ABSTRACT
One day in early November 1970, a woman called Irene Wiley sought out the services
for the blind at her local Los Angeles County Welfare Office. Her 13-year-old daughter
accompanied her. Being completely blind in one eye, and with her cataracts causing
her 90% blindness in the other, Irene mistakenly led her daughter into the offices for
general social services instead. This mistake was to change both their lives forever. As
they approached the counter, the social worker stood transfixed, staring at the daugh-
ter. At first sight, she appeared to be six or seven years old with a stooped posture and
an unusual shuffling gait. A supervisor was called immediately and started an investiga-
tion. Finally, after 13 years of neglect, isolation and abuse, the world had become aware
of a girl who was subsequently known as ‘Genie’.1 2
Family background A key figure in the story of Genie, and the person who was to spend the most time with her over the coming years, was Susan Curtiss, a linguistics graduate at the University of California. Curtiss wrote and published her doctoral dissertation about Genie3 and, as she put it, to ‘understand this case history, one must understand the family background’. It was hoped that by exploring Genie’s family history, there might be some explanation for the almost unbelievable situation that she had found herself in.
