TOURETTE'S SYNDROME

Our  family  was  friendly  with  a  couple,  years  ago,  where  the  husband  seemed  to  suffer  from  two  different  facial  tics.  He  was  a  very,  very  nice  guy,  except  that  he  was  prone  to  rage  in  disputes  with  his  wife.  When  I  would  pay  a  visit  to  their  home  and  accidentally  walk  into  the  middle  of  a  fight,  I  would  hear  him  robotically  repeating,  "F - - k  my  mother-in-law;  f - - k  my  wife's  uncle,"  again  and  again,  hundreds  of  times.  On  such  occasions,  I  would  convince  him  to  take  an  hour-long  walk  through  town  with  me,  during  which  he  would  continue  repeating,  "F - - k  my  mother-in-law;  f - - k  my  wife's  uncle;  f - - k  my  mother-in-law;  f - - k  my  wife's  uncle;  f - - k  my  mother-in-law;  f - - k  my  wife's  uncle;  f - - k  my  mother-in-law;  f - - k  my  wife's  uncle."

On  one  such  occasion,   the  encounter  was  especially  bizarre.  It  was  evening.  Their  child  was  curled-up  in  a  corner  of  the  living  room,  shaking,  when  I  entered  the  house.  The  husband  was  holding  the  crying  wife  prisoner  in  a  chair  in  front  of  a  mirror  by  her  hair,  repeating  as  usual,  "F - - k  my  mother-in-law;  f - - k  my  wife's  uncle;  f - - k  my  mother-in-law;  f - - k  my  wife's  uncle;  f - - k  my  mother-in-law;  f - - k  my  wife's  uncle;  f - - k  my  mother-in-law;  f - - k  my  wife's  uncle."  He  didn't  seem  to  realize  I  was  there.   I  called  home  to  my  wife  and  told  her  that  the  mother  and  child  would  have  to  sleep  in  our  spare  bedroom.  When  my  wife  came  over  to  assist,  I  gently  persuaded  the  husband  to  let  the wife  leave  that  chair,  and  my  wife  quickly  ushered  the  wife  and  child  out  the  front  door  to  our  house.  As  I  turned  around  to  face  the  husband  again,  he  walked  past  me  without  seeing  me,  still  repeating  his  evil  curse  words,  "F - - k  my  mother-in-law;  f - - k  my  wife's  uncle."  I  took  him  for  his  hour-long  walk  to  give  him  the  chance  to  calm  down.  He  returned  home  and  slept.

I  probably  should  have  called  police,  but  the  wife  stubbornly  refused  to  cooperate  with  that  effort.

As  I  pondered  the  problem,  I  thought,  "Where  else  have  I  seen  this  behavior  in  my  law  practice?"  And  then  it  dawned  on  me:  In  my  few  cases  involving  Tourette's  Syndrome.

Tourette's  cases  are  typically  evidenced  by  multiple  varieties  of  facial  tics,  and,  again,  the  husband  in  this  case  had  two  of  them  --  a  regularly-occurring  sniff  and  a  regularly-occurring  grimace.  Also,  robotic  behavior  emerges,  and  I  had  clearly  witnessed  that.  Also,  there  is  sometimes  a  pronounced  proclivity  to  obscene  cursing  --  my  neighbor's  outstanding  persistent  symptom.   He  had  Tourette's.  I  was  sure  of  it.  When  I  told  the  husband  and  wife  about  my  analysis  and  compared  the  husband's  behavior  to  the  list  of  symptoms  on  a  brochure  on  Tourette's,  they  both  burst  out  laughing.  I  pleaded,  "At  least  see  a  doctor  on  this.  Medication  may  solve  the  problem."

They  laughed  some  more,  and  politely  declined  to  abide  by  my  suggestion.

But  the  fights  continued.  The  husband's  bad  behavior  continued.  The  situation  finally  exploded  in  divorce,  which  I  was  glad  to  see,  if  only  for  their  traumatized  child's  sake.