Genie (feral child)

Genie ( born April 18, 1957 in Los Angeles County) now lives in Los Angeles in residential care and is a so-called wolf child, whose life story was filmed under the title Mockingbird Do not Sing and also provided material for two books.

Biography

Genius was born in 1957. When she was twenty months old, she was locked by her father, Clark W., who believed that she was mentally retarded in one of the bedroom she has never left in the years to come. Your almost blind, mentally ill mother did nothing about it. Genius had to wear a custom built by her father straitjacket and was tied up during the day at their Klostuhl and night to her crib. Genie was discovered on November 4, 1970 in Los Angeles when her mother requested assistance on a social welfare office. When is she had her daughter. It was a pale, nervous, emaciated and frightened child with thinning hair and dark discolored teeth, which was just unsure, hunched over like an old woman went, a foul odor emanated and not a word said. Because of their body size believed the social worker that genius is about 6-7 years old. When she found out, however, that genius is 13 years old, she was taken aback and called her supervisor, who alerted the police. The child was taken to a hospital where it was discovered soon, that it could not speak, walk and sit straight and did not respond to its environment. Her mother was arrested, her father took themselves out of fear of arrest life. After an introduction to a psychiatric hospital by a team of psychologists various experiments performed, which showed the typical behavior of wolf children of genius: She could not speak, responded to stimuli of their environment with disinterest, could only sit tedious or run and was insensitive to heat and cold, which would prove to be one of the most interesting points because Genie supposedly lived strapped to their discovery only on a chair and never once left the room in which she was trapped. The known up to that time cases of wolf children were children who lived outdoors only and thus were hardened against the often difficult weather conditions in nature.

Genie also exhibited strong signs of nosocomial what showed up in the easy strolling and tottering manner of its movement as well as its continuous seesawing.

After many other psychological tests and attempts to socialize the child - which failed all - lost science interest in the now elderly woman, but also a lack of funds was the reason not to treat genius. Genie was admitted to a nursing home in Los Angeles, where she still lives.

Family

Genie had two siblings who died in mysterious circumstances more than infants. Another brother, John, was also subjected to inhuman treatment by the parents. Unlike genius but he was hardly noticed by science.

Adaptation and dedications

Genies life story was filmed by director Harry Bromley Davenport under the title Mockingbird Do not Sing in 2001. Furthermore, their story in Secret of the Wild Child and Genie: A Deprived Child documented. All three films are only available in English.

Literature and links

  • Susan Curtiss (ed.): genius. Psycholinguistic Study of a Modern - day " Wild Child ". Academic Press Inc., London 1977, ISBN 0-12-196350-0
  • Russ Rymer: Genie. A Scientific Tragedy. HarperPerennial, London 1994, ISBN 0-06-092465-9 )
  • Russ Rymer: Genie. An Abused Child's Flight from Silence. 1993, ISBN 9780060169107
  • Russ Rymer: Genie. Escape from a Silent Childhood. 1994, ISBN 9780140174892
  • Article on " wild child " ( among other genius ) from Dieter E. Zimmer. In 1989. Experiments of life. Zurich: Haffmans Verlag, p.21 -47 (PDF file, 198 kB)
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