GENIE: A SCIENTIFIC TRAGEDY

Paige Pachucki

The study that started it all◦ Psamtik I the King of Egypt wanted to discover the “original” language of the world

◦ 2 infants were taken from their mothers at birth and placed in an isolated hut

◦ The shepherd was instructed not to speak to them

◦ Infants raised on goats milk for two years

◦ They uttered the word “Bekos” which the children developed

◦ The king determined that it meant “bread” in the language of the Phrygians

What happened to the study?◦ It was ultimately forgotten

◦ Very few articles remain at all from the study

◦ The king was remembered for the flaws of the study and not the results

◦Despite the flaws , the study did fulfill the intended purpose

Noam Chomsky and his role◦ Study resurfaced at Horn & Hordart on Woodland Ave in Philadelphia

◦ Noam Chomsky began working on ideas that were revolutionary

◦ Published his work in 1957

◦ His work was referred to as the “Event” by some linguists

◦ His work will be a major tuning point in the study of Linguistics

◦ His work would be used when working with Genie

Her parents◦ Her father Clark had grown up in orphanages and foster homes in the pacific northwest

◦ Irene her mother grew up in Altus Oklahoma

◦ They would meet in Hollywood at a soda fountain where Irene was employed

◦ Clark would leave for the army at a later point

◦ After they were married they lived in Temple City California

◦ They “appeared” to have a storybook marriage

Genies Siblings◦ Clark never wanted children

◦ Late in Irene's first pregnancy Clark beat her, despite her injuries she gave birth to a healthy baby girl

◦Her crying infuriated Clark and she was put in the garage where she died from exposure at 2.5 months

◦ The second daughter died from Rh blood poisoning soon after birth

◦ Their third son was healthy, but he was neglected to the point where family stepped in

◦Genie was born with Rh blood poisoning but received a transfusion of blood shortly after birth that saved her life

Genie’s fate ◦ She survived the transfusion, but it was a botched transfusion that caused her to

become mentally and developmentally limited

◦ She suffered the same fate of neglect and delays as her brother

◦ There was no family that could step in and save her, her grandmother was killed

◦ Clark was under the “delusion that his daughter was retarded and was going to be very vulnerable to exploitation. He dreaded the idea of people taking advantage of her.”

Life at “home” for genie◦ She was confined to a small bedroom and harnessed to an infants potty seat

◦ She would remain there unclad except for the harness all day and even into the night

◦ She was unable to move anything except her fingers, hands, feet and toes

◦ At night she was removed from the harness and placed into another restraining garment

◦ She was then placed into a crib with a wire mesh top and sides

◦Genie was basically harnessed by day and caged by night. This is how she would spend the next 13 ½ years of her life

“stimulation” ◦ Practically no audio stimulation at all

◦ The only furniture in the room was the crib and the potty seat

◦No carpet, not pictures on the wall, and the widows were covered

◦Genie would sometimes make noise to get attention, but her father would beat her with a large piece of wood so she soon stopped

◦ Sometimes she was allowed to watch the T.V. log but her father would edit “suggestive” materials out

◦ She would also occasionally be allowed to “play” with two plastic raincoats that hung on the closet door

Things get worse before they get better◦On a few occasions she was given “toys”

◦ She would be given an empty cottage cheese container or empty thread spools to paly with

◦ The floor, her harness and her body were her primary sources of tactile stimulation

◦ She was fed a limited diet of baby food, cereals, and the occasional soft boiled egg

◦Her father wanted her to have extremely limited contact so food was shoved in her mouth

◦ If she choked or spat it out she would have her face rubbed in her food

A dim light at the end of the tunnel◦Genies father was convinced she would die

◦He was positive that she would not live past 12

◦ Promised her mother that if she did live past 12 she could get the help that she needed

◦ Finally when Genie was 13 ½ she had the chance to escape

◦Her mother would be charged with child abuse

◦Her father killed himself

“the world will never understand”

◦ Left a suicide letter for the public at large

◦ The final sentence was seen as a curse to everyone that had ever and would ever work with Genie

◦He knew that the general public along with everyone else could never understand why he did what he did

◦He killed himself in the living room of his mothers home, and requested no one was told about his death until everything was done

“Girl 13, prisoner since infancy, deputies charge parents jailed”◦ She arrival seemed to be a fluke

◦ She and her mother limped through the doors of a Los Angeles County welfare office

◦ Accompanied by her nearly blind and equally traumatized mother

◦Her mother was seeking help for herself not her child

◦Mother was finally free to escape the abusive father and husband

◦Due to Genies lack of development she was thought to be 7 or 8 not 13

Geniehttps://youtu.be/YQNBSPY4QUc?list=PLgd-bynF6dnbJWvC3mzgxgCak9lCnUuRP&t=61

Things were far worse than they seemed◦ She weighed 59 pounds and stood only 54 inches tall

◦ She was incontinent and could not eat solid food

◦ Could hardly swallow the food she managed to eat

◦ She could not focus her vision beyond 12 feet

◦ She never spoke and could not cry

◦ She spat and salivated constantly

◦ Thin hair

◦ She could not do anything that required full extension of her arms or legs

What happened next??◦ She could only mutter “stopit” and “nomore”

◦ She understood few words

◦ Social workers admitted her to the Children's Hospital for severe malnutrition

◦ An explanation would come from the police in the days following her discovery and the persistent elaborations of scientists over the next several years

◦Doctoral dissertation of the child written by Susan Curtiss

◦ “ To understand this case history, one must understand the family background”

Things are starting to look up◦ Susan Curtiss was invited into the Genie case by Victorian Franklin

◦ Competition to be on her case was fierce

◦ Even 6 months after her discovery there was no assurance that a linguist would be allowed to be on her case

◦ She had scientists and social workers already on her case

◦ They wanted to find a surrogate “mother” for Genie and hoped that this would help her become more adjusted

◦ There were days when only scientists were allowed to work with her. They would focus on language and brain waves

◦Her nurses would focus on daily tasks such as hygiene and eating

Victor ◦Wild-boy of Aveyron

◦ A pitiable creature discovered in January of 1800

◦He was almost completely wild

◦ Reached the age of twelve in a state of complete savergy

◦His last human contact seemed to have been with whomever had cut his throat and left him to die as a toddler

◦ Even though Victor cold spell words and understood what they meant he never did learn to speak

◦ Victor would become very influential for the studies and children that followed him

There were others like Genie all around the world◦More than fifty have been documented

◦Hesse the wolf child

◦ The Irish sheep-child

◦ Kaspar Hauser

◦ The first Lithuanian bear-child

◦ Peter of Hanover

◦ Tomko of Zips

◦ The Mauretanian gazelle-child

◦ Lucas the south African Baboon child

So what happened to these children?◦ Investigations of these cases usually did not go very far

◦ There was an excess of enthusiasm but not very many good methods for working with these children

◦ There was the potential to turn misfortune into revelation

◦ By the time Genie was found a sorry pattern of missed opportunity had already been established

◦ Instead of the researchers leaning from their mistakes they just kept on making them

◦ “When an experiment like this comes along, there is intense excitement, and intense pressure”

◦ “People tend to operate in these situations much more with their thalamus than with their cortex.”

The results of Genies Brain and sleep studies◦ There was a large amount of “sleep spindles”

◦ These are artifacts that may indicate retardation

◦ Other observations were more subjective and less technical

◦ Genie was euphoric on holidays and weekends when she got to leave the research center

◦ When they were leaving she would often say no, but she did not mean it

◦ She would call people “peepa”

◦ “Dert” meant doctor

What they learned◦ She had no problem with urine soiling since Christmas

◦ She was terrified of big dogs

◦ She was also scared of all men wearing Khakis

◦While she was at the center she celebrated her 14th birthday

What they learned Cont..◦ She was so overwhelmed by this that she had a great amount of anxiety

◦ As she opened her gifts her anxiety had gotten so severe she had to leave the room

◦ She sat in a corner holding a nurses hand until she calmed down

She only wanted to be loved but she was easily overwhelmed in a lot of situations

“I just give her loves”◦ The second day of the conference was reserved for “deliberations of the consult

panel”

◦ This panel did not include care takers or cooks

◦ This panel was only for the scientists

◦ A movie about Genie was made titled “ The Wild Child”

What now??◦ It was becoming clear that Genie could not stay at the hospital forever

◦On July 7th Genie moved into her first of many foster homes

◦ The care she received in the hospital had saved her life but her development was spurred

◦ She never got the chance to be a “normal” girl she was seen as a lab experiment

She was never taught about normal body functions

Science or Abuse?◦ They knew that she needed to be placed in a home but they still wanted to run

tests

◦ It was a common fear that Genie was tested on to much

◦ She was given little to no chance to relax

◦ She would be introduced to dogs even though she was scared of them

◦Her other fears were often ignored as well

Stability and progress◦Genie was finally placed in a secure home

◦Her confidence went up

◦ She began to talk more and her language increased at least tenfold

◦ She was even able to express when she was angry

◦ This home was considered “excellent placement”

Summer ended in sadness◦Genie was removed from where she was happy

◦ She was taken back to the rehab center

◦ As soon as she returned to the rehab center she was turned over to her “new home”

◦ It became clear that there were other factors at play

◦Her new foster parents were told they would only have her for one year… That was a lie

Regression ◦Genie began to regress into her old ways

◦ She would urinate every ten minutes no matter where she was

◦ She did not know how to chew the tougher foods so she would hold them in her mouth

◦ She would also have to face her fear of the dog they had in their home

◦ She was seen as relentless and stubborn

Her first taste of school◦ She was first enrolled in nursery school

◦ Later on she was enrolled in a public school for the mentally retarded

◦ She was taught sign language and given speech therapy

◦ She would say a few short phrases but no sentences

◦ She would throw tantrums instead of trying to talk about her anger

Speaking without words◦Non verbally she could make people understand her

◦ She would have people even strangers give her things without her having to ask

◦ She could make her wants and desires, needs, and feelings known through body language

◦ She had one woman give her a faux pearl necklace, a little boy gave her his toy fire engine

So is she really retarded?◦Despite the fact that she could not grasp grammar many people did not believe she

was retarded

◦On spatial tests Genie would score perfectly

◦ She could tell when pieces were missing from an image

◦ She could categorize

◦ She could draw silhouettes

There is someone “home”◦ She would concentrate on objects

◦ She would define them by size, color, shape, and number

◦ For every year she was out of isolation she would advance a year in mental age

◦ She had energy, personality, and incredible curiosity

◦ She responded to approval and was dismayed by reprimand

Irene is back in the picture◦ Ever since she was discovered her mother had been a ghost in her life

◦ Irene visited Genie’s new home and introduced herself to extended family

◦ She and Genies brother came to visit her, but she was not interested in them

◦ They considered it important for Genie to have contact with her mother

◦ She was the only link she had to her past

Moms visit◦ She would be able to see her daughter once a week

◦ It was always in a neutral environment so Irene would not be upset to see Genie in another home

◦ She never understood that she was part of her daughters condition

◦Her feelings were spared in a lot of cases as a favor to her

Moving back in with mom◦ The foster care Genie received was stopped

◦Genie had formed a strong bond with her biological mother

◦ She moved back into her mothers home

◦ She spent almost every weekend at her mothers home before moving there permanently

◦ Irene could not handle life with Genie

Memories of her mother◦Genie missed her mother when she was taken away

◦ She never saw her mother as her abuser

◦ She saw her mother as the person that kept her alive

◦Genie had her mother taken away from her at a young age

◦ She would regress further into her childish ways when they were seperated

In the long run…◦ The true costs of Genies guardianship went far beyond dollars and cents

◦Her mother wrote a letter to a head person in charge

◦ She described what happened in her and Genies life

◦ She never saw Genie as a “wild child”

What her mother had to say◦Genie was never forgotten and I did the best I could to care for her

◦ It depended on the weather what she wore on the potty seat

◦Genie did hear speech

◦Genie was able to move in her sleeping bag, it was not a straight jacket

◦ She could hear traffic noises from the street

◦ She heard the neighbors next door coming and going

◦ She heard airplanes, birds, neighbors, traffic noises

◦Her father never beat her

◦ The paddle was never left in Genies room

◦He( Clark) talked to her

What Genie needed all along◦ A child needs more then approval

◦ She needs a sense of security, safety- the absolute conviction that she is worthwhile

◦Genie grew up in a house where her father did not like himself

◦Her mother did not like herself

◦Genie was treated as a test subject, not a human

◦ She was bounced around from home to home, went back to her mothers and then to a mental hospital

◦Whatever happened to Genie in the end is unknown

◦ She is truly a scientific tragedy

Summary Questions

◦What do you think should be done if this situation were to arise again??

◦What is your opinion on how she was treated after she was rescued? Was she an experiment or did they really care??