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2 - The mad-doctor's gaze

from PART I - PEASANT SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2010

Regina Schulte
Affiliation:
Technische Universität Berlin
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Summary

The arsonist Josef Riessl, the 20-year-old son of a cottager, a farmhand in Emmerich, was finally referred, by the assize court of the Munich II District Court, for observation to the district lunatic asylum, where he was examined from 4 July until 14 August 1900. If he was shown to be mentally defective, it might, after all, be possible to take mitigating circumstances into account. The report stated that he was

small in stature, and his physical development … clearly retarded in relation to his age. His legs are very short, and his upper body is comparatively long; his hands and feet are also disproportionately large. His head is conspicuously round in shape, his face is asymmetric and, in addition to the snub, upturned nose, is disfigured by the protrusion of his upper jaw and lower lip. The accused's facial expression, normally dull and rather childlike, becomes downright stupid when he distorts his fece into a broad smile, which he does at every opportunity. Furthermore, he displays other so-called signs of degeneration: grossly malformed ears, very high, raised palate, protruding os incisivum, lack of body hair. … Both physically and intellectually Riessl presents the classic picture of the idiot.

This text is an extract from an attempt to explain an arson attack. It claims to have discovered the truth. The psychiatrist, or Irrenarzt, (mad-doctor) describes in his report for the state prosecutor the body of the farmhand and arsonist Josef Riessl in order to show that what was a human disaster to the “layman,” – to the villagers surrounding Riessl – actually concealed the act of an idiot.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Village in Court
Arson, Infanticide, and Poaching in the Court Records of Upper Bavaria 1848–1910
, pp. 58 - 76
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1994

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