The World Will Never Understand, Story of A Feral Child

Pseudonym

Genie is a pseudonym given to a feral child whose papa chose to isolate her entirely beginning when she was just 20 months old. From then until she was 13 years, 7 months old, she was locked isolated in her room. She was kept strapped to a teenager's bathroom or bound in her crib for the majority of the time, and she was very malnourished. She couldn't communicate and was still in diapers when she was found by social workers.

Review

Genie was broadly reviewed by psychologists. Though she had made primary progress with understanding language and manner, she regressed. She has spent most of her life in foster homes and organizations for the disabled. Genie is now a child of the State of California.

Feral Child

 Genie was raised by a mentally dangerous dad who, when she was only twenty months old supposed that she was mentally retarded and closed her away in a pitch-black room at the back of the residence she was strapped to a potty seat nearly twenty-four hours a day and was bolted in a wired and lidded chicken cell the rest of the time. Her father declined to talk to her and would shout and roar at her to beat and further terrify her. If she made any sound, she would be hit with a wooden spoon; he restricted his six-year-old son and partially blind spouse from talking to her or touching her.

In picture: Genie's parents with his brother

When Genie was thirteen, her mother eventually concluded enough was enough and fled from home with Genie in tow. When she was sent into a state establishment building hunched over and stepping with her hands in front of her like a bunny rabbit because of malnourishment, her mother and father were imprisoned on child abuse charges. Despite being a youngster, she was so malnourished that she was the height of a six-year-old and could only make growling and shouting noises. The young girl that ran out of the holds of her father frightened the world with the percentage of suffering and separateness she was forced to survive for her short life. Genie was incapable to convey or voice what was going on within her mind and soon became the topic of many scientists' fascination. Unfortunately, this fascination they had with her mind had devastating effects.

Abuser

Genies father, Clark Wiley was her abuser: Every day, he would go into the back cabin of the home where he kept his frail and innocent daughter locked up in a wire pen as if she was a beast. Then, he would grab her out and strap her to a potty seat while he force-fed her milk and pablum while beating her if she made any disturbance. Clark was the reason for his first child’s death when he lay her outside in the garage during winter because she was making too much noise. Irene Wiley, Clark’s spouse was dependent on Clark due to neurological damage and partial blindness due to a head wound she received when she was a teenager. After Clark’s mother died in a hit and run accident, his mental health decreased and he started beating Irene more repeatedly as well as increasing the harshness of the abuse. Irene met Clark when she fled the dust bowl in Southern California. She was from a sheltered agriculture family and was twenty years younger than Clark; when inquired why she never quit the abuse of Genie, she confessed he told her it was for Genie's good and he was supporting her. On the day Clark was supposed to stand trial in the judiciary, he shot himself to death after leaving a statement that read:

“No one will ever understand.” 

Care of State

When Genie was first sent into the care of the state, she became the focus of many scientists' interest. There has been a long-standing discussion within the medical community that hypothesizes humans cannot improve the ability to communicate fully if they do not learn it by childhood. Genie, being thirteen and unable to communicate appeared like the true subject to prove this theory wrong. The government appointed a team of scientists and linguists to review her. She worked most closely with kid psychologist James Kent and linguist Susan Curtiss. Genie shortly started to learn word after word and began displaying a deep interest in those around her as well as the world around her. She bounced from foster home to foster home, a few of these being the residences of the specialists and scientists that were studying her. She looked like to be amazed by even the simplest things: A real waterfall generated by a pool of rainwater pouring over a ditch, the way the leaves fell from the plants in the autumn, came back healthier than always in the spring.

However, this wasn’t enough. The incomprehensible trauma she suffered always troubled her; she would turn in on herself and not speak a word for the duration. 

Advancement 

With new developments in brain scans, we can now eventually believe why humans can only develop dialogue at a certain duration of their lives. Genies' brain, displays a left cortex, the side of the brain responsible for language processing as shrunken, and most damaged. Due to her being disconnected as a newborn and no one ever talking to her, the part of her brain responsible for understanding these things began to shrink and eventually be forever malformed. Without proper motivation for this part of the brain, it will finally stop working. 

On Genie’s 18th birthday her mother regained custody of her and shifted her back into the home she endured so many years of abuse in. Genie’s fitness began to decrease and Irene realized she was not prepared for caring for her on her own. She put Genie into state care and continued to attend her regularly. When Irene felt that the relationship with the therapists was starting to “overwhelm” Genie she restricted any of them from seeing her, even those she was closely linked to. After being grabbed away from the adults she was familiar with, she quit speaking. Susan Curtiss, the linguist who worked closely with her still has not seen her but testifies she “fell in love with her” and felt “like a mommy or a sister” to her.

Now

The exact position of Genie is unknown but there are reports that she is living in a state home in Los Angeles, California. She is now 62 years old.

Published by: Cold Case Bloggers