Evening star., 1952-05-13
BY Thomas R. Henry
Science Editor Of The Stor


ATLANTIC CITY, May, 13.-
Lives may be frozen in infancy.
Adult babies constitute an
hitherto largely unrecognized type
of borderline psychiatric cases.
DR.. Lewis B. Hill, chief psychia-
trist Sheppard and Enoch Pratt
Hospital at ToWson. Md, reported
to the American PSychiatric As
sociation meeting here today.
They are quite different from
the repression types of classical
pSychiatry, DR.. Hill said. The
latter grow up and then slip back
into various stages of infancy to
escape the troubles of the world
and their own internal problems.
Finally. psychoanalysts hold, some
dementia praecox victims go the
whole way back into life before
birth.
The new type of cases never
leave babyhood. Much of their
behavior remains on the infantile
level, although sometimes they
are brilliant individuals. Their
whole way of life is aimed at
securing and keeping mother love
constantly substituting others as
they grow older for mothers who
may be dead.
Found in Many Families.
They are found rather fire.
quently, Dr.. Hill said, among
children of travelling families,
such as those of members of the
armed forces or the diplomatic
corps. They also are likely to occur
among children of immature
mothers, of career women, or of
Indifferent mothers. Children
reared by doting but fussy grand
parents also are likely to be VIC
tins.
The syndrome of the illness, he
said, is quite vague and likely to
be confused with that of some
other disorder. Predominantly
such people fail to get along, are
likely to complain of illnesses for
which there is no organic cause,
suffer fainting attacks, go into
fits of rage or sulking, are prone
to accidents. and are more likely
than the average to take to al
lcOhOl or drugs.
Cites Case of idiot"
He cited one of his own cases
that of a boy brought up by his
mother to be the family idiot.
There had been one feeble-minded
person born into the family in
each generation. Presumably his
early childhood aim had been to
convince his mother that he was
not an idiot, with no success. He
became an excellent linguist and
musician, but in all his relations
with others showed all the reac-
tions of pre-school child.
This fellow was lucky because,
when he sought a substitute for
his mother after her death he
married girl much like his
Imother-except that she didn't re-
quire him to be an idiot.
All the efforts and energies of
the baby, obsessed with helpless
ness, DR.. Hill said, are to make
sure of mother love. Until this
seems assured it is unable to spare
Ienergy for other mental or char
acter development. Finally the
baby behavior becomes a fixed
pattern towards the world. The
frozen infant continues to depend
on the old tricks of being cute,
pleading or having crying fits,
etc. which used to influence the
mother to influence all with whom
he comes in contact.
THE adult, Dr.. Hill said, "tries
to be loved as child rather than
to be respected for what he is"
Playmates Are Factor.
AS rule, he said, such children
failed to have good playmates in
preschool days. Other children
tend to break up the pattern be-
fore it becomes fixed.
Some of the children are told
repeatedly that they are like some
less respectable member of the
family. One of the cases cited
was that of boy who became an
alcoholic because as a child it was
constantly impressed on him that
he was like an alcoholic grand
father.
| Another girl fell in love with
every man she met, seeking a sub
substitute for a dead father.
| Such children initiate the Ian
guage of adults without knowing
what the words mean, and never
bother to find out. A common
Svnntom iS npaninoleSS falk