own cases. Something of our debt to other investigators will appear in later chapters ; here I will merely state, in general, that the deeper strata of the mind that experts have tapped in their endeavor to study the foundations of the neuroses have revealed data that serve to strengthen greatly some of our findings. How important this subject of mental conflicts really is in relation to delinquency, as witnessed to by-- the proportionate number of cases, is a question already, no doubt, in the minds of some readers. It would be difficult to give an estimate that might serve as an indicator for any given situation. We are uncertain even about the totals in our own series. (We find no practical difference between the proportions for each sex.) In our first thousand cases of youthful recidivists we found seventy-three instances where mental conflict was a main cause of the delinquency, but during the first year or more of our work we were not aware of the possible frequency of this factor and 8 MENTAL CONFLICTS very likely did not always discover it. Even later we have undoubtedly failed sometimes to ascertain this essential fact ; it is by no means always easy to uncover the conflict. In the second series of a thou- sand recidivists, studied by Doctor Augusta F. Bronner and myself during two years, although we found seventy-four examples of mental conflict, we, again, would be far from contending that this number repre- sents the true total. Many times, in the exigencies of court work, only the comparatively superficial facts of mental and physical conditions, with some points about family and habits and environment, have been elicited. But even our incomplete showing of over seven per cent, for each series looms large enough to demonstrate the considerable importance of this cause, and to show that any student of unselected delinquents is very likely to see many of these par- ticularly intricate cases. Much more important than the matter of numbers is the fact that, on account of the recurrence of the impulse to misbehavior, amounting at times almost to a criminalistic compulsion, some of the most impor- tant cases of delinquency are those involving the prob- lem of mental conflict. The cases cited will amply demonstrate this. Over many years conduct may be tinged with a malign show of anti-social tendencies, and in some cases a very definite, unfortunate social attitude is assumed. Indeed, a long career of mis- deeds may be evolved from the primary cause and its renewals. Even in this introductory chapter I would emphasize other incident factors, over and beyond the original mental experience and its repression, which enter into the making of delinquent careers upon a basis of INTRODUCTION 9 mental conflict. In the first place it may be, as often suggested, that a special type of temperament is in part responsible for this given reaction. Possibly this is so, but, of course, the fact implies no mental abnor- mality ; indeed, it may well be that individuals par- ticularly well endowed in emotional qualities and finer feelings are the more prone to suffer from mental repressions and conflicts. Then, next, may be mentioned certain superimposed elements entering into the making of delinquent tend- encies in these cases of mental conflict, not that they are always present as major factors, but the chance of their playing an important part is so great that con- sideration of them is ever necessary. To enumerate : the thought or impulse as once held may very likely crop up again in the mind through the active forces of memory and of association and habit formation. Then there may be persisting environmental influences which further the development of the delinquent tend- ency, even though the genesis of the latter has been for the most part a matter of the inner mental life. There are the suggestions coming from various fea- tures of living conditions in an old neighborhood, from an already achieved reputation, from old asso- ciates in delinquency, or from companions known while under detention. There is the sorry effect of a bad reputation upon chances for employment, and the effect of police surveillance, — warranted, of course, but which leads to the former delinquent continually looking upon himself as a possible offender. Even a family attitude towards an offender may have the same result. We have watched all of these adventitious forces at work in some cases and have observed that where no change of conditions has been carried out, 10 MENTAL CONFLICTS the continuance of the tendency to offense has seemed inevitable. CompHcated and difficult for treatment as the situation may sometimes appear, the various elements are not indistinguishable. The problem in any one of these cases where other elements are added to the original mental conflict is typically the prob- lem of reformation of criminals in general ; there are many social maladjustments which stand in the way of betterment. The interest and import that this whole subject of the relationship of mental conflicts to misconduct should have for a wide range of readers is just the interest and import that the study of causations should have for all those concerned in any way with the problems of conduct. First there are the parents ; they could be saved a vast deal of trouble and disgrace if they understood and could head off delinquent ten- dencies at the time of beginnings. Perhaps nothing stands out any clearer in our cases than the fact that those nearest have been totally ignorant of what has been going on in the mental life of the young persons in question, and often have not known of exceedingly important experiences. Then, teachers, if acquainted at all with this subject, might often surmise enough to at least advise professional investigation. Judges and probation ofiicers, who see the well-defined cases of delinquency, often gather facts concerning the delin- quent which should suggest every reason for deep inquiry into causes and beginnings. The observed ineffectiveness of attempted superficial remedies under the law, in many cases, should be sufficient to demon- strate the necessity for thoughtful, patient, profes- sional consideration of all that could possibly cause the misconduct. Perhaps we might also say that INTRODUCTION 11 institutional people, by vocation engaged in handling delinquents, are falling short of their highest duties and greatest possibilities if they, in their turn, are not searching for all things curative. And as for pastors and all who attempt moral guidance, it is perfectly patent that they can hardly be thoroughly qualified for their attempts in many directions if they do not have as part of their armamentarium knowledge of the essential facts pertaining to the genesis of misdoing. Who professionally shall be the analyst to delve into genetics in the actual case depends in any given situation upon who is personally suited and educated for the task. It is a work for medicopsychologists and perhaps for psychologists untrained in medicine, but it also strikes one that it is a rich field for properly equipped pastors, — men who, on account of their very calling, should be trained to fathom the founda- tions of conduct. The bearing of such findings as ours on the whole scheme of handling offenders under the law is as striking as it is obvious. It might well serve as a theme for many a discussion. Few words are here necessary ; we and many others have long since dwelled on the to-be-expected inefficiency of any system con- structed by the law for handling human beings which is not founded on first principles of understandings. What can be expected if no early effort is made to discover the dynamic sources from which delinquency emanates ? A great variety of misconduct arises upon the basis ^ of mental conflict. In our observed cases, the range is from the less serious, but sustained bad behavior of childhood, to deeds of actual crime. As will be seen in the following list, there is little in the way of mis- 12 MENTAL CONFLICTS behavior to which mental conflict may not lead. We have seen examples of : General troublesomeness and mischief making, in- cluding destructiveness. Stubbornness, obstinacy, chronic willfulness. Truancy. Remaining out over night and running away from home. Vagrancy. Stealing, including pathological stealing. (We desire to avoid the use of the ill-defined term "kleptomania. ") Obtaining money by false representations. Forgery. Exhibition of bad temper. General violent be- havior. Deliberate malicious mischief and violence. Sexual offenses.^ Cruelty — sadistic offenses. Self-injury of the nature of masochistic offenses. Injury to others, or attempt to injure. (It should be readily conceded that the social sins defined by the law do not represent any deeper per- versities and often are not as significant for the pro- duction of unhappiness as are many of the chronic exhibitions of ugly family attitude, of selfishness, miser- liness, bad temper, of overbearing or unfair business methods. And we doubt not that many of these other forms of ill conduct also may arise from subconscious mental conflicts. Indeed, analysts of mental processes have recently been showing this to be true.) ^ 1 In our chapter on Applications we have given the reasons for limiting our discussion of sexualistic offenses. * O. Pfister's analytic researches into the causes of family hatred offer an instance. Jahrhuch fur Psychoanalytische Forschungen, Bd. II, Heft 1, 1910. INTRODUCTION 13 In the detailed histories of specific cases which fol- low my general discussion, nearly all the above offenses are represented. Cases have been selected as they portray types of causal experiences, of mental content induced by these experiences, of varieties of resultant misconduct, and sometimes to illustrate other features of special importance. The cases are placed in chap- ters, according to their emphasis of some particular point. Since the general elements are active in each instance, much overlapping is unavoidable; cases of stealing, for example, are depicted in other chapters than the one especially devoted to stealing. It will be readily understood that space for our very long records cannot be afforded, since it seems desirable to give a considerable variety of cases, that the abridg- ments indulged in omit the details of the actual diffi- culties encountered in getting at the conflicts, that investigations resulting negatively and many other minor points are neglected, that personalities and places are always disguised beyond recognition. Those 9vho wish to understand the subject and its bearings are invited to read closely this most informing con- crete material. As a final introductory word, I would suggest that if motives and impulses, acting recurrently until they signify tendencies and careers, arise out of the sub- conscious mental life of the individual, the fact must imply vastly more than is involved in the discussion of delinquency. We may reasonably at once think of such possible origin for other kinds of behavior, for social self-assertions, for the pettier unpleasant atti- tudes and frames of mind, for undefined dissatisfac- tions and social dislikes. Even many impulses to good behavior and to select desirable paths of actions 14 MENTAL CONFLICTS probably arise from mechanisms active in subconscious mental life. At present one may look forward to extremely interesting investigations along this line, with considerable hint of possible accretions to our knowledge already appearing in recent literature on human motives and conduct. At least, the signifi- cance of genetics in the field of conduct problems is not limited to behavior of a special group, or to society's interest in delinquency and crime. Broader horizons dawn for the student of origins of conduct-tendencies. CHAPTER II GENERAL PRINCIPLES Concrete findings, rather than theories, have gradually formed the framework of our ideas concern- ing the relationship of mental conflicts to misconduct. The whole conception is valuably strengthened, how- ever, by formulation of such generalizations as may be rationally evolved from our collected data. Then, there is much of interest in reviewing these larger con- siderations by the side of certain psychological de- ductions developed through analogous work in other fields. It has been most fortunate for our investiga- tion that in the last decade or so working methods and principles of dynamic psj'chology have been established which are especially heli)ful for the under- standing of certain causes of conduct disorders. At the very outset of any setting forth of principles, I would emphasize the most fundamental of all facts concerning this subject, namely, that the use of the genetic method opens the way, as nothing else does, to the most formidable attacks upon misconduct. One might expect any thoroughly common-sense method to include an effort to go back to beginnings in order to arrive at understandings, yes, and in order to ac- complish reformations, although this only too seldom accords with actual practice. But through results 15 16 MENTAL CONFLICTS actually achieved — in the form of wider explanatory vistas gained and conduct-tendencies altered in indi- vidual cases — there need be no mere conjecture about the matter ; we discover many definite evidences of the practical utility of studying causations. Another main consideration is that we find our- selves here working in the field of dynamics. It is not so much what the individual is structurally, so far as the mental powers are measurable, but what the mental forces may be that are at work creating the undesirable behavior. As I have often maintained, there is much to be gained by the logical procedure of primarily considering conduct as the direct offspring of mental activity. And where mental conflicts are involved, the study of dynamics must go deeper than usual ; investigation must be carried out that shall reveal niuch more than superficial facts and the obvious workings of the mind. We may, perhaps, without much harm to the situation, neglect the men- tal forces at work in some instances of misconduct, but in cases of tlie type now under consideration, the study of mental processes affords a master-key for opening to the light the essentials in the background. Then, it is not merely the fact that there are driving forces of the inner life making for misconduct, but it is a matter of much import that these forces prove to be so powerful and are so persistently recurrent. Many of our cases exhibit the most remarkable energy of impulse in untoward directions. The determining fac- tor of action arises and recurs with a show of strength all out of proportion to any readily perceivable source of motive power. It would seem as if this feature alone of the offender's conduct would be sufficient to call for deep reflection and analysis. GENERAL PRINCIPLES 17 Another point concerning these remarkable cases has heretofore been made very Httle of, so Httle that it affords complete evidence of the superficiality of ordinary appreciation of motives. We find that some misdoers do not, in their misconduct, appear to - be in the least carrying out their keenest desires. Their \/ actions are forced, as it were, by something in them- selves, not of themselves. If we judge by the repeti- tion of misdeeds in the face of possible punishment and other suffering, we might suppose that these misdoers were impelled by their very strongest con- scious wishes. But we know that this is often not the case, because the effect of the conduct in question is not in any ordinary sense pleasurable to the misdoers, nor do they regard it as such. The wrongdoing is not even primarily contemplated as likely to give them high satisfaction. So far as we can learn, the impulse arising from mental conflict has no penumbra what- ever of delightf ulness ; on the contrary, it seems as if one of its most noteworthy characteristics is the curious absence of any idea of pleasure to be derived from following it. We have heard the expression from not a few misdoers, "I don't know what makes me do it. I don't want to do it, and I feel sorry after- wards." It would seem that students of human mo- tives should long since have been attracted to this curious phenomenon of conduct, because, results not being even contemplated as pleasurable, ordinary motives are not plainly involved. In investigation of mental conflicts as causes of misconduct, we are bound to contemplate the mental life of early years, not because of a priori considerations, but through being led back, step by step, to influences active then. We sometimes find a very direct route 18 MENTAL CONFLICTS leading from emotion-provoking experiences and re- actions of childhood to even major offenses of adult life. How many cases there may be where the causes date back to childhood with intervening years free from misdeeds, it will need further development of studies of this subject to show. From our observa- tions we should say that this intermitting type of evo- lution of misconduct will seldom be encountered. As far as examples of long-standing, overt tendency to offense are concerned, of course such cases must have had long-standing causes. In passing from these prefatory generalizations to discussion of the mechanisms involved when mental conflicts result in misconduct, I must first attempt some clear statement of certain concepts, deductions, and terms developed in closely allied fields. While this exposition is mainly in the interest of the general reader, it may serve to show professional students also how far our practical experience tallies with the de- ductions of others, and in what measure certain psychological conceptions may be utilized in studying misconduct. The general method of psychological investigation with which we are now concerned has been much under discussion recently, and has been usually spoken of as psychoanalysis or the psychoanalytic movement. These terms have become familiar to medical men and psychologists, and the laity has now heard much of their purport, but still we are doubtful about adopting them for our uses. The terms are not thoroughly serviceable for all students of mental mechanisms because of specific connotations which have been given them. We find that followers of Sigmund Freud, the great sponsor of the psychoanalytic movement, rather GENERAL PRINCIPLES 19 object to application of the word psychoanalysis to the work of those who do not in fairly full measure fol- low the theories and practices of the master. On the other hand, some of us who are not complete psycho- analysts in that sense, do not wish to mislead and make it appear as if our studies implied the use of the fine technic of interpretation and the extremely pro- longed mental analyses which the principal exponents of the Freudian school deem desirable in their explo- ration of the neuroses. Whether or not practical results are obtainable through studies of misconduct by less thorough-going analysis, I leave the reader to judge later for himself ; just here the point is that our work is not based on psychoanalysis to the com- plete Freudian extent. It seems much better for our purposes, then, to follow the suggestion of Meyer Solomon,^ and speak of mental analysis — a phrase that can be "adopted without offense to anybody." For a clear general statement of the method of mental analysis I can do no better than cite from an expert analyst. Doctor Putnam : ^ "The psychoanalytic method is the name given to the special means by which the memory is aided to penetrate into the for- gotten portions of one's life, with the view of bringing to the light of clear consciousness the details of emo- tional conflicts which, in spite of being out of sight, exert an influence, often of an unfavorable sort, on the development of character and temperament, as well as on the motives, the habits, and the thoughts." Though this definition is admirably stated, for our ends we might paraphrase the first part of it and state that : * Meyer Solomon, "On the Use of the Term Psyclioanalj'sis and Its Substitute." Medical Record, New York, September 18, 1915. * James Jackson Putnam, M.D., "Human Motives", p. 68. 20 MENTAL CONFLICTS Mental analysis is a name given to the method of using the memory to penetrate into the former experi- ences of mental life. It is of great significance for understanding or under- taking our type of work with offenders that the use of artificial devices to aid the memory, at least in most instances, appears quite unnecessary. To be sure, nearly all the cases of mental conflict we have studied are purposely those of decidedly young people in whom the memories of the early unfortunate expe- riences are much fresher ; there has been with them less to obliterate the outlines of the original stirring event or emotion. Then, no doubt, the retracing pro- cess in misconduct cases is much simpler and more direct than in cases of functional nervous disease, with which the psychoanalysts have busied them- selves. It is rarely necessary to dig up "a long series of events related to each other by ties of the most varied sorts", or to encourage the memory, as Putnam adds, "to go on a voyage of discovery without refer- ence to what may be discovered." If one were working with older misdoers, probably the genetic search would have to be much more pro- longed and intricate, and much more that was irrele- vant would have to be dug up for examination. I say probably, because we cannot safely state this from our own experience nor from data acquired by others. Practically nothing has been written on this point, and it must be acknowledged that efforts with old offenders are not particularly promising on ac- count of the many deteriorations, mental, physical, and social, which usually accompany a prolonged career of delinquency. Here, as in other aspects of clinical criminology, much the best returns, scientific GENERAL PRINCIPLES 21 as well as redemptory, are to be obtained through working with misdoers at a time not far from the beginnings of their misbehavior. As suggested above, it appears more than likely that the pathway from mental conflict to misconduct is straighter than are the steps between mental con- flict and nervous disorders. It is emphasized by many analysts working in the latter field that they discover mental processes pursuing their activities through the most remarkable transformations and by way of shuntings off and circuitous paths. In their cases, the seizing hold by the subconscious mind of some particular association of environmental or men- tal experience and attaching it strongly to the original emotion-producing event in a way that makes for abnormal manifestations in body or mind, is not nearly so direct or understandable a phenomenon as what occurs in the cases of misconduct that I cite. It appears to be a much farther cry from a neurosis than from delinquency to genesis in mental conflict. The technical studies of the various mental reactions, the knowledge of which the analysts, particularly the Freudians, have given to the world, appear not nearly so essential to the student of misbehavior. I have little doubt that there is more to this whole subject of the relationship of mental conflict to misconduct than we have developed while attempting during these years to base our investigations on thoroughly firm ground. I see the human mind as too complex an organ for me to suppose that in these comparatively simple phrasings of mental analysis all is explained. Following this effort to clear a way, there should be deeper explorations in various important regions where mental life and social conduct are interrelated. 22 MENTAL CONFLICTS The great desideratum in all work of this sort is to bring "to the light of clear consciousness the details of emotional conflicts which, in spite of being out of sight, exert an influence." Whatever the victim's troubles, whatever the special technic employed, ex- ploration is the aim of mental analysis. What there is further to be said in exposition of the mental mecha- nisms pertaining to our subject is all by way of filhng in the outlines of the main conception or fact. We may now go on to consider some of these mecha- nisms. The term mental conflict represents an idea that is not at all difficult to understand. Few would ques- tion the existence of such a phenomenon. Technical discussion hardly makes the concept any stronger, and, yet, perhaps some attempt at definition is desir- able in order that there may be no misunderstanding whatever about what is meant. A mental conflict, then, is a conflict between elements of mental life, and occurs when two elements, or systems of elements, are out of harmony with each other. This is the barest possible statement. Why do mental elements in the same individual become conflicting.? This question leads us, in turn, to consider other mental mechanisms. Memories or ideational elements forming the con- tent of our mental storehouses are largely constellated ; on account of the activity of various laws of association mental elements are so related to each other that there is a bond between them. The particular form of a constellation is the result of the special grouping or linking together of perceptive experiences or of their reproductions as they arise in the mind. A constel- lation of ideas is thus a system of mental elements having some special relationship of the elements to each other. GENERAL PRINCIPLES 23 We must next consider the complex, the theory of which is at the heart of the psychoanalytic method ; this according to our own findings in mental analy- sis represents a vitally important subject. Various authors have sketched their conceptions of a mental complex, particularly as they have taken or modified the idea from Freud, who develops such an extensive psychological superstructure upon this foundation. (There is no doubt that the concept of a mental com- plex existed long before Freud's day, albeit with little consideration of the phenomenon and no attention to practical applications.) We may gather from all these writers that a complex is a constellation of men- tal elements permeated with a vigorous emotional tone, a system or association of ideas grouped about an emotional core or center. The existence of such peculiarly disposed constellated systems no one can doubt ; how important they are for us as students of misconduct will appear many times to our readers. The complex has other essential characteristics. Being possessed of an emotional tone it has energy- producing powers ; by reason of this it may be, and often is, a great determiner of thoughts and actions. This is merely following the general law that emotion- tinged portions of the mental content are the dynamic elements of mental life. And it also appears that only parts of complexes active as producers of behavior appear in consciousness. This is proved by the fact that a very distinct effort or exploration is necessary to bring any such entire system of ideas into view. Discovery that portions of an active complex are left in the mental background as subconscious led to study of the phenomenon known as repression. When a mental experience, or group of thoughts with 24 MENTAL CONFLICTS an emotional tone, or part of such a constellated system of ideas, is pushed back, "put out of mind", *' forgotten", it is said to be repressed. This seeking oblivion for an experience may be more or less of an automatic, hardly conscious reaction, perhaps directly dictated by naturally falling in line with social con- formities, either family or general, or it may be a thoroughly deliberate attempt to get rid of something conceived as undesirable. Here we are brought sharply up against the question of whether there can be any real "forgetting" and "putting out of mind." Above all, we know that anything once experienced as mental content is sub- ject to being stored. And it is a matter of everyday knowledge that the storage places of the mind con- tain many things that the conscious self is not aware of, either in detail or as being stored. No one has had a keener insight into the nature and importance of memory processes than the philosopher Bergson, and our own appreciation of this side of mental life may well be served by quoting from him a paragraph ^ that must have caught the eye of many students of mental analysis. Speaking of memory he says, "And as the past grows without ceasing, so also there is no limit to its preservation. ... In reality, the past is preserved by itself automatically. In its entirety, probably, it follows us every instant ; all that we have felt, thought, and willed from our earliest infancy is there, leaning over the present which is about to join it, pressing against the portals of consciousness that would fain leave it outside. The cerebral mechanism is arranged just so as to drive back into the unconscious 1 Henri Bergson, "Creative Evolution", p. 4; translated by Arthur Mitchell, 1911. GENERAL PRINCIPLES 25 almost the whole of this past, and to admit beyond the threshold only that which can cast light on the present situation or further the action now being prepared. . . . Doubtless we think with only a small part of our past, but it is with our entire past, including the original bent of our soul, that we desire, will, and act. Our past, then, as a whole is made manifest to us in its impulse; it is felt in the form of tendency, al- though a small part of it only is known in the form of idea." From these words we get a picture of mental life that is peculiarly valuable as a background upon which some fundamental conceptions of mental anal- ysis in relation to misconduct may be developed. The analysts all insist from their explorations of mental content that repression does not signify kill- ing off the undesirable portion of mental content. Indeed, the word repression, so far as the complex is concerned, has come to mean merely the splitting off from consciousness of part of what would naturally, through the original bond of association or constella- tion, be represented in its entirety in consciousness. Repression is a form of mental dissociation, — a term used long before the present development of the sci- ence of mental analysis. The conscious mind chooses for its own reasons to consider some undesired portion of a complex as forgotten, but, unfortunately, the process of forcing it "out of mind" does not lead to quiescent assimilation of it with more normal material of prior experiences, assimilation into the great organ- ization which we call the subconscious mind. The dissociated portion is left with its original emotional tone still attached, and through this fact anything but quiescence may ensue. As the psychoanalysts have put it, a complex dissociated by repression con- 26 MENTAL CONFLICTS tinues to have its own existence as a separate unas- similated entity and to be possessed of special energy. Repression, then, does not imply suspension of activ- ity. Clear exemplifications of the truth of this are to be perceived in many of our case-histories. The term mental infantilism, often applied by psychoanalysts to the type of reactions which produce neurotic symptoms, appears to have special signifi- cance for us. If it is an infantile reaction to attempt to dispose of an idea by repressing it and at the same time to keep it alive by getting some satisfaction for the instinctive demand which it connotes, then surely our cases demonstrate mechanisms of this earliest psychological type. Instead of a mature facing of reality we discover these curious compromises where some delinquency is indulged in as an expression of the existence of a complex ; the main elements of the com- plex are not expressed because they do not harmonize with the individual's conceptions of personal or social morality. Subconscious mental life, which is one of the main concerns of dynamic psychology, although hardly mentioned by name in many textbooks of psychology, requires from us some discussion concerning certain points of special import. (I hold no brief for the term subconscious as opposed to or distinct from the meaning of the word unconscious, which is sometimes used in this connection, but it does seem more serviceable, since the latter, as applied to mental processes, seems to offer a contradiction in terms. As might be ex- pected in a newly developing science, words have been utilized that have meanings attached not alto- gether suitable for subsequent finer discriminations.) The subconscious part of the mind may be defined GENERAL PRINCIPLES 27 in its widest significance as that portion of mental life which, at least for the time being, is outside the gen- eral field of attention. Of course, the only proof of the existence of this background of mind material is the fact that on occasion portions of it are presented above the threshold of consciousness, namely, in the field of attention. Now, part of what is subconscious may be voluntarily recalled, with small or with greater difficulty. Some of it only makes itself known by involuntarily flashing or jumping into consciousness. Still other portions, in order to get above the thresh- old of conscious thought, need the use of artifices, such as hypnotism, hypnoidal states, or the free asso- ciation methods, or require directive insistence on closely tracing associations for special memories. That an enormous number of past experiences cannot be voluntarily remembered is undoubtedly true. In the storehouse of the subconscious mind some of the material is near the portals of easy exit, some material is far off in dark nooks and crannies, far from the doorway and the light of conscious thought. Particularly well conserved in subconsciousness, as I have already stated, are mental experiences or groups of mental elements which were stored away accompanied by a strong emotional tone. This is a matter of common-sense observation with all of us. These special constellations are peculiarly the ones of which parts flash up into the field of attention, and which cause substitutive reactions of various sorts. The most virile of these complexes are those in which the original emotion or "affect" was powerfully re- pressed, totally unreacted to, strangulated. The strength of a complex as a producer of unusual and abnormal mental, physical, or social behavior is not 28 MENTAL CONFLICTS measured by the length of time since it was repressed. Neither is its force to be judged by the fact of easy recognition or of complete disguise of any part which appears at the surface of consciousness, nor by the comparative difficulties experienced in pulling the complex up to the surface to be seen and known for what it is. Variations in the difficulty of this task of getting at and exploring the real nature of a complex are un- doubtedly due to a number of differing conditions. Among other things there are the innate traits of the individual, the reaction tendencies acquired through environmental and educational circumstances, the force of the original emotion belonging to the complex (sometimes amounting to an emotional shock or a psychic trauma), the possibly continued repressive activities exerted against any attempt at exploration. This last is termed resistance. The peculiar energy belonging to some complexes calls forth frequently renewed efforts at repression. In such instances the repressed ideas are of a nature incompatible with the trend of personal consciousness, and conscious reaction is therefore not permitted. In describing this mechanism, Freud speaks of the activities of a mental censor watching over certain elements of complexes and preventing them from be- coming associated with those in consciousness. But more than this, there is the important phenomenon which shows itself during professional mental analysis, namely, resistance. To comport with special desires and ends of the personality, there may be resistance against any attempt to bring certain complexes to the light. Many of the reasons for this resistance are peculiar to the individual and to the situation. Just GENERAL PRINCIPLES 29 as analysts in exploring the psychopathology of func- tional nervous and mental disorders, so we in our work with cases of misconduct sometimes observe this phenomenon of resistance most distinctly. Any thinking person can readily conceive the lead- ing cause of mental complexes and of repressions and resistances. All of these mechanisms depend for their existence upon feelings or emotions, and what is there to compare to various phases of sex life and to sex ideas as producers of emotion? And then, in strange contradiction to this is the opposition which the per- son finds, through social customs and taboos, to any expression of what may have been experienced and inwardly felt with such intensity. Thus, from an a priori standpoint, we shall see no cause for wonder if a great deal of emotion is found attached to repressed constellations of mental elements which center about sex experiences and ideas. Many objections have been raised to the work of the psychoanalysts because it deals so intensively with sex material. I am not at all inclined to defend these students on all issues which can be raised, but no doubt our own findings could be used by them in support of many of the posi- tions which they take concerning this matter. We ourselves have been utterly surprised at the develop- ment of so much delinquency of various sorts from beginnings in unfortunate sex knowledge which has come into the mental field as a psychic shock, produc- ing emotional disturbance. To be sure, we have heard some widely experienced, intelligent observers of delin- quents, knowing nothing of mental analysis, state that they consider sex affairs to be at the root of a tremen- dous number of criminalistic impulses, but yet the direct connection and the clearness with which the 30 MENTAL CONFLICTS mental mechanisms may be observed in these cases has been a constant source of wonderment to us. One of the great contributions of the psychoanalysts has been that they have discovered the very early roots of sexual life in the individual. They have proved that in childhood, even in early childhood, there is mental life, exhibited perhaps as instinct or imagery or idea, centering about sexual components. Not that this school of psychology is alone in this dis- covery ; a number of other thorough investigators, for example, Moll,^ have made similar observations. If, then, we find the development of sexual complexes and repressions years before the advent of puberty, we need not be astonished. That there are many social as well as psychological implications in this fact goes without saying. Analysts, in studying the causes of functional bodily disorders, have discovered the process which has been termed conversion. This is the mechanism of convert- ing a mental phenomenon into a physical manifesta- tion. As some analysts put it, certain physical symptoms are produced by liberating from a mental complex emotional energy which then innervates abnormal neural pathways. This changing over of energy from restrained and hidden to active and overt manifestations is analogous to what we observe when mental conflict finds expression in misconduct. Other mechanisms, less traceable in physical as- pects, have been discovered which offer even closer resemblance to the nature of our own findings and interpretations. There is substitution; this may be de- fined as what occurs when emotional energy, escaped 1 Albert Moll, "Das Sexualleben des Kindes ", Berlin, 1908. Also translation by Eden Paul, "The Sexual Life of the Child ". New York, 1913. GENERAL PRINCIPLES 31 from the repressed parts of a constellation, becomes attached to associated, but not unbearable and, con- sequently, not necessarily repressed elements. The usefulness of this conception will appeal strongly to all readers of our own case-histories. Another term much used is abreaction — signifying the general phe- nomenon of liberation of energy belonging to a com- plex, a working-off of the latent, stored-up emotional force. When this occurs, activity takes place along paths of less resistance than those through which the complex has been repressed. (Of course, abreaction would also include fulfillment of the whole trend of desire of the complex.) It will gradually appear that several features of the theory of abreaction have their significance for our studies of misconduct. Some of the larger conceptions of mental life as developed by analysts are of considerable interest to us here. It is one of the theories concerning the sub- conscious mind that no psychical energy which enters this realm is ever lost. Conservation of energy takes place here as in the world of matter. If, then, an experience is thrust back into this storage place with a strong emotional tone attached to it, this means that the experience or complex may remain below the thresh- old of conscious attention, but exists there with a capacity for releasing energy and creating much dis- turbance. Another conception, in like manner, spec- ifies the fact of transformation of energy in the world of mental processes. Stoddart compares psychical to physical energy and speaks much of the driving force of mental life. Jung has offered the name horme to apply to the energizing principle in mental life. Stoddart suggests that if a certain amount of horme or psychical energy, once known to exist, appears to 32 MENTAL CONFLICTS be lost, it may be just the business of the analyst to find out what has become of it. In our own field we readily see the value of following the long effects, even over periods of apparent discontinuance, of some previously evoked emotional experience. The his- tories which are here related show certain types of experience as highly provocative of emotion and inner urge, with fixation of the energy on some por- tion of mental life which, in our cases, is directly responsible for the production of misconduct. Another main theory is concerned with determinism in mental life. Influencing the nature of every thought there is some past idea linked to it by the laws of association ; for every impulse there is an immediate cause in some phase of present mental activity, as well as a preceding cause in mental experiences far- ther back. No impulse to action is to be regarded as a meaningless phenomenon, it is always determined by foregoing elements of mental life; even no idea or image can spring up without relation to the past. Without stating this theory at any greater length, I may say at once that determinism in mental processes is the backbone of the psychoanalytic method. Now, whatever may be urged against the extremes of this conception of psychical laws, exhibited, for instance, in sanguine attempts to find reason in the gibberings of dementia or the railings of mania, the fact is that mental analysis has proved most clearly the existence of a vast amount of determinism that was not known heretofore. For our studies of misconduct, these determining factors in mental life, so frequently not realized in the least, even by the agent actively pro- ducing their effects, prove to be of vast importance. A number of mental mechanisms other than those GENERAL PRINCIPLES 33 considered above have been enumerated by the ex- ponents of psychoanalysis ; most of these are of com- paratively slight interest to us here and will not be discussed, but certain of them represent mental pro- cesses which are of great importance for the possibil- ities of treatment of tendencies to misconduct. These, together with several points concerning practical ap- plications and methods of mental analysis in our field, will be taken up in the next chapters. CHAPTER III APPLICATIONS The practical application of mental analysis to problems of moral reconstruction properly forms the center of our discussion. It was in order to reach this central point by rational, explanatory steps that we found it necessary to take some account of certain theoretical conceptions developed as fundamentals of psychoanalysis. A direct answer to the reasonable interrogation, Cui bono? concerning mental analysis as applied to conduct problems is given through our case-histories, which clearly demonstrate valuable understandings gained and delinquent tendencies altered by use of this method. Still further inquiries are naturally concerned with peculiarities of the mental processes implicated in the conflicts that cause mis- conduct and with details of the procedure that offers most chance of achieving the desired reformation. The first suggestion of the value of mental analysis in the problems of misconduct should come through considering one of the main laws of mind, namely, that the direction and content of every mental activity stands in definite relationship to previously active elements of mental life. Of course, no intelligent person could believe for a moment that ideas of mis- conduct, or even impulses thereto, arise by chance. 34 APPLICATIONS 35 The constitution of every idea and impulse is largely predetermined by antecedent ideas and images. Every thought arises as a link in a chain of mental associations joined together by various psychological conditionings. Misconduct as a reaction to stimuli received from the outer world — stealing, for instance, of objects tempt- ingly displayed — may seem so obviously explicable that the observer neglects to look for other causal considerations. But when the impulse to misconduct arises from an internal stimulus and, particularly, when individuals subject to such impulses may be found vividly conscious of struggle against them, the phenome- non is most striking, and the behavior appears inex- plicable by any of the ordinary conceptions of objective causation. And as for inner stimuli and their origin, it seems nothing short of amazing that scientific studies have not long since been directed towards ascertain- ment of what these may be. While there has been no general application of mental analysis to the study of delinquency, there has been gradual appreciation of the wide bearings of the method, both by the specialists who use it in treatment of the psychoneuroses and by a few others who have recog- nized it as a method which reveals important facts of mental life.^ Mental conflicts certainly must react in many other ways than by setting up the abnormal 1 For readers of English we may cite here, as showing something of the broader aspects of mental analysis, " Mental Mechanisms ", by W. A. White, 1911; "Human Motives", by J. J. Putnam, 1915; "The Freudian Methods Applied to Anger", an article by Stanley Hall, American Journal of Psychology, July, 1915; "The Freudian Wish", by E. B. Holt, 1915; "Psychoanalysis and the Study of Children", an article by O. Pfisler, American Journal of Psychology, 1915, p. 130; "Psychopathology of Every Day Life", by Freud, and "Psychology of the Unconscious", by Jung — both of the latter recently translated. Then, lately has appeared " Mech- anisms of Character Formation", by W. A. WTiite. 36 MENTAL CONFLICTS manifestations which the neurologist is called upon to treat. There have been a number of definite sugges- tions by analysts that mental analysis might prove particularly valuable for students of criminalistic behavior, but no account of systematic work in this direction has appeared ^ and there has been no publi- cation heretofore of any considerable number of mis- conduct cases originating from mental conflict. Interpretations and technical considerations in the field of psychoanalysis have already gone far, and to what extent these — many of which we have not in the least touched on — may be at all useful in treatment of misconduct remains for the future to determine. (I desire here to state that I am far from believing that our studies have explored the deepest mechanisms conceivably at the roots of misconduct, even though what we have discovered has proved to be so practically important for understanding and treatment.) At present, however, it is clear that mental conflict does often stand in causal relationship to misconduct and that this vital fact may be brought out by even a moderate amount of analysis and, in general, is under- standable when discussed in nontechnical terms. Beginning with these main points we may pass on to the special features of applying this method. The symptoms of certain functional maladies of the nervous system are strikingly allied to definitive mis- conduct. In a case of hysterical paralysis, for instance, the picture closely resembles an exhibition of obstinate self-will; it is the assumption of an attitude directed against and actually conflicting with normal environ- ^ Oskar Pfister, in his book "Die psychanalytische Methode ", Leipzig, 1913, insists on the importance of mental analysis for treatment of mis- behavior, but gives only a few minor cases at no great length. APPLICATIONS 37 mental demands. The extreme troublesomeness of psychoneurotic cases in family life, or even in courts of civil law, indicates that they may be partly considered problems of conduct. Certainly the background of the mental and social attitude of the individual is properly a matter of study in both types of cases — those where the abnormality is termed misconduct and those where peculiar behavior is regarded merely as evidence of a psychoneurosis. Indeed, the develop- ment of some peculiar and abnormal attitude towards family relationships or the world in general sometimes is directly responsible for misconduct exhibited in many forms. We have seen numerous examples of offenders holding such a definite attitude or grudge, which has often been formed at a surprisingly early age. I may refer to our case-histories for details. It seems reasonable to conclude from this general fact that analytic studies of mental attitude and of grudge formation might be widely undertaken with much promise of helpfulness to both those who are actively and those who are passively concerned. Even where no actual criminalistic conduct is engaged in, the faulty attitude may give rise to great irritability and may produce much unhappiness for others. Do we not know men and women whose main trends of be- havior show almost vindictiveness towards their fellow-beings, and this without any cause whatever except their own inner set of mind ? Entirely appli- cable to our study of general tendencies of conduct is investigation of what in the inner mental life gives rise to attitudes which are factors at the base of such tendencies. Preceding any attempt at explanation of the general fact of disordered behavior, even in a particular in- 4GG35 38 MENTAL CONFLICTS stance, Freud maintains that there must be inquiry into the origin of the specific form of disorder displayed. It is best not to take up first the question, for example, of why this given individual suffers from a neurosis, but why does this special type of neurosis appear. For answering all aspects of the problem in any case, Freud maintains that it must be known both what the patient brings to the situation by way of innate traits, and how special mental experiences have been effective. The value of these points for our method is very clear. We, too, must go further than the mere fact of impulse to misconduct ; we must know the actual content of the impulse, be it towards stealing, or running away, or anything else. Then in studying sources we, too, may not neglect either the reaction-type of the individual or the mental experiences which have been determining factors in the behavior. Moreover, as Freud says, by working in this well-balanced way we are likely to make important scientific discoveries about the causa- tion of behavior trends in general. For understanding our cases we are under the mani- fest necessity of digging up earlier mental associations. Proceeding to the task, we find that we encounter many rich deposits of explanatory facts. The discovery of important associations, as I have stated previously, is made with greater or less difiiculty, and when brought to the light, they may show the most unsuspected chaining together of mental elements. The connecting links may be just such as Prince ^ found in a case he has published, where the patient suflFered greatly from phobia (obsessive fear) related to the ringing of bells. It was finally dug out of the patient's subconscious 1 Morton Prince, "The Psychopathology of a Case of Phobia ", Journal of Abnormal Psijchology, October, 1913. APPLICATIONS 39 mind that many years previously she had passed through a time of mental anguish while her mother, who died soon afterw^ards, suffered from a severe illness and operation — and frequently during this period of anxiety bells had chimed. She later knew nothing of any relation of her phobia to this particular event ; she could not by conscious effort recall any emotional shock connected with bells ; by no ordinary means was the subconscious memory of the effective associa- tion finally uncovered. There had been this conjunc- tion, direful for her, of a terrific emotional strain with a strong sensory impression. Investigation of such associations of unusual perceptive experiences of many sorts — especially hearing something said or seeing something out of the ordinary — with high emotional states, offers much of value for the student of mis- conduct. How much of the specifically genetic mental back- ground of misconduct is unrealized or forgotten, is a matter that varies greatly and depends upon the age at which investigation is begun, upon experiences that have been added, upon the mental make-up of the individual, and so on. As I have intimated previously, the procedure necessary to bring up the memories into active conscious life may be quite different in different fields of work, in studying misconduct, for instance, as compared to investigating the psychoneuroses. The very same kind of fact may be much harder to dig out of one type of subconscious mind than out of another. We note also the great variations which may obtain in studying the same individual at different times. We saw a boy of twelve, a naive, straightforward type of lad, who had recently begun his delinquencies. He told us of the hold which certain other delinquent 40 MENTAL CONFLICTS boys had gained upon him, how they had informed him concerning sex matters. He had worried much about these things, he had repressed impulses and feehngs of which he did not approve, but he did not hesitate to follow his companions' example in venturesome steal- ing. This lad later became notorious on account of daring burglaries. We saw him repeatedly when he was sixteen years old, and then he seemed to be totally unable to remember anything of the earlier conflict which he had so vividly described to us. He had re- mained free from the vices of sex life. Concerning his failure to remember, the fact that this boy, though not feeble-minded, was mentally somewhat subnormal, might be thought to complicate matters, but his memory processes in many ways were found to be excel- lent. Although we repeatedly tried without success to get him to recall what we knew had been in his memory, we should hardly care to allege that this was entirely impossible ; perhaps more vigorous measures might have brought the facts to consciousness. Early associations, as in the case of the ringing bells that Prince cites, may sometimes be evoked under hypnosis. "With this young burglar, seen only at the later date, it would have been quite impossible for the observer to have known that the beginning of his career was influenced by mental conflict. Mental repression is active in most remarkable fashion in the cases of misconduct to which we call attention. The facts as they appear in the concrete examples seem thoroughly understandable. The alter- natives in their simplest terms, repression as against expression, are not evaluated usually as they were by the boy in John Muir's anecdote : The lad used a forbidden word, and to his upbraiding sister he re- APPLICATIONS 41 torted, "I couldna help the word comin' into me, and it's na waur to speak oot than to let it rin through ye." That repression takes place in our cases is clearly shown by the ingenuous accounts of efforts to jam certain experiences, images, or memories into the for- gotten, into a region below the threshold of conscious thought. The reader will also note, however, in our case-studies the expressions, in varied phraseology, indicating how portions of some particular constellation of ideas un- willed flash up into conscious mind. But frequently the very same misdoers who tell of this unbidden en- trance of certain ideas into the mind maintain, "I never think of these things." Then it is to the ob- server as if glimpses were to be had of an automatic psychological mechanism at work behind doors usually closed. The explicit distinction so often made by our young individuals between an idea or memory flashing up in the mind and their thinking about such an idea or memory, shows how early and in what naive minds the phenomenon of repression can be forcefully at work. Leaving the fact of repression as clearly established for us, we next may take up some particular applica- tions of the mechanisms of mental conflict. At the outset I must insist again upon the impulsive and ob- sessive nature of the mental activities which follow in the train of conflict. It is anomalous and amazing that any delinquents should experience little or no pleasure in the doing of misdeeds, or that misconduct is undertaken by them without any particular expectation of pleasurable returns. Yet such appears to be the fact in many cases where the misdoing results from mental conflict. It is not, in these cases, for an end as judged in terms of gains in the outer world, but only 42 MENTAL CONFLICTS as a response to the dictates or urglngs of an inner wish, unframed in terms of objective profit, that the misconduct is engaged in. Perhaps no one better than Holt ^ has brought out the distinction which obtains between an objective end mentally represented and a bare wish or urge, either of them as a motive force. It is the wish, often subconscious, which is the dynamic component of mental mechanisms set in activity by mental conflicts. We may frequently perceive the development of conduct impulsions, and even of obsessive imagery, quite apart from any rationalized will to action. To the delinquent himself his misconduct often does not appear at all as a partic- ularly reasonable or explicable act ; in later contem- plating it he may state that he perceives it to have been merely a following out of an impulse. He gained nothing, and really had no anticipation of gaining anything. All who professionally employ mental analysis are impressed with the phenomenon of resistance. Often when some point, frequently an important one, is reached in the course of the analysis, a barrier to further progress is suddenly raised. There is evasion of the question immediately at issue, perhaps a defen- sive forgetting, or even deliberate refusal to go further in the given line of inquiry. With the neurotic patient it seems sometimes as if there was no genuine desire to get well ; the ailment itself is cherished. Or, it is the inquiry that is disliked ; it bids fair to open up the mental life in a way to be shunned. In some of our cases resistance is plainly observed, and at times it causes an attitude that is quite impenetrable. I have outlined an instance (Case 12) of failure of analysis » "The Freudian Wish", 1915, p. 100 ff. APPLICATIONS 43 through this cause. Repeatedly we have seen offenders who have committed crimes over and over again with- out any returns except suffering, seeming thus very possibly victims of mental conflict, who showed an obsti- nate attitude of unwillingness to go any distance in the exploration of their own inner mental life that was itself convincing evidence of existence of mental con- flict. In such fashion a wall of complete inaccessibility is in rarer instances built up about the deeper mental life. Experienced reformatory workers have recounted to me instances where the offender, for instance an in- telligent young woman convicted repeatedly of crimes indicating a special trend, the genesis of which must inevitably have been in some restless fermenting of the inner mental life, persistently refused to yield to the most kindly advances toward penetration of essential mental mechanisms. This hidden life was cherished as if the telling of it would shatter the most valuable of all personal possessions. We shall welcome the day when competent studies are recorded of such cases of extravagant resistance. Of main importance, naturally, in the application of mental analysis to our field, is the resolving or in any way getting rid of a mental conflict. It is undoubtedly true, as some one has suggested, that a mental conflict cannot last indefinitely. In the course of time, with the press of accumulated new experiences and interests, the complex is bound to become attenuated and lose power, or there may be other ways in which it is dis- posed of. The activities, pernicious and other, which are suggested by the original complex may be given way to, and thus the latent energy be used up. Some writers have depicted a process called rationalization, through which there is the building up of a reasonable 44 MENTAL CONFLICTS attitude towards the complex, which is then met face to face as a bare fact, unexplained and unexplored, and, even if not resolved, is retained in one special mental compartment ; the rest of mental life is kept entirely aloof from it and is not swayed by energy liberated from the complex. This, of course, is de- liberate dissociation ; it is difficult to believe that a mental conflict is thereby in any fundamental way overcome ; the complex is merely isolated. It is self-evident that if a complex has latent energy- producing powers, and conflict results in the accumula- tion of pent-up energy, this, in turn, has to be released, worked off (the abreaction spoken of in the last chapter). For the different directions which the energy may take, separate terms have been offered. There is the phe- nomenon or mechanism of conversion ; in this there is transmutation of mental into physical manifestations, as in hysteria, but with this we have nothing to do here. There is sublimation and displacement and sub- stitution — these terms indicating mechanisms by which there is diversion of the energy of a complex into channels apparently not the main ones suggested by the complex. These diversions of energy (as well as repressions of complexes, for that matter) are not always abnormal and provocative of nervous manifesta- tions or misconduct. In any case, the transference of energy is into secondary, and what seems to the sub- consciously directed individual as more permissible forms of activity than are represented by the ideas most closely associated with the emotional elements of the original complex. The operation of the substitutive type of mental mechanisms in diverting energy is to be seen in many of the cases of mental conflict we have investigated. APPLICATIONS 45 Without understanding the phenomenon, one under- stands Httle, indeed, of the case. Substitution, or displacement, is very frequently the method by which energy is conducted into the channel of misconduct that is explicable in no other way. It is only as we learn the facts by studying the deeper associations that rela- tionship between some important earlier mental experi- ence and the misconduct in question is discernible. Our case-histories show us most clearly how the conative element of the mind (Kant's "Streben"), the energy or striving in mental life, is released through the activities of what the outsider calls misconduct, but what to the doer seems a lesser delinquency. Sublimation is a word more properly applied to diversion of energy derived from a mental conflict into useful lines of conduct. This may sometimes take place without help from the outside, but unfortunately, only too seldom. With other forms of transmutation of energy in the mental life we need not concern our- selves here, since they hardly belong to the discussion of misconduct in the ordinary sense. But there are many interesting pages of discussion to be found in the literature concerning this basis for the development of prudery, excessive religious tendencies, and other reactions. The therapeutic aspects of dealing with mental con- flicts which, being repressed, react in the form of misconduct, require detailed discussion. In consider- ing, first, the general theory of treatment by the method of mental analysis, I may cite Stekel, who asserts the task of psychoanalysis (for us, mental analysis) to be reconciliation of the patient with reality. Expressing this differently, Putnam states, "Every psychoanalytic treatment is a phase of an educational process which 46 MENTAL CONFLICTS necessarily has, as its ideal goal, some sort of sublima- tion." The ultimate aim of mental analysis is synthesis, its immediate method is the digging up links of mental association out of the past for the purposeful building of conscious knowledge of causal relationship. The neurologists, analyzing functional disturbances of the nervous system, are impressed by the fact that parts of the complex that escape from repression are dis- covered distorted and disguised by way of attempt to render themselves acceptable to consciousness. Some- thing of this distortion and disguise is seen in our cases of misconduct ; conscious sanctions of the misdoer will not tolerate for a moment expression of certain elements of the complex, while other elements surreptitiously flare up in ways so altered that their relationship to the repressed material is often not guessed. The solution of the problem and the cure of the trouble mainly lies in developing the individual's own cognizance of the essential association of facts. The task, thus, is the synthetic, conscious establishment of reality within the mental life. At this point a word on variations in methods and results is in order. Many writers have commented on the immediate therapeutic value of exploration by mental analysis. We have seen it ourselves. It is in some cases as if the cause of trouble had only to be seen face to face when it was at once vanquished. The complex brought up into consciousness and observed there as a causal agent is shorn of its power; out in the light its conative elements vaporize. The educa- tional process which Putnam speaks of is not always necessary beyond the analysis itself — the proof being that if with the analysis unfortunate manifestations of APPLICATIONS 47 the energy of the complex disappear, socially satisfac- tory abreaction must have taken place. Of course, in many cases the conflict cannot be devitalized in this way; the complex may consist of material too solid to resolve so easily. Here is a boy, for example, fre- quently a runaway from a good foster home because of conflict concerning his parentage. He has secretly heard that he is an illegitimate child, it has been whispered to him as a taunt by a neighbor's boy who overheard the scandalmonger's tale. For long, with- out a word spoken, our boy has tried to down the shock; his delinquencies are the reaction. When we explore the causes of his misconduct, the material of the complex cannot be rejected ; we find by inquiring that he really was born out of wedlock. A definite educational process in such a case is absolutely essen- tial, with every sort of attempt at sublimation. Ex- ploration was necessary', but in this instance was only a first step. Much mental and, perhaps, social re- adjustment must follow. Some applications of mental analysis to certain types of offense and to certain classes of offenders we may outline. Problems involving specific sexual of- fenses as possibly related to mental conflicts I shall give little attention to, because many writers have previously treated this topic. The cases tl^^mselves should be handled only by specialists who are well acquainted not only with theories, but also with such therapeutic possibilities as have been already worked out. About the following types of delinquency, indirectly sexual, a few words are here in place : Fetishistic stealing as a crassly symbolic performance is well known ; it requires no acute discernment to see that there must 48 MENTAL CONFLICTS be underlying connections of imagery and association between the thieving impulse and some sexual idea. What there is by way of mental processes back of the stealing of fetish objects, Freud,^ more than any one, has shown us, although Binet ^ earlier elaborated many of the salient facts. Exhibitionism, except the innocent variety in the curiosity stage of childhood, is another delinquency which is absolutely impossible to understand without mental analysis. Most complicated are the subcon- scious motives of those unfortunate and occasionally intelligent persons who are obsessed by the exhibition impulse. Even in those partially demented alcoholics and senile individuals who indulge in this misdemeanor, the act is to be regarded as representative, the object of it not being consciously framed by the misdoers themselves, and the mental mechanisms back of the impulse not being readily discoverable. Some of the same indirectness of motivation exists in cases of voyeurs, those beset by the impulse to peep. All of this, too, has been dealt with at length by writers on psychoanalysis. Homosexual and other sex perver- sions have likewise formed an extensive theme for the analysts, who have discovered mechanisms and types of mental conflict responsible for these abnormal tendencies. An immense literature has grown up on this topic since the days of earlier writers who merely dealt with these peculiar conduct-tendencies descrip- tively. The infliction of cruelty, sadism, is an offense based * Several sexualistic types of misconduct are dealt with succinctly in "Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory", translation by Brill, New York, 1910. 2 A. Binet, "Le Fetichisme dans 1' Amour", O. Doin, Paris, 1891. APPLICATIONS 49 on mental mechanisms directly related to the sex impulse. Even casual accounts of some cases show the connection ; very deep studies are necessary to get at the basic facts in others. Mental complexes and conflicts and repressions undoubtedly play a great role here. While the relationship of mental repression to sadism is clearly^ enough to be perceived in many instances, it has been stated by experts that no instance has been completely analyzed.^ The cases we have seen have proved extremely refractory to study, on account, so it has seemed, of resistance from feelings of shame entering in so largely when the matter was up for discussion. Masochism, a pathological enjoyment of the infliction of pain, is also well known to be based upon repressive mental mechanisms. Masochists show characteristic outbreaks of misconduct apparentlj^ not connected with the fulfillment of any normal desire. There is no need for us to elaborate this subject ; curi- ous self-infliction of wounds has been described at great length by various authors, and the genesis of this impulse in conflicts centering about sexual matters is well known. None of the foregoing types of miscon- duct, so intimately related to the mental side of sex life, can be understood without knowing the detailed studies of authorities on these matters. About types of individuals especially benefited by mental analysis, professional men who have used the method have had much to say. One of the main ques- tions that has arisen with us concerns the possibility of working with adults involved in misconduct. There can be little doubt that the diflSculties are much greater than when working with younger people. I have ' Vide Hitschmann's "Freud's Theories of the Neuroses", translation by C. R. Payne, New York, 1913, p. 37. 50 MENTAL CONFLICTS allowed myself little time for adult delinquents because of the vastly greater promise of practical returns through dealing with young misdoers, but even a slight experience with older offenders makes the complexities for analysis of their problems loom large. Several of the many contingencies are suggested in the following paragraph : Through longer repression into the subconscious mental life there is vastly greater hesitation, namely, resistance, at opening up the mental past. Outbreaks of misconduct, even crime, have been the events be- tokening the activity of the complex, and there is natural unwillingness to bring these to light. Also, it is plain that memories of trains of thought succeed- ing to the old psychic trauma, to say nothing of remem- brances of that experience itself, have been very deeply banished. Then there is the peculiar attitude of the offender towards society and towards himself, a curious mood for misconduct — a product of attempt to con- ceal guilt, of reaction to incrimination, of incarceration, of acquirement of bad habits, of lack of opportunity after incarceration to compete on equal terms with his fellow men. The existence of these various phases of the situation and of the attitudes which they tend to create, plus established mental habit, stands heavily against the success of mental analysis with any ordi- nary type of adult offender who might be supposed a favorable case for use of this method. It has been stated by experienced analysts that little is to be expected from work under dispensary condi- tions, with any case coming to a public clinic. They remark upon the entirely different results obtained through work with private patients. We should deem this likely to be true of the analogous application of APPLICATIONS 51 mental analysis to problems of adult misconduct, for it may be that with the more elaborate methods which it is possible to use in the case of a private patient, analysis with older offenders might succeed beyond our expectation. We hope some day to see studies contributed on this point. With the development of broader social interests by competent medicopsycholo- gists, perhaps the conditions which now bar success can be somewhat altered, but for the present, when there is so much to be done with young people by way of preventing adult careers of misconduct, we urge greater attention to the more promising field. The point made that successful cooperation with the patient obtains only when there are willing visits to the office and when payments indicate appreciation of the gravity of the trouble and of the sincerity of therapeutic efforts is not borne out in our work with young people. Perhaps the point would hardly be made with adolescents and children, who ordinarily rely on others to make their engagements and pay all their obligations. Certainly on the basis of our long experience I would confidently assert that mental analysis, if undertaken during the more plastic years of life, is a potent agent for altering conduct tendencies, even among those unable to offer adequate recompense or those held in institutions for delinquents. The several types of individuals particularly to be warned against as unsuited to mental analysis for treatment of misconduct are those showing essen- tial mental disabilities or instabilities, whether the abnormality rests on a deeply constitutional, temporary developmental, toxic, or traumatic basis, or is the im- mediate result of some disease process. The actually feeble-minded and insane are in a class by themselves 52 MENTAL CONFLICTS for consideration, but giving rise to misconduct there are also other well-defined abnormal mental conditions, the treatment of which calls for much more than mental analysis can offer, even when the mechanisms of mental conflict are apparently active in producing undesirable reactions. I may merely mention constitutional in- feriority, with its chronic states of mental instability and inadequacy ; cases of traumatic disposition or constitution, characterized by erratic conduct reactions to the minor stresses of life ; and instances where slight aberrational tendencies are shown as the result of bodily disease. These three classes cannot be regarded as having normal self-control, at least in the face of spe- cially trying conditions. While, perhaps, they may be somewhat helped by mental analysis if there is mental conflict in the background of their misconduct, yet it is too much to expect that they steadfastly maintain tendencies towards good conduct in the face of temp- tations and other adverse conditions. Much more must be done for them. Rarely to be benefited by mental analysis are ado- lescent girls showing hypersexual tendencies, even though mental conflict plays a part in the case. They are properly subjects for educational discipline and environmental control. We have watched with pecul- iar interest a case of pathological stealing and other misconduct proving to have typical mechanisms of conflict, in a sexually inclined bright girl of nineteen, which a competent psychoanalyst with fine spirit faithfully endeavored to treat in private practice. The outcome was practically fruitless, the girl proving too unreliable in word and intention ; her instabilities were excessive, perhaps as the result of exaggerated phases of adolescent mental turmoil, or defective mental APPLICATIONS 53 make-up, or unusual physical demands. Pathological lying, which sometimes arises, as I have elsewhere ^ pointed out, upon a foundation of mental conflict, presents also grave difficulties for treatment. The falsification as an active tendency may be carried into the consultation room. Yet we can bear witness to the fact that in some, even unexpected, instances mental analysis has gone far towards clearing up a situation that ultimately was righted. The possibility of mental complexes and repressed conflicts being sources of misconduct in well recognized cases of mental abnormality, either in defective or aberrational individuals, I have hardly any reason to consider in this volume, although I conceive it quite likely that from studies of cases of recurrent impulse to misconduct in such mental types we might elicit information of great theoretical and practical import. Certainly, in some of these abnormal cases, it is quite evident that the tendency to offense arises from active mental mechanisms identical with those displayed by normal individuals. Thorough studies, such as hardly any one but Glueck ^ has begun, of the dynamics of mis- behavior in these types promise much. I have never felt, for example, that it is psychologically quite suffi- cient to say that many a feeble-minded delinquent is delinquent because he is feeble-minded. The ques- tions may also fairly be put in such a case. Why is this particular form of misconduct displayed ? Why this impulse at all to misconduct ? Why not an easier- going tendency to good conduct? Evidently even in ' "Pathological Lying, Accusation, and Swindling — A Study in Forensic Psychology." Little, Brown, and Company, 1915. ' Bernard Glueck, "The Malingerer: A Clinical Study." International Clinics, Vol. IH, Series 25, 1915. 54 MENTAL CONFLICTS these cases, there are effective mental mechanisms with which we are not as yet famihar. Mental analysis may be presumed, according to many analysts, to be an effective agent for treatment only when used with intelligent individuals. It should l^ noted that so far as our own material is concerned, we find, perhaps for obvious reasons, almost all the cases of mental conflict in offenders of more than aver- '^^ • age ability. We have occasionally gained some insight into the psychic mechanisms {vide Case 28) of even mental defectives, but interesting and valuable for human understandings though such explorations may prove, the outlook for treatment by analysis in these cases is, of course, very limited. Memory powers in the less intelligent may be sufficient to bring to light the genetic facts, but more than this is required for effecting the important desired changes in behavior. There must be clear apperception of the relationship of cause to effect ; there must be self -perceived desire for relief from the burden of anti-social impulse ; judgment must be sound to avoid the snares of old habits, and good intention must be backed by normal will power. Leaving the question open concerning whether or not our findings were due somewhat to the greater attrac- tiveness of the brighter misdoers for psychological inquiry, we can at least be sure that the promise of practical returns from the use of mental analysis in cases of misconduct caused by mental conflict is much greater with the more intelligent. CHAPTER IV METHODS Discussing methods of mental analysis suitable for attacking conflicts as causes of misconduct, we can at once state that these may well show variations from methods primarily adapted to treatment of the psy- choneuroses. It has been suggested by competent students of mental analysis, looking over our case- studies, that our field offers material susceptible to a simpler and less roundabout approach. If we are asked to frame reasons why a less elaborate method may prove sufficient, we can suggest the following points : In working with young people, both children and ado- lescents, we are nearer the original experience from which the conflict arose ; it is fresher in the mind because it is less covered with added experiences and their accumu- lated memories, and because it is less confused with the sources of a myriad of later impulses. Other things being equal, the less remote the experience, the better the memory of it, the less effort is required to bring it back into conscious mental life. Then, at earlier ages, repression of a mental complex, though to be found as a very real phenomenon, is less strenuously maintained than during later years. Even when the conflict has been tremendously active and direful in its consequences, a first simple inquiry into 55 56 MENTAL CONFLICTS its existence and nature may be fruitful. Very likely the slighter consciousness of conventional standards that characterizes youth is a reason for less resistance. Then, it is more natural at this age to be confiding, all expect confidences from the young, and the great differ- ence between the ages of subject and analyst tends also to increase willingness to confide. Altogether, it is our experience very rarely to find, as in Case 12, complete inaccessibility to the simpler methods usually employed. Another feature of youthful cases makes for ease of ascertaining the genetic facts. Disguise of the form and distortion of the path of the energy escaping from the complex is likely to be slighter than in later years, and is much less than when the objective reaction is a mental or physical ailment. There are many important instances where the analyst can very quickly with the misdoer find clear memories of a highly emotional experience, from the time of which the birth of mis- behavior tendencies dates. In many cases the same person who caused the emotional disturbance gave the first acquaintance with the special form of delin- quency toward which impulse is shown. The emotion is evoked by introduction to facts of great personal and social importance. To have learned about sex affairs, for instance, and stealing from one and the same person has been the lot of many delinquents who proved to be the victims of mental conflict. In the original con- stellation of ideas, which soon became a complex, stealing was a specific component part. Indirect and vicarious and not understandable by ordinary observa- tion though the escape of energy in the form of stealing may be, its dynamic origins are simple indeed as com- pared to the mechanisms of later life and especially those of nervous or mental invalidism. METHODS 57 The repression itself, we find, is frequently spoken of by young people in the most ingenuous fashion when once there is sincere and skillful attempt to tap the real source of trouble — the mechanism does not have to be merely inferred, or, as in the classical cases, learned by elaborate analysis. In these more naive individuals who know nothing of mental conflicts as such, the straightforward recital of repression is most striking. In not a few instances the fact of repression is sooner or later specifically offered to us as evidence of the pos- session of moral attributes ; the form of delinquency actually engaged in is not nearly so bad (says the delin- quent's censor) as certain other activities, the ideas of which are repressed. The represssion seems many times to have been undertaken in direct fashion, in a sort of get-thee-behind-me-Satan spirit, and, indeed, may be later regarded as having been entirely the re- sult of a conscious process. Then, too, the analysis is frequently easier because of the misdoer's awareness that the unfortunate im- pulses are subconsciously stimulated. The sequence of mental events may be narrated with considerable clearness and there may be apperception of the initia- tion of misbehavior tendencies by some inner mental activity not the result of conscious will to action. The production in subconsciousness of energ}^ of horme, of libido, or whatever it may be called, is thus directly felt as an actual and strange determiner of action. ^ One of the leading points in method is concerned with the attitude of the one who would, for the purpose of therapy, assail these problems with the individual offender. It goes without saying that only those who are students of the science and art of mental analysis should undertake the task, and these should cultivate 58 MENTAL CONFLICTS the most sympathetic and patient approach. The ex- perience of very many delinquents is that they have been met either with punishment for their misconduct, or with mere injunctions to do better. The attitude of the analyst should be the antithesis of one who settles a case without full inquiry, or who in an offhand way gives an opinion of why certain misconduct has oc- curred. The approach should be such that the delin- quent himself feels that the inquiry into foundations is born of the desire to help. The response shows that frequently the offender is fairly hungry for the chance to delve with some under- standing person into the real inwardness of his tenden- cies to misconduct. Even when there has been not the least understanding of the particular nature of the mental forces felt to be at work, often there has been expressed a great desire to search out the facts. We have seen striking examples of this. No wonder that in such cases the arguments and moral enjoinders of ignorance fail. The analyst, taking the true professional attitude, will make it plain that he is not shocked by disclosures, that the facts confided are such as frequently form the burden of communications in the consulting room and are no reflection upon the innate moral qualities of the confider ; rather they are evidences of a genuine desire to be clean-minded. This method of attack is partic- ularly effective when resistances appear ; then every effort should be put forth to persuade that there is nothing to be ashamed of in what arises involuntarily within the mind. At this point several suggestions of methods to aid in overcoming resistances may be offered from our experi- ence. We can confirm what many analysts have said METHODS 59 about the necessity for cutting short the interview when strong barriers to further progress are raised. On another day a different approach may carry us easily beyond the place that previously seemed im- passable; other words may not provoke the former inhibitions. A variety of devices, all fair enough, may be considered when working with children. Occasion- ally a real reward for truth-telling is justifiable, and not rarely a promise of immunity from punishment by parents is securable, to be offered, in turn, to the child. I have mentioned that an immediate appeal for truth is sometimes readily successful, but in other cases only resistances are encountered by the procedure ; then any one of the indirect routes of inquiry is to be used. These pages contain numerous hints of these more roundabout paths. One final thought on this topic is important : We often find we cannot go far in the analysis until the misdoer knows that we have special and specific information concerning at least some items of his misconduct. It thus saves time to be forearmed with detailed knowledge of some definite delinquencies. A danger in starting mental analysis with offenders is in laying stress upon recent delinquencies, those, for instance, with which they are at present charged. It requires little insight to understand that for many reasons there may be desire to keep these affairs quiet ; even after a case has been satisfactorily settled, the feelings of shame, chagrin, etc. may cast an emotional pall about the events, making an entirely different setting from that surrounding older delinquencies. Time weakens emotional elements ; any one can look calmly back upon experiences which formerly covered with confusion; and so it is with misdoers. After 60 MENTAL CONFLICTS slight inquiry about the present circumstances (often the details can be learned well enough from others), attention should be directed to preceding periods of mental life. '' We have found that a short cut to unearthing the conflict is through persuading the delinquent to hark back to his earliest knowledge of social offense. Some- times we are met by the first assertion there has been no long familiarity with stealing, for instance, or that acquaintance with other delinquents has only been recent, perhaps merely since the offender has been within the clutches of the law. These statements are unsatisfactory and simply mean that the individual is not bringing up enough from the realm of memory, at least in these cases which involve mental conflict. Gradually, by skillfully inquiring about the beginnings of ideas of delinquency, one does hear about very early experiences, such as are given in detail in our case- histories. The memory of these may finally stand out very clearly. Of course, indirect inquiry, such as concerning the doings of early playmates, the first knowledge of the particular form of delinquency to which the offender is prone, the worst person among former or present acquaintances, the source of earliest knowledge of sex affairs, the person who may have shown bad pictures or taught bad words, any of these may revive a memory that brings to light the com- ponents of a complex. It may take long to go over the memories of early playmates and of experiences obtained from them or through other sources, but the essential information is usually sooner or later to be obtained. Let no one suppose that these memories are to be left without corroboration. I still am unable to restrain METHODS 61 my native skepticism concerning some of these remark- able revelations of seed sown years ago which produces fruit at the surface after long periods of growth under- ground. Generally it is possible to get considerable corroborative information from relatives, and indeed, sometimes the first hint of possible sources of trouble has come from relatives themselves in response to inquiry about companions who might have exerted a bad influence, even though not known to have done so. We have had instances where it was at first impossible to awaken subconscious memory of bygone influences until the clue obtained from parents was followed and served to stimulate the dormant power of recall. Our confidence in the fact of the early establishment of complexes and succeeding conflicts and repressions has been strengthened perhaps more by corroborative his- tories obtained from relatives than by anything else. They may have known nothing of the actual experiences or significance of influences, but often were aware of the character of a certain individual who was a part of the former environment. I advise all analysts to seek such corroboration. Not that we are met, after all, by many falsifications in these inquiries, but one is always scientifically justified in assuming that any statement may possibly be untrue, and lying is com- monly supposed to be prevalent in the world of offenders. It is almost needless to state that for the sake of avoiding any misrepresentation on the part of the young person, suggestive questions and premature explana- tions of causation must be strictly avoided. As a matter of fact there is little need for any suggestion of the details of causations. Once the offender perceives the open-minded inquiry into foundations, he usually of his own accord goes on and on with the analysis. 62 MENTAL CONFLICTS following the lead of skillful non-suggestive questions, thereby showing his real desire to be relieved of his impulses. It is not a matter of starting out by saying to the individual, "Now, I want you to tell me what is the matter, why you act in this way." Nor does one ask whether the misdoing was started by such and such types of specific experiences. Rather, one leads on the inquiry in simple, patient fashion, till the facts of causation develop in consciousness, and the subject of the impulses realizes the genetic facts or even explicitly states, "Now I see what is the matter, why I am doing these things, how I got started." The force of such a statement is all the more impres- sive because in our cases it is frequently made by a thoroughly naive individual, one who knows nothing of theories and laws of mental life. And the directness of the phraseology shows that the misdoer himself has made an unexpected discovery. From another view- point the obtaining of such a forceful expression, show- ing a new-found realization of causations, establishes firm confidence in the validity of the method and its possible therapeutic results. So far we have found in our efforts no value in work- ing with the artificially controlled association reactions that some analysts have used. We have elaborately tried this in a few cases, with no success whatever, and in hardly any instance has there been need for it. I freely confess, however, that in the cases where we have failed, perhaps had we had the opportunity for still more intensive studies such devices might conceivably have proved useful. Nor have we discovered anything significant by using the "Tatbestanddiagnostik" test — where it is sought to learn important facts through the revelations of lengthened verbal association reac- METHODS 63 tion times. We have concluded through our long laboratory experience that there is a great deal to be said in this connection, as in general, about possible differences between the reactions of young people and adults. Of course, associations are just what the analyst is unearthing by his method, but the desired significant associations are brought out best by tracing them freely, by unwinding the chain of thought link by link. Nor have we for elucidation of the etiology of mis- conduct found it necessary to invoke the symbolism so much in vogue with psychoanalysts. Again here it may be that we thus overlook some deeper mental mechanisms, but our task is so directly practical that one does not wish to inject into it any such considera- tions of theoretical value. Regarding this apparent lack of necessity for utilizing the psychoanalytic system of representative meanings of things, Doctor Putnam suggests that in our field it may be that types of ac- tivity (rather than any detail of an end attained, such as the peculiar nature of some object stolen) are the symbolic manifestations. We should be inclined to acknowledge the possibility of this or of the alternative, namely, that misconduct tendencies may be merely vicarious, leading off energy along paths divergent from the original direction which the complex indicated. For the analysis of dreams, so widely used in the investigation of the psychoneuroses, we have also found little demand. In the first place, they offer for us a much less direct method of getting at the etiological facts. Then, although we have made many inquiries about significant dreams, it is rare indeed that we found the slightest suggestion of anything that would warrant analysis of them. It has seemed to us very likely that 64 MENTAL CONFLICTS dreams may be much more vital for understanding nervous troubles than misconduct; certainly in some of the misdoers who had symbolic dreams there were also clear signs of nervous disturbance, particularly hysteria. In rare cases, to be sure, the content of dreams of offenders does certainly suggest the content of subconscious mental life and the symbolisms of which the Freudian school in particular has made so much, and so occasionally may offer help for under- standing the basic nature of conduct tendencies. Many of our cases of mental conflict have been elaborately studied by tests for determination of men- tal ability. As a result of our findings, I can make the general statement that in no one mental test or group of tests are reactions found that safely indicate the presence or absence of mental conflict. Nor do we find any characteristic attitude that is assumed towards tests or towards the examiner. But this is not saying that the giving of mental tests is useless, even for other purposes than the determination of the general mental status of the offender. One of the points that we see the need of continually emphasizing is the carrying out of really constructive efforts for the reformation of mis- doers. To this end studies serve greatly which may establish the fact of special disabilities which interfere with school or vocational success and, even more par- ticularly, special abilities which may be utilized for the direct development of satisfying interests. These are of the utmost importance for the reconstructive measures we have attempted so often to point out as vitally necessary for the supplanting of pernicious mental activities resulting from conflicts. It is impossible in any chapter on method to enu- merate all the possibilities of inquiry suitable to ascer- METHODS 65 taining the varieties of experience that may be in the background of mental conflicts. But certain types of experience we find so common that some specific direc- tions may be offered. I have already mentioned inquiry into early companionship. Then, perhaps nothing so frequently taps the source of trouble as sympathetic questioning about worries and persistently recurring images or ideas. The simple asking, "What is it that bothers you?" or, "Do you worry about anything?" is often sufficient to bring out facts that brightly illuminate further progress in the analysis. The recurrence of particular words which connote dis- turbing ideas, or of pictures that stir up the mind, or of obsessional ideas must be made the subject of care- ful, detailed inquiry. Still another specific question that sometimes proves of importance, concerns whether or not the offender is the victim of emotionally dis- turbing wonderings centered about acquired items of half-knowledge. Familiarity with types of troublesome mental con- tent, whether auditory or visual, whether words or pic- tures or ideas, is to be best gained from perusal of our case-histories. Indeed, the careful reader of the his- tories will learn these facts and many other points that bear upon the practical elaboration of good methods of mental analysis in cases of misconduct. If the main principles given in these earlier chapters are grasped and acquaintance is gained with a good range of con- crete illustrations, common-sense variations adapted to the study of individual cases should readily suggest themselves. The exploration having been carried on far enough to find the probable genesis of the given impulse to mis- conduct, what next? As may be seen in a few of our 66 MENTAL CONFLICTS cases, the genetic factors once brought into conscious- ness, the individual is sometimes able to take care of the situation. But this bringing into consciousness must mean the full realization by the subject of the causal connections that the analysis has revealed. The enemy in the open often can be successfully combated if other conditions are favorable. One of the most essential of favorable conditions is a good home en- vironment, good in the sense that the causes which led to the conflict did not arise in home circumstances, or, if they did, that they are entirely altered after they have become known. Further, in the home there must be sympathy and understanding and the best oppor- tunity for the establishment of confidences. It is notable that a goodly number of our cases of conflict come from homes where the offender, as offenders go, had unusually good opportunities and interests, but, of course, the element of confidential relationship was lacking. (Indeed, this incongruity of misconduct arising in a good environment often leads one to suspect mental conflict.) In our cases that were successful immediately with the analytic exploration, competent relatives have nearly always had a hand in the result through following our advice in getting even more com- pletely at the needs of the individual and building up new interests. We have questioned the rationale of our own therapy, whether it did not largely consist of what is technically called "side-tracking", that is, attempting merely to replace the misconduct impulse by better interests, without resolving the real conflict. We have decided that inasmuch as we attempt to deal with the specific nature of the actual factors producing misconduct, digging up the subconscious memories to get at causes, METHODS 67 it is much more than that. But even with this deeper study, the diverting of energies to better channels must follow ; there must be sublimation. Young people must have somebody in whom they can confide, or some activity in which they can indulge whenever there is renewal of old impulses. With such "after-care" the impulses themselves gradually cease; it is only where these matters are neglected that they persist. Sometimes, then, final success does not signify a con- tinuance of sublimation as need for it arises, but means complete dissolution of the original conflict. At this point should be stressed the contrast between mental analysis and the method of suggestion so often exploited as a possible treatment for misdoing, sugges- tion either in waking or hypnotic states. As Jones ^ so clearly points out: "The great disadvantage of any treatment by means of suggestion is the blind nature of it. It achieves its results by substituting the idea of the physician for the previous expressions of the pathogenic effects." Through the use of mental analysis, the source of trouble is directly faced and the individual develops himself in perceiving it and attack- ing it. The victory is his with as little dependence as possible on others. No one doubts the greater strength that character possesses when built with forces and materials produced from within. Exploration without re-education is a failure — \v analysts have long stated this as a truism; there are rare exceptions. What is the meaning and program of re-education in this connection? It is the making over of certain ideas, the re-interpretation of experiences and portions of the mental content, the changing of 1 Ernest Jones, "The Treatment of the Psychoneuroses", in "Modern Treatment of Nervous and Mental Diseases", Vol. I, p. o76. 68 MENTAL CONFLICTS connotations of words and pictures. It is the cultiva- tion of openness, leading to the cessation of mental repressions of experiences and thoughts. It may be the supplying of knowledge and the satisfying of ques- tions and doubts. It is the supplanting of undesirable elements of mental life by the centering of attention on new interests ; the furnishing of new outlets for activi- ties. It may be the establishment of a new attitude and outlook on life. Of course not all these measures are necessary in any given instance, but the importance of the process of re-education becomes clear from their bare enumeration. Just what concrete means should be used depends upon the specific, detailed needs of any given individual as revealed by the analysis of inner causation and the study of external factors in the situa- tion. Not the least of difficulties in readjustment arises through necessity for alteration of previous environ- mental conditions. We have been plainly told by offenders, after they had ferreted out with us their own conflicts and complexes, that it was useless to go back to old living conditions where the conflict was bound to continue; only in a new environment would there be any chance at all for success. One boy tells us, for instance, that when working on a farm or busy with the varied opportunities of a fine institution, as com- pared to the meager interests of his own home, he is free from conflicts about sex matters. When conflicts are built up on sex instincts, it is useless merely to say to the offender that they must be downed. The develop- ment of new activities is a common-sense necessity that frequently in the case of our offenders cannot be supplied without complete change of environment. Our failures largely include cases which have gone METHODS 69 back to an unchanged environment or to new conditions that have created further conflicts and consequent need for more repression. If a conflict has arisen in a child from suggestions of its own illegitimacy or banal parentage, for instance, and such suggestions recur, there is bound to be further trouble. The same is true, of course, if there are further observations of sex affairs ; even suggestions thereof may arouse new com- plexes and conflicts. To guard against this would seem to be a matter of sheer common sense, and yet only too frequently individuals whose careers have been based upon mental conflicts are allowed to remain in an unfortunate environment where there is renewal of the ancient source of their difficulties. The prevention of mental conflicts is a matter of far- reaching importance. Since the activities of the mind are controlled by mechanisms, it is the business of intelligent people to gain some practical knowledge of these mechanisms and to utilize the knowledge for furtherance of weal and prevention of woe. In the up-bringing of children there are a number of general measures which are well calculated to forfend the devel- opment of mental conflict. I know of hardly anything connected with home life and education that I would call attention to more strongly than the following points, which have to do with matters of early mental experiences and of relationship between the child and the other human beings who form the most essential part of its environment. The main ideas may seem obvious enough to those who are thoughtful about the mental lives of children ; common-sense ideas of moral- ity should be sufficient grounds for recognition of the validity of the points made, but very few seem aware of the more subtle and hidden troubles which develop 70 MENTAL CONFLICTS through unfortunate early experiences which might well have been prevented. Indeed, the prophylaxis of mental conflicts should form the theme for many a sermon. I may first take up the matter of sex education, talked about a good deal in these days, but hardly ever appreciated in its relationship to forms of misdoing other than sex offenses. In going over our case-his- tories of misconduct due to mental conflict, those given in this volume and many others which are not given, no point stands out so strongly as the fact that in these instances early sex knowledge and experiences have been gained in a most unfortunate way, sometimes leading to psychic shock, or trauma. (Here I should call attention to our knowledge of similar beginnings in hundreds of other cases where the element of psychic shock was absent, but where, perhaps, the habit of masturbation and other sex difficulties have followed.) Those who are of the opinion that early instruction of children in anything pertaining to sex life is to be de- plored, and who themselves on this account in their own families withhold information, should realize that nearly every boy and girl actually does gain early knowledge of these things. Under the congregate conditions of modern life, the chances for even a young child to learn about sex affairs from others, from news- papers, books, theatres, etc. is very great indeed. It is certainly unfair to allow a child to get its first inkling of sex life from sources that, through their very nature, cast an unfortunate shadow over the whole matter. The incomplete and often incorrect character of such information and the tone of its utter- ance miserably vitiates what should be pure and free knowledge. It is the implication of something socially METHODS 71 forbidden that precludes the child going for enlighten- ment to older members of the family, who should be the informants. The secret knowledge is sometimes accom- panied by a sense of guilt and shame, quite uncalled for by the requirements of nature or of morality, but which is soil upon which mental conflicts may readily grow. There are many problems of sex education which are not solved, but we may be certain of one great point related to the development of mental conflicts : The dissemination of early biological knowledge, which may be suitable even for young children, will do much to prevent sex information with more personal bearings coming with unwarranted shock, or with implication that it must be suppressed. Analysts have spoken of the bad effects of conjugal embraces being witnessed by children ; functional nervous ailments have been traced back to this as one cause. We have some evidence of such affairs leading to misconduct, but more often we have known of in- stances where witnessing or suspecting illicit sex rela- tions on the part of a parent has led to an intensive anti-social attitude and to various sorts of misbehavior. After what we have learned, this seems to me a natural result, and yet it is rarely recognized that such influ- ences create misconduct tendencies in other than sexual directions. Then, we have known of many cases of conflict leading to misconduct arising from witnessing illicit sex scenes elsewhere than in the home. All this brings up again the importance of confidences between parents and children ; nothing will so guard against harmful consequences from an experience of the type just mentioned as being able to tell about it and talk it over with some good older friend. The basis for much prevention of mental conflicts 72 MENTAL CONFLICTS is to be found in close confidential relations between parents and children. A great deal could be written about the failure of adults to understand the mental needs of young people. Very often their own childhood points of view are entirely forgotten, and the results of the conditions of modern child life are met with the statement that they cannot understand them, that nothing like that occurred in their own youth. To inquire and to try to understand are, on the part of the older person, the first requirements of effective con- fidences. On the part of the child, to tell and to talk over with the right person all important experiences is no sign of babyishness ; indeed, it is a feature of be- havior that may lead to strength and independence of character. It seems trite to say that guardians of children should have oversight of what children are doing, whom they are meeting, what they are seeing and hearing, and as much as possible of what they are thinking, but we find that even in families supposed to be well cared for there is often little or no knowledge of these important matters which lead to the troubles with which we are dealing. It is said by good observers that under the conditions of modern life there is an unfortunate and growing laxity in this regard. Children of recognizable sensitive temperament, whether the symptoms of the sensitiveness show them- selves by nervous reactions or by the individual draw- ing back as into a shell, are ones to be handled with care and with full appreciation of their capacity for the development of mental conflicts. Such cases often call in times of stress for the most delicate treatment through private confidences with some one. Lying and misrepresentation to children by older people, even when undertaken from the standpoint of METHODS 73 supposed good for the child, are highly dangerous. I conceive this practice to have the most extensive rami- fications, to have effects upon formation of character which cannot easily be measured. Why should this not be so if the props of certainty and reliance are knocked away when those from whom truth is naturally expected fail to live up to their part ? From the general moral issues of such failures on the part of adults we may turn to the specific point that misrepresentations to children about matters of vital interest sometimes do actually cause mental conflicts with serious results. Freud has rightfully emphasized this fact and added the observation that youngsters are vastly keener in their impressions and feelings about lying and double-dealing than ordinarily is recognized. Another sin by parents that has relation to mental conflicts consists in the use of bad language, namely, forms of swearing that are suggestive, and obscenity itself. Of course, this only occurs in households where a parent is of callous moral nature, or where, as is often the case, the unfortunate words are used during intoxi- cation. Very few would deliberately choose to poison a child's mind. Besides cases where psychic trauma and conflict arose from bad language, we have known several instances where conflict and resultant mis- conduct began through the insinuations by a parent or another under the influence of alcohol that the child was not a product of lawful wedlock. Where there is an adopted child or an illegitimate child in the family, there should be the most well- balanced consideration of how the facts concerning parentage are to be best handled. It may be dis- astrous if the first intimation of the truth is learned from others than the supposed parents {vide Case 6), or from 74 MENTAL CONFLICTS documents that have been secretly discovered. It is astonishing how easily leakage of the truth may take place ; many a guardian has said to us, "How could he have learned that; nobody has told him." Repression in its most vigorous forms often takes place with even the slightest suspicion of anomalous parentage; then conflict ensues. Parental relationship is so vitally connected with the emotional life of childhood that suggestion of irregularity in it comes as a grave psychic shock. And the importance of any peculiarity pertain- ing to parentage is immensely added to in the individ- ual's mind if there be any social derogation on account of it. Innuendos concerning parentage, even of little playmates who hardly know what they are talking about, cut deeper than almost anything else in the world, arouse conflicts, and induce definite anti-social attitudes and misconduct. There is no help for the situation when once the facts have spread about a neighborhood ; there should be a complete change of environment for the sake of prevention of harm. To head off in the first place any secret and shock-producing information that almost surely will be imparted, the truth in some form must be declared. Most fre- quently there is a feeling in the given family circle that the facts should be concealed, but from our experi- ence with the bad effects of such sub rosa treatment of the unfortunate situation in many cases, I am strongly inclined to believe that openness of statement never does as much harm as concealment. The prophylaxis, in general, of mental conflicts can be readily seen to depend, in the first place, upon knowing what type of experiences do so unfortunately influence the young mind, and in the next place, guard- ing as much as possible against these experiences, and METHODS 75 especially guarding sensitive types of individuals. Once the experiences have been encountered, the next thing is prevention of harmful effects by means of the methods we have outlined above. All this has to do especially with the treatment of the case by those who are near to the child, but there is another outlook upon this problem. Once mental conflicts have become active, there is not only need for the exploration and re-education of which we have been speaking, but also for prevention of furt her dev elopment of coniplexes. Conditions such as initiated or permitted the first unfortunate experi- ences only too frequently persist in the offender's immediate world. All that I have said about methods of prevention of mental conflicts ever arising in a child's life is applicable here. Healthy, vigorous mental interests and confidential relationships more than ever should be fostered, for through these is the best chance of adequate sublimation. And re-education, too, o f pare nts (or other guardians or members of a household) we find has now to be con- templated. Our case-studies will show how important, as well as how impossible this sometimes may be. It is extremely difficult in very many instances to make parents appreciate what is meant by mental conflict as the source of misconduct, even when analysis has re- sulted in a great change for the better. Nor is this to be wondered at if we think of how little comprehen- sion exists of even the laws of the visible world. The conception of mental mechanisms and laws is subtle and new and altogether far beyond ordinary ideas of things. Fortunately the practical bearings are occa- sionally grasped, and the case intelligently handled in a fashion which demonstrates for us the therapeutic 76 MENTAL CONFLICTS possibilities in family life. To get older people to be more sympathetically confidential; to cultivate more understanding of the vital problems of youth, to give more of their own time to companionship is the task of their re-education. In juvenile court work, we look forward to better control of all features of environment which contribute to delinquency. If even through the insidious paths of mental conflict conditions are active which make for misconduct, they should be strenuously combated. If adults themselves are not willing to live proper lives, and their influences induce misbehavior on the part of children, their conduct on this count alone is a social menace and should be treated as such. In some cases it may be absolutely essential to put the child, after analysis of the difficulty, under some one outside of the family who will undertake to get confidences and to re-educate. Pastors who have made themselves ac- quainted with this field might be utilized to direct this effort, and perhaps well-trained probation officers, or other workers who have developed psychological insight. If a conflict case is not recognized as such it frequently means, as shown in our case-studies, a long and expensive period of institutional treatment by the State, frequently without betterment. The fact that the genesis of delinquent careers so often dates back to mental life of childhood makes it imperative that the problems of childhood should more than ever be the subject of study. No reader of our case-histories can avoid this conclusion. Around the original source may be deposited in mental life an im- mense amount of material in the form of memories and effects of experiences, and the whole later picture consequently be colored by many other elements than METHODS 77 those which represent the first springs of tendencies to misconduct. In measuring the possibility of practical results, no one who appreciates in the least the effect of the establishment of mental and social habits can doubt the great comparative value of beginning recon- structions before the reactions to mental conflict create undesirable habits of thought and action. CHAPTER V CONFLICTS ACCOMPANIED BY OBSESSIVE IMAGERY Other mental manifestations besides the conflict may be dynamic features of the background in cases of misconduct. It has been deeply interesting to hear how forceful a part mental imagery plays in some instances, — accounts of the phenomena being given by the victims themselves. The clearness with which the imagery stands in relationship to the conflict, on the one hand, and to misconduct, on the other, is most instructive. Mental mechanisms in these cases, as in the following illustrations, come plainly into sight. Case 1. Of very great interest is the following re- markable recurrence of impulse to misconduct, origi- nating each time with ideas or imagery concerning another person who was the center of an excessively emotional experience. The case shows very distinct repression of certain parts of the experience, with out- bursts of impulse traceably related to the repressed elements. The associative activities showed so clearly that the analyst felt as if privileged to witness and understand mental processes ordinarily unrevealed. Melda B. was almost eleven when we saw her for the first time. We have known her intimately three years. 78 CONFLICTS AND OBSESSIVE IMAGERY 79 Physically, she has presented decidedly normal con- ditions, except for enlarged tonsils. Vision is slightly defective. She is a pleasant appearing girl of good color and regular features. Mentally, she proved herself quite capable by tests, although she has been a little retarded educationally through frequent changing of schools. All along we, as well as others, have observed that Melda is a thoroughly straightforward girl and is evenly balanced on the emotional side. Melda's pleasant and exceedingly affectionate parents were terribly worried about her outbreaks of stealing, and from the first were willing to cooperate in every way. They showed a receptive attitude towards the facts, such as we have often failed to find among much better educated people. It appeared that at home the girl was very well behaved and helpful. No troubles had arisen between her and the other children, two older brothers. Altogether there had been a back- ground of pleasant and healthy home life and of good general environmental conditions. Developmental history was negative except for a head injury at seven years, which, however, had been only a slight affair, and attacks of convulsions, one at two years, and again at three years of age. She had not had a single serious illness. No others in the familv on either side had suffered from convulsions or epilepsy, so far as known, nor could we ascertain any other facts that showed ab- normality in heredity. Melda had been taken by the police, when we first saw her, for stealing a pocketbook from a woman in a department store. There was no question about the matter ; she had been observed in the act. The case 80 MENTAL CONFLICTS was studied by Doctor Augusta Bronner and myself; a few interviews were sufficient for us to get at certain vital features of the situation. In working our way back to beginnings, we learned incidentally of much other thieving. Indeed, even at the start, Melda wanted to pour out her troubles and soon told us that this last event was the culmination of three years of impulse to steal. Her whole story, gradually developed, may be given in short as follows : Some three years previously the family lived in a neighborhood where there were a number of bad boys and girls. Not that Melda saw anything very bad going on, but she heard about it. In particular there was Annie. She was an older girl who went with boys, "big boys, too", and often asked Melda to go along with her. This girl used vicious language and would say "the bad words over and over again. She wrote them on the house too." Melda told us that at first she did not know what these words meant, although she knew they were improper and knew they had reference to what Annie did that was wrong. Melda still remembered those words, perhaps ten of them. Melda had suffered no physical sex experience, but everything she had learned of these matters stands out very clearly in her mind. Going back to the occasion when Melda first had acquaintance with stealing, we found that the story involved this same Annie. " Then I saw her steal ; she took a pocketbook, and she would take things from any store. I saw her walk past a counter and take something, that was from M.'s department store. I can see her just as plain as if she was doing it. Once she took me to a store, a 5 and 10 cent store, and told me to take a bracelet and a bottle of perfume, and I CONFLICTS AND OBSESSIVE IMAGERY 81 did. She said to wait until no one was watching and then put it in my handkerchief and slip it in my pocket. When we came out of the store she took the things." Melda tells us that at this period when she was being told about sex things by Annie and being also instructed in stealing, she used to take things from her mother. "Annie used to live in the same house with us. She lived in the basement. She swore something terrible; such words I can't tell them to you. I never think about them. Only what she told me comes in my mind, and I can see all those three times I saw her stealing. They always come in my mind before I take things. When I am busy it does not bother me, and sometimes when it comes in my mind, I take a book and read and it goes away. But sometimes it stays, and I can't think of what I am reading, and then I take things off my mother." From the parents also we learned about Annie. She was the daughter of some disreputable people ; for a time, unknown to them, Melda had gone with her. They became so concerned that they moved away from the neighborhood on account of this, and supposed long since that all the bad influence had dis- appeared. Annie had the reputation of both stealing and being immoral, they afterwards learned. They had made absolutely no inquiry concerning what Annie in any secret way might have taught their own little girl. The details Melda gave of the stealing affair when she was arrested, and of what preceded it, were a graphic presentation of her impulses and their back- ground. In the morning, on that Saturday, her mother sent her to market with her brother. "There I saw Annie, and she came up to me and asked me if 82 MENTAL CONFLICTS I still stole. I told her no. Then I ran away from her, but that night when I went back to M.'s depart- ment store, it all came back into my mind about her. Then they caught me, a detective did, and they took me to the station. I was so scared I said just any- thing. I didn't know what I said." M.'s store is the same place where Melda had first seen Annie steal, and it was there Annie had herself taken a pocketbook. "It was there just like I saw her. It came in my mind what she did." Melda all along made much more of Annie's bad- ness in other directions than of her stealing. She stated that Annie would never tell her the meaning of the bad words which she said, but just repeated them over and over. Melda had never asked her mother about these things. The child told us in detail of her visualizing powers. Without any suggestion on our part, she explained how plainly she could see things in her imagination. "When I am reading stories, I see things just as plain as if they were real." She vouchsafed this, apparently, in explanation of her statement that she could almost see Annie standing before her stealing things. She was not troubled by other mental pictures, however, and, in particular, what she saw at moving picture shows did not come up in her mind. We tried to make the mother understand the bear- ing on the possibilities of better conduct of what this intelligent child told us of her mental life. We heard no more of the case for a year and a half, when she was brought into court once more. This time Melda had been arrested in a department store in another part of town with a stolen pocket- book, an undergarment, and a waist. Our attention CONFLICTS AND OBSESSIVE IMAGERY 83 was again called to the case, and once more our interest was keenly aroused by the association processes actively at work producing misconduct. Before we saw her this time, Melda had already told the judge that it was her memory of what a girl had told her years ago that caused her to steal. From the mother we heard that Melda had been a wonderfully good girl since her previous outbreak; she had not stolen a single thing until now. The nice- looking older brother corroborated this account, which was all the more believable, because the mother her- self had wanted her brought to us originally and had reported all that she knew of her misconduct. Since that time Melda had stayed at home very closely and had proved unusually industrious. Frequently she had asked her mother for extra work to do. She wanted to wash dishes and scrub the floor; it seemed almost as if there was not enough for her to do, she worked so well. Her parents were generous about getting little things for her as she desired them, and everything went along most pleasantly. Iler school record, too, was excellent. The only point that her mother had noticed was that Melda sometimes seemed to be staring off in the distance and, if spoken to, a minute later would say that she had not heard what her mother said. The parents stated that they were on the verge of suicide on account of this new disgrace. The father could not do his work properly, he was so affected. The mother had tried to ask Melda about Annie's influence, after we saw her, but, of course, could not go very far in analysis of the trouble. Again she did not dream that there was any inner mental difficulty. The circumstances surrounding and preceding this 84 MENTAL CONFLICTS last stealing were clearly described to us by Melda, and on several of the points we were fortunately able to get some corroborative testimony. Melda was going to her cousin's, as the mother had planned, on a certain morning, and got off the car a couple of blocks before she reached her destination, and went to the grocery department of a department store to get some cookies. At the door she saw Annie for the first time in a year and a half. The older girl called, but Melda would not go and Annie, whistling, walked away with her companion. Instead of going out, Melda then loitered around in the store. "I was thinking about Annie, so I didn't hurry out." We attempted further analysis of Annie's influence. "The only bad girl I ever knew was Annie. Ever since I saw her steal some scissors I have got it in my mind. I see her as if she was telling me what she was doing. / see her standing right beside me. If I read a book and it is about a girl, I see her like a picture. Those bad words she used to say, they would often come back in my mind, but the words do not come] back any more." " It is like she was standing in front of me ; as if she was telling me what she does ; just as if she was call- ing me to go along with her some place. Sometimes it is so plain, I think it is her. Then I don't know what to do, and I ask my mother to give me some work. When I get to washing dishes, then I quit thinking of her. / see her when I read in the book. It is like she was standing in between the people in the pictures. Once in a while at school when we are reading, then I ask my teacher if I can do something else. When I try not to think about it, I have to do some hard thing to stop thinking about her. I would be so glad CONFLICTS AND OBSESSIVE IMAGERY 85 not to think about her no more, because I don't want to make my mother that shame." "When I think about her most and feel like steal- ing, it is when I see pictures of boys and girls on one page. She used to show me picture books she stole. Once she showed me a picture of a boy and girl kissing. She told me then about bad things, and now, when I see a picture with a boy and girl, I think about what she told me, and then I think of her and the stealing. This is the first time I saw her since I stole that last time. I think that I ought to stop looking at picture books, because it is pictures that makes me think of her. Sometimes when I look at a map in school, it is like she was standing on it. She once showed me a map, but I don't think of that so often. It is when I see pictures about little boys and girls in one picture, that is when it is the worst," As far as we could ascertain, this girl was not a great visualizer in general. We asked her about re- membering pictures of other subjects, such as those she saw in her geography, but it appeared it was only the pictures which suggested or were directly associated with her vivid experiences with Annie which presented themselves mentally in any strong fashion. We found that Melda was once with Annie when the latter took some picture books from a department store. It was extremely interesting, also, that Annie had stolen a book with maps in it, perhaps a geography, and in showing Melda this book had opened it for her to see the maps. Here was the basis of the obsessional imagery associating Annie with maps and also with picture books in general. Melda, as well as her mother, assured us that during this period of a year and a half she had stolen nothing 86 MENTAL CONFLICTS at all. She said that she often got "a feeling of tak- ing things", but did not do so. She had managed to overcome this by reasoning with herself and by busy- ing herself as much as possible. She said that it was when she was trying to overcome the ideas and pic- tures which came up in her mind that she asked her mother for hard work to do. It was clear that her behavior had broken bounds again when her associa- tions were powerfully renewed by actually seeing the cause of her original emotional disturbance. All through this second court experience Melda ap- peared as a thoroughly normal and terribly distressed child. She showed the judge the book of good pictures which had been given her a few days before, and said that she was going to have these in her mind instead of the old ones. We had a very encouraging inter- view with the mother and child together. Melda promised always to go to her mother now about any kind of temptations which she might have, and we tried to impress the mother more than ever with the need of gaining the girl's confidence. For over a year and a half now there has been no trouble whatever with Melda. She has been doing very well in school and at home ; she is in the eighth grade. Her mother reports that the girl seems very happy most of the time and has been unusually helpful. Melda herself tells us that her old imagery has been growing less and less ; only on a couple of occasions during the last six months has she been bothered, and then she told her mother about it and began to work very hard. In particular she has been reading the book given to her and has been trying ardently to image to herself one of the pictures which was sug- gested to her as being especially good. She has tried CONFLICTS AND OBSESSIVE IMAGERY 87 this, she states, whenever the old pictures have started to appear in her mind ; indeed, she has been carrying this book with her most of the time. During the year two most unfortunate incidents have occurred which bear upon the general problem of reformation of offenders. Melda was waiting for a few minutes on a crowded corner in her old neighbor- hood when she saw a woman with her hand bag open. She went up to the woman and told her of this, and the latter closed it. A man standing by led her to a police officer on the corner, and he, knowing of her, took her to the station. The juvenile ofiicer of the district, an unusually discerning man, immediately in- vestigated the case and found there was nothing to it. The woman herself said that no one had attempted to take anything from her hand bag. The matter, of course, was not carried to court, but Melda was naturally much disturbed. Still another incident occurred, showing how a bad reputation follows the offender. Melda came in to us to report that she had been sent home from school and told not to come back. The school people knew that she had been "locked up", and when a certain other girl in her room told the teacher that Melda was steal- ing again, they believed it. Now, as a matter of fact, it appears that this girl had tried to persuade Melda to go stealing with her, and Melda refused, whereupon this girl made the accusation. Melda came in to us with tears streaming down her cheeks, bringing a girl friend from the same room to testify to us about the other girl. This affair was soon adjusted, and Melda was returned to school. She is now very jealous, naturally, of her reputation, and assured us that recently she has had no temptations whatever to take things. 88 MENTAL CONFLICTS (After this long period of success, very disturbing events have, since the above writing, developed in the family life, involving dehnquencies or even mental unbalance of one of Melda's parents. Again a most unfortunate sex affair has been thrust into the girl's immediate experience. It was a matter of great inter- est to us to find that she reacted once more by stealing. On account of this miserable family situation lately arisen, the outcome for INIelda's behavior must now be considered precarious unless she is removed to a better mental and moral environment.) Case 2. A wonderfully clear, direct account of mental imagery was obtained in the following instance. The search for causation of the delinquency was greatly aided by the intelligent and stalwart attitude of both the offender and his relatives. His introductory state- ment to us was that stealing gave him a very peculiar pleasure which he could not explain, but which he would like to have fathomed. Armond B., a well developed boy of nearly sixteen, came most willingly to seek help for his troubles. He had not yet been taken into court, although he had repeatedly stolen. Both he and his family felt that the situation was getting desperate. An intelligent police officer referred them to us. His delinquencies up to the present had been settled to the satisfaction of the losers, but if he kept up his thieving, there was no telling how soon he would be held for trial. Armond' s personal quahties showed no pecuHarities ; one could quickly perceive him to be frank, pleasant, responsive, well-mannered, thoughtful, and truthful. His mental processes were notably simple and direct. Dealing as his story did with the subjective elements CONFLICTS AND OBSESSIVE IMAGERY 89 of his life, he showed in relating it no particular ego- centricism and no approach to hypochondria. He had been well brought up in an unusually wholesome family environment, where only moderate means were avail- able for the high ideals of education which the young people set themselves. There had been no deep con- fidences between him and his relatives, but there was much affection and trust among them. Armond was attending an educational institute of high school grade, where he was an earnest and moder- ately good student. The mental tests he did for us showed nothing abnormal ; a moderate slowness of wit indicated nothing special, except the fact that he was not unusually bright. We were interested to note the point that he himself made concerning his own learning ability ; he said he had to see things in order to remember them well; he tried to remember his lessons as he saw them on the page. The ingenuous- ness which Armond displayed with us was probably a tribute to his upbringing in a simple-minded and truthful family ; it was more than we usually find with adolescents who are physically matured beyond their years, as he was. Armond presented a very sound body for examina- tion. Nothing out of the ordinary was found except that he was an excessive nail biter, he had a slight defect of vision in one eye, and he showed premature sex characteristics. With his broad, mature face, he looked the part of a thoroughly wholesome and honest young fellow. This boy came from a family on the upgrade in this country; the parents had been immigrants. There were a number of older brothers who had done well, two of them were now religious workers in Y. M. C. A. 90 MENTAL CONFLICTS institutes. The only abnormal traits in the family on either side were to be ascribed to alcoholism, — there had been some of this on each side, but not in any near relative. The father himself earlier had been a hard drinker, but he had reformed ; he was always steady at his work. In general, the family may be said to be unusually God-fearing and industrious people. Armond's physical development had been absolutely normal in all ways ; indeed, the whole family were noted for their good health. Our boy had gone to school regularly and always cared, in a slow-going way, for his studies. I would again make the point that he had been unusually well protected from im- moral influences at home and in the private school to which he went. Armond said that he was more than willing to thrash out with us, as his mother desired, the tempta- tions which beset him. Out of his completed story, we may construct the following account of the facts, many of which were verifiable : At about fourteen years Armond began going first with a boy by the name of Emil. Until this time he had thought hardly at all about sex affairs; he had not been taught by bad companions about such things, nor had he been instructed at all in these matters by his parents. It was already known to the family that Emil previously had cheated his mother out of some money and was somewhat dishonest, but they sup- posed he had overcome these tendencies. Armond, who was somewhat younger, learned at this age first from Emil about girls as objects of sexual attraction and first heard about masturbation. He also found out that Emil was in the habit of stealing occasionally. CONFLICTS AND OBSESSIVE IMAGERY 91 At this time the two boys were together attending meetings at church. Armond found a key in church, evidently belonging to a poor-offering box, and Emil suggested opening the box. It was this same day or very near it that Emil stopped Armond in front of an art store and showed him a well known, really most innocent picture of a young girl in the nude, and told him that it made him feel like masturbating. The boys did open the box repeatedly and take money from it and spent it together. They kept this up until Armond was caught in the act by a church attend- ant. In the meantime this picture and its association with the sex impulse seized upon Armond's mind. He told us that this was what was really the matter with him. The thought of this picture was what he wanted to get rid of, and then perhaps he would not steal. After talking a time with us, it thus seemed to stand out very clearly in his mind that there was much con- nection between the two ideas. We asked for further explanation. Armond told us that after hearing what Emil said about the picture, although this was just about the time when he heard the pastor warn a class of boys against the evils of bad sex habits, he began practising masturbation often in his study periods when alone in the daytime. It occurred directly in connection with his thought and imagery about this picture ; in fact, the picture became like a vision to him, around which he centered his thoughts. It flashed up in his mind often when he was reading. He repeatedly prayed that he might be relieved of this imagery and temptation. It was the only picture that he had ever thought of in that way, and he had only seen it once, there in the shop window. We were emphatically told, both by Armond and 92 MENTAL CONFLICTS his family, that there had been no steahng before this time ; he had never dreamt that it would be possible for him to do such a thing. After he was found taking this money in church, he was closely guarded by his family, and he wanted to be so guarded, but they knew nothing of his awakened sex thoughts. His older brothers frequently walked to school with him and came home with him, that he might be relieved of all bad companionship. But he began a lot of petty stealing. He took sheets of paper and pens at school, things that he did not need at the time. He was never found out at this, he did it so slyly. During the vaca- tion, he worked for a few weeks in an office, but he resisted all temptations to steal while there. He took small moneys from his father's pockets, however, although his parents had told him always to ask and he would never be refused spending money. On an- other occasion he took some roller skates. The last experience in stealing was the one that led to his being brought to us for study. The analysis of this recent event and the mental processes which went on before it showed clearly the mental mechanisms we are dis- cussing in this volume. It was Sunday afternoon. Armond had been reading a story. He had much temptation that day to allow the picture to remain before his mind because he was alone. He resisted his sex impulses by ardent reading. Several times his pernicious mental imagery recurred. By evening he became intensely restless and went out for a walk. He came to a place where there was a little alley back of a store. He walked in there just out of curiosity. He had no idea of stealing, nor did he go there for any other improper purposes; it was just restlessness that led him. He saw a window CONFLICTS AND OBSESSIVE IMAGERY 93 partially open and a box inside within reaching distance. He managed to get hold of it and experienced great satisfaction in doing so. Soon afterwards, when it was in his possession, he felt alarmed, but had not enough courage to replace the box. Even after this he remembers he had some pleasure or satisfaction in thinking of what he had done, but this rapidly diminished. He retained the money that was in the box and threw the box away. (It was a day or two after this that his mother found the extra money in his pockets and made him confess and pay back to the grocery store what had been taken.) The stealing of the roller skates occurred when he was on an errand after a period when he had been alone and had suffered temptations to which he had partially given in. When he entirely fights off his sex impulses, he has the feeling as if nothing could make him pleasant. He has never told his people about this, because he was afraid that his mother would worry over it. She is his best friend in the world ; he does not feel near to his brothers. This last year, while he has had such temptations, he has not been doing well in his studies. The year before he was one of the three highest in his class. He knew himself, he said, that the main trouble with him was sex thoughts ; his stealing he felt to be of secondary importance. After the analysis, which was readily carried out in a couple of prolonged interviews, Armond had clearly framed for us the connection between the two, and without any explanation on our part stated that he now saw it most distinctly. This was a tribute to the intelligence, good will, and naivete of the boy. He really wanted to do better and bring to the surface all that led him into evil deeds. 94 MENTAL CONFLICTS The advice to be given was plain enough in this case. With the boy's permission we called in his most sym- pathetic brother. Through this brother, success has been achieved. Armond laid bare to him his troubles ; for months afterwards he purposely kept close com- pany with people before whom he would be ashamed to exhibit any sex tendencies; he placed his mind more arduously on his studies, and entered an institute with the idea of professionally rendering religious serv- ice, as two older brothers had done before him. Later reports from Armond remain most satisfac- tory, with never a hint of more dishonesty; he says himself that a year and a half has gone by without his having stolen anything, and, while he does not deny sex temptations, he has reduced the pernicious imagery to a minimum and has learned how to fight it, as we suggested, by replacing it with better mental pictures. The outcome is most gratifying to all concerned. Case 3. The obsessional and almost hallucinatory force of early improper acquaintance with partially understood vicious words is graphically shown in this instance : A boy of ten years, from a very poor family, gave much trouble on account of smoking, remaining away from home nights, and stealing. Once he had stolen sufficient money from a neighbor to buy clothes and shoes. He engaged also in much lying and romancing. The boy showed fair ability, but had suffered many disadvantages on account of excessively poor vision. General development was normal. In the background there was defective heredity, the father having been a very sickly man long before this boy was born and a sufferer from lead poisoning, and others in the family CONFLICTS AND OBSESSIVE IMAGERY 95 were subject to many headaches. The boy himself had had many children's diseases and frequently com- plained of headaches. This lad gave a convincing story of mental conflicts and informed us of more stealing escapades than the mother herself knew. We afterwards found out that these were true. Excerpts from our interviews will give some idea of his mental content. This boy told first of a former companion who tried to steal a purse and who had succeeded in getting a bag of pennies out of the pocket of a rag-man's coat. "That kid I was telling you about was the first I heard bad words from. He was one of the kids that was in the barn I was telling you about, where the rag-man was. I never told mamma about him. His family moved away now. He would tell bad words in the settle- ment house. I think of these; that's how it spoils me. I used to tell bad words, but not no more. When a kid gets to know these things, he feels like saying them out. I don't no more ; it makes me sick. I sometimes feel like saying them, and that makes me feel bad. When I get right up to it and get ready to say them, I stop. ... If I see a girl going to the store, I think about what they said about taking money away. I think of things. It sounds it; it sounds it; it would be words what he said, those bad words ; I don't like to tell you about them, I'm ashamed. It makes me think like anything about bad, that does. It's bad words he said, and what he savs about ladies. . . . Sure, it comes in my mind about robbing. When it first comes in my mind to take things, I get sort of scared, and then maybe I take it and put it down in my hand like this, or roll it up in my sweater sleeve. They don't like me in our house, my pa don't. The 96 MENTAL CONFLICTS boarders call me a bum. The teachers say they don't want me because I spoil the other boys. My father he don't want to have me near him. ... I didn't know what it was to take things. I started to get bad then. That boy used to say all kinds of dirty stuff ; I went away when he said them things. I didn't like to hear it and I walked away. He was a nasty boy." From this poverty-stricken home, so poor in mental interests and understanding, so lacking in manage- ment as well as in material things, there was nothing to be hoped for. This lad had to be sent for a long period to an institution. CHAPTER VI CONFLICTS CAUSING IMPELLING IDEAS The fact that mental conflicts give rise to impelling ideas is the essential reason for mental analysis coming forward so strongly in the practice and writings of neurologists and psychiatrists. They developed their studies of cases symptomatically presenting impulsions, compulsions, and obsessions (including the inhibitive phenomena of hysteria, psychasthenia, etc.) long before attempt was made to study, by similar inves- tigations of causations, impulsions towards what is termed social offense. Now, however, many evidential facts have been accumulated which show the same type of mental mechanisms operative in this other field. There is no doubt that indirect sexual offenses show impulsions in the most virulent form, but, as I have before stated, on page 47, this class of cases need not be included in this discussion when so much has already been written on that topic. Impelling ideas towards misconduct following upon mental conflict form a common element in all the cases cited, but the two given in this chapter are vivid illustrations of instances in which the offender apper- ceived the impelling ideas. The reader will find else- where among our case-histories much that bears on this point. 97 98 MENTAL CONFLICTS Case 4. As offering a thoroughly ingenuous account of the mental mechanisms which produce misconduct from the rav^ materials of mental conflict, the follow- ing case is remarkable. Here we have a graphic state- ment of impelling ideas immediately preceding an act of misdoing, given by a young individual who knows nothing of the psychological laws to which her mental experiences are witness. The case also illustrates the fact that analysis alone is not enough ; it does not afford help sufficient to overcome habits formed. But we here see wonderfully well how a considerable career of stealing can be entirely checked through utilizing discoveries to be made only by mental analysis. Beulah T. had stolen very frequently during a period of two years before we saw her first at eleven and one- half years of age. Although a most modest and delicate appearing child, she had already become notorious, in a small way, for her thieving. She stole from home, from school, from shops. Once or twice she had run away for all day following her stealing, and she had, naturally, lied much about it. In school she had been the source of a great deal of annoyance. It was found necessary to trace her thieving by the use of marked money. Much more important, however, than enumerating her offenses, is our showing some details of the mental mechanisms leading to the stealing. We found a girl of fair general development and nutrition, with strabismus and defective vision in one eye; she was also suffering from a mild chronic otitis media. Examination and inquiry showed nothing else of importance. On the mental side Beulah did very well, indeed, in spite of her handicaps. Although immigrated with CONFLICTS AND IMPELLING IDEAS 99 her family only three years previously, she was in the usual grade for her age and stood well in her classes. We found her responsive, frank, and apparently quite normal in her emotions and in every other way. In the ensuing years she has steadily advanced with her classes. Beulah's mother died just before they came to America ; we obtained the child's history from her grandmother and her father. Concerning her develop- ment, it appeared that there was nothing of impor- tance. She had never been seriously ill; the otitis media dated from a slight attack of scarlet fever the previous year. There was no reason to think that she had suffered in any way from defective antenatal con- ditions; birth was normal. She walked and talked early and always had appeared to be a bright child. Reports from school were always favorable concerning scholarship and general deportment. There had never been any complaints, except about her stealing, and this was quite beyond the understanding of her family, who could not see why such a quiet and delicate little child should be a thief. About heredity there was little to relate. One grandfather had been a deserter of his family ; beyond this we got no history whatever of mental defect or peculiarity in the family. During the course of a number of interviews, we obtained from Beulah an account of her experiences and mental life which was partially verified. We had heard from the relatives that there had never been any stealing until they had gone to live at a certain place. We pursued our line of inquiry from this as a starting point. We learned from Beulah of a boy, Sam R,, who went to the same school with her and 100 MENTAL CONFLICTS who had met Beulah and talked to her repeatedly. (Sam's case was at once investigated by a probation officer who corroborated much that Beulah said about the boy. Although never reported to the police, he was notorious among the children of the neighborhood for the type of bad conduct that Beulah described.) Before knowing Sam, she insists, she had never had the slightest thought of stealing. "He said I should take things from the store and from teacher, and every- thing, and he said I should call people wicked names ; I never did though. He told me what names to call them; I never say those names. Sometimes I think about them, then I forget them again. Sometimes I used to see him roller-skating, and sometimes when he went to the pasture in the prairie with the cow, with the girl next door, I would see him. She is a nice girl. She doesn't say bad words. Sam used to talk to her. I know he asked her to go out in the bushes, and everything like that. He only used to say that to her because he knew she was nicer than me, and he liked her better. y "He used to say bad words to me. I told grandma that he said bad words, and she said I should not listen to them. No, she never explained anything. I didn't understand them. He says to her, 'Come on out in the bushes with me.' She didn't go. I wondered what he meant. Girls never spoke to me about it. She says, 'I wonder what that means,' and that is all she said. He didn't say anything to me before that. He just told me to steal, and like that. He told me a lot of bad words." (Beulah whispered the "bad words'* which this boy had told her, and they were, indeed, very bad.) "He didn't tell me what they meant. He used to say, ' Come with me,' and I said. CONFLICTS AND IMPELLING IDEAS 101 *No,' and he said all those words. I don't know where he wanted me to go. "Sometimes I'd ask girls, and they would say, 'I don't know.' Sometimes I think about it, and I won- der what it means. When I am in school I think about it, when I'm studying. That was about a year and a half ago, that he asked me to go with him. That girl said that once he knocked her down and was going to take off her clothes. She told me that he never done anything bad to her. I don't know what he tried to do. I saw him about a week ago. He was all dressed up in a new suit, and he had roller skates, and everything. Once he ran away from home. He slept in a basement. I saw him one night when I went to the store to buy something for my papa. Once I ran away too. I stole twenty-five cents, and my pa said I should go to the reform school if I did it again, and I thought he said I should go then, and I ran away. I was gone about three hours in the evening. I was with some Italian people. I told them, and they said I could stay by them." Beulah told us much, in her quiet way, concerning the astonishing effect which these words had upon her. The following is her response, verbatim, in reply to our inquiry about how the words came up in her mind: "Sam said he liked us best, and we wasn't to say anything to anybody else. He used to write on our sidewalk bad words. Sam did this with Lillie — that bad word. Sometimes, when I think about the bad word he said, I get a headache. Sometimes, when I think about the words, I feel as if I wanted to take things. I get a headache, and then I seem to have to take things." At this point we made a very careful attempt to 102 MENTAL CONFLICTS analyze the last occasion of stealing, which had only been a week or so previously. The whole events of the afternoon at school were gone over, and finally the following was obtained: "I was thinking about those words when I took money from my teacher. My teacher was putting on her hat ; school was over ; there were just three girls with me. I had been think- ing about those words. Sometimes, when I am eating, I think about Sam, and I think I hear him saying those words. It was in the afternoon, we was having reading at three o'clock ; we was reading about a little boy, and it said 'Sam', and I thought of Sam R., and the words he said, and the teacher's pocketbook was lying right there when I walked past afterwards to go out." "My little brother Willie, he swears because Sam learned him. When I saw Sam come, I closed my ears. Since I slapped him, he never says a word to me now. They are not dirty girls I play with ; Helen, she is a nice girl. I sometimes told my grandmother that Sam said bad words," "Sometimes I think about what Sam said, but I never speak it. I never told nobody. I never thought it had anything to do with babies. I don't know what he meant by that word. I know what he tried to do with Lillie, that's all I know. I don't know about little babies. I have asked lots of people, and they won't tell. I asked my auntie, both my aunts, I asked my papa, I asked my grandmother, I asked the mid- wife, and they won't tell me. I asked because my aunt had a little baby nearly a year old, I asked her, and she said, 'I won't tell you.' ... I like It better in the old country, there are not so many bad boys around; but I like school here, they don't give you CONFLICTS AND IMPELLING IDEAS 103 whippings. I want to stay at home, I don't want to go in another home." The attitude of this family towards Beulah's needs, as expressed by their lack of response to her repeated questioning, was significant of what was to be expected of them. They were totally incapable of understand- ing the situation and dealing with it along the lines we suggested, although they were good enough people in their way. Beulah did very well for a few weeks, and then the complaint was made that she was steaHng again, so she was sent away from the scene of her old associations to a very good school for girls, where she remained for a year. Her conduct there was beyond reproach. It is almost five years since this last steal- ing on the part of Beulah, and not a further word of complaint has been brought against her. The report, even from the grandmother, who early found her so incorrigible, is that Beulah now gives no trouble in any way. Case 5. The misconduct of a neuropathic little boy included a serious delinquency — he repeatedly drove off horses with vehicles left hitched on the street. This form of theft was his besetting temptation, although he experienced little pleasure and sometnnes pimishment in connection with it. The peculiar basis of his impulse became clear upon analysis. Jeddy N., a little less than twelve years old, was much complained of by his mother and by the school people on account of his general mischievousness and uncontrollability. This behavior, however, was largely to be accounted for by his nervous conditions. A much more important event had brought him into the hands of the police. As his mother put it, "he had a 104 MENTAL CONFLICTS mania for stealing horses and buggies." On several occasions he had driven away horses belonging to business men, causing much annoyance. He had been taken to the police station already four times on account of this, and the other times he either had not been caught or had been allowed to go home. Further details about these delinquencies appear later. Jeddy had been suspended more than once from school on account of his restless, bad behavior. He was said to be mischievous in general and dishonest in several ways. Other boys could easily lead him. The nervous foundation for this was recognized by all, but because he disturbed others so much, he could not be tolerated in school. The same situation ob- tained at home, where the mother says he is a great torment and cannot be controlled unless she gives up all of her time to him ; there is a large family, and this is quite impossible. We found a poorly developed boy of twelve years, weighing only seventy-three pounds. Vision about half normal in one eye and normal in the other. Specialist's report : no glasses needed. Many carious teeth. Bites nails excessively. Thyroid slightly en- larged. Quick, jerky, and incoordinate movements of outstretched hands and tongue. At times these move- ments are seen extending to the shoulders and head ; on other occasions we find the movements almost absent. Beginning bilateral inguinal hernia. Scar and evidence of bone involvement from injury in the occipital region. Examination otherwise negative. Extreme dolichocephalic type ; circumference of head, 52.4 centimeters, length 19.5 centimeters, breadth 14 centimeters. Shape of the head, together with his prominent eyes, give the boy a most peculiar appearance. CONFLICTS AND IMPELLING IDEAS 105 On the mental side we soon saw that we had to do with a somewhat abnormal individual. This boy has been repeatedly studied by us, and our final diagnosis remains the same as at first, namely, that Jeddy is to be regarded as mildly aberrational, with some element of dullness, probably from physical causes. He may be suffering from the psychosis of chorea, but there are several elements in the case which make it diflicult to be sure of this. His mental peculiarities are evidenced on tests as well as on general behavior. The Binet (1911 series) record gives but little suggestion of the trouble. He does all of the nine-year tests correctly ; all of the ten-year, except that he fails on half of the second test; he does only the first two of the twelve- year tests. This brings him quite to grade, for he is not yet twelve years old. On tests involving control, either mental or psychomotor, he does poorly, indeed. His reactions on the opposites test vary greatly. The tapping test shows his extreme difficulty in controlling his finer movements. He is easily fatigued ; probably that is the reason he gives only forty-five words in three minutes in the Binet test. His performance on numer- ous other tests shows the same characteristics ; where no prolonged effort is required of him, where no great amount of attention is brought into play, the boy can do fairly well. During any sitting he yawns frequently and shows his fatigue. While actually at work, he bites his finger nails nervously. His attitude and con- versation are normal and intelligent. In going over his story with him on numerous occasions, we note coherency up to the point that mental effort is re- quired. If it is a question of putting his mind upon actual times and places difficult to remember, he fails, 106 MENTAL CONFLICTS but about his general apperceptions of bis own career being clear, there is no question. Fortunately for the scientific aspects of the case, we were able to get much corroboration of his story from the mother. During the last year there has been a tendency towards im- provement, but all that should have been done for the boy was never done, and then there has arisen the problem of possible effect of bad habits. In a general way the case is easy of diagnosis. The boy shows psychotic tendencies, chiefly characterized by a great lack of control. Developmental history runs as follows : The mother was well during this pregnancy; the family circum- stances were fairly good and she was not troubled. Birth was at full term, but was very difficult. Child weighed twelve pounds and it was a dry birth. Earliest infancy fairly normal. At two years bronchitis and whooping cough. Walked and talked at about two years, but slower than the others in walking. For several years has been a restless child. Talks much in his sleep. Adenoids and tonsils removed a couple of years ago. Nervousness developed so that he was not only treated at home for his jerkings and twitch- ings, but was also sent to a hospital on account of this. There he remained for a week previous to our first see- ing him. Diagnosis was that he had a mild case of chorea. The boy is said to have dropped things fre- quently. A few years ago he was struck by a street car on the back of the head, but came running home by himself, and it did not seem to affect him in any way ; in fact, he has been in slight accidents two or three times. Started to school at the regular age, but on account of his nervousness has made little progress and was most of the time in a subnormal room and changed CONFLICTS AND IMPELLING IDEAS 107 about a great deal. His mother helps him in his school work at home ; he rattles off a page from memory, but does not seem to take in the sense of things. Only been to third grade successfully. Has been to several clinics. His mother reports that for years he has been the most difficult individual to manage ; she may warn him and scold him, and yet in an hour he is found in more mischief. Seems to have considerable musical ability. Gets along pretty well with other members of his family. Is much teased on account of his peculiar looks, and yet others readily lead him. Family history was given in sufficient fullness. There seem to have been no mental defect of importance on either side, and no cases of insanity or of nervous disease. Father is alcoholic to a certain extent, but is never abusive or quarrelsome ; supports his family. There are seven children alive ; two are dead, and there have been a number of miscarriages. The child next younger than Jeddy is small for her age and only in second grade at ten years. These are the only two that seem backward. For scientific interest, it should be stated that the story about the mental conflict in this case came out of a clear sky. We were not expecting it, and, indeed, not looking for it particularly. At the time when we first saw Jeddy, our attention was entirely taken up with his physical and mental peculiarities, as ascer- tainable through the usual routine examinations. At that time we strongly advised that the boy be sent to live in the country on account of his general poor con- ditions. It was after this little fellow had been brought in on complaint of his mother, some four months later, that we heard of some curious sex behavior through other boys under detention. He had nearly stripped 108 MENTAL CONFLICTS one little boy of his clothes and evidently was about to engage in some form of perversion with him. We saw him in numerous interviews after this, when he always met us in the friendly fashion that he had done previously. Even in conversation he easily became fatigued, and talked generally in short, jerky sentences. His story was told as if he were about eight or nine years old ; it was never clear at first, but upon ques- tioning, it gained coherency. We were utterly sur- prised to have him without equivocation connect sex affairs with his stealing. It would be a long story to tell all that he said that was to the point, but the follow- ing is the gist of it : A year ago or more, it was in the summer, he was looking at some pictures outside of a show, when a man with a horse and buggy called from the opposite side of the street for him to come over and go for a ride. They rode some distance, as far as South Park. This man put his hand on Jeddy in sexual fashion for quite a long time in the buggy, but although he exposed himself, Jeddy did nothing in return. Jeddy claims never to have done anything of the sort before nor to have known of such things. This was when he first learned. He maintained, also, that he never even attempted to engage in such practices with another until the affair with the boy under detention. But the experiences with the man made him feel like doing things to himself, and he had been masturbating every couple of days. When Jeddy first told us of this man, we asked him if he had ever stolen a horse previous to that experience. In boyish fashion he told us that he guessed he had. He had stolen a pony before that. But as the analysis developed, he said that he wanted to change that state- CONFLICTS AND IMPELLING IDEAS 109 merit ; long before the pony was taken, he rode in the buggy with the stranger. (Fortunately, we were able to get exact data from the mother on these points, and it came out clearly that the experience with the man preceded all stealing of horses.) Jeddy told us rather vaguely in our first interview about considerable steal- ing of horses. His mother knew all about that, he said, but she knew nothing about this man. He had never told anybody before. After gaining the information about his acquaint- ance with the man in the buggy, we got Jeddy to give us as good a description as possible of his own mental attitude towards the stealing. It was a comparatively simple task in analysis to get the following : "When I see a horse and buggy, then I think of that man. I used to sit down and think then, maybe. I'd be sort of nervous. . . . Sometimes I'd walk away, and I would walk straight home. I would say, 'Your mother told you not to steal no more.' ... It would make me feel like doing what he did." This last sen- tence was in response to our inquiry as to how he felt when he saw a horse and buggy standing on the street. He then again insisted that the first time he had ever experienced sexual feelings was when he was in the buggy with the strange man. Concerning what occurs when he is driving a horse and buggy after having stolen it: "I feel nervous." (Excited?) "Sure. Sometimes I'd drop the lines and think of something; think that maybe the man that owned it was coming, and then I'd get out. . . . Sure, I'd think of that man when I was driving. That man was the one who told me about stealing a horse and buggy. ... He said he had got the rig west some place ; said he had stole it ; said he was going to 110 MENTAL CONFLICTS take it away out somewhere ; he said he was going to get another one and hitch on back of it." Jeddy's mind reverting to my former question about his feel- ings when he saw a rig unoccupied on the street, he said, "Sometimes I'd see a horse and buggy and I would start running." Speaking about the time he was left in South Park, he tells us that it was at night, and that he was extremely nervous. "I was all in. I was tired, and the con- ductor gave me a ride home on the car." (Why so tired.'*) "Because he was monkeying with me. I was nervous in the buggy." The boy then reiterates that he is always nervous and excited when he drives off by himself. (There is great interest in the fact that before the mother knew of this, I asked her to describe his homecoming on this night, the first time he was ever away from home late, and she remembered how worn out and nervous and excited and peculiar he seemed. She could place the time of this affair together with that of his later stealing escapades very clearly for us, so that to a great extent there was corroboration of what the boy had told.) Speaking further about his temptation, although he does not know what this word means, Jeddy tells us : "Sometimes I get crazy spells, and I go and get a horse and buggy. Sometimes it makes you feel like you ain't going to bring the horse and buggy back. Then sometimes I am going along when I see a horse and buggy, and I walk away. Maybe I think a while and say, 'Oh, no,' and walk away. Sometimes I think of that man when I see a horse and buggy." Jeddy likes to drive a horse. There is a nice peddler, whom he sometimes goes with, who lets him drive his horse, and his father has sometimes taken him on his CONFLICTS AND IMPELLING IDEAS 111 wagon, "so I would not be stealing." Crying in very normal fashion Jeddy says he wants to go home. "I think if I'd go home, I would never go stealing no more." The police had caught Jeddy a number of times. With one exception, he always took the horse and buggy when he was alone. On the occasion when he was in the "X" Street Police Station, he had been with other boys. "I just was breaking myself of that stealing, and some other boy said something about it. The judge said he would put me away." But on other occasions Jeddy has driven for a time and then got out and left the rig. He told us about once driving a horse a large share of one day, and then he put it into an alley and went home. The next morning he sneaked around to see if it was there and, sure enough, it was, so he drove it that day also, and then finally left it without getting caught. As we often do with young children, we had a final interview with the mother and the boy together ; that was after she had given us her corroborative facts, which included certain times when the older brother had suspected this boy of engaging in bad sex habits. He came home looking so queer, with his eyes all bloodshot ; they had asked him about it, but he had always denied it. Jeddy had never stolen anything before this affair with the man, except that in a childish way he had taken apples and other things to eat. Even as a little boy he had always been fond of horses. With us he told his mother that he had never felt like informing her about this man. He frankl}^ went over the whole sex affair with no variation from what he had told us, and it became clear that the brother's suspicions were correct. 112 MENTAL CONFLICTS The relationship between the sex matter and this remarkable stealing was apparent even to the mother. No one could doubt the mental conflict and the mental repression that had gone on in this boy's mind, and that the strange impulse to a serious delinquency, such as any ordinary boy, to say nothing of this puny little fellow, would hesitate to indulge in, was developed on a strong emotional basis, namely, his first sex affair. Except for our exploration and enlisting the mother's better understandings of the problem, nothing more was now undertaken than had been done previously when the boy had been taken in by the police. Indeed, this time he did not go before any judge. A year has elapsed, and there has been no further trouble with this boy stealing, but his nervous condi- tion has excluded him from the schools, and there have not been sufficient funds in the family to get him properly placed. The educational and neurological outcome of the case is still problematic. Even our earliest recommendation, namely, that he five a quiet life in the country, was never carried out. CHAPTER VII CRIMINAL CAREERS DEVELOPED FROM CONFLICTS It can readily be shown what happens in some in- stances when conflicts which create misconduct tend- encies are not faced with courage and discernment. For the vahd reasons given at length in Chapter III, we have refrained from commencing studies of cases when careers of misdoing have been already carried beyond years of adolescence. The safer way for us, we felt, was to begin with younger people when we could obtain verification of facts incident to the be- ginning of mental conflict, and with this foundation of knowledge watch the future developments. Un- fortunately, even after our early discovery of some special mental conflict, through family ineptitude or failure on the part of social agencies or of enterprises established under the law, the career in some instances was not checked. Two examples of such long con- tinuance of tendency to misconduct are offered. (Case 12 may also be profitably read in this connec- tion.) The lessons that these case-histories convey are obvious, particularly when they are compared with records of similar beginnings where tendencies already demonstrated and perhaps active over a considerable time have been completely arrested. (Suggestions of many practical points in this con- ns 114 MENTAL CONFLICTS nection are to be found in the accounts of successful Cases 2, 9, 20, 22, 25, 30, 31.) Case 6. A definite beginning of a long career of delinquency is known in the following case to have occurred with an event that had solely to do with the inner mental life. Through our first study, which was made shortly after this beginning, there is an understanding of the case which, perhaps, never could have been obtained, at least so clearly, in later years. Royal M., when only twelve years of age, had already been arrested twice, in two neighboring States. Immediately after the last escapade, he was brought to us by his father with the inquiry, "What in the world can be the matter with my boy ? He has been re- peatedly stealing and running away from home." Now, six years later, this boy's record includes a long list of offenses and many remarkable incidents. The most striking thing to me about Royal's career is the amount of suffering which he has gone through and the repetition of delinquency which has invariably led to more suffering. Since his first two thefts, no very serious stealing had been engaged in until re- cently, when, far from home and penniless, he, with another young fellow, attempted to rob a store. He was caught and sent to a reformatory in New York. But during those intervening years he has repeatedly run away from home, even in winter, and made his way about the country as best he could. Earlier he was an excessive truant. Through leading this kind of life, he has, of course, indulged in much lying and deception, and his people have been terribly worried by his conduct. From time to time, as we have seen him, we have CAREERS DEVELOPED FROM CONFLICTS 115 obtained clear evidences of intense turmoil going on within, only half framed in consciousness, but so deeply felt that it frequently impelled him to action. Even the slightest reflection would have made clear to him how inimical such action must inevitably be to his ultimate well-being and even to his immediate comfort. At twelve years Royal was just fairly developed physically. A slightly lowered auditory acuity in one ear was the only evidence of sensory defect. Complete examination showed otherwise no abnormality. He was a bright, boyish, loose-jointed type, with a round face and a frank, open expression. The general report was that Royal was a distinctly bright boy. What he accomplished on tests at any given time, we found depended very largely upon his mental attitude. He was clearly one of those cases where interpretation of test results requires taking into account the mood of the individual. The same was true about his school career after his delinquencies began ; it was stated that the boy was bright when he wanted to be. Some employers have found him a good worker. The reformatory superintendent writes that he considers him a very gifted fellow in many respects. We have noted that tests done at different times vary somewhat, evidently according to his re- action to the individual giving the tests, or according to his mood of the day. Judged fairly by his best results on tests, there is no doubt that Royal can be classified as a boy of fair innate mental ability. Concerning his development, we learned from the intelligent father that pregnancy was entirely normal. There was a prolonged labor, but no evidences of damage, and infancy was entirely healthy, notwith- 116 MENTAL CONFLICTS standing some months of early artificial feeding. He began to walk and talk at an early age, and in all of his life, up to the time when we first saw him, he had no serious ailments. His functions in all ways were normally controlled ; he has suffered from no acci- dents ; he has indulged in no bad habits to any con- siderable extent. In the years characterized by his delinquent tendencies. Royal has suffered greatly from exposure, underfeeding, and illnesses which were the result of his penniless wanderings for weeks together. There is no doubt that Royal comes from exceedingly good stock on his father's side, and that from his mother he may have derived certain peculiar mental traits. Hypersensitiveness, a tendency to jealousy, with some erratic conduct otherwise, seems to have characterized her family. Several members are said to have cordially hated each other, and many family quarrels occurred as the result of temperamental difficulties. All this comes out very strongly in such history of the family as is obtainable, although no one is known to have exhibited anything like the delinquent traits that Royal has shown. There is no doubt that Royal's mother was rather an exceptionally bright young woman, and his father has maintained a reputa- tion for intelligence and ability. Our main interest in this case centers around the facts pertaining to the mental and moral development of this boy. It is here clearly shown that important phases of the inner life may be affected by acquirement of emotion-producing knowledge, without any change having taken place in external conditions of life. To bear out this point, I must insist that the family environ- ment all along has been decidedly good. The mother is a very good-natured woman, who has attempted CAREERS DEVELOPED FROM CONFLICTS 117 in a thoroughly rational way to be the right kind of a mother to Royal ; she was this before his delin- quent career began, and she has made many kindly efforts to meet his difficulties since that time. I must also make it clear that up to a very definite time, namely, when this boy was eleven and one-half years old, his behavior was normal in every way. We have repeatedly had this stated to us, and the boy himself perceives that his character underwent a change then ; he has told us this many times. In the good account which we received of his early years, there was nothing that indicated him to be out of the ordinary. He was prone to change his interests rapidly from one thing to another, he was playful in school instead of inclined to study, not over affectionate, rather sensitive about the way he was treated by other boys, who really did handle him pretty roughly because he was not specially athletic. When we first saw him, complaints had been piling up for a few months. "Something has come over the boy," his parents stated. Not only had he lately stolen on two occasions considerable amounts of money — home savings — and run away to other towns, but for some time he had seemed to have no ambition to work, either in school or about the house ; he had appeared very greedy at the table, would never say please; he could not be trusted with the younger children because of his misbehavior toward them; "he would seem to get mad and sore over being scolded." They had found that he had told boys in school, some days before he went, that he was going to steal money and leave home. The effect of punishment during these months had been 118 MENTAL CONFLICTS almost nil; the next day he would repeat the same offenses. Somewhat later Royal became a confirmed truant and had twice to be sent to the school for truants. At one time he was found selling small articles about town, representing himself as an orphan. He also engaged in much lying and complaining about the way he was treated in general. This went on al- ternately with the spasmodic flights from home, which we have mentioned above, and which lasted for weeks or months at a time. On several occasions he was found in farming districts, or in small towns, having been picked up by the police as a vagrant. On more than one occasion we have seen him when he has been returned suffering greatly from lack of food and general exposure ; once we saw him after he had been without food for three days, a miserable and pathetic specimen. From being out in all weathers, he had an acute attack of rheumatism. Just after he had been nursed back to health, he ran away again from his home. Through his father and by virtue of the good impression he makes, he obtained many jobs, but would stick to none of them for more than a few weeks at a time when he was living at home. Before his offense in New York State, his whereabouts had been unknown for several months. The very fact of there being a special time when this boy began his delinquencies in such force made us suspect some experience that the parents knew nothing about. We found the boy very hard to deal with for a considerable period ; he showed the same attitude to us that he did to his father, but one day he blurted out, "He's a liar, and she's a liar, and they are all liars, and I am going to be bad if I want to be." CAREERS DEVELOPED FROM CONFLICTS 119 This statement was what was needed to give us an opening due; from this the boy by skillful guidance was led to analyze his motive and conduct. It ap- peared that several months previously a meddlesome neighbor had suddenly told him that the woman whom he had always thought to be his mother was not his mother; that the latter had died soon after he was born, and the younger children were not his brothers and sisters. These facts later proved true. When the child was three months of age, a terrible accident occurred, in which his mother, standing near him, was instantly killed, but no harm was done the infant ; the father, upon our inquiry, now stated that, needing some one to bring up his infant, he had soon married again a thoroughly good woman. For eight years or so they had had no children, but now there were others added to the household. Every evidence of Royal's real parentage had been destroyed in order that there might not be any friction about the stepmother; the father dreaded this and thought it best to let the lad grow up in total ignorance of the true facts, and it was really not until he was almost twelve that Royal had any suspicion regarding his parentage. A most ingenuous account was given by the boy : *'I was so sore that I got terribly red and hot. The next day I went to that woman's house again, and she started to tell me again, and I wouldn't go there no more. ... I want to be a bad bov — I would rather live in a shed than there at home." This boy, who, until a short time ago, had always been truthful, fond of home, and devoted to his sup- posed mother, had changed his social attitude entirely. With us at this time, and even later, he made intense 120 MENTAL CONFLICTS complaints of duplicity and general bad treatment against both his father and stepmother; he was dis- criminated against in favor of the other children ; he could see that this had long been the case; things in general were awry. Soon after he had heard the news which gave him this shock, news which he had kept to himself steadily all these months until the father brought him to us, he very deliberately began to plan an anti-social career. He read, he told us, whatever books he could lay his hands on which might offer suggestions of how to become a criminal. His stealing the family savings and fleeing to another State was in direct pursuance of these definite plans. He boasted to us of some little familiarity with jails in towns where he had been picked up as a homeless boy. In the ensuing years we have seen Royal a number of times after various adventures. These have con- sisted for the most part, as previously stated, in running away from home. Very little stealing has been engaged in, but there has been at times a great deal of lying, deceitfulness, and misrepresentation, — a development of the very characteristics of which this boy so bitterly accused his own family at the time when he first became delinquent. We have several times had Royal go over with us the specific causes of his separate delinquencies, and on each occasion he has made statements quite similar in tone to those which first found such explosive utterance. A year after his first running away, when talked to by a kindly official who wished to be a friend to him, Royal told a somewhat fanciful tale of his latest scrape, making it out to be much worse than it ever was. Here again he evidently desired to pose as a "bad CAREERS DEVELOPED FROM CONFLICTS 121 man." At that same time, when he was asked what he wanted to be when grown up, he answered, ''Noth- ing." He burst out laughing when his future was discussed ; he went through some mental tests in a bored manner ; he said, in a sarcastic way, that he was treated well enough at home, the trouble was that he did not want to go to school. All through he was trying to force the situation to appear something entirely different from the reality. It was about this time that his lying and deception grew to considerable proportions. Most noteworthy, throughout our study of Royal's case, appears the fact that ever since the first develop- ment of his anti-social attitude, he has proceeded at times in a deliberate attempt to make himself out just as bad a person in a criminal way as he could. Even more striking, however, is the antithesis that he is thus frequently attempting something which is really foreign to his own nature; in facial aspect, in temperament, he is anything but the criminal. He makes no attempt to harm any one ; his criminality is of minor degree, his delinquencies react mostly upon himself. It is all an expression of feelings which well up within him ; his reactions are directed against the world of social relationships, against his position in his family. His wanting "to be bad" is, after all, not consistently carried out; in spite of his early reading he has developed no art of professional crimi- nalism. Something of the character and violence of Royal's inner feelings are witnessed to by his own state- ments from time to time. We have described his first reactions to the sudden information about his real parentage; his own ingenuous, boyish statement 122 MENTAL CONFLICTS shows the psychic shock. At twelve years of age he said, "I am wise to you all right, doctor; you're all right, but you can't do anything for me. I want to be a bad boy." A year later, while stating that his home was good, and he was well treated, he insisted that he would rather go to any kind of a place than go back there. We found him then tremendously self-assertive, positive, and sarcastic. Our inquiries about his home were met at first by scornful laughter ; he complained about everything and raised his voice petulantly and aggressively as he told of his troubles. He had already been sent to the school for truants. When he returned home and one day was alone, he went rummaging inquisitively through the storeroom. (He told this incident after he had vented in a couple of interviews the scorn that was within him.) There, in a box, he found a picture on which was written, "Mrs. M." "It don't look like my stepmother at all. I didn't tell my father I saw it, because I didn't want him to know. . . . She always fools me, too. I had some batteries, and she hid 'em on me; and I had three pencils, and she put 'em away. It's all like that. After that I made a little box down in the basement, and I kept my things down there. I wish I had a Httle safe. . . . The judge can say all he wants to, he can say all day if he wants to, he'll find out in a couple of days that I'm missing, and they'll never hear any more from me. . . . She hollers at me because I get up so early. At four o'clock I am awake already ; I can't sleep. ... I don't get along with none of them. ... If I came back home after a while, there would be more trouble. Lots of times T look in the paper for places away off where they're looking for boys. I don't want to go to no place CAREERS DEVELOPED FROM CONFLICTS 123 where there is a whole bunch of kids ; I don't get along with kids very well." Two years later Royal was once found by his father in a large city hospital where he had been for some time suffering acutely with the attack of rheumatism from exposure. He had then been away from home for many weeks and did not even let the hospital authorities know who he was. At periods during the intervening time he had done fairly well for as long as a couple of months. He had had several places of employment and been fairly satisfactory and brought home his wages. During one entire summer season the parents had lived with him out on a farm, pur- posely that he might have the country life he said he craved, but he did not take to farming, after all, and after six months or so the family circumstances made it necessary for them to return. The good stepmother had now reported to us that Royal had developed no bad habits ; that at times he seemed to be pleasant enough ; his biggest fault was in deceiving and mis- leading them ; he seemed to have big ideas about little things, as, for instance, how far five dollars would go. But, as she expressed it, "he has something like a grudge back in his nature." Some months later, after being returned by the police from another town, Royal talked more frankly than he ever had before about his own feelings. He said there really was no trouble at home ; it was no different from other homes, but he was not comfort- able there ; he did not feel right there ; with a queer little laugh and half averted face, he stated that he did not want to go home. We characterized him at that time as a peculiar personality, pathetic, lovable, but still curiously ill adjusted to the world. 124 MENTAL CONFLICTS A few months later Royal came back from another trip. He had not been able to make his own way in the country and had often gone hungry. He realized he was more of a city boy, but he thought he ought to live away from home. He would rather go his own way for a while longer, would rather eat in a restaurant. He thinks that after a couple of years he might get over it, but things at home still did not seem just right to him ; he had no special complaint, but he could not stand it there. He knows he has been a bad boy, and he knows if it had been his own mother he would not have done these things. Another home was found for him, but Royal proved unstable at his place of employment, and thought he would like to try it with his family once more. After a few weeks he again suddenly left and was not heard from until he had long been in the eastern reformatory. The reader will, naturally, ask what efforts at ad- justment were made in this case. At the v