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The quasimodo complex

1967; Elsevier BV; Volume: 20; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0007-1226(67)80037-7

1465-3087

Frank W. Masters, Donald C. Greaves,

Autopsy Techniques and Outcomes

IT is an accepted fact that there is a close relationship between emotional stability and physical well-being.The entire field of psychosomatic medicine has developed around the concept that conflict can and does produce clinical symptoms.Frustration, tension, anxiety and emotional conflict may produce gastrointestinal ulceration.Relieve the anxiety, resolve the frustration, relax the tension, and the ulcerated mucous membrane may heal (Grayson, 1951 ;Weiss and English, 1957).These are well substantiated clinical facts that are widely accepted.The question is : Is the reverse true ?Is it possible that physical abnormalities may produce emotional illness ?If anxiety, hostility, social withdrawal, and abnormal personality traits are produced by emotional reaction to physical deformity, the Quasimodo complex exists.Unlike Quasimodo, whose spinal deformity made him a recluse and ultimate suicide, many of the congenital or traumatic defects of body image can be corrected, or at least improved.There is little objective evidence, however, that surgical correction of a defect of body image will affect the abnormal personality trait, or if there is a significant increase in the incidence of physical deformity among those individuals who are emotionally disturbed.Although certainly multifaceted in its causes, the increasing rate of major crime throughout the United States has produced a large group of individuals with some evidence of social or intrapersonal maladjustment.A measure of the incidence of facial abnormality in this population would provide objective evidence concerning the statistical relationship between deformity and emotional disturbance as it expresses itself through antisocial or criminal behaviour.Despite the early work of Lombroso (1933), sociologists, psychologists, and research criminologists have paid only lip service to the concept that there is a relationship between facial deformity and crime (Berndorfer, 1949).The so-called " criminal" typ.e is a figment of the imagination of the detective fiction writer and movie make-up artist.The essential question--is there a statistically significant relationship between correctable facial deformity and crime ?--remains unanswered.With the co-operation of the police departments of Kansas City, St. Louis, Baltimore, Miami, and Los Angeles, a pilot study was carried out to try to determine objectively whether the incidence of surgically correctable facial deformity was greater among the criminal element or the general public.Utilising the police file photographs (taken front and profile) as a source of material, the incidence and type of facial deformity was catalogued and compared with a cross section of the general public as control.The particular emotional disturbance of the individual was not investigated since statistical evidence only was sought. CLINICAL MATERIAL AND RESULTSFive categories of crime--suicide, homicide, rape, prostitution, and sex deviation-were chosen arbitrarily, since there could be little doubt concerning the personal or social maladjustment of the individual.The results show a significant difference in