How to deal with kleptomaniac

Title

Creator

Ferguson, D.

Language

English

Year

1965

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

Thieves who do not mean to steal.

Fulltext

■ Thieves who do not .mean to steal. HOW TO DEAL WITH KLEPTOMANIAC When the police finally caught the Phantom Burg lar they could hardly believe their eyes. The man who had broken into 403 women’s bedrooms, and performed human-fly stunts to get into them, was a crippled victim of infantile paralysis. He admitted his thefts — cheap jewelry, powder puffs, filmy handkerchiefs, even love letters. He said that he knew he had done wrong, but couldn’t restrain himself — the things he stole gave him a feeling of fulfillment which he could not attain in a normal way. Because he knew the dif ference between right and wrong, as well as the nature of his act — the standard sanity test in 29 states — a plea of insanity would not have been accepted. The jury found him guilty, and the judge sent him to Sing Sing. Yet he was no ordinary thief. He was sick. He was a kleptomaniac. He needed psychiatric treatment, not punishment. By rare good luck he got it. He was put under the care of Dr. Ralph S. Banay, psychiatrist-in-charge at Sing Sing from 1940 to 1943 and now associate di rector of research on Social Deviation at Columbia Uni versity. In the course of many in terviews Dr. Banay discover ed why this man was a klep tomaniac. He had contracted infantile paralysis as a boy, and he was thus unable to compete with other boys. To make matters worse, he had an athletic sister who pro vided a constant contrast to his own inadequacy. Since his parents made no attempt to guide him into pursuits at which he might excel, he grew up nursing his griev ances. Then he found he was distasteful to girls. In a confused attempt to OCTOBE8 1965 53 assert himself, he embarked on his career of crime. His gymnastic burglarizing gave him a feeling of physical mastery. The inexpensive feminine knick-knacks he stole were substitutes for the love that had been denied him. Dr. Banay made him un derstand this connection be tween his childhood frustra tion and his adult conduct; and understanding is often half the battle for a cure. Once he realized that his frustrations had produced his craving to steal, he began looking for normal ways to fulfill those desires. Dr. Banay believes his pa tient is now entirely adjust ed to society. But he has had no chance to prove it. The Phantom Burglar is still serv ing his prison term. Not all kleptomaniacs suf fer such a fate. Five years ago a well-to-do clergyman was hauled into court as a common auto thief. His lawyer argued that any auto mobile thief who owned a car, and could well afford another if he needed it, must obviously be unbalanced. But the clergyman was legal ly sane, and therefore guilty. Fortunately, the judge sen tenced him to a mental hos pital. He was discharged a year later, fit to take his place in society. Today he is nationally known under ,a new name earns a salary in five figures, and has a tireless talent for helping unfortunates. Discovery of what caused his kleptomania was half the cure. He had unconsciously disliked his profession, but he had clung to it because his admiring congregation satisfied his yearning for ap proval, which an overly cri tical mother had exaggerated in him as a child. This yearning was later aggravat ed by a wife who constantly found fault with him as a husband. Divorce and a confession of his religious duplicity would have been the obvious way out, but he hadn’t dar ed to kick over the traces. By stealing cars he gratified a suppressed desire to be a ruthless he-man without hav ing to admit his difficulty publicly or even admit it to himsef. Once he under stood and accepted his con54 Panorama ficts, he was able to rehabi litate himself. Doctors recognize klepto mania for what it is — a sign of illness, comparable to py romania and pathological ly ing. Kleptomania is a symp tom, not a disease. Dis turbances that are known to cause kleptomania (or com pulsive stealing, as it is more properly called when used in its broadest sense) are phy siological irregularities: brain disorders like epilepsy, pa resis and feeble- mindedness; and acute mental conflict. Store detectives and court psychiatrists believe that much compulsive stealing in women occurs as a result of physiological disturbances. Women who steal during pregnancy, for example, are actually .victims of a capri cious pregnancy appetite. Some courts know this and treat thefts committed at these times with extreme le niency. Compulsive stealing among epileptics, paratics, and vic tims of other serious brain disorders is very much like sleep walking. These people literally do not know what they are doing, but most kleptomaniacs are entirely conscious of their acts. Kleptomaniacs are fre quently people whose emo tions have been thrown off balance by their parents’ failure to maintain happy family relationships. When these people are unable to overcome their childhood frustrations, compulsive steal ing may occur “The normal person,” says Dr. Sandor Lorand, interna tionally known psychiatrist, “is the one who can make social, working and family adjustments. Kleptomaniacs fail in all these.” The ways they fail are legion, but the failures usually have some relation ship to marital maladjust ments or celibacy. A hus band’s inattention has driven many a woman to theft. Girls shocked by strained relations between their parents often develop abnormal feelings of isolation, avoid wedlock, and resort to stealing. Klep tomaniac bachelors generally suffer from a feeling of in feriority. While these mental con flicts can be adjusted, the October 1965 55 success of the treatments de pends largely on the pa tient’s desire to overcome his social conduct. A wellto-do married woman who was caught recently stealing velocipedes was one patient who wanted to be cured. She was obviously not a fe lon. She stole bicycles, tri cycles or scooters, took them home, painted them, and sold them cheaply to mothers of children whose fathers were overseas. Then she gave the money to the Red Cross. She was the only sister of five older brothers, who used to tease her and call her a sissy. As a girl she tried des perately to win their admi ration with tomboy ish be havior. When she discover ed one day that she could ride her bicycle faster than one of her brothers could, she experienced a thrill she had never known before. Subsconsciously, she remembered that thrill as an adult. Her marriage was happy until her husband started to neglect her for his business. Then frustration was trans formed into a compulsion to steal, and the objects she stole were like the one which had gratified her as a child. She was arrested and sent to a psychiatrist. When she was made to understand the cause of her conflict, she turned her urge into cons tructive channels. The stealing of a thief who is not a kleptomaniac is a means to an end. The kleptomaniac’s stealing is an end in itself. For this reason kleptomaniacs seldom take anything expensive. The ob ject has symbolic rather than material value. The way to prevent klep tomania is to teach parents to understand their children and to maintain satisfactory family relationships. Since family relationships can be intricate, the parents’ job de mands conscientious atten tion. Nobody knows how preva lent kleptomania is, partly because many kleptomaniacs are not caught, and there is consequently no record of them, and partly because, those convicted appear on the records as ordinary thieves. States and cities alone arrest about one hun dred thousand thieves a year. 56 Panorama This figure does not include Federal arrests, or arrests of pickpockets and shoplifters. Typical of the kleptoma niac shoplifter was an awk ward girl who had a very pretty younger sister. She found release from her feel ing of inferiority in stealing costume jewelry. She never wore it or sold it — just hid it away at home. The psy chiatrist to whom she was sent for treatment recogniz ed that just having the jewel ry around provided her some consolation. He worked with her for about a year. Today, as a successful dress designer, she has won the ad miration of her less-gifted sister. Kleptomania has been call ed a privilege of the wealthy. The kleptomaniac who is poor is 'usually assumed on cir cumstantial evidence to be a common thief. The rich get the benefit of the doubt. Yet the Phantom Burglar was poor. So was a young music teacher treated by Dr. Lorand. This 22-year-old girl start ed teaching piano at the age of fourteen. She stole knickknacks from her pupil’s homes and, later money from her father and stepmother. The knick-knacks she hid in a bureau drawer. The money she sent to an impoverished aunt. Treatment revealed that her thefts were caused by an unconscious resentment of her father, who had aban doned his family when the girl was nine months old. The mother had slaved to make ends meet. When the mother died the child was sent to live with the aunt, who also made sacrifices in order to support her. Her father remarried. When she was nineteen he sent for her. Her hatred for him soon included her stepmother. Every time her thefts were discovered, she swore she would never steal again. But she always' did. The psychiatrist made her father understand that her thefts were an expression of defiance and insecurity. They were not committed for gain. Poor as the girl was, she ne ver profited from them. Not once did she spend the mo ney on herself. Not once did she sell her stolen goods to a “fence.” If she had not October 1965 57 had the attention of a psy chiatrist, she might have gone to jail. Since kleptomania results from personal maladjust ment, it is obviously not he reditary. Also, the klepto mania compulsion is infre quent among children — though most children do some stealing until they are taught not to. When juveniles continue to steal in spite of their train ing they usually do so be cause of a lack of affection or because of too much pa rental domination. Dr. William Healy in his book, The Individual Delin quent, describes another sort of case, in which a ten-yearold girl played with a small boy who taught her to swear and misinformed her about things. Dr. Healy convinced the mother that this experience was the cause of the child’s thefts. By devoting more time to the girl, answering her questions correctly, and keeping her busy, the mother effected a complete cure. — D. Ferguson in Coronet. POWDER The three-year-old boy had taken his mother’s powder puff and was fixing his face as he had so often seen her do, when his five-year-old sister grab bed it from him. “You mustn’t do that,” she said, “only ladies use powder. Gentlemen wash themselves.” — Stator. 58 PANORAMA

Media