Paranoia [excerpt]

     When the vanity of Guiteau was offended by the refusal of an office, he shot James A. Garfield. Ten years later our beloved McKinley was assassinated by Leon Czolgosz. More recently we see how a congenital defect born to luxury and unrestrained license in gratifying his every wish evolved an idea that compelled Harry K. Thaw to murder Stanford White. It is far from me to condone the acts of these and similar criminals, or mitigate their punishment, yet who can show that their atrocious deeds, the rightfulness of which convinces none but the authors, were not the logical consummation of some prenatal defect. The clinical course of the ambitious type is best seen under three sub-types: Social reformers, religious zealots and erotomaniacs.