The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
The examination of a patient with mental disorder is
a much more complex process than that of a physical
disorder, for it is necessary in the former not only to
ascertain the present physical condition as with ordinary
patients, but also to investigate the mental state, which
involves the employment of unusual and new methods,
and brings us into contact with a novel series of psychic
phenomena; and, moreover, to attain our end we need
to study the whole past life of the patient, his diseases,
his accidents, schooling, occupation, environment and
character.
Nor can we stop here, for it is of the greatest im-
portance to inform ourselves as to conditions among his
antecedents to determine the type of family from which
he sprang, and the presence or absence of an hereditary
taint. There is therefore much to learn even before
seeing the patient in person.
Did Patrick, did Church, did Singer, did Krohn
do any of that? Why, they said they never saw
the boys before their examinations and never made
any investigations about them.
I quote from page 774 of this same volume:
It was Schopenhauer who said that insanity is a long
dream and a dream brief insanity. There is in fact more
than a superficial resemblance between dreams and in-
sanity, so much so that psychiatrists the world over are
devoting themselves to the study of dreams as a part
of their clinical and psychiatric work.
There is practically no phenomenon that presents itself
in dreams that may not be observed among the inmates
of any asylum ward.
Mr. Crowe: Pardon me, Mr. Bachrach. There is
no evidence here of any dreams,
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