Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-07-15
ST. ELIZABETH DOCTORS SEEK
CURE FOR CRIMINAL MINDS
Painstaking Exploration Into Realm of
Subconscious Often Needed to Discover
Impulses Back of Actions

of his business" and that If he wanted
to know he must find out from her
sister. This tactless answer was TO
cost society heavily in the years to
come--although the aunt believed she
was acting for the best.
The child's curiosity was whetted to
razor edge. He began TO make in
ouiries about The neighborhood--
among other children and adults. He
could not help noting that they acted
strangely when questioned, They
would shake their heads and try 70
drop the subject. Sometimes the chill
dren would tell him that orphans
They inSinuated that the mothers Of
orphans" were bad women
Feels Inferiority.
The little boy vas terribly hurt.
Very Eeenly he felt the inferiority Of
his position II was due TO no fault
OF his own Yet somebody must be to
blame There was only one person
whom he could logically accuSe-his
real mother
Thus was sowed in his heart the
hatred for her which was TO wreck
his own life and the lives Of several
other persons.
But the real mother whom he never
had known was only all abstraction
One cannot hate only an abstraction,
The tendency is to Clothe it with flesh
and bone--in other words to transfer
the hatred to an actual person.
Now the individual who naturally
would be selected for this vicarious
sacrifice was the foster mother She
represented to him The mother" per-
sonality That is exactly what hap
pened. He transferred all his hate to
her. He began to have tantrums when
she was around He destroyed OBJ
iects dear to her and stole from her
at every opportunity The more kind
" she treated him the worse he be-
haved She didn't have the slightest
control over him. All this time, of
course he didn't know that it was be-
cause he hated her. He didn't know
why he acted as he did. In the pres
ence Of his foster-father and others he
was fairly well behaved.
He didn't know he hated women. He
was conscious only of powerful impulses
to do things that would pain them.
But his hatred of women shut him out
of society. Before his boyhood was over
he was hating not women alone but the
world. He made a world of his own.
He realized that nobody had any use
for him His reaction was that he
didn't have any use for anybody. He
was extremely selfish and cruel. No
altruistic impulses tempered his life.
He thought only of the qualification
of his own tastes This required money.
He didn't care how he got the money.
Did any one care for him?
paranoia Victim.
The curtain can be allowed to drop
over about 90 years and rise again
when the young man was brought to
st. Elizabeth's Hospital transferred
from military prison. He was suffer-
ing from mental disease that was
diagnosed as e form of paranoia re-
action.
His progress had been from one re-
form school to another reform school
and one Jail to another jail In his 35
years he had put in Is years in reform
schools and Jails. He had committed
almost everv crime on the calendar.
His personality was loathsoms. He was
brutal and INSCRIPTIONS. Fe was a
liar and a sneak He vas supposedly
an habitual. incorrigible criminal He
was everything that decent men detest.
The fact that he was insane, Tempo
rarily at least, was merely an incident
In personality abnormal throughout.
He seemed. said DR.. Karpman. about
the most hopeless case ever brought to
the hospital. so far as character was con-
cerned. There seemed no prospect of
doing anything for him. Welfare work
seemed out of the question. He was
placed in Howard Hall, the building for
the criminal insane. to serve out his
sentence At the end of this Deriod If
his mental condition showed notable
he would be discharged.
Otherwise he would be moved TO
another ward. The physicians were
afraid his mind might clear up. They
shuddered at the thought of turning
such man loose on society. Eventually
he might commit brutal murder.
But the very beaStliness of the man
was a spur TO effort. He was good
pathological material.
The result of the work with this man,
says DR.. Karpman, was almos. mira
Gle. DR.. Karpman applied TO the case