more useful sublimation. Unfortunately the one depended simply upon his
exertions and bravado, while the other required for its fulfillment
society's recognition of his desire and some ability for detective work.
I am firmly convinced that these two activities of the patient, namely,
stealing and detection of crime, are the results of his endeavor at
sublimating a totally inacceptable homosexual career. On one occasion,
and he claims that it is the only one in his life, a fellow prisoner in
the Reformatory attempted a sexual assault upon him. He retaliated by
striking the fellow on the head with a chair, for which he was severely
punished. While we may rely quite fully upon the information furnished
by the patient and upon that obtained from other sources for the purpose
of building up our theory of the case, it will not be amiss to take into
consideration those points in the patient's conduct while under
observation which further substantiate this theory.

We have it from a reformatory official that while at that institution
the patient frequently stole articles which were of no value whatever to
him, that he did not attempt to conceal his thefts, and that when
upbraided for his conduct, he stated that he could not help it, etc. At
that institution he evidently entirely relied upon his stealing
sublimation for his sexual gratification. It may be that as yet he had
not become conscious of the possibilities of the detective play.

In this hospital he had desires for stealing on two occasions, soon
after his admission, but resisted the temptation. Following the
manifestation of our active interest in his case, he became more and
more confident in his ability to withstand these temptations, and as far
as could be judged manifested a genuine desire to reform. Of course the
biologic sex difficulty is still present, its demands are probably just
as insistent as ever, and having rejected, for the present at least, the
possibility of expression through the stealing channel, he resorts to
the only other channel he knows of, detective play. In line with this he
handed me one morning (March 30, 1915) a note which stated that some
information had come into his possession which he thought would be of
very great value to me, and requested a private interview. After
cautioning me as to the method of procedure he assured me that he did
this piece of detective work solely because he felt very grateful for
our effort to help him out of