The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-03-31
LUNATICs WHO FEIGN INSANITY.
Curious Qualifications which the
Experts Have to Deal With.
From the New York World

From the New York World.
"One would think that the last thing
a really insane person would need or
with to do would be to pretend to be
crazy" said an expert. on insanity the
other day. Insane people, however. all
have one popularity in common. no mat
ter how diverse their symptoms are
none of them knows he is crazy. In fact
a lunatic generally considers himself the
most sane person in the neighborhood
Hence, when he desires to protect him
self. as after committing some crime. one
of the first things he often does is TO
feign insanity. 1t is only lately that this
fact has been realized. and this has cost
many lunatics their lives
For instance, a mailman commits a
murder. On arrest he begins 10 act in
a way that seems to indicate insanity,
but close watching betrays the fact that
his symptoms are feigned-he is sham
ming. This has usually been regarded
as conclusive evidence of his sanity. 1t
is really nothing of the kind. The doc
tors know now that a lunatic will sham
as quickly as a sane man, and his sham
ming, being often clumsly done, Is much
more apt to be found out.
Crazy people when feigning generally
sham a different kind of Insanity from
that which they really possess. FOR in
stance, in a recently reported case a de-
mented pauper was accustomed to pro-
claim loudly that he was insane, hav-
ing been made so by an accumulation of
tar and grease in his head. This was
entirely sham, the man having found
that 1t drew attention to him and gained
him presents of tobacco. His real hallu-
cinations he kept carefully in the back
oh
trusive shamming and his concealment
OF his real symptoms was very CURIOUS.
The desire to attract attention is very
strong on the part of some lunatics,
and it is possible that in many OF the
cases that interest visitors at asylums
where the patient asserts that he is
Queen Victoria or julius Caesar. the
whole thing is a sham. In one recorded
case an asylum patient was much put
out by finding that companion, who
claimed to have written some of Shakes
peare's plays, attracted the attention of
visitors. He accordingly went the man
one better by claiming to have written
all the works of Byron, Shelley and Mil
ton. This claim he admitted to the ply
sicians was fraudulent. and he made it
to visitors only.
I'm Chicago several years ago, a sup
posedly harmless lunatic, who was con-
fined in the bridewell awaiting legal ac-
ton on his condition, Drained a crippled
fellow prisoner with the latters' wooden
leg On being charged with the deed
he showed very plainly that, though he
appreciated his situation, he was deter
mined to sham insanity, putting on a va
cant look in reply to all questions.
Another Chicago case was that of a man
who had committed murder by command,
as he claimed, by the Virgin Mary. His
lawyers. who supposed him sane. ad-
vised him to feign insanity. which he
did, pretending to be raving mad. The
sham and the real insanity were both
detected by the experts, and the man was
sent to an asylum.
This popularity of lunatics makes the
task of a modern expert on insanity
doubly hard. He has to deal not only
with sane persons pretending to be in
sane and with insane persons pretend
ing to be sane, but with 1unatics who
feign insanity. BY skillful examination
and cross-examinat.on he has to elicit the
truth from all these unwilling witnesses.
His task is scarcely an enviable one