Pathology of Lying [90]
girl of 7 makes false charges of sex assault against boy in the same institution. She is later found to be an excessive liar and to steal.
Causative factors: (a) atrociously immoral home environment, (b) early sex experiences, (c) local irritation from active gonorrhea.
This case illustrates the fact that a young girl, who has had unfortunate sex experiences, especially if her mind is kept dwelling on sexual subjects through bodily irritation, is apt to take advantage of the stir which she knows she can make by her statements, and glibly make false accusations. The case offered no difficulties for study and can be presented in short as typical of a number of similar cases seen by us.
We were asked to see this girl a few days after she had been taken from very bad home conditions and temporarily placed in a good institution for dependent children. While there she had much upset the high-minded superintendent and her helpers by stating that an older boy in the place had sex relations with her.
She was a small, bright-eyed, vivacious child. General physical conditions decidedly good. No sensory defect. Well shaped head. Weight 55 lbs.; height 4 ft. Active gonorrheal vulvovaginitis.
On the mental side we found, although she spoke in somewhat broken English, an ardent conversationalist. With her many ideas about many subjects, she appeared decidedly precocious. We noted her also to be very defiant and self-assertive, and her tendency to lie without rhyme or reason was soon discovered. Her exact age never was ascertained, but undoubtedly it was about 7. She was in the 2d grade. At times when doing the Binet tests inhibitions would appear and she would give no answer at all even to some easy questions. Her positive responses graded her as 6 2/5 years, but undoubtedly she could have done much better had she so wished.
In her talkative way she used English very graphically, but with curious misuse of pronouns and a few other words. Considering the fact that her family spoke a foreign language at home and she had been but a short time in school this was not strange. Her lack of veracity was shown even in her assertions about her inability to understand English. At the first approach she denied her ability to do so, but later showed that she understood very well. This behavior was of a piece with her attitude shown in doing the Binet tests.
``Police bringed me. Don't know why. Cause my father run away, she don't want to stay with my mother. My father Austrian. Sometime my father talk Italian. Then God make him sick cause she talk Italian. My neck is sick. I go to Italian church and I talk Italian and God makes me sick.
``They bringed me home to-day, then they bringed me back here, then I stay here all along.'' (What is the matter with you?) ``A big boy--up in school--upstairs--don't know his name. I came Saturday. She came Saturday. She came Sunday, too. When we come to listen to music then she gave to me that disease.
``Papa is bad. She run away. She run away. She take from my mama $12--all the clothes. She got another lady. Is that your lady? Why do you write? I could write better than you because I go to school all the time. I never take money. I Catholic and Catholic can't tell lie. Well, I going to tell the truth now. I found it in bed, in paper inside. Then I give it to teacher and then I give it to nurse. I never tell lies.''
Before we had seen her this child had given some sort of description of a big boy in the institution who she said had assaulted her. There was no such person there, but her vehement statements caused much disturbance. Later she denied this to us and accused somebody at her own home. She came from miserable environment, as may be surmised from the fact that her father was a deserter and probably immoral. On account of her unreliability nothing could be done in the way of prosecuting the offender. We always felt it a possibility that some member of her own family was guilty and that was the reason she had told so many different
Causative factors: (a) atrociously immoral home environment, (b) early sex experiences, (c) local irritation from active gonorrhea.
This case illustrates the fact that a young girl, who has had unfortunate sex experiences, especially if her mind is kept dwelling on sexual subjects through bodily irritation, is apt to take advantage of the stir which she knows she can make by her statements, and glibly make false accusations. The case offered no difficulties for study and can be presented in short as typical of a number of similar cases seen by us.
We were asked to see this girl a few days after she had been taken from very bad home conditions and temporarily placed in a good institution for dependent children. While there she had much upset the high-minded superintendent and her helpers by stating that an older boy in the place had sex relations with her.
She was a small, bright-eyed, vivacious child. General physical conditions decidedly good. No sensory defect. Well shaped head. Weight 55 lbs.; height 4 ft. Active gonorrheal vulvovaginitis.
On the mental side we found, although she spoke in somewhat broken English, an ardent conversationalist. With her many ideas about many subjects, she appeared decidedly precocious. We noted her also to be very defiant and self-assertive, and her tendency to lie without rhyme or reason was soon discovered. Her exact age never was ascertained, but undoubtedly it was about 7. She was in the 2d grade. At times when doing the Binet tests inhibitions would appear and she would give no answer at all even to some easy questions. Her positive responses graded her as 6 2/5 years, but undoubtedly she could have done much better had she so wished.
In her talkative way she used English very graphically, but with curious misuse of pronouns and a few other words. Considering the fact that her family spoke a foreign language at home and she had been but a short time in school this was not strange. Her lack of veracity was shown even in her assertions about her inability to understand English. At the first approach she denied her ability to do so, but later showed that she understood very well. This behavior was of a piece with her attitude shown in doing the Binet tests.
``Police bringed me. Don't know why. Cause my father run away, she don't want to stay with my mother. My father Austrian. Sometime my father talk Italian. Then God make him sick cause she talk Italian. My neck is sick. I go to Italian church and I talk Italian and God makes me sick.
``They bringed me home to-day, then they bringed me back here, then I stay here all along.'' (What is the matter with you?) ``A big boy--up in school--upstairs--don't know his name. I came Saturday. She came Saturday. She came Sunday, too. When we come to listen to music then she gave to me that disease.
``Papa is bad. She run away. She run away. She take from my mama $12--all the clothes. She got another lady. Is that your lady? Why do you write? I could write better than you because I go to school all the time. I never take money. I Catholic and Catholic can't tell lie. Well, I going to tell the truth now. I found it in bed, in paper inside. Then I give it to teacher and then I give it to nurse. I never tell lies.''
Before we had seen her this child had given some sort of description of a big boy in the institution who she said had assaulted her. There was no such person there, but her vehement statements caused much disturbance. Later she denied this to us and accused somebody at her own home. She came from miserable environment, as may be surmised from the fact that her father was a deserter and probably immoral. On account of her unreliability nothing could be done in the way of prosecuting the offender. We always felt it a possibility that some member of her own family was guilty and that was the reason she had told so many different