New Britain herald., 1924-08-18
Dr. Singer, Testifying for Loeb and Leopold Brings Many Weird Sounding Words to the Rescue.
By The AAoelatsa Prsm


 Chicago. Aug. IS. - Endoerin' slands affect the emotional life sc eording io an admission which clar' enea s. parrow, chief counsel fol Nathan Leopold. IT,. and Richard Loeb. drew today from pr. II. Doug. las Singer. on ross-examination in The Franks hearing. The answer came reluctantly in this form:
 Are the endocrine glands part oi the emotional life?"
 "Yes sir."
 Do they affect it?"
 If they are part of II. they must affect it."
 Why not say SO in the first placer"
 Well I thought my answer more complete than your question:"
 The exchange was typical of a spir- ited contest between the attorney and witness. Such terms as "egocentric." psychopathic personality" ''psycho- sis" and pathological struck some of the court fans as amusing and bailiffs had to warn such persons sev- erai times to maintain composure.
 The ross-examination was directed toward an attempt to get from the state alienist an admission that physical characteristics and mental processes which the experts have found in the defendants were signs of approaching insanity or at least mental disease"
 Fantasies and hallucinations were given by Dr. Singer as signs of in- sanity" but he qualified this by add ing sometimes" He once acknowl- edged that Loeb's habit of imagining himself master criminal" was fin q sense" an hallucination.
 Mir. Darrow's first question of Dr. Singer was whether lie had found any evidence whatever of "paranoid per- sonalities" in the defendants.
 The witness named selfishness and domineering personality as such evil dence.
 The testimony went into the signi- ficance of self-satisfaction. Dr. Singer said it was evidence Of paranoid per- sonality and acknowledged he had found it in Leopold. Exag- geration of sef-importance, consider ation of self as a superman, birding | oneself on control of emotion were all common in paranoids, Dr. Singer said.
 Dr. Singer said that the real test of paranoic was "egocentric" char acter. He acknowledged that paran- oics learn rapidly.
 While they learn rapidly and get school easily there is no grasp of the relations of the material learned to the values in Iife," read MT. Darrow from Dr. Singers book on paranoics.
 Tho witness said this was correct as applied to egocentric personality. The attorney and doctor agreed they were closely related.
 "Is paranoic personality diseased he asked.
 'I make no distinction there" was the reply.
 Well you find out how many in- mates of institutions are paranoics don't your" continued Mir. Darrow. 'Yes, probably six to eight per cent" said Dr. Singer. They agreed again that the cassifl- .. cations were more or less arbitrary" Then Mir. Darrow went back to the . book Dr Singer said that when psychosis was reached insanity was , present. 'Is psychosis reached by fairly 2 -eguIar routes?' he was asked, but the question was not clear and he couldn't .. answer. Well, can't make 1t any clearer" ! Iaid Mir. Darrow. Would you consider paranoic or ,gocentric personality pathological he asked. l That depends upon how you use he term pathological" said Dr. Singer. {. The witness said psychopathic per- 4 onalities were mot we'll balanced" - His chief characteristic" the doc- :, or explained, 'Is that he lives chiefly . n the moment without relation to tho i,