Gordon? A Clinic Picture
- Author:
Madella Rigby, Recorder, The Psychological Clinic,
University of Pennsylvania
When the examination of Gordon began on January 17, 1929, I was far more interested in comparing his responses with those of his previous examination in July, 1928, than in observing the boy himself. This attitude may be explained by the fact that he is none too attractive a youngster either in appearance or in personality. Even a first impression of that protruding jaw and those thick shapeless lips is unconsciously repellant. In some mental sub-stratum you realize that you are happier when he is busy answering questions than you would be if he turned his energies to work to impress you. However that may be, I did not feel inclined to give the boy the full encouragement of my undivided attention. The examination was progressing quietly but rapidly, so I felt free to leave the room in the pursuance of other duties.
It was not many minutes later that I returned to find Gordon, having risen from his chair, standing with both feet on the floor and his body extended across the table in total disregard of the case records and testing materials which were lying there. His elbows were on the table, his chin was in his hands and he was looking up into the face of the somewhat perturbed examiner. Even as I walked across the room, I was amazed to see that his feet began kicking violently in the several directions possible to feet, and he had wriggled on to the table by means of the wellupholstered abdominal areas of his anatomy. In the abandon of the moment, Gordon was wholly unconscious of anyone’s approach. The examiner, in a state of impassive calm, was endeavoring to continue the testing, to which Gordon replied that he was tired and did not want to go on. His tone of voice was slightly whining, and he was wearing a diabolical grin. In spite of the fatigue of which he complained, there was a light in his pale blue eyes that did not bespeak weariness.
It was at this moment that two other members of the staff reached the spot. Gordon was taken in hand and placed on his chair. The examiner continued with the questions but Gordon could not be cajoled into compliance. He was threatened with a ruler. The effect was not particularly successful. Gordon declared in full voice that he would not try to answer the questions. He wriggled and swung his body from side to side in an effort to free himself from his captors. The examiner, still seated and still calm, was holding the boy’s legs, while three others were holding him in his chair,?one for each arm and one for his head.
The noise was so great that a fourth member of the staff came running in to see what was happening. Fearing that a scandal might arise from the tumult that Gordon was causing, she brought cold water and threw it in his face. This stopped the noise and the struggling at once, and even before the sobbing had completely subsided, the examiner was again pelting the boy with questions. An informal interview with Gordon’s mother as a consequence of the violence committed by and upon her son showed her to be quite accustomed to such proceedings. The mother certainly met the incident with perfect confidence in the Clinic methods. She is an extremely high-strung, excitable person herself. She talks in a deep masculine voice and her speech is staccato, her movements restless and jumpy. She has the same protruding lower lip that her son has, although in Gordon, the pugilistic contour is more marked.
During this respite the examiner had taken Gordon into the shop where perfect rapport was re-established with the help of the new electric music-box that was being tried out. Now Gordon was willing to continue with the examination.
At the time of his second examination Gordon was seven years, eleven months of age. On the Stanford Revision of the BinetSimon tests Gordon’s mental age was eight years, six months. His Basal Age was seven and the Upper Limit was twelve. At Year VIII he failed the vocabulary test (for his score of this test was but 8) and he failed the 3rd degree comprehension. (It is interesting to notice that to the question, “What’s the thing to do when a playmate hits you without meaning to do it?” he replied, “Hit him back.”) At year IX he failed to give the date, to arrange the weights correctly and to make change. (In this last test, he subtracted on his fingers but even that method did not yield him a correct answer.) At year X, he was able to answer correctly only the test of reading and report, and the test of 60 words in three minutes. His memories were nine and his method of giving words was to name the contents of the room and occasionally to resort to rhymes. He achieved an Intelligence Quotient of 107 which places him in a group of 10% superior to 50% and inferior to 40% of boys at the Six Year Level.
These tests on the Binet-Simon Scale form an interesting comparison with those of the previous summer. At that time his Chronological Age was 7-4 and he achieved a Mental Age of 8-1 with a resulting Intelligence Quotient of 110. His Basal Age was 6 and the Upper Limit 10. At year VII he failed to give the differences and only received half credit for tying the bow-knot. At year VIII he failed to evolve even an inferior plan in the ball and field problem; he failed to give similarities and his vocabulary score was minus. At year IX he gave tlie date and was able to give rhymes satisfactorily.
There is no striking variation in Gordon’s scores on the Performance Tests at the two examinations. He showed good coordination, planfulness and comprehension of the problems. Sometimes he would try to force blocks into wrong holes but he showed a fair amount of analytic discrimination ^in searching for the block to fit into each particular recess.
His Memory Span shows slight variation. At the first examination the visual span was 6, auditory 6 and reverse 3. At the second examination the visual was 7, auditory 5, and reverse 4. A physical examination of this case showed mixed signs of thyroid imbalance. He has the hands, eyes, head, walk, and temper tantrums of a high grade Mongolian, and his protruding abdomen suggests Cretinism. His tongue was normal but curious in its changes of color and shape. Only one testicle had descended and that was very much undersize. During the examination there was no evidence of sexual interest or excitement.
At play Gordon is very destructive. He tears his toys apart, and is quarrelsome with other children. At the age of four he choked two kittens to death. According to his mother, however, he likes animals now and since that cruelty has not been seen to harm them. He often fights with other children and will even pit his strength against people older and stronger than himself. He feels that he can fight anyone and shows little discrimination in choosing an opponent. Yet his mother insists he is affectionate. At school Gordon is in the 2B Grade and his teacher believes that he is capable of learning but his conduct interferes with his own progress as well as the progress of every one of his classmates. In fact he declared his ambition to be a prize-fighter like Dempsey (not Tunney), and he said he keeps in practice at school. It is only too easy to believe him a bully and a disciplinary problem. During the conference between his mother and Dr Witmer, the boy played the show-off. Even at the age of 7 he shows the physique as well as the temperament and desire admirable in a pugilist.
The remarkable factor in this case is the high intellectual level. This alert mind and intellectual capacity combined with moral imbecility make a type of feeblemindedness that is exceedingly dangerous to society. From the case as reported, it is evident that Gordon’s standards of conduct are not those of the law-abiding citizen of today. The abilities which he possesses will be perfected according to his lights. He has already demonstrated that his orientation is not that accepted as desirable in the eyes of our present day social organization. Gordon has good motor control but his idea in regard to its exercise is definitely frowned on by our society. There is no place for a fighting man in our everyday life. It is no longer necessary to beat the wolf from the door by sheer brute force. Social standards have so changed that cunning even in a physical weakling is more successful than are bodily strength and an instinct to fight in an individual of mental and intellectual qualifications. So it is that Gordon must come to be restrained lest he commit an act of violence that will seem mere child’s play to his distorted point of view. Therefore, in spite of the high Intelligence Quotient, the diagnosis in this case reads: Feebleminded on the moral scale, Socially non compos mentis, Intellectually competent, Type: non-sexual.
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