The Mask of Sanity. Hervey M. Cleckley

had not suspected him. Earlier, when rationing was in effect, he devised a method of stealing gasoline from an uncle who managed a business considered important in the war effort. Through this connection he gained access to relatively large quantities of gasoline and, by careful planning and clever execution, made off with a few gallons at a time until he accumulated enough to bring substantial sums on the black market. Though a member of the Honor Council in high school, he had never hesitated to cheat on examinations. He not only did this when he felt he might otherwise make a bad mark, but also routinely somewhat in the manner of a gentleman paying respect to the conventions, This practice had not been officially detected or become widely known among his classmates.

      Pete did not bring out these facts painfully and with reluctance. It was not as though he were taking advantage at last of an opportunity to unburden himself by confession. Apparently he had never been burdened. Nor did he show that boastful relish sometimes seen in people who seem proud and defiant about the delinquent acts they confess. In a gentlemanly way he seemed to be discussing ordinary matters of a conventional life.

      He had repeatedly spoken of his remorse about the forgeries at college and spoken convincingly of his resolution never to make such mistakes in the future. In telling of his earlier delinquencies, which had never been discovered, he did not spontaneously bring out an opinion that this sort of behavior also should be avoided, When reasons for this were suggested, he readily agreed. There seemed, however, to be little shame or real regret and no effective intention that would last much beyond the moment of its utterance.

      Though a considerable number of delinquencies and examples of very badly adapted conduct emerged as this patient was seen over a period of time,{***} it is not these in themselves that so strongly suggest he shows the disorder called psychopathic personality. What is most suggestive of this disorder is very difficult to convey, for it came out in attitudes disclosed as he talked about his emotional relations, his principles, his ambitions, and his ideals. By citing concrete acts or failures to act it is easier to demonstrate such things than by commenting on what has been merely spoken, and what from this and the accompanying expressions, tones, etc., has been sensed or surmised. It may be worthwhile, however, to attempt a few points.

      PETE’S LOVE LIFE

      This attractive and fine looking young man had been going out with girls for several years. Apparently they found his attentions welcome. Though he sometimes spent the evening alone with a girl, he still preferred double-dating or getting together with several couples. He had almost entirely escaped the shyness and unpleasant self-consciousness that trouble so many boys in their teens. He had never attempted sexual relations and seemed to have less than ordinary conscious inclination in this direction. No overt homosexual inclinations could be brought out in ordinary interviews or with the patient under Amytal or hypnosis.

      For over a year Pete had been going regularly with the daughter of a millionaire who had recently moved to Florida from the Middle West. Jane was only sixteen years old. Though not an only child, she had been born very late in her parents’ lives, and after her sister and two brothers were almost adults. The siblings had long ago married, leaving her to grow up as the center of her ageing parents’ concern and attention. This situation may account for the early overprotection and domination Jane experienced and for her tendency toward social withdrawal and her deep and painful insecurity.

      Her parents, by now quite old, set in their ways, and out of touch with Jane’s world, sensed something wrong and set out on the disastrous course of pushing her, managing her, and trying by an irresistible tour de force to make her precipitately into a reigning belle.

      A few years earlier her mother had nagged her day and night about overexerting herself, had insisted that she have breakfast in bed and not arise until 10:30 A.M. She had also insisted that she take tomato juice between meals (for vitamins) and milk (for calories). There had also been arguments about taking a nap every afternoon, swallowing numerous vitamin pills or unneeded laxatives, and carrying out all sorts of quackish health rituals which had attracted the mother. Now this frustrated, frightened, and unprepared girl was pushed suddenly into equitation instructions, tennis every other afternoon, private lessons in Italian, elaborate parties with imported champagne. The mother took her to New York and arranged some rather artificial frolics at the Stork Club and El Morocco. There were also yachting parties during which this sensitive girl tried valiantly to make conversation and carry out the motions of gaiety from Daytona to Miami. Jane seemed like a gun-shy yearling pointer and promptly developed nocturnal enuresis.{†††}

      The more difficulty she showed in handling herself, the more vigorously her mother pushed her, and the more she suffered and showed her terror. Most of the young men herded by the mother’s almost ferocious efforts and by all sorts of indirect bribery to these overdone parties made almost open fun of Jane. Her uneasiness and dutiful but brittle efforts to carry out a false role led them to speak of her as a “drip.”

      This good and essentially normal girl, in the midst of constant mockery which she, unlike her mother, often detected, found herself attended by Pete. He was without mockery. Nor did he, like some of the condescending youths drawn by parental largess, attempt lovelessly to feel her breasts and to initiate her into the intimacies of a soul kiss. Pete behaved “like a gentleman.” He was cordial, polite, and he treated her mother and father with a respect that seemed properly deferential in contrast with many in that brash, immature gang who came for the handout and the opportunity for mockery.

      He was more acceptable also that the snide older men inclined to show her attention. Among these she encountered a few partial and cynical homosexuals who apparently enjoyed any travesty on what ought to be a normal coming together of girl and boy. Jane did not know which ones were the homosexuals, scarcely even that there was such a thing as homosexuality, but she sensed under their superficial politeness what seemed like subtle attitudes of defeatism, condescension, and only formality where it is natural to seek warmth. They gently mocked her taste in reading and in music and were politely supercilious about her clothes and about how she rode a horse.

      After them is was almost a joy to be with Pete. Her parents, too, found him respectful and a lad of fine, manly qualities. He was obviously intelligent and lightly and unpretentiously he expressed principles of the highest, truest order.

      Too much a child still and too backward to seek a mature heterosexual role, too inexperienced to recognize or even to imagine what a genuine lover might offer or seek, Jane found Pete the most acceptable companion available. Unacquainted with the feelings and attitudes of young men in normal love, or even with milder but real interests of this sort, she had no frame of reference in which to evaluate her chief suitor’s monumental inadequacy. She had, in fact, little means even of perceiving it.

      Pete himself discussed his girl without the slightest awareness that he lacked any requisite of a romantic lover or of a satisfactory husband. Both of Jane’s parents encouraged his attentions. An impressive mahogany speedboat and a new Cadillac convertible were virtually put at his disposal. He found himself not quite the possessor of these and of many other luxuries but conspicuously in the center of them. It would not be difficult to imagine such a situation turning an ordinary boy’s head, confusing him with grandiose fancies, and, perhaps, initiating a career of delinquency.

      Perhaps such an explanation is correct, but I am not convinced. Pete was not dazzled and swept off his feet. He was not, it would seem, particularly excited. He expressed a liking for Jane and her family, and showed evidence of being attracted by the outer appearance of things in this rather glittering world. There was no indication that wild passions for wealth had been aroused and a steady young man lured off toward false goals. Nothing seemed capable of arousing any real drive or passion in Pete, much less a wild one. The pseudo-ideals about wealth and prestige, and the half-hearted impulses of which he spoke had existed long before he knew Jane. They were, however, at best tepid and unsteady aspirations, not strong or really purposeful drives, not constantly beckoning temptations deflecting natural aims. Pete might let himself drift toward a fortune, and even, when caprice stimulated him, paddle a bit toward this goal or effigy of a goal, but he was not the sort of man to swim with frantic vigor toward either positive or negative shores. Fortune hunting might come nearer to arousing him than another aim, but even this did not challenge him to life and human purpose