Susan Curtiss, 1977

 

 

AIMS: ‘Genie’ was discovered in Arcadia, California, at the age of around 13. She had been locked away by her parents and had very little socialistion.

The family was problematic. The parents had a stormy relationship; Genie’s father, who was 20 years older than his wife, ‘Irene’, frequently threatened violence and did beat her on occasion. He did not want children; and, when their first daughter was born, although she seemed healthy and normal, he was irritated by her crying and put her out in the garage where he could not hear her. The child died of pneumonia when she was 2. A boy was born 3 years later. The mother tried to keep him quiet and well-behaved but he had development problems and was slow to walk and talk. The father’s mother took the boy who did well under her roof, eventually to return to his parents.

Genie was born 3 years later in 1957. Her birth weight was normal and she had good head control when checked at 4 months. She had a hip dislocation and needed a pillow splint. Genie’s mother said she was not very cuddly and resisted any solid food. Genie’s father did not like the baby and tried to prevent his wife paying her any attention. At 14 months Genie had an illness and was feverish. Although she had been described as alert at 5 months, the paediatrician the family consulted told them she showed signs of possible retardation but it was difficult to assess her development due to the fever. From then on, the father became increasingly convinced that Genie was indeed retarded.

Not long after this, his mother was killed by a truck. Embittered, he moved the family into his mother’s old house and effectively isolated them from the outside world. Genie’s father insisted they leave his mother’s room untouched,  even though this meant they all had to sleep in the living room.  All  except Genie who was given the  back room. This room wasn't  furnished or decorated and was  away from the rest of the house. Genie was tied naked to a ‘potty chair’ during the day and she was bound in a sleeping bag and placed in an enclosed crib with a cover made of metal screening at night. Genie ate baby food, cereals, and soft-boiled eggs, all of which were fed to her.

Through a cracked-open window in her room, Genie may have heard aeroplanes overhead or faint piano music drifting from a neighbour's house. 2 inches of sky and the side of the neighbour's house were all that she could see through the top of the covered glass. Unable to hear much of what else was going on in the house, Genie occasionally made a noise to attract attention -  to which her father responded by growling and barking like a dog through the bedroom door to intimidate her into being quiet; when he beat her for making noise, she stopped. Genie was given threadless cotton reels, cottage cheese containers and copies of TV Guide stripped of illustrations to play with; on special occasions she was allowed to play with 2 plastic raincoats.

Genie’s mother began to go blind and found it hard to go to speak to her. The returned brother imitated his father and did not communicate with her either. Neither Irene nor the brother were allowed to leave the house. Sometimes the father sat all day with a loaded shotgun in his lap.
Her was convinced Genie would not live beyond 12; so he promised her mother that, if she did live beyond that age, she could get help for Genie. However, he reneged on the promise – but, on 25 November 1970 when Genie was 13, Irene left her husband after a violent row, taking the girl with her. When Irene, with her own mother and Genie, went into a welfare office in Temple City, California, to seek benefits for the blind, the social worker dealing with her, guessed that Genie was 6 or 7 years old and possibly autistic. The social worker noted that the "small withered girl" had "a halting gait" and "hands held up as though resting on an invisible rail". When it was revealed that Genie was actually 13, the social worker immediately called her supervisor who then notified the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Genie was admitted to the hospital with severe malnutrition - being only 54 inches tall and weighing only 62 pounds - and her parents were charged with child abuse. On the day the trial was to start, Genie’s father shot himself dead - his suicide note said: "...the world will  never understand". Irene was never brought to trial and in January 1971 the custody of Genie was given to Los Angeles Children’s Hospital.

 

 

Susan Curtiss was one of the psychologists assigned to help Genie – though, inevitably, she was an object of study.

Curtiss was particularly interested in seeing if Genie could learn language. Genie provided scientists with the chance to attempt  to test the Critical Period  Hypothesis - a theory proposed by linguist Eric Lenneberg (1967). This is the hypothesis that  humans are unable to correctly learn the use of grammar after  early childhood because of the lateralisation of the brain. Children who have grown up in situations similar to Genie had been the only way scientists have been able to test this and there were few other cases (notable exceptions including the case of the 'chicken girl' and the 'Wild boy of Avelon'). If Genie  was able to learn language, then this would disprove the theories of Noam Chomsky who argued that  language was innate to all  humans.

It was clear Genie did not speak but the researchers wanted to discover how much she understood. They learned from the hospital staff who had first treated Genie that she seemed to understand a few words – single words, rather than sentences and that she could understand if pointing was used to supplement the words. She also had imitated some of the words that were spoken to her.
At the time the medical and psychological teams began working with Genie, she could not chew food, stand upright or straighten her arms and legs – walking with a stoop. She frequently sniffed, spat and clawed. She was doubly incontinent. The few words she could say were negative - eg: “stopit," "nomore," "no". She expressed anger by biting and scratching herself. Curtiss described Genie as “unsocialised, primitive, hardly human”.However, she seemed alert and demonstrated curiosity.

 

PROCEDURE (METHOD): Much of the data was gathered by working with and observing Genie who was fostered by some of the staff - though this fostering created significant problems.

Jean Butler, Genie's special needs teacher at the children's hospital, became Genie's de facto foster parent when she claimed that she herself had had a rash that was probably measles and, thus, when Genie had visited her home, Genie may have contracted it. Genie was moved to Butler's home with the initial intent of a temporary quarantine but the stay became prolonged when Butler petitioned to make it permanent. Butler became very protective of Genie and resisted visits by other staff, including Curtiss and James Kent.

Butler's personal journal recorded concern that Genie was taxed too greatly by the researchers; however,Butler didn't hide the fact that she hoped Genie would help make her famous. According to Curtiss, Butler frequently stated that she was "going to be the next Anne Sullivan” - Sullivan being the instructor/companion under whose tutelage the famous deaf/blind author and political activist Helen Keller had learned to communicate. Butler’s true intentions may never be known because she died in 1988, but many members of the team working with Genie claimed genuine affection for her and an overwhelming desire to ‘rescue’ her. (Curtiss eventually wrote a book about Genie and put all the royalties into a trust fund for her. She said she considered Genie her friend, and years later she commented: "I'd give up my job, I'd change careers, to see her again.")
Butler did, however, continue the essential practice of observing and documenting Genie's behaviour while in her home. One such behaviour Butler documented was Genie's practice of hoarding, a behaviour typical of children who have been moved from abusive homes. During this period, there were also weekly interviews with Genie’s mother – though the social workers quickly came to realise Genie’s mother would say what she thought they wanted to hear. This made the detail unreliable.

Although Genie seemed to be happy and making progress in Butler's home, the teacher’s application to become Genie's foster parent was turned down by the Department of Public Social Services which referred to a hospital policy that prohibited placement of patients in the homes of people who worked at the hospital. Thus, it was not clear why Genie, after a very brief return to the children’s hospital, was then moved to the home of David Rigler because he also worked at the children's hospital. Rigler’s wife Marilyn became Genie's new teacher.

The Riglers benefited financially and professionally from the arrangement. David received a large grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to carry out language studies on Genie and, because he was working with Genie, he was released from certain duties at the children's hospital without loss of income. Marilyn received funding toward her graduate degree because of her work with Genie. The Riglers also accepted foster-family funds. David later said: "Someone had to meet the demands of research, and someone had to meet Genie's therapeutic needs, and I had both roles."

The transition to the Riglers’ home was difficult for Genie. At first, she misbehaved, using the whole house as her toilet and masturbating in public and she had many self-destructive tantrums. S, and had had no idea of the social  norms which govern society. But, within a few weeks, Genie settled in and seemed to enjoy life with the family. Marilyn found the need to teach Genie unconventional lessons,  - eg: in anger management. Genie would go into a fit of rage and act out against herself, so Marilyn taught Genie to ‘rage’ through jumping, slamming doors, stomping her feet and generally ‘having a fit’. Marilyn noted that Genie had a stronger command of vocabulary than most children acquiring language.

She stayed with the Rigler family for the next 4 years. During that period she began to learn some language and the Riglers arranged for her to learn sign language. She also learned to smile. If she could not express herself in language, she would try to communicate by drawing pictures. She also learned to sew. She also learned to interact with the Riglers’ children.

One physician familiar with the situation said that the Riglers, in providing for Genie, almost sacrificed their own family life.

With unrestricted access to Genie via the Riglers, Curtiss observed and tested Genie almost daily and took her shopping and on other outings.

Despite Genie's relative success, the NIMH decided not to renew David Rigler’s grant, concerned about the lack of scientific research data generated, as well as the unprofessional manner in which records were being kept..The review committee noted that "very little progress has been made" and that "the research goals projected probably won't be realised”. Rigler acknowledged that the study was hard to evaluate but concluded that the grant was rejected because the reviewers simply did not understand the situation. "The study wasn't like most scientific studies. There were no controls. It's a study of a single case and those are rare. They're anecdotal. They can't be done in the way of normal science ? There was pressure on me to be much more scientific in my approach. Measurements, that's what they wanted. Not that I didn't want to make measurements but I didn't want to do so in ways that would be intrusive to the well-being of the kid. I was never able to satisfy people on the committee that I was doing this in the best way for science and for the child."
The decision may have been influenced by Butler who continued to lodge complaints against Rigler, objecting to his research, expressing concern that Genie had backtracked since leaving her own home, and pointing out that the Riglers had denied Genie's mother consistent visitation rights.
A year after NIMH funding was withdrawn, the Riglers decided to discontinue their foster parenting.

 

FINDINGS (RESULTS): After only a few days in the children’s hospital Genie started to become more social and began to develop cognitively. She began to help dress herself and use the toilet almost independently. She also began to form attachments to some of the staff members, sometimes expressing distress and protesting when they left.

When tested, she could do some things an 8 or 9-year-old could do – eg: cleaning up and bathing herself – but, on other activities, she only had the level of a 2-year-old – eg: chewing food. There was some indication she had a sense of number. One time in a classroom, when a teacher asked a child with 2 balloons how many balloons they had and the child replied “Three”, Genie, apparently startled, gave the child another balloon.

After a few months Genie started to play and enjoy day trips.

Over a period of time language began to emerge and Genie began asking for things but her development was not normal. For example, she had delayed responses – sometimes upto 10 minutes after being asked something. However, in 1972 she used language for the first time to describe a past event.

By 1974 Genie, through a combination of sign language and spoken English, was becoming able to hold rudimentary conversations. Eg: Curtiss described how Genie asked her for a cracker. Curtiss responded: “How many do you want?” Genie replied: “Five.” Curtiss then said: “How about fewer?” Genie responded: “Four.” Curtiss: “How about fewer than that?”  Genie went down to 3 and was given 3 crackers.

Despite working with speech therapists, however, Genie never gained normal language – especially her grammar which lacked auxiliary verbs, question formation and the use of pronouns. She had difficulty understanding complex syntax. Her intonation was poor and only those who knew her well could understand much of what she said. Her language never developed beyond that of a toddler, only going so far as phrases like "applesauce buy store".

Tests at the children’s hospital showed that Genie used the right hemisphere of her brain for language and this was associated with her abnormal language. These neurological studies showed brain activity similar to that of a child who had suffered retardation at birth.

Following termination of the funding, the researchers returned Genie to social services. After repeatedly being fostered and being severely punished for vomiting in one home, Genie regressed to her initial state of emotional disturbance and near-silence, complicated by a fear of opening her mouth in case she vomited. At this stage she was briefly reunited with the researchers, to whom she displayed considerable anger.

Genie was then returned to her mother who took her back to the family house in which she’d been abused and insisted the researchers have nothing more to do with her daughter. However, Irene found Genie too much for her and she was put back with social services. The original research team heard nothing more about Genie until her mother sued them for excessive and outrageous testing and claimed the researchers gave testing priority over Genie's welfare, pushing her beyond the limits of her endurance. The suit was settled in 1984 and Irene died in 2003.

 

CONCLUSIONS: In spite of initial progress, Genie never recovered from her privation.

Genie’s seeming inability to develop normal language was seen as evidence that the critical period for learning language was from 2 years to puberty. If that critical period was missed, as it had been for Genie, then it was claimed it was not possible to develop full use of language.

 

CRITICISMS (EVALUATION): The reports on Genie form a richly-detailed case study, with good quantitative and qualitative data. As always, though, great caution must be exercised in any attempt to generalise from case studies. In any case, because there was a strong suggestion that Genie may have had developmental problems in infancy, it was not possible to say that her subsequent failure to develop normally was due solely to her experiences.

Also it was not known how much, if any, language stimulation Genie had received during her years of abusive confinement. In any case, because there was a strong suggestion that Genie may have had developmental problems in infancy, it was not possible to say that her subsequent failure to develop normally was due solely to her experiences.

 

Horizon documentary, ‘Genie’ , in 6 parts - copyright © 1994 BBC

Although the neurological studies of Genie showed her brain activity to be similar to that of a child retarded at birth, some commentators have argued that it was the privations which caused this type of activity.

There are some ethical issues in relation to the Genie study. She was not offered the opportunity to give her consent to the studies – though she may not have understood if it had been offered to her. However, the researchers undoubtedly gave Genie a very high level of care.  She was given a pseudonym to protect her identity but the broadcast of some of the film of her (without permission) increased the likelihood that someone would recognise her.

For many years, Genie was said to be living in a care home for mentally-retarded adults somewhere in Southern California. According to Curtiss & Victoria Fromkin (1993), Genie was then living in a small board and care home with only two other women. The same year Russ Rymer reported that Genie was no longer signing or speaking and showed little interest in people.