genie – סלומה

It’s hard to believe that human beings
can be classed as “feral”, but there have been a few isolated incidences
where this was indeed the case.

One of the most famous, is the story of Genie, known affectionately as “Wild Child”.
This beautiful young girl was rescued by the authorities when she was
13 years old and they were astonished to find that she acted like a wild
animal. Genie was timid, walked on four legs, and couldn’t speak any
English. She wasn’t raised by animals, as seen in other cases, but was
the victim of horrendous abuse that spanned over a decade. When she was
around one year old, her father decided to keep her socially and
physically isolated.

During this time, he kept her permanently strapped to a child’s toilet
or bound her in a crib with her arms and legs completely immobilized.
Nobody was allowed to interact with her and she had no stimulation of
any kind. She was also severely malnourished and had numerous vitamin
deficiencies.

Her cruel, abusive father promised her mother that if Genie survived
past the age of 12, he would allow her to call authorities to rescue the
child. Genie was rescued after a violent row broke out between her
parents, and her mother took her out of the house. (This was the first
time she had ever been outside). She was almost blinded by the sunlight,
and struggled to walk upright. Eventually, psychologists and language
experts began to look after Genie. As she was only fed baby food, she
had great difficulty chewing and swallowing and became distressed
whenever she saw food. Although she was very shy, Genie was highly
antisocial, and proved
extremely difficult for others to control. Regardless of where she was,
she constantly salivated, spat and growled at others. She had no sense
of personal property, frequently pointing to or taking something she
wanted from someone else. In addition, she did had no situational
awareness. Doctors wrote that she acted on impulse irrespective of the
setting, especially noting that she frequently engaged in open
masturbation and would sometimes attempt to involve older men.

After living in several foster homes and specialised hospitals, Genie
made some improvements. She had minimal manners and social etiquette.
She could speak a few words and showed a wide array of human emotions.
Her case is key in understanding human behaviour and holds a great deal
of scientific value. Today, Genie is in her late 50s and is still being
cared for by professionals and psychologists. She has improved a great
deal, but will always remain “feral” according to experts.

Genie was born in 1957 in California. Her father determined that
she was mentally disabled and therefore not worthy of his attention or
care. He isolated her from everybody – locking her alone inside a room
until she reached the age of 13. While inside this room, he kept her
strapped to a toilet or enclosed in a crib. Due to her isolation, she
was incapable of communicating or walking when she was finally rescued
by Los Angeles child welfare authorities on 4 November, 1970. Her father
would beat her with a plank wood each time she attempted to communicate
with her family and would bark and growl at her like a dog to
intimidate her – this instilled a severe fear of dogs which continued
after she was freed. He even grew his fingernails; the sole purpose
being so he could scratch at Genie is she ever “misbehaved.” After she
was freed, she was often used as a case study for psychologists,
linguists, and scientists. She was sent into care and while there seemed
to be a series of breakthroughs in the beginning, there were also major
setbacks – she was exploited and also abused by those who were supposed
to be caring for her – she was sent to an extremely religious foster
care home in which she retreated and in 1977, she managed to tell a
children’s hospital that her foster parents had physically punished her
when she had been sick. Following this, her speech never recovered and
nobody knows for sure what became of her other than she was sent to an
institute for the mentally undeveloped in Southern California in 2008.

Genie
The name given to a feral child who spent the first thirteen years of her life locked inside a bedroom. She spent most of that time strapped to a potty chair and if she was lucky, she would get wrapped up in a sleeping bag and placed in an enclosed crib.

Her father would beat her and torture her. He also barked and growled at her like a dog in-order to scare her. By the time she was discovered by L.A authorities on November 4, 1970 , she was mostly mute. She had a vocabulary of about 20 words, most of which were negative (such as “stop it” and “no more.”) Documentary [x]

This girl, named just “Genie", was a famous case of feral child syndrome and child abuse. She was strapped in a poorly lit, gray room to a toilet seat from when she was an infant until she was a pre-teen. When finally rescued by police, she was unable to speak or do anything properly, having been forced to sit in a chair with no human interaction for her entire life.

Genie is the pseudonym for a feral child who spent nearly all of the first thirteen years of her life locked inside a bedroom strapped to a potty chair. She was a victim of one of the most severe cases of social isolation ever documented. Genie was discovered by Los Angeles authorities on November 4, 1970.

During the day, she was tied to a child’s toilet in diapers; some nights, when she had not been completely forgotten, she was bound in a sleeping bag and placed in an enclosed crib with a cover made of metal screening. Indications are that Genie’s father beat her with a large stick if she vocalized, and he barked and growled at her like a dog in order to keep her quiet. He also rarely allowed his wife and son to leave the house or even to speak, and he expressly forbade them to speak to Genie. By the age of 13, Genie was almost entirely mute, commanding a vocabulary of about 20 words and a few short phrases (nearly all negative, such as “stop it” and “no more”).