Chapter I · PSYCHOGENESIS IN THE PSYCHOSES OF PRISONERS (continued 2)
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August 19:—Continues to use the most profane language he can towards the prisoners or anyone whom he chances to see.
August 20:—Was very excitable and irritable during the day and evening. Attempted to throw his food in the guard’s face, cursing the officials for keeping his wife away from him; claims that he can hear her calling him outside of his cell at night.
August 21:—Cursed the guard because he would not allow him to go out of isolation; sang and whistled during the evening.
August 22:—Very profane and vindictive in his accusations towards the prison officials.
August 23:—Denounced the guard as a black-hander, and said that the guard is bribing the prison officials to hold him in isolation, but that he will not give the guard a damned nickel.
August 29:—Actions and language continue along the same line except that they are growing progressively worse; cursing the officials, prisoners, etc.; claims they are keeping his wife away from him, and that his mail is being held up; is afraid of being murdered, and says that he is being kept here while his wife is starving; constantly uses loud and profane language.
August 30:—Prisoner whistled and sang during the evening, interspersed with very vile language.
August 31:—Became very violent today, cursing officials, claiming that he was being kept away from his wife and child who were starving. Kept shouting, singing and cursing at intervals all day and far into the night.
September 7:—Continues to have periods of violence almost daily; has hallucinations that he is being haunted by some imaginary foe, whom he sees sitting on his bed when he wakes up at night—a red-headed fellow by the name of Smith. Says that he can hear his wife and child crying outside of his cell, and repeatedly requests that he be allowed to go home to them. Says that his wife and children are starving, and that the prison officials are trying to starve him. Complains of pains in his head, and that his eyes hurt him and that he is going blind. He is inclined to be destructive of late, breaking his electric globes, smashing stool, throwing magazines against window and cell bars.
September 14, 1911:—Says he knows that red-haired Smith is trying to steal his wife, and that he is following him all over the country; that he was about to kill him in Jacksonville, Florida, but that he jumped out of a window. His violent attacks are becoming more severe and pronounced, and he requires constant watching to prevent him from doing himself bodily harm. He was also noted to have occasional mild attacks of petit mal.
On his way to Washington from the penitentiary at Leavenworth, upon his second transfer to this institution, the patient had been shackled to another prisoner who was supposed to be suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis. M. kept on begging the guards to be separated from this prisoner, and this request was finally granted. While going through the State of Iowa he jumped out through the window of the moving train. He was handcuffed at the time. After having gone about thirty miles he was recaptured. He had removed handcuffs soon after his escape from the train.
September 27:—On admission the patient limped and complained of great pain in both knees. Knees were swollen, bruised and discolored, and there was marked tenderness on touching. Patient entered the ward quietly, recognized those about him, and answered questions rationally. Said that aside from having been hurt in the knees, his left shoulder pained him a great deal. Upon being placed in bed he was asked by the examiner why he was sent here, to which he replied: “To get killed, I suppose.” Further questions failed to elicit any answers, and the interview had to be discontinued.
September 28:—Patient answered the following questions to the attendant on the ward:—
Q. “What is your name (full Christian name and surname)?”
A. “J. J. M.”
Q. “How old are you?”
A. “25.”
Q. “When were you born?”
A. “1885.”
Q. “What is your occupation?”
A. “Railroad man.”
Q. “Where were you born?”
A. “Charleston, South Carolina.”
Q. “What day is this?”
A. “Don’t know.”
Q. “What month, date and year is it?”
A. “August, 1911. Don’t know date of month.”
Q. “What time is it?”
A. “Don’t know.”
Q. “Where did you come from?”
A. “Leavenworth.”
Q. “Who brought you here?”
A. “Bunch of cut-throats, Sons of —— tried to starve me to death all the way down.”
Q. “How long were you in coming?”
A. “Don’t know.”
Q. “When did you come?”
A. “Don’t know what time it was.”
Q. “What is the name of this place?”
A. “Don’t know.”
Q. “Where is it?”
A. “On an island, I guess, some damn thing across the river.”
Q. “What sort of a place is this?”
A. “Mad-house.”
Q. “Who are these people about you?”
A. “Here to murder me.”
Q. “Is there anything wrong with them?”
A. “Nothing but black-hands anarchists.”
Q. “Who am I?”
A. “J. S.” (correct)
Q. “Why do you suppose I am asking you all these questions?”
A. “Don’t know.”
Q. “Why were you sent here?”
A. “To be dumped off, I guess.”
Q. “How do you feel?”
A. “Pretty bad this morning, my head hurts me.”
Q. “Are you sad or happy?”
A. “Neither one.”
Q. “Are you worried about something?”
A. “Why, sure I am.”
Q. “Did anything strange happen to you for which you can’t give yourself an account?”
A. “No.”
Q. “Do you hear voices talking to you?”
A. “Yes, hear you talking to me now.”
Q. “Do you see any strange things?”
A. “No.”
Q. “Do you ever have fits or convulsions?”
A. “No.”
Q. “Did you ever try to commit suicide?”
A. “No.”
Q. “Is there anybody trying to harm you in any way?”
A. “Yes, those black-hands anarchists.”
Q. “How much money are you worth?”
A. “Nothing.”
The foregoing two cases are representative of a group which unquestionably forms the most difficult part in the problem of caring for the insane criminals. Here we have a couple of individuals whose entire psychotic manifestations, if such they may be considered, consist of a most wild and vicious rebellion against imprisonment. They are individuals who cannot be kept under any prescribed mode of living, and when this is insisted upon, they react to it in an insane manner.
Bonhoeffer justly termed them “wild men”, for wild indeed they are when in one of their tantrums. The question arises, “Wherein lies the cause of this rebellion against discipline?” It certainly cannot be wholly attributed to the environment, for these individuals behave in a similar manner even when removed to the far more lenient régime of a hospital. We must seek an explanation for the behavior of these individuals in the individual himself, in his make-up.
Looking at the life history of the two foregoing patients we find them both to be of the most depraved class of society. The one is a professional prostitute; the other subsisting upon the earnings of a prostitute. Their relation with man has always been characterized by a sort of vicious vindictiveness. Their high-strung emotional make-up brought them into serious conflict with those about them on many occasions before. Being finally taken hold of by the law and made to submit to a certain well-regulated mode of existence, their inherent characteristics assert themselves in a most decisive way and they react to the situation in the manner of a trapped tiger, stopping at no means to gain their point. The one commits a homicide during one of her outbreaks of passion; the other risks his life to obtain his purpose, by jumping out of a moving train with his hands shackled. Their life seems to be one long series of impulsions, fostered and sustained by the extreme lability of their emotions. Intellectually they show no defect. They are keen and alert to every opportunity which presents itself to them and are very shrewd in the execution of their criminal acts. Finding themselves under a régime which exacts from them a certain submission to rules, to regulations, they begin to misinterpret ordinary occurrences in their environment in a sort of delusional manner: They are persecuted by the warden because the latter insists upon making them behave themselves; the keepers are a bunch of anarchists, whose entire occupation seems to be to persecute them and down them. This for no other reason than because they are made to work and to behave themselves. J. J. M. tells me that he will not behave himself, that he is not here to please anyone but himself and recognizes no authority other than that of Christ. The other says she raised so much hell at the prison that they had to send her back to the hospital. The distinguishing feature of their psychotic manifestations is that they are provoked essentially by definite situations. They are not a mere wild, misdirected, meaningless series of insane acts, such as one would expect from a demented person, but distinct reactions to situations. Refuse them a request and they at once become wild, abusive and vicious, smashing up everything that they can lay hands on; conversely, when granted some of their unreasonable requests, it serves at once to appease them for the time being at least. Their conduct, however, is very detrimental to the prison régime, as discipline cannot be maintained with such disturbing elements about. Their interpretations of discipline are considered as delusions of persecution, their outbursts of temper as typical maniacal outbreaks, and consequently they are shipped off to an insane asylum. Now the question arises whether we are doing our duty by society in declaring these individuals as irresponsible for their acts. In other words, should these individuals with marked and incorrectible criminalistic tendencies, be, so to speak, licensed to ignore the law in its entirety by giving them the protection of an insane asylum? Of course, from a broad, humane point of view, we must realize and appreciate that there is something distinctly wrong with these individuals, that their mental endowments are the essential factors which determine their behavior. On the other hand, we must not forget that these individuals fully realize that once they have been sent to an insane asylum, they are protected from punishment by law for all future time and they are ever ready to utilize this knowledge, as has been my experience with quite a number of recidivists, who somehow never get into an insane asylum until they are in the hands of the law. The scope of this paper will not permit me to enter into an extensive discussion on the treatment of these cases. I will say this, however,—that we are very far from having solved satisfactorily the question of the care of this particular class of insane criminals. As this paper is not primarily a discussion of the degenerative psychoses, I will refrain from reporting further cases. I believe I have shown by the preceding two cases that the mental disturbances of the degenerative individuals are essentially psychogenetic in origin.