quent
among prisoners as it is among a free population. Certainly this cannot
be attributed to environment alone, especially not to that of our
modern, well-conducted prisons. The reason lies chiefly in the type of
individual who populates our prisons. A number of them are either insane
when sent to prison or potentially so, and when thrown into a more or
less difficult situation, such as imprisonment, readily develop a mental
disorder. We see this illustrated very well in the highly beneficial
effect which transfer to a hospital for the insane has upon these
individuals. I am convinced that one would not be wrong in agreeing with
the opinions quoted below, that malingering, as such, is a morbid
phenomenon and always the expression of an individual inferior mentally.
It may be looked upon as a psychogenetic disorder, the mere possibility
of the development of which is, according to Birnbaum[11] and others, an
indication of a degenerative make-up, a defective mental organization.
Siemens[12] says: "The demonstration of the existence of simulation is
not at all proof that disease is simulated; it does not exclude the
existence of mental disease." Pelman holds simulation in the mentally
normal to be extremely rare, and he always finds himself at a loss to
differentiate between that which is simulated and that which represents
the actual traits of the individual. Melbruch[13] holds that simulation
is observed solely in individuals more or less decidedly abnormal
mentally, because in the great majority of cases, if there does not
actually exist a frank mental disorder, these individuals lack in a
marked degree psychic balance and are constantly on the verge of a
psychosis. Penta, in a most thorough study of the subject of
malingering, likewise comes to the conclusion that it is always a morbid
phenomenon. It is a tool almost always resorted to by the weak and
incompetent whenever confronted with an especially difficult or
stressful situation. It is, therefore, almost exclusively seen in
hysterics, neurotics and other types of psychopaths, in the frankly
insane, and in grave delinquents.

With these remarks concerning malingering in the supposedly mentally
normal, we may turn to a discussion of that large group of borderland
cases which furnishes, outside of the frankly insane, the great majority
of malingerers. I am tempted here to borrow Bornstein's classic
description of the type of personality to which I am referring.
Ac