From: Jim Fehlinger <fehlinger@home.com>
>>Brian D Williams wrote:
>>
>> One of the saddest things I ever saw was an ethnography film
>>about a little girl that had been raised in a cage in a cold dark
>> basement by uncaring parents. Then she had the misfortune to be
>> raised in the household of a psychologist called in when she was
>> discovered (for "study").
>This sounds very much (but not precisely) like the notorious case
>of "Genie", as first documented by author and journalist Russ
>Rymer in two successive issues of _The New Yorker_ in 1992.
>> My fists clench and unclench at the thought, and I feel rage
>>wash through me when I think about it. The parents would face
>>worse at my hands, and that psychologist would be in for major
>>attitude adjusting as well.
>Your rage might have been deliberately fanned by the film
>you saw. There were several sides to this story, as I recall,
>and recriminations flew thick and fast among the parties
>involved. The parents (the father, in particular) had a little
>more wrong with them than "uncaring" implies (not that that takes
>away from the enormity of the wrong they committed against their
>daughter). It's true that, whatever happened, the story of
>"Genie" is not as pretty or romantic as that of the woman
>depicted by Jodie Foster in the movie _Nell_.
I would have to assume that a great deal was wrong with the people
who did this to the little girl.
I was even more concerned with the lack of care I saw her receive
at the hands of the so called experts.
It probably was intentional, and it had the desired effect. If by
some strange circumstance some poor person like that fell into my
care even temporarily, bachelor or not, you couldn't have pried her
away from me with the help of the 1st Marine Division.
>See, for example
>http://bioethics.georgetown.edu/hsbioethics/unit3_4.htm
>(there are references at the end), or Google search
>the keywords Rymer and Genie.
Thanks for the info.
Brian
Member:
Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
Adler Planetarium www.adlerplanetarium.org
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