Forty-Four Juvenile Thieves PDF

Adapted from: Bowlby, J. (1944). International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 25, 19-52. Forty-Four Juvenile Thieves: Their Character and Home-Life John Bowlby There are probably few people who do not work in children has laid emphasis upon...

Adapted from: Bowlby, J. (1944). International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 25, 19-52. Forty-Four Juvenile Thieves: Their Character and Home-Life John Bowlby There are probably few people who do not work in children has laid emphasis upon the child's relation the court system who realize that in nine criminal to his mother. Consequently in this enquiry very cases out of ten the charge is theft. During 1938 for great attention was given to the elucidation of the instance there were about 78,500 persons found mother-child relationship in each and every case. guilty of an indictable offence, a category which ex- Not only was the mother's conscious attitude taken cludes drunkenness, traffic offences and other minor into account but also her unconscious attitude. Thus delinquencies. Of these over 56,000 (or 72 per cent.) in several cases sympathetic discussions with the were found guilty of larceny and another 16,000 (or mothers of the children revealed that their apparent 20 per cent.) found guilty of breaking and entering, love for their child was only one aspect of their feel- frauds or receiving stolen goods. This leaves only ings about him. Often an intense, though perhaps 6,500 (or 8 per cent.) for all other offences. unadmitted, dislike and rejection of him also came to light. Furthermore very careful enquiries showed a Another fact perhaps little realized is that for remarkable proportion of children who, for one rea- some years past exactly half of those found guilty son or another, had not lived securely in one home have been under 21 years of age and that over one. all their lives but had spent long periods away from sixth of the total were under 14. Indeed of all home. age-groups in the population it is the thirteen-year- olds who appear most often in court. Thus theft, like A systematic enquiry into such factors as these rheumatic fever, is a disease of childhood and ado- has suggested that they are an important key to ex- lescence, and, as in rheumatic fever, attacks in later plaining the origin of delinquent character. life are frequently in the nature of recurrences. Of Another set of phenomena which has probably the men and women sent to prison in 1930 not only received too little attention in the past has been the had half been there before but nearly one quarter occurrence of emotional traumas during the first dec- were going for at least their sixth time. Even at the ade of life. Death and illness in the family mean far age of 16, one-third of those charged in the courts more to children than most grown-ups conceive pos- had been charged before (5). sible. Amongst the children described here is at least These figures are remarkable and may do some- one whose life seemed to have been ruined by a dra- thing to impress upon us the magnitude and social matic and tragic episode in her ninth year. Here importance. of youthful stealing. But still they are again it was only the knowledge that such events are inadequate, for what official statistics do not tell us important and must be systematically enquired into is the age at which the offenders first developed de- which led the investigator to discover the nature and linquent habits. The evidence strongly suggests that full implication of events which had occurred over in many, perhaps the majority, of serious cases it is three years previously. The fact therefore that obser- well before puberty. It is in this period therefore that vations such as those reported here are not found if the origins of the trouble are to be sought. old case records of similar patients are perused is neither here nor there. My experience has shown me Many attempts have been made to find the causes again and again that if these factors are not looked of habitual delinquency, the most notable being the for they are not found, and that as in any other studies of Burt in this country and Healy in America. branch of science trained and experienced observers But despite these valuable researches much remains are essential. obscure. The great advances made in child psychol- ogy during the past decade have however suggested The enquiry reported here was carried out at the new lines of enquiry and these have been followed in London Child Guidance Clinic during the years the research reported in this paper. Almost all recent 1936-39. The procedure was as follows. On arrival at work on the emotional and social development of the Clinic the child was given mental tests in which not only his intelligence was assessed but the exam- their analysis of factors conducing to delinquency, iner was at pains to note the emotional attitude in all types of delinquent are considered together and which the child approached the tests. Whilst the no differentiation is made between delinquent char- child was being tested, a social worker was taking a acters, stray offenders and other types. As a result, preliminary psychiatric history of the child's life. At trends which would perhaps have been highly sig- the end of this hour reports were made by both the nificant hard different groups been treated separately psychologist and the social worker to the psychia- may well have become obscured or even obliterated. trist, who then interviewed first the child and finally Conversely a limited enquiry of the type here the mother. At the end of this two-hour examination presented is also inadequate in itself. It needs to be by three people, a case conference was held in which extended both in numbers and in intensity. Several information and impressions were pooled and also more carefully selected groups of 50 to 100 cases school and other reports considered. A tentative di- need to be investigated in a similar way, whilst a few agnosis was then made. In the great majority of individual cases, chosen as being typical of particu- cases, however, many further interviews were ar- lar groups of case, need to be analysed in detail. ranged, in which the child was given psychotherapy Only such a comprehensive and planned research by by the psychiatrist and the mother talked over her a team of workers over a long period will lead to the problems with the social worker. In many cases understanding of these problems and rational at- weekly interviews of this character continued over tempts to remedy them. six months or more. During these interviews a great deal of further information came to light and often (1) Source of Referral factors of very great importance, such as the com- plexity of the mother's attitude to the child, only be- The clinical material of this enquiry consists of came known after weeks of sympathetic discussion 44 consecutive cases of children in whom stealing with a skilled worker. was either a serious or a transitory symptom. They are thus an unselected group of thieves who bad Such a method enables a few score of cases to be been referred to a Child Guidance Clinic. Only a mi- investigated fairly intensively. Admittedly it is not nority of them had actually been charged in Court. possible to go into the psychopathology of more than The sources from which they came were as follows: a few in the detail which psycho-analysis demands. On the other hand, the significance of factors discov- TABLE I ered can be tested by statistical methods, a procedure Source of Referral which has hitherto been lacking in analytic re- searches. The method also avoids the pitfalls which School 22 are inherent in the larger but less intensive investiga- School at Parents' Request 2 tions. Since sufficient trained research-workers are not available to investigate hundreds of cases, it is Parents direct 8 impossible on such numbers to obtain accurate data Court at Parents' Request 3 on those factors which this research suggests are of importance - i.e., the emotional influences within the Probation Officers 9 home which affect the development of the child's Total 44 object relationships. Unless home conditions are in- vestigated at least as carefully as was done in this Though these cases are fairly representative of enquiry, conclusions regarding their influence are those who come to a Child Guidance Clinic, they are likely to be so inadequate as to be misleading. Fur- by no means typical of delinquents who come before thermore delinquency, like any other symptom, may the Courts. In the first place 11 of them are under be the presenting feature of many different syn- age to be charged. In the second there is naturally an dromes. Little light will be thrown on any one of undue proportion of chronic delinquents. The mate- these syndromes if all of them are mixed together, no rial, therefore, whilst permitting us to draw conclu- matter how many thousands of cases are considered sions regarding the origin and nature of chronic de- or how elaborate the statistical technique. linquency in children of adequate intelligence, does not permit of conclusions regarding the problem of These defects seriously limit the value of the very delinquency as a whole. Before any such conclusions comprehensive survey recently published by Car- could be drawn we should require to know what pro- r-Saunders, Mannheim and Rhodes (5), defects portion of children coming before the Courts were of which of course the authors clearly recognize. In the different types here described.  (2) Control Group emotional shock, such as bereavement, and are thrown temporarily off their balance, whilst others In order to assess the relevance of psychiatric have been unstable characters or hardened criminals findings in the 44 thieves, I have compared them for a number of years. It is true that, owing to the with 44 other children whom I have seen at the Lon- infinite variability of human character, many inter- don Child Guidance Clinic. These children are an mediate types exist, but this fact does not invalidate unselected series of cases who did not steal and the conclusion that certain categories of character whose age and intelligence fell between the upper can be distinguished which differ radically from one and lower limits of the delinquents'. A number of another in present nature, past history and future des- children under five were therefore excluded and also tiny. two children who were low-grade defectives. An adequate classification of character and neu- The chief value of this particular control group is rotic problems in childhood has yet to be con- that it enables us to distinguish features which are structed. Elsewhere (2) I have made suggestions for characteristic of thieves from those which are com- the classification of abnormal personality and neuro- mon to all maladjusted children. The study would of sis in adults and emphasized the varied clinical pic- course be of very much more value if a third series tures which each basic type may present. of ordinary school children could have been com- The -situation in childhood is far more complex, pared against these other two. since in the early years even the basic personality (3) Age pattern may not have emerged clearly. In several of the children considered here there was evidence that One of the principal reasons for so few of these traumatic happenings even as late as between the children having been charged was their age. Fifteen fifth and tenth years had produced emotional reac- were under 9 years old and half were under 11 years. tions which, without treatment, were likely to influ- Only one of the children under 11 had been charged. ence to a profound degree the whole development o: their personalities. `then, as in some cases, the child was seen some years after the event, the general di- Character Types rection of the resulting character development was Introduction often clear. But where, as in other cases, the trauma ware recent, further character development was not The children who appear at a Child Guidance always easily foreseen. These remarks apply particu- Clinic are as varied in character and motive as chil- larly to the group of patients described here as De- dren coming to a hospital are varied in the diseases pressed. from which they suffer. Before any satisfactory work upon the causation of symptoms such as fever or Failing an adequate classification, I have used a rash can be carried out, an attempt at classification relatively rough and ready division of the patients and diagnosis is essential. No good can come, for into some six main groups. A brief description and instance, from attempts to study the course of fever the number of children falling into each are given in in an unclassified group of children whose one point Table V in common is abnormal temperature. In the same In the first place it is to be noted that only way statistics and conclusions regarding the cause of two of the 44 thieves were diagnosed as normal juvenile delinquency will remain unsatisfactory and characters, and even these two had a few characteris- obscure so long as no attempt is made to classify tics which showed instability. The remaining 42 had types of delinquents and to -study each type sepa- abnormal characters and without treatment of some rately. kind would be very likely either to continue to cause Once the urgent need of a classification of juve- social trouble or to develop psychoneurotic or psy- nile delinquents is recognized, the question arises of chotic symptoms in later life. The diagnosis in every what principles should govern such a classification. case was founded upon a very careful examination of the child's personality both in its present state and in In the psychiatric examination of young delin- its past states. quents the most striking differences between them are to be found in the personal make-up or character Of the many sources which contribute to this pic- of the delinquent. Some are normal human beings ture undoubtedly the most valuable is the intimate who have been found out in an exceptional moral description given of the child by his near relatives. lapse, some are children who have suffered a severe School reports vary in value. An observant mistress  TABLE V Distribution of Thieves by Character Type Character Type Description No. A. 'Normal' Children whose characters appear fairly normal and stable. 2 B. Depressed. Children who have been unstable and are now in amore or 9 less depressed state of mind C. Circular. Unstable children who show alternating depression and 2 over-activity D. Hyperthymic Children who tend to constant over-activity 13 E. Affectionless Children characterized by lack of normal affection, 14 shame or sense of responsibility. F. Schizoid. Children who show marked schizoid or schizophrenic symptoms. 4 Total 44 will often give most illuminating reports but others when no positive signs of disorder have been found give reports which are useless. Probably the least and base my diagnosis on the reports of the mother valuable though, none the less essential sources of and teacher. It has often been on a consideration of information were the psychological and psychiatric these reports, whose veracity I am naturally at pains examinations of the child. The difficulty is that at to check both by comparing one against the other examinations of this kind children are on their best and also by their internal consistency, that I have behaviour and so mask much of their true natures. formed the opinion that the characters of the thieves The majority of children are deliberately concealing in this series were abnormal. In the many cases much of the information which we require and it of- where further work has been done this course has ten takes a very perspicacious psychiatrist to see the always proved justified. In future, of course, the use relevant signs in a first interview. of projection tests is likely greatly to enhance the Precisely the same difficulty is experienced with value of the clinical examination. adults who are brought to the psychiatrist more or This conception of abnormality is naturally not less unwillingly. For this reason I regard my own confined to obviously anxious or hysterical charac- preliminary psychiatric impressions of a child with ters. There are certain obsessive and perfectionist some suspicion. Sometimes of course one gets a children who are regarded with admiration by their clear impression. The child for instance may be parents and teachers, but whom psycho-analysts over-talkative, boastful and show all the signs of a have no hesitation in regarding as abnormal, if only hyperthymic (manic, over-active) personality, or he because of their great susceptibility to develop so- may be obviously depressed. But a large number of matic symptoms such as stammer or headache and the children, perhaps half, at their interview ap- also depressions of every degree of intensity. An- peared fairly normal. This impression is grossly mis- other type of child who is often thought to be any- leading in a majority of cases and if taken seriously thing but neurotic is the happy-go-lucky boastful results in disastrously erroneous diagnosis. For this dare-devil. Were it not that these children are unable reason I habitually ignore my psychiatric interviews to adapt to any form of authority and are sometimes clearly suicidal, we might agree with those who his younger brother and enjoyed playing with him. speak of their normality ; but the evidence pointing Towards his mother, however, he was always sullen to intense internal anxiety and guilt in these hypo- and unfriendly. At times he would have fits of de- manic personalities is too conclusive to be ignored. pression, during which he woui i sit at home and If further evidence of the essential instability of these read, refusing to attend clubs. During the previous two types is required it may be found in the fact that year he had had as many as ten jobs, having been about 75 per cent. of patients suffering from a form discharged from one or two on account of playing of the affective psychosis have previously had per- about and being cheeky. sonalities of these kinds (2). Stealing. Stealing had begun soon after he left It will be useful now to discuss each diagnostic school at the age of 14. During this year he had be- group in turn, bearing in mind that the object of di- come increasingly difficult and disobedient to his agnosis is to aid prognosis and treatment. mother. He had stolen only from his mother. He had broken open the gas meter, twice taken small sums GROUP A: ' NORMAL' CHARACTERS from her bag, and since being put on probation had Only two children.seemed even reasonably nor- taken three shillings from his mother's money-bag. mal on the criteria advanced here. Examination. He was not given an intelligence No. 1. Claud W. test but he seemed to be of about average intelli- gence. He appeared a bit solemn, but was straightfor- Claud was 16 when referred to the Clinic by a ward and honest in his manner. He discussed his Probation Officer. He had been charged in Court situation at home without undue malice. He de- with breaking open the gas meter in his home and scribed his mother's temperamental behaviour, her had been put on probation. irregular demands on him for his earnings, and her History. Claud was the second of three children. tempers. On one occasion when she was angry with The first, a girl of 21, was by the mother's first hus- him for giving up his job she refused to give him band; the second, Claud, was by her second husband; anything to eat. Her only concern was that he should the third, a boy aged 8, by a man with whom Mrs. take a job where there was good money, irrespective W. had lived unmarried for a number of years and of its prospects. When he was younger she had in- with whom she was still living. Claud's early years sisted on his helping in the home and had refused to seem to have been normal although there had been allow him out to play. some enuresis for a time. He had lived all his life After being in a hostel for a few months he ap- with his mother but when he was about 7 she had peared a much happier boy, and seemed to be getting divorced his father. It was not known how long the along well. He saw his mother from time to time but marriage had been unsatis. factory prior to this time. was in no hurry to return home. After divorcing her husband Mrs. W. went out to work to earn money, leaving the boy with a friend Diagnosis. Information about his personality was during the day. For some years another man to inadequate and it is possible there was permanent whom she was not married had been living with her. emotional disturbance. It was thought more likely, however, that he was a case of fairly Normal Char- At the time of referral his mother was in a good acter, reacting to adverse home circumstances. post and away all day. It appeared that she nagged Claud a great deal and took three-quarters of his weekly earnings. When he was younger she had pun- GROUP E: AFFECTIONLESS CHARACTERS ished him severely: for example, she would keep him in bed for two or three days at a time. Recently Fourteen of the 44 thieves were distinguished she had found that she could not assert herself over from the remainder by their remarkable lack of af- him and had complained that he was getting out of fection or warmth of feeling for anyone. It is true hand. They had frequent rows in which she became that one or two of the depressed children lacked the angry and would throw things at the boy. The man normal expression of affection during the depres- with whom she was living was said to be kind to sion, but this was regarded as a change from their Claud although sometimes he threatened to thrash normal characters. In this they differed from the him. fourteen children in this group who had apparently never since infancy shown normal affection to any- Personality. Claud was said to be sociable and one and were, consequently, conspicuously solitary, friendly and to keep his friends. He got on well with undemonstrative, and unresponsive. Many of their deliberately burnt his sister's leg. In two or three parents and foster parents remarked how nothing you cases, notably No. 32, Kenneth W., and No. 37, Ken- said or did to them made any difference.. They re- neth G., one got the impression that they might eas- sponded neither to kindness nor to punishment. Such ily develop into desperate and dangerous criminals. remarks as ` he is so deep ' or ' we never seem to get Of course there can be no hard and fast lines to near her' express the feeling of social frustration pro- be drawn in a classification of character and it is ob- duced in others. vious that some children will be on the margin be- As in all psychiatric classifications exceptions tween the different typical groupings. My own crite- arise. Actually two of the eases included here did rion for diagnosing an active delinquent in the Affec- show some affection. No. 29, Raymond E., was said tionless group depends upon his personal relation- to be affectionate and No. 30, Norman K., was ex- ships. The Hyperthymic Characters of Group D have tremely fond of helping his mother. My reason for genuine attachments to their homes. They may have including them under this heading, however, is that periods of being aggressive and difficult, but affec- not only was there evidence that their affection was tion is there and they are capable of loyalty. The Af- patchy in its development, but that they showed fectionless Character on the other hand is capable of many of the other features of the personality type. neither attachment, affection, nor loyalty. Thus No. 29, Raymond E., was solitary and utterly In contrast to the active Affectionless Characters unresponsive to any form of punishment and No. 30, are the apathetic members of the group, who are ex- Norman K., was secretive and difficult of access. tremely shut-in, giving the impression of isolated In addition to stealing, the majority of these chil- lost souls. Such were No. 31, Nansi F., and No. 33, dren truanted and wandered. The wandering is par- Arthur L. Such cases have to be distinguished from ticularly characteristic as a symptom of this same the chronic Depressive Characters and from the shut- indifference to home ties which is the hallmark of in Schizoids. Once again hard and fast lines cannot the group. The fact that they all lied was perhaps of be drawn. The groups obviously shade into one an- little importance, because all thieves lie. This group other. Indeed it is my belief that the Affectionless however probably lied more frequently and in a Characters are intimately associated with depression more brazen way than any of the others. and may perhaps be fruitfully looked upon as chronic depressions of very early origin. As will be Although characteristically solitary, this descrip- discussed in the next section, with very few excep- tion also needs some qualification. The majority tions these children have suffered the complete emo- went about and stole alone. A few on the other hand tional loss of their mother or foster-mother during were members of gangs. On investigation, however, infancy and early childhood. Such a loss in later life it was clear that, although going about with other not uncommonly precipitates a Melancholia. It is children, they had no emotional ties with them. They possible that some such reaction takes place in the had no real friendships and changed their acquaint- mind of the two-year-old and, because of the special ances frequently. There were no roots in their. rela- circumstances, complete recovery is impossible. tionships. A further characteristic which is apt to This somewhat speculative view is supported by the confuse the clinical picture is the superficial genial- discovery that behind the mask of indifference is ity and plausibility of some of the children. In a short bottomless misery and behind the apparent callous- interview they make quite a good impression and ness despair. appear to be responsive. Further contact makes it clear, however, that this responsiveness has little or The difference in fact between an apathetic Af- no real significance. fectionless child and a chronic Depressive may be partly quantitative and dependent on the age of on- In general demeanour they differ much amongst set. But clinically they can usually be distinguished themselves. A few seem unsociable and apathetic. by the existence in the latter of personal ties and But quite a number are energetic and active. No. 28, their non-existence in the former. Derek B., and No. 32, Kenneth W., were cases in point. Derek B. appeared as a genial attractive little No such easy clinical distinction is possible, rogue, whilst Kenneth W., although full of hard luck however, between this type of child and the shut-in stories, was alert and resourceful. Many of the more Schizoid. Indeed the question will be raised whether active children were aggressive and bullying, in this they are not all Schizoids. Although some may be, I respect simulating the aggressive hyperthymics. One am sure that others are not. boy, No. 37, Kenneth G., was actively cruel, having  It so happens that I have seen one adult patient that we have here not only a distinct clinical syn- who before her psychosis was a typically Affec- drome, that of the Affectionless thief, but also an tionless Personality with, in addition. a characteristic unusually clear example of the distorting influence history of early separation from her mother. She was of a bad early environment upon the development of depressed, had made an almost successful attempt at personality. For all these reasons full case histories suicide, and suffered from a very severe degree of of all fourteen children are presented. depersonalization. This depersonalization was of No. 27. Betty 1. such a character that, taken in conjunction with her personality, Schizophrenia was feared. The condition This case is of a small girl aged 5.7 who was sent however cleared up and she has since had another to the Clinic by the school because her mother was psychotic episode in which no Schizophrenic symp- worried about persistent stealing of pennies from toms were apparent. The condition I believe to have school. been one of recurrent Melancholia (depression). History. Betty was the eldest of four children, the On the other hand one case of the present series others being 4J, 3J and 2 respectively. She lived with of Affeetionless Characters may have been truly her mother and her stepfather, who was the father of Schizoid. No. 40, Charles Ii., had a schizophrenic the two youngest children, both boys. The parents heredity his father probably and his grandfather al- were happily married and it was a good home. The most certainly being schizophrenic. It is noteworthy mother was Irish and a little inconsequent, but ex- that be was one of only two Affectionless Characters tremely friendly and sympathetic with the children. who had no history of early separation from their The stepfather was rather more severe, but by no mothers. At present I would hesitate to put forward means an unkind man. diagnostic criteria for distinguishing the shut-in Af- fectionless Character from the Schizoid, though I This child had been difficult from birth. The believe that. in the majority of cases the distinction is mother's milk gave out on the eighth day and there a true one. was trouble over bottle-feeding. She refused to suck and had to be spoon-fed. She was precocious in de- It is my hope that these Affectionless Characters velopment, however, and was easily trained in will be studied in great detail in the future, for I be- cleanliness. But she remained difficult over food and lieve that they form the real hard core of the problem was always crying and screaming. When the child of recidivism. There can be no doubt that they are was seven months old and the mother again preg- essentially delinquent characters, which is not true nant, she discovered that her husband, who had of the other characters discussed in this paper. The proved very difficult, was married to someone else. Depressed, Circular, Hyperthymic and Schizoid She promptly got rid of him and married a former characters all had counterparts amongst the controls. friend soon afterwards. But Betty had already been We can get a Depressive who does not steal as well placed in a foster home, where, her mother alleged, as one who does, we can find a law-abiding Hyper- she had first refused to eat for 20 days and then had thymic as well as his antisocial brother. I am doubt- suddenly begun to eat cake. ful, however, whether the law-abiding Affectionless Character exist. He does not figure amongst my con- The child was changed from one foster-home to trols and I have not met him elsewhere, though I another and was ultimately in a convent school for a have met many other Affectionless thieves besides year. In all of them she was unmanageable and was the fourteen described here. It is probably true to say said to have been harshly treated. Her mother and that the Affectionless Character always steals and stepfather often visited her, but she always refused to usually becomes a recidivist. have anything to do with her mother, although she got on well with the stepfather. Finally the mother Despite variations then, these Affectionless chil- insisted on having Betty home and she had been dren have so many traits in common which distin- there for the preceding seven months. Her feelings guish them from the other thieves that I have felt jus- about her parents then changed over and she became tified in grouping them together and regarding them fond of her mother and against her stepfather who as examples of a distinct clinical syndrome. When to tried in vain to discipline her. All the time she had the similarity in their personalities is added the dis- been at home she had remained an outsider, how- covery that they have a remarkably distinctive early ever. Her mother described how "she looks like a history-prolonged separations from their mothers or child who has just come in to play and does not seem foster-mothers, the conclusion forces itself upon one to belong".  The school thought the mother was really more Examination. On tests she had an I.Q. of 104. She affectionate towards the other children than towards struck everyone as a particularly attractive and de- Betty. But she had been very tolerant of the child's lightful child. She had a most engaging smile, a stealing, recalling how she had stolen things herself twinkle in her eye, and an elf-like way of doing as a child. The father. however, was more severe things. with her, being terrified lest she should corrupt his Diagnosis. The outstanding things about this own boys. He had often beaten her for the stealing, child's character were her lack of ordinary contact but admitted it did no good. The only sure way of with her home, her inability to express feelings or making her confess was to say that she would not go wants and the nervous ` woodenness ' when cor- to Our Lady if she did not answer. Then she was rected at school. (At-home she seems to have been frightened and confessed at once. He had often more normal.) Her tendency to be dreamy, to mix threatened to send her away if she was not good. The with undesirables and to have over-developed sexual father was particularly worried by her sexual inter- interests were also striking. All these traits are typi- ests, which seemed to be very active even for this cal of the syndrome for which I have proposed the age. name of Affectionless Character. Her isolation was Personality. The mother found her an undemon- clearly related to her separation from a stable home strative child who was inclined to keep things to her- life. self. The stepfather described her as ' deep ' and evi- No. 28. Derek B. dently found it impossible to make any contact with her. He could not understand why she could never Derek was sir when first seen at the London ask for anything at meals, pointing out that the chil- Clinic, where he was referred for persistent truant- dren had only to ask to be permitted any food that ing, pilfering and staying out late. they could see. She was exceedingly sensitive to criticism and cried very easily, and was always upset History. He was the second of two boys, the elder because her step father had a bad opinion of her. At being a cheerful, normal lad who had never got into school she was said to be deliberately disobedient trouble. He lived with his mother and father, whose and provoking. marriage was happy and who appeared to treat the children sensibly and kindly and without discrimi- When punished she never cried, and when the nating between them. On enquiry into his early his- headmistress asked her questions. she became tory it was found that he was a wanted child and had wooden, ' quite unlike any other 5-year-old child, been breast-fed for three months, after which he and gave a excuses equally unexpected for her age. throve on the bottle. Indeed he was said to be a Accounts differed about her sociability. At school happy normal child until the age of 18 months, when she was said to be solitary and had no friends until he got diphtheria. Because of this he was away in recently when she had made friends with the two hospital for nine months, during the whole of which most undesirable girls in the school, both liars. Of- he remained unvisited by his parents. In hospital he ten she appeared to be walking along in a dream. But was said to have been adored by everyone, but when at home she was by no means solitary and seclusive. he returned home he was a ' little stranger'. He re- She was extremely fond of the baby and liked moth- fused all food and finally was left to starve for a ering him. She played well and happily and was while. His mother described how ` it seemed like popular and sociable with neighboring children. She looking after someone else's baby. He did not know slept well and ate moderately. Recently she had be- us, he called me " nurse " and seemed to have no come extremely interested in the cat's kittens, but as affection for us at all.' She said it was fully 18 usual had not asked direct questions as her sister had. months before he settled down, although to an exter- nal eye it appeared that in fact he had never done so Stealing. The mother noticed that she was always yet. stealing pennies from school and telling lies about it. She had failed to deliver her parents a note saying Personality. He seemed not to care for anyone that she was given milk free and so was keeping the except possibly his elder brother, but even with him 21d. she was given for the milk each week. More- there were spells of unreasonable temper. Usually he over she often brought back pennies and toys from was happiest when playing alone. He was markedly school which, she said, the teacher had given her for undemonstrative and his schoolteacher commented being a good girl. The pennies she offered to her that emotionally he was ` very controlled for a young mother and the toys to her sister and brothers. boy'. The mother also remarked on this, saying that he was quite unmoved by either affection or punish- ment, and she had come to regard him as hard-boiled. On the other hand he was always fight- ing and was at times destructive of both his own and his brother's toys. The teacher complained particu- larly of his untruthfulness, `wanton destructiveness ' and habits of annoying other children. Stealing and Truanting. He began school at 4 1/2 and liked it at first. But later he disliked the teacher and wanted his brother's teacher. This led to truant- ing on and off for about a month. The pilfering was noticed soon after his beginning school. It seems to have been quite undiscriminating, for he was said to pilfer from children's pockets, the teacher's desk, from shops and from his mother. Any money he ob- tained he spent on sweets which he would share with his brother and other children, but not with his par- ents. He had been repeatedly beaten both by school authorities and at home for stealing, but the beatings had no effect on him beyond making him cry for a few moments. Examination. On tests he was found to have an LQ. of 125 and to be slow, careful and deliberate in his work. To the psychiatrist he gave the impression of being an engaging, sociable kid. But in his play there was much violent destructiveness. On many occasions he pilfered toys from the Clinic. Diagnosis. His superficial geniality was mislead- ing at first. As time went on it was clear that his mother's and school-teacher's accounts of his detach- ment represented the truth. In view of this, his de- structiveness, his hard-boiledness, and his unrespon- siveness, he seemed to be a typical case of Affec- tionless Character. This was clearly related to his prolonged hospitalization. EW Note: Paper concludes with discussion of the importance of recognizing the link between early experience and later personality.