Summary: A girl of 16 whose general conditions won ready sympathy created much trouble. She repeatedly made serious accusations against a man and her attempt at suicide made her statement seem convincing. Further study showed the absolute falsity of her charges. It was a case of hysteria which had developed largely upon a basis of injury--there was a traumatic psychoneurosis. Under good treatment she made a fine recovery; there being no more indulgence in pathological accusations, although her nervous symptoms recurred for a short time after a couple of years.

At the time when we first saw Georgia B. she was somewhat over 16 years old and had been only 5 years in this country. We saw her because she had run away from home and attempted suicide. From the latter she had been rescued, and then had accused a neighbor of raping her. The case proved to be very troublesome until the nature of the whole affair was understood.

We found a thin and anemic girl, not at all prepossessing in appearance, dull in expression, suffering from a chronic suppurating otitis media.

On the mental side we had much trouble in conducting an examination because she was greatly given to tears. She did work for us on a few tests and her efforts would have been graded as those of a feebleminded person if her emotional state had been left out of account. Even our physical examination was largely hindered through her crying. However, her story was told in a straightforward way and with that show of emotion which had previously convinced others that grave injustice had been done her. Distinct proof of hysteria was present; for instance, on one occasion in the middle of a test Georgia apparently became unconscious. Her head dropped to the table, but her lips were red, her face did not change color, she resisted having her head moved, and in a moment or two lifted it herself to a more comfortable position. The diagnosis from such symptoms as these and from her history was not difficult to make.

The “Aussage” test, for obvious reasons, was not given.

Georgia told her story with surprising coherency; in outline, it was as follows: She ran away from home, and then was put under protection of the police authorities by a man who caught her. She said she was caught when standing by a drug store where she had been to get medicine, just ten cents worth of peroxide. When asked by us if it were not really carbolic acid she called for, she said yes, it was and that she intended to take it. She wanted to get rid of her life. What could she do in the way of living? Her father and mother were both sick and they could not live long and then how could she get along taking care of three little children? When asked if her parents would not be terribly affected by her suicide she said that it would not be the first time they had buried a child. At this time she would go no further into her history.

On the next day she talked straight to the point, but with a remarkably dull expression on her face. She said that about five weeks ago, she cannot tell the exact date, she went to a neighbor's house. A man there wanted her to come and look at some pictures. He finally got her to go to a bedroom and then held her so she could not scream, and raped her. She is sure of it. He later choked and beat her and kicked her out of the house. At first she was afraid to tell her people. A couple of weeks afterward she went back and asked why he did that, and he swore at her and accused her of being bad, and she and he talked back and forth for some time. “He says, `I'll kill you. I did not touch you at all.' I says, `You did. You're a liar and you can kill me now if you want to. You have already killed me. See, I grow large like this.' ” He then set upon her and beat her again. She has not seen him since. After telling this Georgia began to cry very hard and said that she really is killed now and is done for. The whole story was told in a straightforward way with a full show of emotion.

A complicating feature of this case, resultant upon lack of understanding of the characteristic vagaries of this type, was the action of a vigorous knight errant. He was the one who rescued her. Hearing her ask in the drug store for the carbolic acid, which she did not get, he thought she was desperate and questioned her, but she tearfully refused to answer. He quietly followed her until she got to the river, and then, when she had her foot on the rail of the bridge and was about to jump off, he seized her. She fought and kicked him so that she badly hurt one of his legs. She told him she had reason to commit suicide. He got her to some house and there she fainted. When she came to she described her situation to him, naming a man who boarded with a neighbor as having raped her. She told him this was the reason she had tried to commit suicide.

This young man visited Georgia's family, found them strangely indifferent and not inclined to believe the girl, so he set out to see that justice was done. With his well-intended efforts he succeeded in getting several agencies to work on the case, the parents meanwhile partly resenting his interference. They said they knew what kind of a girl she was.

We never felt thoroughly satisfied with the family history on account of the comparative ignorance of the parents, our only source of information, although they were honest enough people. All points in heredity seemed negative, nor could we learn that there had been anything significant in developmental conditions. The girl had only recently menstruated. Her people felt that of late her word was quite unreliable. She went as far as the 4th grade. On account of the short time in school in this country this was considered doing fairly well.

Ten months prior she had fallen off a street car; it was not known she was damaged seriously. A jury had given a verdict of several hundred dollars against the company, but on account of an appeal having been taken the case was still unsettled. Since the accident a number of fainting attacks had occurred and Georgia had lost one position on account of them, a place where she had worked for 2 years. She was said to have been quite healthy before the accident. Some 5 weeks before we saw her, the girl had become hysterical and announced that she had not menstruated the week before and the cause was that she had been raped. Her behavior was so peculiar in regard to this that her parents did not believe her statements and did nothing about it. The girl evidently was accustomed to telling falsehoods, although we could get no specific account of them. The parents were very anxious to avoid a scandal, for though they were poor they made much of their respectability .

Georgia was examined after a later reiteration of her charges; the physician said that she had not been raped. After we saw her the parents thought it was best to go to another physician with the young man who had become so interested. Once more the report was that there had been no rape, but it now appeared that there had been some manipulation of the parts. After this the case quieted down, but Georgia had run away again just before this second examination. When by our recommendation she was now placed in a convalescent home she repeated the same stories and announced that she was pregnant. Of course more trouble was created by this and a third examination had to be made to convince these good people who had been recently asked to interest themselves in her.

After her stay in the convalescent home Georgia returned to her parents, and, appearing to be recovered, went to work again. Her record for two years was unexpectedly satisfactory. When the above episode had blown over she regained control of herself, adapted herself to family conditions, and worked steadily. On one occasion her nervous symptoms have returned with much depression and again an attempt at suicide. She was now carefully studied in a hospital for signs of insanity, but again it was determined that she was not of unsound mind. She made a speedy recovery, adjusted herself once more to her surroundings, and after a few months became married. During the last year or so there has been no further trouble. A settlement of the law suit for injuries was made before her more recent period of depression. At the time of even her last attack we can learn of no more false accusations having been made. The family attitude about her has, all along, not been what it should have been to have gained the proper results, but the problem of poverty was always with them.

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Mentality:  Traumatic psychoneurosis.      Case 24.
                                     Girl, age 16 years.
       Accident, with law suit following.
          General physical conditions:  Anemia, poor
                          nutrition, otitis media.
Delinquencies:                   Mentality:
Running away.                      Poor ability;
Attempted suicide.                 temporary
False accusations.                 aberration.
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