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Crimes arising out of homesickness are usually committed by adolescent girls. One case is fully discussed.
Eva, the daughter of a shoemaker, had nine brothers and sisters between four and twenty-four years of age. At the age of thirteen and a half she was sent away to look after Dr. L.'s little daughter, Lore, aged one year nine months. Dr. L. lived in a town a few hours away from her home village. He also had two sons. During the first few weeks Eva worked satisfactorily and she appeared fairly contented. But when she went home on a visit she did not want to return to work, giving various reasons for her refusal. She only gave way when her mother promised to take her home shortly, but this promise was not kept as Mrs. L. insisted on her fulfilling her one year's contract. Two weeks later little Lore was found with a cord round her neck, tied to the bed post. As the child was unharmed and there were no signs of force, no suspicion arose, and the tying was regarded as having been done by the child herself while playing. About four weeks after this Eva pretended to be ill one morning and lay groaning in bed when her mistress came to bring her a cup of coffee. While talking to her she heard her little daughter crying in the room next door and she found the child with a bluish face in her cot. The doctor noticed a strangulation mark round her neck. Eva first denied the charge, but later confessed to having tried to choke the child. A psychiatric investigation was ordered by the judge on the ground of which the girl was finally acquitted.
Although this case was not investigated on psycho-analytical lines the author found sufficient material in the detailed description by Wilmans to attempt a psycho-analytical interpretation. The central part is the Oedipus situation which was responsible for the overwhelming homesickness. The enforced separation from home, i.e. father, by her mother and her mistress acted as a trauma and produced a regression. This led Eva