Some twenty years ago I reported many such case histories
in my book New Faces—New Futures. Following
its publication, and similar articles in leading magazines,
I was besieged with questions by criminologists, sociologists
and psychiatrists.
They asked questions that I could not answer. But they
did start me upon a search. Strangely enough, I learned
as much if not more from my failures as from my successes.

It was easy to explain the successes. The boy with the
too-big ears, who had been told that he looked like a
taxi-cab with both doors open. He had been ridiculed all
his life—often cruelly. Association with playmates meant
humiliation and pain. Why shouldn't he avoid social contacts?
Why shouldn't he become afraid of people and
retire into himself? Terribly afraid to express himself in
any way it was no wonder he became known as a moron.
When his ears were corrected, it would seem only natural
that the cause of his embarrassment and humiliation had
been removed and that he should assume a normal role
in life—which he did.