Moral and affective sentiments almost entirely absent.
No disposition to occupy himself in any way; tendency to idleness and vagabondage.
Unrestrained onanism, to which he formerly gave way four or five times a day, now only about twice a day, because, as he says, he is no longer strong enough. He confesses this without the least shame, with complacency, almost with pleasure.
He is not without a certain shrewdness, which is, however, easily discovered. He seems to have learnt from fellow-prisoners to pretend to feel nothing, and to be ready for anything.
He is capable of dissimulation, and of simulating at certain moments a state of feebleness beyond what he feels.
In his cell he usually walks up and down with short, bent head, and surly look. He is only aroused in moments of anger and violent impulsion.
He is often discontented with his food, and throws it away, breaking out into howls rather than cries, and destroying everything—table, stools, etc. In this condition any opposition only renders him more savage. Gentle methods often succeed better, especially when the stage of exhaustion sets in.
At other times the cause is some limitation to his tendency to free vagabondage. The animal-like howls are set up; then comes the destruction of everything that surrounds him, and violences of all sorts.
When he is interrogated in his calmer moments as to the reason of this, he replies that it is what they do in his country.
DIAGNOSIS.