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My Dear, Herr Doctor Freud:
I am writing to you today about a very delicate matter that has become a great concern to me. Allow me to introduce myself: I am in the employ of a family that is well-known and respected throughout the British Empire, and beyond. During my long years of service, I have come to be more a part of this family than an employee. They are as dear to me as my own flesh and blood. And so, I write to you in the hope that you may have some insight regarding an affliction that is becoming ever more difficult to ignore. As the holder of several PhDs in the fields of medicine, psychiatry and animal behavior, I have reached my own conclusions about the case. And yet, I would very much appreciate your opinion on the matter before I implement my intended course of treatments.
As you may have read in the popular press, one of our family members has been so unfortunate as to have fallen into patterns of behavior that are quite unseemly for a normal, civilized human being. In fact, I must confess that his actions have caused not just a little amount of embarrassment to our entire family, and word of his behavior is even whispered about in the House of Lords. I'm sure you can see our concern, and we hope you will be able to handle this case with the maximum amount of discretion and privacy your position in the medical world will allow. All I dare ask of you is that you will make a study of this case and send us the results of your diagnosis by private mail. I am convinced no radical restraint is warranted. However, if you feel that a need for commitment to a mental institution should be desirable in the future, please act with the utmost secrecy as further notoriety in this matter would only cause additional pain and distress to our already distraught family. I know you are an honest and capable man as shown in your work on the unfortunate Russian known as the Wolf-Man. Please consider this the plea of a completely desperate woman on behalf her family and friends.
The following is a brief description of our dear relative, whom I ask that you only refer to in the future as "The Subject." All the details of the case will not be given for the sake of brevity in this first inquiry. I only include the important particulars in hope that it will fire your imagination and whet your desire to take up our sad case, which we hope will finally give us and a poor soul some relief from a tragic misery.
The Subject was orphaned at the age of 13 months and was raised entirely by a loving and caring foster mother. His foster father was mentally and physically abusive toward the child, beating him when the mother was not present for protection.
The Subject is a very strong, robust type of man. When he was ten years old he was fully as strong as the average man of thirty, and far more agile than the most practiced athlete ever becomes. And day by day his strength was increasing.
The Subject has been known to remain in a condition of amnesia for the better part of a week, and then quite suddenly regain his normal awareness as he is about to commit a murder. His awareness and recovery is remarkably sudden and complete, without the slightest period of confusion, in which he must regain his senses and equilibrium.
#1. At the age of ten, The Subject met with an accident (not occasioned by his foster father) in which he suffered severe injuries. There were throat, chest, and arm injuries where the flesh was torn away with much blood lost. A portion of his chest was laid bare to the ribs, three of which had been broken. One arm was nearly severed, and a great piece had been torn from his neck, exposing his jugular vein. He lay for days in a wild delirium of fever. However, within a month he was as strong and active as ever.
The Subject was very intelligent, and he lived primarily upon the vegetarian diet preferred by his mother. Once at an early age (before the age of thirteen) the subject fell from a tree, quite forty feet to the ground, alighting on his back in a thick brush which broke the force of the fall. However, a cut upon the back of his head showed where he had struck the tough stem of the shrub and explained his unconsciousness. In a few minutes he was as active as ever.
It was at about this time, the age of thirteen, when The Subject killed his foster father while protecting his mother from her husband's violence.
At the age of eighteen, The Subject's mother was killed in a violent way in public. When her son arrived, she was already dead. His grief and anger at her death was unbounded, and he fell upon her body and sobbed out the sorrowing of his lonely heart. To lose the only creature in all one's world who ever had manifested love and affection for one, is a great bereavement indeed.
After the violent death of his mother, The Subject himself became a killer. Soon, he began killing men as well as an assortment of animals. His methods were usually quick, not involving torture to any degree, employing a rope, a knife or other sharpened weapons, or bare-handed strangulation -- the combination he used in killing the slayer of his foster mother.
#2. Around the age of eighteen, The Subject sustained the first of many head injuries. This primary injury was a partial scalping in which his scalp was half torn from his head, so that a great piece hung down over one eye. In this case, by ten days he was quite sound again, except for a terrible, half-healed scar, which, starting above his left eye, ran across the top of his head, ending at the right ear. His powers of recovery were quite remarkable.
The occasion of this injury took place as The Subject was attempting to protect an old female from a beating by a young male. It was a selfless act, because the subject leaped into a dangerous situation where he could have expected bodily harm. After this event, The Subject changed his mode of dress and appearance and began larger associations with strangers and other people who were not related to him.
# 3. Some of the events in this case are difficult to place in a consecutive time frame, but it seems that from the occasion of the events reported above, The Subject became rather accident-prone, despite his strong, physical nature. On one occasion, he fell into a hole in the ground and was knocked unconscious. He fell backwards and struck his head on a wooden stake. There was a swollen spot at the base of the brain which indicated the nature of his injury. In this case, he came to rather quickly, and was fully conscious in a few minutes.
#4. The Subject was again knocked unconscious; this time by a falling tree during a lightning storm. (He lived in a heavily wooded area and was fond of walking there in all seasons in all kinds of weather.) This time, it took him much longer to regain consciousness.
#5. The Subject was beaten into an unconscious state by rocks and dead tree limbs. He became conscious in a few minutes, but only slowly realized what had happened.
#6. At this point, The Subject seems to be having problems with vivid nightmares. There are problems of distinguishing reality from dreams -- even in waking states. He seems to not even being aware of dreaming before this age (around eighteen.) In this flux, he mistakes reality for a dream and is bitten in the shoulder by a wild animal.
After these experiences, The Subject seemed to be prone to violence. When he was angered, he could become deaf with rage, and a red mist seemed to cover his eyes as he performed violent deeds. He is known as a killer of animals and men.
#7. Around the age of twenty, The Subject suffered two gun shot wounds, one in the left shoulder and one in the left side -- both bloody flesh wounds. He was confined to bed for several days, but he considered it to be a superficial incident -- and exhibited signs of impatience regarding the necessary medical attention he was provided with. He described the quite serious injuries as "pin pricks."
#8. Later, The Subject was gun shot again in a grazing blow to his head, a slight scratch which had furrowed the flesh across his temple and rendered him unconscious. The wound bled profusely, so that dried and clotted blood smeared his face and clothing. He regained consciousness after some time, but remained silent for hours. Later, he was pummeled for a short time with stones and sticks, then, bound by ropes, kicked about the face and side by a man with heavy boots. He suffered from thirst, and felt waves of madness sweep over him. By now, The Subject saw himself as another creature when killing.
At this point in the history of this Subject, he marries. The union soon produces a single child, a son. There are no further children in this marriage, but the husband and wife remain together and faithful only to each other. However, The Subject seems to have a very difficult time remaining at home, and often goes away on long journeys. He is more often separated from his wife and son than with them.
#9. The Subject seems to become constantly involved in violent situations where he is often in grave danger. His body is covered with scars from beatings, cuts and puncture wounds. He is again rendered unconscious by a blow from a blunt, wooden object, and one leg is torn and lacerated to the point that it becomes difficult to walk. When he becomes conscious, The Subject forces himself to walk a long distance in such a condition of great rage that the great scar upon his forehead stands out almost continuously in a vivid scarlet line. During this journey, he screams out loud over his anger and frustration, startling even himself at the force of his rage. In this condition, he murders a man with his bare hands, and with a gesture of disgust throws the corpse aside without a further thought or comment. He is then reunited with his wife and resolves to live a quiet and sedate existence. The subject seems to be a normal human being, despite the many accidents and violent situations involving murder. He seems to be able to resolve any mental conflicts or feelings of guilt without compunction.
#10. During this hiatus, The Subject seems to have suffered a certain loss of his usual keen awareness of his situation and surroundings. He takes a large financial loss due to mismanagement of funds. Noticeably, he loses his sense of smell. It is under these conditions that The Subject receives another violent blow to his head, another injury that leaves him in a state of total amnesia. He is not aware of his name or anything of his past before the blow. He does not remember the accident, nor does he recall anything of what had led up to it. He can walk and function in a fairly normal way, but he makes mistakes at times and falls into situations where he before would have taken more care. He is curious about his surroundings, but does not remember the names or relationships of many previously familiar objects or people.
The Subject remains in this condition of amnesia for the better part of a week, and then quite suddenly regains his normal awareness as he is about to commit a murder. His awareness and recovery is remarkably sudden and complete, without the slightest period of confusion in which he must regain his senses and equilibrium.
Here my account must break-off, for the present, as I am called away on urgent business that cannot be put off even another hour. (Young Jackie is yapping up a storm.) I am sending you this incomplete account with our fervent prayers that you will pity our situation and look into this case at your earliest opportunity.
Sincerely,
Esmeralda Jones. PhD, and nanny.
