![]() CATEGORIES: BiologyChemistryConstructionCultureEcologyEconomyElectronicsFinanceGeographyHistoryInformaticsLawMathematicsMechanicsMedicineOtherPedagogyPhilosophyPhysicsPolicyPsychologySociologySportTourism |
ANOMALOUS NERVOUS AND MENTAL DISEASES. 4 pagesusceptibility and the same fears. Sometimes she could tell the approach of a storm by her nervous symptoms. Caligula, Augustus, Henry III, and other celebrated personages, were overcome with fear during a storm.
Mysophobia is a mild form of insanity characterized by a dread of the contact of dirt. It was named by Hammond, whose patient washed her hands innumerable times a day, so great was the fear of contamination. These patients make the closest inspection of their toilet, their eating and drinking utensils, and all their lives are intensely worried by fear of dirt.
Hematophobia is a horror of blood, which seems to be an instinctive sentiment in civilized man, but which is unknown among savages. When the horror is aggravated to such an extent as to cause distressing symptoms or unconsciousness, it takes the name of hematophobia. There are many cases on record and nearly every physician has seen one or more, possibly among his colleagues.
Necrophobia and thanatophobia are allied maladies, one being the fear of dead bodies and the other the fear of death itself.
Anthropophobia is a symptom of mental disease consisting in fear of society. Beard, Mitchell, Baillarger, and others have made observations on this disease. The antithesis of this disease is called monophobia. Patients are not able to remain by themselves for even the shortest length of time. This morbid dread of being alone is sometimes so great that even the presence of an infant is an alleviation. Gelineau cites an instance in a man of forty-five which was complicated with agoraphobia.
Bacillophobia is the result of abnormal pondering over bacteriology. Huchard's case was in a woman of thirty-eight who, out of curiosity, had secretly read the works of Pasteur, and who seemed to take particular pleasure in conning over the causes of death in the health-reports. Goyard mentions an instance in a Swiss veterinary surgeon.
Kleptophobia, examples of which have been cited by Cullere, is the fear of stealing objects in view, and is often the prelude of kleptomania. The latter disease has gained notoriety in this country, and nearly every large store has agents to watch the apparently growing number of kleptomaniacs. These unfortunate persons, not seldom from the highest classes of society, are unable to combat an intense desire to purloin articles. Legal proceedings have been instituted against many, and specialists have been called into court to speak on this question. Relatives and friends have been known to notify the large stores of the thieving propensities of such patients.
Le Grande du Saulle has given to the disease in which there is a morbid doubt about everything done, the name folie de doute. Gray mentions a case in a patient who would go out of a door, close it, and then come back, uncertain as to whether he had closed it, close it again, go off a little way, again feel uncertain as to whether he had closed it properly, go back again, and so on for many times. Hammond relates the history of a case in an intelligent man who in undressing for bed would spend an hour or two determining whether he should first take off his coat or his shoes. In the morning he would sit for an hour with his stockings in his hands, unable to determine which he should put on first.
Syphilophobia is morbid fear of syphilis. Lyssophobia is a fear of hydrophobia which sometimes assumes all the symptoms of the major disease, and even produces death. Gelineau, Colin, Berillon, and others have studied cases. In Berillon's case the patient was an artist, a woman of brunet complexion, who for six years had been tormented with the fear of becoming mad, and in whom the symptoms became so intense as to constitute pseudobydrophobia. At their subsidence she was the victim of numerous hallucinations which almost drove her to the point of suicide.
Spermatophobia has been noticed among the ignorant, caused or increased by inspection of sensational literature, treatises on the subject of spermatorrhea, etc. Ferre mentions a woman of thirty-six, of intense religious scruples, who was married at eighteen, and lost her husband six years afterward. She had a proposition of marriage which she refused, and was prostrated by the humid touch of the proposer who had kissed her hand, imagining that the humidity was due to semen. She was several times overcome by contact with men in public conveyances, her fear of contamination being so great. Zoophobia, or dread of certain animals, has been mentioned under another chapter under the head of idiosyncrasies. Pantophobia is a general state of fear of everything and everybody. Phobophobia, the fear of being afraid, is another coinage of the wordmakers. The minor 'phobias, such as pyrophobia, or fear of fire; stasophobia, or inability to arise and walk, the victims spending all their time in bed; toxicophobia or fear of poison, etc., will be left to the reader's inspection in special works on this subject.
Demonomania is a form of madness in which a person imagines himself possessed of the devil. Ancient records of this disease are frequent, and in this century Lapointe reports the history of demonomania in father, mother, three sons, and two daughters, the whole family, with the exception of one son, who was a soldier, being attacked. They imagined themselves poisoned by a sorceress, saw devils, and had all sorts of hallucinations, which necessitated the confinement of the whole family in an asylum for over a month. They continued free from the hallucinations for two years, when first the mother, and then gradually all the other members of the family, again became afflicted with demonomania and were again sent to the asylum, when, after a residence therein of five months, they were all sufficiently cured to return home.
Particular aversions may be temporary only, that is, due to an existing condition of the organism, which, though morbid, is of a transitory character. Such, for instance, are those due to dentition, the commencement or cessation of the menstrual function, pregnancy, etc. These cases are frequently of a serious character, and may lead to derangement of the mind. Millington relates the history of a lady who, at the beginning of her first pregnancy, acquired an overpowering aversion to a half-breed Indian woman who was employed in the house as a servant. Whenever this woman came near her she was at once seized with violent trembling; this ended in a few minutes with vomiting and great mental and physical prostration lasting several hours. Her husband would have sent the woman away, but Mrs. X insisted on her remaining, as she was a good servant, in order that she might overcome what she regarded as an unreasonable prejudice. The effort was, however, too great, for upon one occasion when the woman entered Mrs. X's apartment rather unexpectedly, the latter became greatly excited, and, jumping from an open window in her fright, broke her arm, and otherwise injured herself so severely that she was confined to her bed for several weeks. During this period, and for some time afterward, she was almost constantly subject to hallucinations, in which the Indian woman played a prominent part. Even after her recovery the mere thought of the woman would sometimes bring on a paroxysm of trembling, and it was not till after her confinement that the antipathy disappeared.
Circular or periodic insanity is a rare psychosis. According to Drewry reports of very few cases have appeared in the medical journals. "Some systematic writers," says Drewry, "regard it as a mere subdivision of periodic insanity (Spitzka). A distinguished alienist and author of Scotland however has given us an admirable lecture on the subject. He says: 'I have had under my care altogether about 40 cases of typical folie circulaire.' In the asylum at Morningside there were, says Dr. Clouston, in 800 patients 16 cases of this peculiar form of mental disease. Dr. Spitzka, who was the first American to describe it, found in 2300 cases of pauper insane four per cent to be periodic, and its sub-group, circular, insanity. Dr. Stearns states that less than one-fourth of one per cent of cases in the Hartford (Conn.) Retreat classed as mania and melancholia have proved to be folie circulaire. Upon examination of the annual reports of the superintendents of hospitals for the insane in this country, in only a few are references made to this as a distinct form of insanity. In the New York State hospitals there is a regular uniform classification of mental diseases in which 'circular (alternating) insanity' occupies a place. In the report of the Buffalo Hospital for 1892, in statistical table No. 4, 'showing forms of insanity in those admitted, etc., since 1888,' out of 1428 cases, only one was 'alternating (circular) insanity.' In the St. Lawrence Hospital only one case in 992 was credited to this special class. In the institution in Philadelphia, of which Dr. Chapin is the superintendent, 10,379 patients have been treated, only three of whom were diagnosed cases of manie circulaire. Of the 900 cases of insanity in the State Hospital at Danville, Pa., less than four per cent were put in this special class. There are in the Central (Va.) State Hospital (which is exclusively for the colored insane) 775 patients, three of whom are genuine cases of circular insanity, but they are included in 'periodic insanity.' This same custom evidently prevails in many of the other hospitals for the insane."
Drewry reports three cases of circular insanity, one of which was as follows:--
"William F., a negro, thirty-six years old, of fair education, steady, sober habits, was seized with gloomy depression a few weeks prior to his admission to this hospital, in September, 1886. This condition came on after a period of fever. He was a stranger in the vicinity and scarcely any information could be obtained regarding his antecedents. When admitted he was in a state of melancholic hypochondriasis; he was the very picture of abject misery. Many imaginary ills troubled his peace of mind. He spoke of committing suicide, but evidently for the purpose of attracting attention and sympathy. On one occasion he said he intended to kill himself, but when the means to do so were placed at his command, he said he would do the deed at another time. The most trivial physical disturbances were exaggerated into very serious diseases. From this state of morbid depression he slowly emerged, grew brighter, more energetic, neater in personal appearance, etc. During this period of slow transition or partial sanity he was taken out on the farm where he proved to be a careful and industrious laborer. He escaped, and when brought back to the hospital a few weeks subsequently he was in a condition of great excitement and hilarity. His expression was animated, and he was, as it were, overflowing with superabundance of spirit, very loquacious, and incessantly moving. He bore an air of great importance and self-satisfaction; said he felt perfectly well and happy, but abused the officers for keeping him 'confined unjustly in a lunatic asylum.' It was his habit almost daily, if not interfered with, to deliver a long harangue to his fellow-patients, during which he would become very excited and noisy. He showed evidences of having a remarkable memory, particularly regarding names and dates. (Unusual memory is frequently observed in this type of insanity, says Stearns.) He was sometimes disposed to be somewhat destructive to furniture, etc., was neat in person, but would frequently dress rather 'gorgeously,' wearing feathers and the like in his hat, etc. He was not often noisy and sleepless at night, and then only for a short time. His physical health was good. This 'mental intoxication,' as it were, lasted nearly a year. After this long exacerbation of excitement there was a short remission and then depression again set in, which lasted about fifteen months. At this time this patient is in the depressed stage or period of the third circle. So, thus the cycles have continuously repeated their weary rounds, and in all probability they will keep this up 'until the final capitation in the battle of life has taken place.'"
Katatonia, according to Gray, is a cerebral disease of cyclic symptoms, ranging in succession from primary melancholia to mania, confusion, and dementia, one or more of these stages being occasionally absent, while convulsive and epileptoid symptoms accompany the mental changes.
It is manifestly impossible to enter into the manifold forms and instances of insanity in this volume, but there is one case, seldom quoted, which may be of interest. It appeared under the title, "A Modern Pygmalion." It recorded a history of a man named Justin, who died in the Bicetre Insane Asylum. He had been an exhibitor of wax works at Montrouge, and became deeply impressed with the beautiful proportions of the statue of a girl in his collection, and ultimately became intensely enamored with her. He would spend hours in contemplation of the inanimate object of his affections, and finally had the illusion that the figure, by movements of features, actually responded to his devotions. Nemesis as usual at last arrived, and the wife of Justin, irritated by his long neglect, in a fit of jealousy destroyed the wax figure, and this resulted in a murderous attack on his wife by Justin who resented the demolition of his love. He was finally secured and lodged in Bicetre, where he lived for five years under the influence of his lost love.
An interesting condition, which has been studied more in France than elsewhere, is double consciousness, dual personality, or, as it is called by the Germans, Doppelwahrnehmungen. In these peculiar cases an individual at different times seems to lead absolutely different existences. The idea from a moralist's view is inculcated in Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde." In an article on this subject Weir Mitchell illustrated his paper by examples, two of which will be quoted. The first was the case of Mary Reynolds who, when eighteen years of age, became subject to hysteric attacks, and on one occasion she continued blind and deaf for a period of five or six weeks. Her hearing returned suddenly, and her sight gradually. About three months afterward she was discovered in a profound sleep. Her memory had fled, and she was apparently a new-born individual. When she awoke it became apparent that she had totally forgotten her previous existence, her parents, her country, and the house where she lived. She might be compared to an immature child. It was necessary to recommence her education. She was taught to write, and wrote from right to left, as in the Semitic languages. She had only five or six words at her command--mere reflexes of articulation which were to her devoid of meaning. The labor of re-education, conducted methodically, lasted from seven to eight weeks. Her character had experienced as great a change as her memory; timid to excess in the first state, she became gay, unreserved, boisterous, daring, even to rashness. She strolled through the woods and the mountains, attracted by the dangers of the wild country in which she lived. Then she had a fresh attack of sleep, and returned to her first condition; she recalled all the memories and again assumed a melancholy character, which seemed to be aggravated. No conscious memory of the second state existed. A new attack brought back the second state, with the phenomenon of consciousness which accompanied it the first time. The patient passed successively a great many times from one of these states to the other. These repeated changes stretched over a period of sixteen years. At the end of that time the variations ceased. The patient was then thirty-six years of age; she lived in a mixed state, but more closely resembling the second than the first; her character was neither sad nor boisterous, but more reasonable. She died at the age of sixty-five years.
The second case was that of an itinerant Methodist minister named Bourne, living in Rhode Island, who one day left his home and found himself, or rather his second self, in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Having a little money, he bought a small stock in trade, and instead of being a minister of the gospel under the Methodist persuasion, he kept a candy shop under the name of A. J. Brown, paid his rent regularly, and acted like other people. At last, in the middle of the night, he awoke to his former consciousness, and finding himself in a strange place, supposed he had made a mistake and might be taken for a burglar. He was found in a state of great alarm by his neighbors, to whom he stated that he was a minister, and that his home was in Rhode Island. His friends were sent for and recognized him, and he returned to his home after an absence of two years of absolutely foreign existence. A most careful investigation of the case was made on behalf of the London Society for Psychical Research.
An exhaustive paper on this subject, written by Richard Hodgson in the proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, states that Mr. Bourne had in early life shown a tendency to abnormal psychic conditions; but he had never before engaged in trade, and nothing could be remembered which would explain why he had assumed the name A. J. Brown, under which he did business. He had, however, been hypnotized when young and made to assume various characters on the stage, and it is possible that the name A. J. Brown was then suggested to him, the name resting in his memory, to be revived and resumed when he again went into a hypnotic trance.
Alfred Binet describes a case somewhat similar to that of Mary Reynolds: "Felida, a seamstress, from 1858 up to the present time (she is still living) has been under the care of a physician named Azam in Bordeaux. Her normal, or at least her usual, disposition when he first met her was one of melancholy and disinclination to talk, conjoined with eagerness for work. Nevertheless her actions and her answers to all questions were found to be perfectly rational. Almost every day she passed into a second state. Suddenly and without the slightest premonition save a violent pain in the temples she would fall into a profound slumber-like languor, from which she would awake in a few moments a totally different being. She was now as gay and cheery as she had formerly been morose. Her imagination was over-excited. Instead of being indifferent to everything, she had become alive to excess. In this state she remembered everything that had happened in the other similar states that had preceded it, and also during her normal life. But when at the end of an hour or two the languor reappeared, and she returned to her normal melancholy state, she could not recall anything that had happened in her second, or joyous, stage. One day, just after passing into the second stage, she attended the funeral of an acquaintance. Returning in a cab she felt the period coming on which she calls her crisis (normal state). She dozed several seconds, without attracting the attention of the ladies who were in the cab, and awoke in the other state, absolutely at a loss to know why she was in a mourning carriage with people who, according to custom, were praising the qualities of a deceased person whose name she did not even know. Accustomed to such positions, she waited; by adroit questions she managed to understand the situation, and no one suspected what had happened. Once when in her abnormal condition she discovered that her husband had a mistress, and was so overcome that she sought to commit suicide. Yet in her normal mind she meets the woman with perfect equilibrium and forgetfulness of any cause for quarrel. It is only in her abnormal state that the jealousy recurs. As the years went on the second state became her usual condition. That which was at first accidental and abnormal now constitutes the regular center of her psychic life. It is rather satisfactory to chronicle that as between the two egos which alternately possess her, the more cheerful has finally reached the ascendant."
Jackson reports the history of the case of a young dry-goods clerk who was seized with convulsions of a violent nature during which he became unconscious. In the course of twenty-four hours his convulsions abated, and about the third day he imagined himself in New York paying court to a lady, and having a rival for her favors; an imaginary quarrel and duel ensued. For a half-hour on each of three days he would start exactly where he had left off on the previous day. His eyes were open and to all appearances he was awake during this peculiar delirium. When asked what he had been doing he would assert that he had been asleep. His language assumed a refinement above his ordinary discourse. In proportion as his nervous system became composed, and his strength improved, this unnatural manifestation of consciousness disappeared, and he ultimately regained his health.
A further example of this psychologic phenomenon was furnished quite meetly at a meeting of the Clinical Society of London, where a well known physician exhibited a girl of twelve, belonging to a family of good standing, who displayed in the most complete and indubitable form this condition of dual existence. A description of the case is as follows:--
"Last year, after a severe illness which was diagnosed to be meningitis, she became subject to temporary attacks of unconsciousness, on awakening from which she appeared in an entirely different character. In her normal condition she could read and write and speak fluently, and with comparative correctness. In the altered mental condition following the attack she loses all memory for ordinary events, though she can recall things that have taken place during previous attacks. So complete is this alteration of memory, that at first she was unable to remember her own name or to identify herself or her parents. By patient training in the abnormal condition she has been enabled to give things their names, though she still preserves a baby-fashion of pronouncing. She sometimes remains in the abnormal condition for days together and the change to her real self takes place suddenly, without exciting surprise or dismay, and she forthwith resumes possession of her memory for events of her ordinary life. During the last month or two she appears to have entered on a new phase, for after a mental blank of a fortnight's duration she awakened completely oblivious of all that had happened since June, 1895, and she alludes to events that took place just anterior to that date as though they were of recent occurrence; in fact she is living mentally in July, 1895. These cases, though rare, are of course not infrequently met with, and they have been carefully studied, especially in France, where women appear more prone to neurotic manifestations. The hypothesis that finds most favor is that the two halves of the brain do not work in unison; in other words, that there has been some interference with the connections which in the ordinary normal being make of a wonderful composite organ like the brain one organic whole."
Proust tells a story of a Parisian barrister of thirty-three. His father was a heavy drinker, his mother subject to nervous attacks, his younger brother mentally deficient, and the patient himself was very impressionable. It was said that a judge in a court, by fixing his gaze on him, could send him into an abnormal state. On one occasion, while looking into a mirror in a cafe, he suddenly fell into a sleep, and was taken to the Charite where he was awakened. He suffered occasional loss of memory for considerable lengths of time, and underwent a change of personality during these times. Though wide awake in such conditions he could remember nothing of his past life, and when returned to his original state he could remember nothing that occurred during his secondary state, having virtually two distinct memories. On September 23, 1888, he quarreled with his stepfather in Paris and became his second self for three weeks. He found himself in a village 100 miles from Paris, remembering nothing about his journey thereto; but on inquiry he found that he had paid a visit to the priest of the village who thought his conduct odd, and he had previously stayed with an uncle, a bishop, in whose house he had broken furniture, torn up letters, and had even had sentence passed upon him by a police court for misdemeanor. During these three weeks he had spent the equivalent of $100, but he could not recall a single item of expenditure. Davies cites a remarkable case of sudden loss of memory in a man who, while on his way to Australia, was found by the police in an exhausted condition and who was confined in the Kent County Insane Asylum. He suffered absolute loss of all memory with the exception of the names of two men not close acquaintances, both of whom failed to recognize him in his changed condition in confinement. Four months later his memory returned and his identity was established.
In the Revue Philosophique for 1885 there are the details of a case of a young man who seemed able to assume six states of what might be fairly called different personalities. The memories attached to each of these states were very different, though only one was completely exclusive of the others. The handwriting varied from complete competence to complete incompetence. His character varied between childish timidity, courteous reserve, and reckless arrogance; and to four of his conditions there was a form of hysteric paralysis attached. Mere suggestion would not only induce any one of these varied forms of paralysis, but also the memories, capacities, and characters habitually accompanying it.
A young man named Spencer, an inmate of the Philadelphia Hospital, was exhibited before the American Neurological Society in June, 1896, as an example of dual personality. At the time of writing he is and has been in apparently perfect health, with no evidence of having been in any other condition. His faculties seem perfect, his education manifests itself in his intelligent performance of the cleric duties assigned to him at the hospital, yet the thread of continuous recollection which connects the present moment with its predecessors--consciousness and Date: 2014-12-29; view: 775
|