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.
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