Following is a brief discussion of each of these stages, along with excerpts from tape recordings made by one subject, David, an 18-years-old-boy who had been described as "unreachable" and "psychopathic," who had run away from home shortly after his release from reform school, and whose police record showed breaking and entering, drunkenness, rape, assault, and larceny.

* APAHY: During the first few hours of interview, David talked about how bad prison is, how the cops--and fate--are against him. When the boy began to run out of complaints, the experimenter suggested topics that might be important to the boy, so that he would gradually move toward talking about himself.

* ANGER: The boy realizes he can talk without being criticized. His language becomes hostile toward his family, the experimenter, the law, and social customs. Arriving at the laboratory for his fourth meeting, David called the experimenter's tie "the crummiest" he had even seen. Later, looking out the window, he saw some construction workers, "See that guy out there? Going to mash his mouth in."

* DESPAIR: This period usually began after three to eight weeks, and proved to be the most difficult for both subject and experimenter. The boy expressed loneliness, depression, sorrow, and sometimes fear and guilt--a "sickness unto death."

"I think of what's going to happen to me--I think of what I'm going to be. I know there's no hope left to be anything.... I'm sick, man...sick. I never felt like this before. Sometimes I feel like laying down in the street and never getting up... Dogs are my friends. They know. They live at people's feet..."

During this period, the boy felt that "three days now are worse than six months in prison." He grew careless--smoked in bed, failed to eat, failed to finish routine tasks. Later, his questions about himself became sincere, and his search for answers honest.

The experimenter began to talk about his own beliefs, values, and doubts, but was careful to point out that he cold not solve the boy's problems for him. The terms "you should" or "you should not" were never used. The boy had to answer his own questions, provide his own direction. Sometimes, the suffering led to discovery.

* INSIGHT: The insight may not be intellectually profound; its power is is strong relevance to the boys' emotional experiences.

"Well, about 7:30 last night I went in, went in the house, laid down and took off my clothes...and tried to go to sleep. And all of a sudden I woke up and my heart, and body, it was, it was just beating; and I felt real good all over... And then I got sudden fear--that feeling, you know, and more excitement. And then I thought of what I'd say as I was talking into this tape recorder... And then you said 'For the good talk, here's an extra dollar.' And I said 'money, money--the hell with money.'

"What will I do? Will I go back to the streets, the corners, drinking and stealing?... I look back through the years... Somewhere, somehow, I lost a part of me. I think, oh how I think, of the life I have lived. The life of the devil....