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Genie is the pseudonym for a feral child who spent nearly all of the first thirteen years of her life locked inside a bedroom strapped to a potty chair. She was a victim of one of the most severe cases of social isolation ever documented.[1] Genie was discovered by Los Angeles authorities on November 4, 1970.



Psychologists, linguists and other scientists exhibited great interest in the case because of its perceived ability to reveal insights into the development of language and linguistic critical periods. Initially cared for in the Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Genie later became the subject of acrimonious debate over where and with whom she should eventually live, moving between the houses of the researchers who studied her, to foster homes, to her mother's house, and finally to a sheltered home for adults with disabilities in California. Funding and research interest in her abilities eventually ceased and she quickly regressed to her previous state. In 1994, a book was written about her case by Russ Rymer.



As of 2008 she was a ward of the state and in confinement in a private institution for the mentally undeveloped — the location of the institution and her current name remain undisclosed.[2] Genie's discovery was compared extensively with that of Victor of Aveyron, subject of the movie, The Wild Child.



: a magic spirit believed to take human form and serve the person who calls it

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