Produced by Bryan Ness, S.D., and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) BENIGN STUPORS THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK Â· BOSTON Â· CHICAGO Â· DALLAS ATLANTA Â· SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON Â· BOMBAY Â· CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO BENIGN STUPORS _A STUDY OF A NEW MANIC-DEPRESSIVE REACTION TYPE_ BY AUGUST HOCH, M.D. LATE DIRECTOR OF THE PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTE OF THE NEW YORK STATE HOSPITALS, WARDâS ISLAND, NEW YORK. LATE PROFESSOR OF PSYCHIATRY, CORNELL UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE, NEW YORK New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1921 _All rights reserved_ PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Copyright, 1921, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Set up and printed. Published July, 1921. Press of J. J. Little & Ives Company New York, U. S. A. TO MY FORMER COLLEAGUES IN THE NEW YORK STATE HOSPITAL SERVICE EDITORâS PREFACE A word should be said as to the origin and history of this book. When the late Dr. Hoch became Director of the Psychiatric Institute of the New York State Hospitals in 1910, he found there an interest in just the kind of psychiatric research which it was his ambition to further. His predecessor, Adolf Meyer, had developed the conception that the psychoses should be looked on as psychobiological reactions rather than rigid nosological entities and had inculcated the habit of scrupulously thorough examination and record of what the patient said and did. Meyer had broken away from the sterile habit of making diagnoses in accordance with the set terms used to label symptoms; and his work and that of his assistants thus led to a collection of valuable material which could serve as a useful starting point for the keen clinical investigation of Hoch. Specifically, attention had already been fixed on the study of the so-called functional psychoses, comprising what are generally termed Dementia PrÃ¦cox and Manic-Depressive Insanity. An urgent problem in this field was to separate different reaction types in order to discover which were recoverable and which chronic or progressive. In order to understand psychological reactions, interrelation rather than mere coincidence of symptoms must be studied and, to aid in this, free use was made of the fundamental principles of unconscious mentation as exposed in the theories of Freud and his followers. Almost at the outset it had been discovered that many patients presented clinical pictures that would not fit into existing diagnostic pigeon holes. Dr. George H. Kirby, whose skill and industry had made the most valuable contributions to the archives of the Institute, published in 1913 a brief paper in which he pointed out, not only that many cases with âcatatonicâ symptoms recovered, but also that clinically the behavior of stupor showed it to be related to manic-depressive insanity as well as dementia prÃ¦cox. Dr. Hoch took up the problem at this point. Using Dr. Kirbyâs material and adding to it his earlier observations as well as current cases, he endeavored to work out the essentials of the stupor reaction. It was his ambition to describe stupor not only in its psychiatric bearing but also as a life reaction. The significance of this task is to be realized only when one considers the general import of the functional psychoses. They are, biologically, failures of adaptation. The chronic and deteriorating cases give up the struggle permanently, while the temporary insanities lay bare the soul of man as he catches a glimpse of unreality but turns back to face the world as it is. When one realizes that emotional disturbances are characteristic of the benign psychoses, it is easy to imagine how much such studies may ultimately illuminate the problems of normal life. The technical value of this work to psychiatry is more immediate. Kraepelin laid the foundations for systematic classification with his dementia prÃ¦cox and manic-depressive groups. But the rigidity of the latter, allegedly descriptive, term has confused the problem of classifying many benign psychoses. It was Hochâs ambition to prove that, although elation and depression were the commonest mood anomalies in this group, they had no more theoretic importance than anxiety, distressed perplexity or apathy. These other moods, although less frequent, are just as characteristic of the psychoses in this group. In other words, the name âAnxiety-Apathy Insanityâ would be as appropriate, theoretically, as Kraepelinâs term. In 1919 Hoch and Kirby published a report on the perplexity cases. This present book was designed to show that the symptom complex centering around apathy is as distinct as that which is recognized by all psychiatrists as mania with its predominant characteristic of elation. In 1917 ill health forced Dr. Hoch to resign from his official duties. He retired to California with the purpose of adding to psychiatric literature the fruits of his long experience and unrivaled judgment. His first task was this book. In the midst of this work came a sudden collapse. As I had been in close touch with his researches, coÃ¶perating in psychological speculations, and was free to devote some time to it, he asked shortly before his death that I complete the book. This obligation is incommensurate with the debt I owe for years of inspiration, tuition and criticism. The task has been mainly literary. I found the first five chapters practically completed, while it has not been difficult, as a rule, to discover from his copious notes what his intentions were as to the details of the following chapters. I have been greatly aided by the assistance of Dr. Adolf Meyer and of Dr. Kirby. The latter has been good enough to read the entire manuscript, making invaluable suggestions and criticisms. John T. MacCurdy. New York. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE EDITORâS PREFACE vii I. INTRODUCTION AND TYPICAL CASES OF DEEP STUPOR 1 II. THE PARTIAL STUPOR REACTIONS 34 III. SUICIDAL CASES 50 IV. THE INTERFERENCES WITH THE INTELLECTUAL PROCESSES 67 V. THE IDEATIONAL CONTENT OF THE STUPOR 82 VI. AFFECT 123 VII. INACTIVITY, NEGATIVISM AND CATALEPSY 132 VIII. SPECIAL CASES: RELATIONSHIP OF STUPOR TO OTHER REACTIONS 149 IX. THE PHYSICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF STUPOR 174 X. PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATION OF THE STUPOR REACTION 186 XI. MALIGNANT STUPORS 205 XII. DIAGNOSIS OF STUPOR 223 XIII. TREATMENT OF STUPOR 229 XIV. SUMMARY OF THE STUPOR REACTION 234 XV. THE LITERATURE OF STUPOR 249 INDEX 279 BENIGN STUPORS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION AND TYPICAL CASES OF DEEP STUPOR The fact that psychiatry lags in development and recognition behind other branches of medicine is due in part to the crudity of its clinical methods. The evolution of interest in science is from simple, obvious and tangible problems to more intricate and impalpable researches. Refined laboratory work has been done in psychiatric clinics, particularly along histopathological lines, but clinical studies follow antiquated methods. The internist does not say, âThe patient has sugar in his urine, therefore he has diabetes and therefore he will die.â He finds a glycosuria and looks for its cause. If this symptom is found to be related to others in such a way as to justify the diagnosis of diabetes, a therapeutic problem arises, that of adjusting the chemistry of the body. The prognosis depends not on the disease but the interreaction of the organism and the morbid process. Both in diagnosis and treatment an individual factor, the patientâs metabolism, is of prime importance. Now in psychiatry, although the personality is diseased, this personal factor has been almost entirely neglected. Text-books furnish us with composite pictures which are called diseases, not with descriptions of reactions brought about by the interplay of personal and environmental factors. Educated people are not satisfied with novels that fail to depict real characters. Clinical psychiatry, however, has been content with the dime-novel type of character delineation. This is all the more disappointing, inasmuch as the study of insanity should contribute largely to our knowledge of everyday life. This defect can only be remedied by looking on every case as a problem in which the origin of each symptom is to be studied and its relation traced to all other symptoms and to the personality as a whole. This is an ambitious task and we do not pretend to any great achievement, merely to a beginning. No better psychoses could be chosen for a preliminary effort than benign stupors. Every psychiatrist has seen them, although they are wrongly diagnosed as a rule, and they play no small rÃ´le in the worldâs history. Euripides represents Orestes as having a stupor which is pictured as accurately as any modern psychiatrist could describe an actual case.[1] St. Paul is chronicled as falling to the ground, being thereafter blind and going without food or drink for three days. While apparently unconscious he had a religious vision. St. Catherine of Siena had several unquestionable stupors, which are fairly well described. In fact the mystics in general seem to have had communion with God and the saints most often when they seemed unconscious to bystanders.[2] The obsession with death, which seems so intimate a part of the stupor reaction, is a fundamental theme in poetry, religion and philosophy. The psychology of this interest is, speaking broadly, the psychology of stupor. So, from a general standpoint, our problem is related to the study of one of the most potent ideas which move the soul of man. Psychiatrically, stupors have long remained an unsolved riddle. In the century prior to 1872 (See the digest of Dagonetâs publication in Chapter XV) French psychiatrists wrote some good descriptions of stupor and offered brilliant, though sketchy generalizations about the condition. Two years later an English psychiatrist (Newington, See Chapter XV) improved on the French work. Little light has been thrown on the subject since then. The researches of the later French School showed that stupor often occurs in the course of major hysteria, but this left many of these episodes obviously not hysterical. When serious attempts were made at classification, this ubiquitous symptom complex was hard to handle. Wernicke wisely refrained from attempting more than a loose descriptive grouping. He called all conditions with marked inactivity and apathy âakinetic psychosesâ and said that some recovered, some did not. Taxonomic zeal began to blind vision when Kahlbaum formulated his âCatatoniaâ and included stupor in the symptom complex. The condition which we call stupor occurs in the course of many different types of mental disease. It is true that it is frequent in catatonia but is not exclusively there. Mongols have black hair and straight hair, but one cannot therefore say that any black and straight haired man is a Mongol. Fortunately Kahlbaum prevented serious error by leaving the prognosis of his catatonia open. When Kraepelin included it in his large group of Dementia prÃ¦cox, however, it implied that stupor could not be an acute, recoverable condition.[3] He unquestionably advanced psychiatry greatly but his scheme was too ambitious to be accurate. Many observers saw patients, classified as dements according to Kraepelinâs formulÃ¦, return, apparently normal, to normal life. Finally Kirby[4] published a series of cases which showed decisively that this classification was too rigid. Since his paper is the foundation for this present study, it should be reviewed carefully. He first points out that Kraepelinâs âDementia prÃ¦coxâ includes much more than it should with its inevitably bad prognosis. He shows how others have found patients with catatonic symptom complexes proceed to recovery and speaks of these symptoms occurring in epilepsy and even in frankly organic conditions, such as brain tumor, general paralysis, trauma and infections. Kirbyâs first claim is that there are probably fundamentally different catatonic processes, deteriorating and non-deteriorating. Lack of knowledge has prevented us from understanding the meaning of the symptoms and hence making the discrimination. He points out that stupor seems to represent an attitude of defense, similar to feigned death in animals, and that in a number of his cases it was clear that the stupor symbolized the death of the patient. Apparent negativism, he found to be often a consciously assumed attitude of aversion towards an unpleasant emotional situation. In cases where there had been no prodromal symptoms pointing definitely to dementia prÃ¦cox the outcome was almost always good. To discriminate the cases with good outlook from those with bad, he discerned no difference in the stupors themselves, but observed that the mental make-up and initial symptoms differed sufficiently for diagnosis to be made. His most important point is, perhaps, that these benign stupors showed a definite relationship to manic-depressive insanity in that some patients passed directly from stupor to typical manic excitement, while in others a âcatatonicâ attack replaced a depression in a circular psychosis. Kirby introduces, then, the idea of stupor being a type of reaction which can occur either in dementia prÃ¦cox or in manic-depressive insanity. The matter cannot be left there, in fact it raises new problems: what constitutes the reaction? how are the various symptoms interrelated? are they different in deteriorating and acute cases? what is the teleological significance of the reaction? if it be an integral part of the manic-depressive group, how does it affect our conceptions of what manic-depressive insanity is? More than five years have been spent in endeavors to answer these questions and the results of the study are now presented. Naturally the first point to be settled is: what constitutes the stupor reaction itself. We can say at the outset that it is seen in the purest form in benign cases, hence they make up the material of this book. To discover the symptoms of the disorder one cannot do better than to study them in their most glaring form in deep stupors, where consistently recurring phenomena may be assumed to be essential to the reaction. CASE 1.--_Anna G._ Age: 15. Admitted to the Psychiatric Institute July 25, 1907. _F. H._ The mother and two brothers were living and said to be normal. The father died of apoplexy when the patient was seven. _P. H._ The patient was sickly up to the age of seven, but stronger after that. It is stated that she got on well at school, though she was somewhat slow in her work. She was inclined to be rather quiet, even when a child, a bit shy, but she had friends and was well liked by others. After recovery she made a frank, natural impression. She was always rather sensitive about her red hair. She began to work a year before admission and had two positions. The last one she did not like very well, because, she alleged, the girls were âtoo tough.â Three weeks before admission she came home from work and said a girl in the shop had made remarks about her red hair. She wanted to change her position, but she kept on working until six days before admission. At that time her mother kept her at home as she seemed so quiet, and when the mother took her out for a walk she wanted to return, because âeverybody was lookingâ at her. For the next two days she cried at times, and repeatedly said, âOh, I wish I were dead--nobody likes me--I wish I were dead and with my fatherâ (dead). She also called to various members of the family, saying she wanted to tell them something, but when they came she would only stare blankly. For a day she followed her mother around, clung to her, said once she wanted to say something to her, but only stared and said nothing. Four days before admission she became quite immobile, lay in bed, did not speak, eat or drink. She also had some fever. The patient herself, when well, described the onset of her psychosis as follows: She knew of no cause except that her brother, some time before the onset (not clear how long), was run over by an automobile and had his foot hurt. She claimed that while still working she lost her ambition, lost her appetite, did not feel like talking to any one; that when she went out with her mother it merely seemed to her that people stared at her. The day before she went to the Observation Pavilion her cousin came to see her, and she thought she saw, standing beside this cousin, the latterâs dead mother. She also thought there was a fire, and that her sister was sweeping little babies out of the room. Then, she claimed, she felt afraid (this still on the day before going to the Observation Pavilion) because she had repeated visions of an old woman, a witch. This woman said, âI am your mother, and I gave you to this woman (i.e., patientâs real mother) when you were a baby.â She also was afraid her mother was âgoing away.â At the _Observation Pavilion_ she was described as constrained, staring fixedly into space, mute, requiring to be dressed and fed. _Under Observation:_ 1. For five months the patient presented a marked stupor. She was for the most part very inactive, totally mute, staring vacantly, often not even blinking, so that for a time the conjunctivÃ¦ were dry. She did not swallow, but held her saliva; did not react to pin pricks or feinting motions before her eyes. Sometimes she retained her urine, again wet and soiled the bed. Often there was marked catalepsy, and the retention of very awkward positions. As a rule she was quite stiff, offering passive resistance towards any interference. She had to be tube-fed at first. Later she was spoon-fed, and then would swallow, in spite of the fact that during the interval between her feeding she would let saliva collect in her mouth. For a time she had a tendency to hold one leg out of bed, and when it was put back would stick the other out. Sometimes she walked of her own accord to the toilet chair, but on one occasion wet the floor before she got there. During the first month after admission, this stupor was interrupted for two short periods by a little freer action: she walked to a chair, sat down, smiled a little, fanned herself very naturally when a fan was given to her, though even then did not speak. There was, as a rule, no emotional reaction, but after some months she several times wept when her mother came, though without speaking. Once when taken to the tub she yelled. Her _physical condition_ during this stupor was as follows: She menstruated freely on admission, then not again until she was well. Several times she had rises of temperature to 102Â° or 103Â° with a high pulse and respiration; again a respiration of 40, with but slight rise of temperature, though the pulse had a tendency to go to 130 and over. She was apt to show marked skin hyperÃ¦mia wherever touched. With the fever there was found a leucocytosis of from 11,900 to 15,000, with marked increase of polynuclear leucocytes (89%). She got very emaciated, so that four months after admission she weighed 68 lbs. (height 5â² 2â³). 2. About five months after admission she was often seen smiling, and again weeping, and she began to talk a little to the nurses, though not to the doctors. She also began to eat excessively of her own accord, and rapidly gained weight, so that by January she weighed 98Â½ lbs., a gain of 30 lbs. in two months. Yet she continued to be sluggish. 3. For two more months she was apathetic and appeared disinterested, often would not reply, again, at the same interview, she would do so promptly and with natural voice. This condition may be illustrated by the summary of a note made on January 29, 1908, which is representative of that period. It is stated that she sat about apathetically all day, appeared sluggish, but was fairly neat about her appearance and cleanly in her habits. There was at no time any evidence of affect, except when asked by the examiner to put out her tongue so that he could stick a pin in it she blushed and hid her face. When asked whether she worried about anything, she denied this. When questions were asked, she sometimes answered promptly and in normal voice, again simply remained silent in spite of repeated urging. On the whole, it seemed that simple impersonal questions were answered promptly; whereas difficult impersonal questions or questions which referred to her condition were not answered at all. She proved to be oriented. Thus she gave the day of the week, month, year, the name of the hospital, names of the doctors and nurses promptly. She also counted quickly and did a few simple multiplications quickly. But she was silent when asked where the hospital was located, how long she had been here, whether she was here one or six months, how she felt. Questions in regard to the condition she had passed through, or involving difficult calculations, she did not answer. However, some questions regarding her condition asked in such a way that they could be answered by âyesâ or ânoâ were again answered quite promptly. Thus when asked whether her head felt all right she said, âYes, sir.â (Is your memory good?) âYes.â (Have you been sick?) âNo, sir.â (Are you worried?) âNo.â 4. This apathy cleared up too, so that by the middle of March she was bright, active and smiled freely. With the nurses she was rather talkative and pleased, though this was not marked. Towards the physician only was she natural and free. She then gave the _retrospective account_ of the onset detailed above. When questioned about her condition she claimed not to remember the Observation Pavilion, although recalling vaguely going there in a carriage. She was almost completely amnesic for a considerable part of her stay in the Institute. She claimed it was only in November or December that she began to know where she was (five months after admission). In harmony with this is the fact that she did not recall the tube- and spoon-feeding which had to be resorted to for about four months of this period. No ideas or visions were remembered. As to her mutism she said, âI donât think I could speak,â âI made no effort,â again âI did not care to speak.â She claimed that she remembered being pricked with a pin but that she did not feel it. She remembered yelling when taken to the tub (towards end of the marked stupor) and claimed she thought she was to be drowned. When she went home (March 24, 1908) she got into a more elated condition. She was talkative, conversed with strangers on the street, said to her mother that she was now sixteen years old and wanted âa fellow.â When the mother would not allow her to go out, she said it would be better if they both would jump out of the window and kill themselves. She then was sent back to the hospital. In the first part of this period after her return, she was somewhat elated and overtalkative, though she did not present a flight of ideas, and was well behaved. She soon got well, however, and was discharged, four months after her readmission, fully recovered. After that, it is claimed, she was perfectly well and worked successfully most of the time with the exception of a short period in the spring of 1909, when she was slightly elated. In 1910 she had a subsequent attack, during which she was treated at another hospital. From the description this again seems to have been a typical stupor (immobility, mutism, tendency to catalepsy, rigidity). According to the account of the onset sent by that hospital (it was obtained from the mother), this attack began some months before admission, with complaints of being out of sorts, not being able to concentrate and fearing that another attack would come on. Finally the stupor was said to have been immediately preceded by a seizure in which the whole body jerked. She made again an excellent recovery. The patient was seen about two years after this attack, and described the development of the psychosis as follows: She claimed she began to feel âqueer,â ânervous,â âdepressed,â got sleepless. Then (this was given spontaneously) she suddenly thought she was dying and that her fatherâs picture was talking to her and calling her. âThen I lost my speech.â As after the first attack, she claimed not to have any recollection of what went on during a considerable part of the stupor but recalled that she began to talk after her brother visited her. It is not clear how she was during the period immediately following the stupor. She made a very natural impression and came willingly to the hospital in response to a letter and was quite open about giving information. CASE 2.--_Caroline DeS._ Age: 21. Admitted to the Psychiatric Institute June 10, 1909. _F. H._ The father died of apoplexy when patient was nine. The mother had diabetes. A paternal uncle was queer, visionary. _P. H._ The patient was always considered natural, bright, had many friends, and was efficient. Some months before admission the patientâs favorite brother, who is a Catholic, became engaged to a Protestant girl, and spoke of changing his religion. The family and the patient were annoyed at this, and the patient is said to have worried about it, but was otherwise quite natural until seven days before admission. Then, at the engagement dinner of the brother, the psychosis broke out. She refused to sit down to the table, and then suddenly began to sing and dance, cry and laugh and talk in a disconnected manner. Among other things, she said âI hate her,â âI love you, papaâ (father is dead), âDonât kill me.â She struck her brother. She was in a few days taken to the Observation Pavilion. The patient stated after recovery that what worried her was that the brother would marry a Protestant and that he would leave home (favorite brother). At the _Observation Pavilion_ she was excited, shouted, screamed, laughed, called out âDonât kill me,â again âBrother, brother,â âYou are my brotherâ (to doctor). _Under Observation:_ 1. On admission, and for two weeks, the patient presented a marked excitement, during most of which she was treated in the continuous bath. She tossed about, threw the sheets off, beat her breasts and abdomen, put her fingers into her mouth, bit the back of her hands, waved her arms about, sometimes with peculiar gyration, etc., at the same time shouting, singing, again praying, laughing or crying, sometimes fighting the nurses and resisting them. She also talked quite a little as a rule, but there were periods when, although excited, she would not talk or answer questions. She was very little influenced in her talk by the environment. When on one occasion asked if she had any trouble, she said: âNo--I donât want, somebody else gave me a book--all right I love myself, Uncle Mike too--all right too--all right I am in Bellevue--I love everybody except the Jews all right, all right--give me water, give me milk, give me seltzer--white horse uncle--Holy Father, he is killing me, I want my mother,â or âWait a minute, say, thatâs a lie--oh no, Holy water--no I didnât wash the water away--oh, she forgets, I am sick--mother why donât you come--look at the baby, they knocked my head against the wall--wait a minute, isnât that terrible?--I was married--I was so--I forgot--April fool--I kiss you seven kisses and one more--I love papa and mamma, I like others too--I am papaâs angel child--yes I confess I love him, but I donât want to die myself.â On another occasion, when asked where she was, she said: âI am at the ball--I am going to Heaven--donât shoot meâ (affectless). (Why are you afraid?) âBecause you see--high water (in the tub)--white horse.â (What about the water?) âMy name is Caroline--if you love me, father, tickle me under my feet,â or, rolling her eyes up, âOh, isnât that awful, that ring, that diamond, that is the key to Heaven.â 2. For about ten days she was somewhat different. She became quieter and at first lay muttering unintelligibly, saying some things about being killed, but speaking little, often restlessly tossing about and tremulous. She had to be tube-fed. On one day (July 1) she smiled more and talked more, said to the physician âYou have been arrested for me--you arrested the first man that I ever--New York State--let me see that bookâ (note pad). Then she went on: âOh, I am all apart--diamonds--they didnât know--must I keep them clean?--what is your name?--that is another thing I would like to know.â But when asked what house she was in she said: âThis is the same Wardâs Islandâ and then added, âHow long have I been here?--there is my picture up there (register), who is that? (listening) itâs Ida ...â She began to sing softly. Then again she whined. âO mamma, mamma!â When asked how long she had been here, she said: âSince Decoration Day, when my father went in my sisterâs house, nobody could catch up with me--somebody blackened her eyes.â When asked whether she was sick, she said âNo, insane.â Although, as was stated, she said at one time, âThis is the same Wardâs Island,â usually questions regarding orientation were not answered, as she gave few relevant replies, but she repeatedly said spontaneously that she was in âHoboken or Bellevue,â and called the nurse by the name of a former teacher. A few days after this state had developed she had a fever. Once this rose to 104Â°. The fever lasted two weeks, coming down gradually. It was associated with a leucocytosis of 15,000 on June 29 (no differential count) and with coated tongue. No Widal (two examinations). No diazo (July 1). 3. Then while the temperature still lasted she developed a stupor which persisted for about a year. During this time her temperature rose to 100Â° without ascertainable cause. She lay for the most part motionless, changing her position but rarely; her expression was stolid; she retained and drooled saliva, wet and soiled herself. She never answered any questions; showed no interest whatever. At times she was quite stiff and very resistive but never cataleptic. Her extremities were cold and cyanotic. She had to be tube-fed throughout. During this time she lost much hair. After some months she occasionally gazed about furtively, or later watched everything when unaware of being observed; at this time she also smiled occasionally at amusing things, or perhaps said âyesâ or ânoâ to questions, but usually was stolid when interrogated. Then about nine months after admission, while in the condition just described, she developed a lobar pneumonia. During it she remained the same. But during convalescence she began to speak and eat. 4. A period followed lasting six months during which she was up and about, but sat or stood around a good deal. On the other hand, she helped the nurses a little when urged. Her face was often stolid, again she looked about. At times (even nearly to the end) she drooled and soiled. She said little. At no time was she resistive. On other occasions she smiled or laughed, not always on provocation, or she showed little playful tendencies, such as throwing a pillow about the room, tearing leaves from the plants, taking the doctorâs arm and walking down the hall, asking him to kiss her. At such times she often looked quite bright, keen, alert and amused. Towards the end she would give at times playful answers, such as âI came to-day,â or âThis is the Hall of Fame.â This tapered off, so that by December, 1910, she was perfectly well. _Retrospectively_, the patient claimed not to remember the upset at the dinner, or what happened afterward, although recalling the trip to the Observation Pavilion. She denied any memory of the journey to the hospital, but could tell what ward she came to. How well the condition after that was recalled, was not inquired into, except that she could or would not explain further the utterances during the first period. For the stupor period it is stated that she remembered many external facts, but it is not clear in which period they occurred. _Catamnestic Note._ May, 1913: She has worked efficiently, and is said to have been perfectly well. CASE 3.--_Mary F._ Age: 21. Admitted to the Psychiatric Institute June 28, 1902. _F. H._ The mother died when the patient was five. The father was living, an alcoholic and reckless man. Four brothers and sisters died in infancy. _P. H._ The patient was the only surviving child. She was brought up in a convent and orphan asylum until 11, when her father remarried. At 12 she had to go to work, hence she had but little education. She was bright, efficient, well liked by her employers (in one position five years). As to her peculiarities, she was thought to be, perhaps, a little headstrong, and was also described as always very exact, rather quick-tempered and inclined to be irritable when crossed. She was married six months before admission and had a _baby three weeks before admission_. The husband stated that when the father found out she was pregnant, he spoke of killing him. He frequently upbraided both husband and wife, though he lived with them. Even after the child was born he continued to be disagreeable. The patient was rather low spirited and quieter after her marriage. She worried over her illegitimate pregnancy and the scolding from her father. But nothing was thought of all this, and it did not interfere with her activity. The birth was normal. She had no flow, no unfavorable symptoms, and sat up on the twelfth day. She is said to have appeared natural mentally. A week before admission the family returned from the christening, having left the patient apparently well. They now found her sitting in her chair, limp, with closed eyes, giving no answer to questions. Only after about twenty minutes could she be aroused. After her father had given her milk with whiskey in it, she claimed he had poisoned her. In the evening she was bright and lively, singing and dancing with the others, but in the night she woke up her husband, seemed frightened, said somebody was in the room and that he should get a priest as she was going to die. The husband went to sleep again. The next forenoon the patient claimed she had been frightened all night and thought her father was going to kill her husband. On the second day, while sitting at breakfast, she groped about for the bread plate for some time and then said she had been blind for a short time. During the day she had frequent spells in which she would close her eyes, become perfectly quiet and difficult to rouse. Sometimes at the beginning of these spells she would say âI am going.â She was then taken to her aunt and walked there, a distance of a few blocks. She was there for two days before going to the Observation Pavilion. In this time she is said to have been quiet for the most part, often apparently sleeping or staring. Once she said she was ârather dirty, filthy.â Once she tried to get out of the window, said it was a door and that she wanted to get out and take a walk. Above all, she had, in these two days, repeated peculiar seizures which the aunt and the husband described as follows: When sitting on a chair she would close her eyes, clench her fists, pound the side of the chair, get stiff, slide on the floor, then thrash her arms and legs about and move the head to and fro. She frothed at the mouth. After the attack, which lasted a few minutes, she breathed heavily for a while. Once she wiped off the froth with a handkerchief and gave the latter to the aunt, saying âBurn that, it is poison.â Before the attack she sometimes said that it got dark over her eyes and that her face felt funny, again that she had a pain in the stomach which worked towards her right shoulder. There was no cry in the beginning of the attack, but once she wet herself. After recovery the patient herself told the development of her psychosis thus: There was trouble between the father and the husband, and she was afraid of her father. On the day of the christening she took sick: a queer feeling came over her and she wondered whether she was going to die, âThen I seemed to lose myself, and when I came to I found my family standing around me.â Her father gave her whiskey and she thought it was poison. âThat night I had spells of dancing and singing, it must have been something I took, perhaps the liquor.â The same night she was frightened, thought her father might do some harm, and had a vision of a person in white standing at her bed. After that she had repeated spells in which she knew nothing until âI came to again.â âIt was a queer trembling.â At the _Observation Pavilion_ she was described as in a state of âintense mental depression,â taking no interest in things going on about her. She spoke, however; said she wanted to die, that she had imagined her father had given her poison, that every one was against her, and that people were talking about her. 1. _On admission_ the patient had a slightly elevated temperature, which soon subsided, full breasts but without inflammation. Sordes were not mentioned. For a few days she was essentially somewhat restless, getting out of bed, disarranging her clothes, wandering about--all in a rather deliberate, aimless way, sometimes vaguely resistive, again with free movements. She looked, dazed, sometimes stared straight ahead and looked âdreamy.â Occasionally there was a tendency to close her eyes. With the restlessness she looked at times âa little apprehensive,â or shrank away when approached. She spoke slowly, with initial difficulty, but answered quite a number of questions. The mental content of this period was displayed in the following utterances: She would ask for a priest, or say âHave I done something?â or âDo people want something?â or, when asked why she was here, she said âI have done damage to the city, didnât I?â (What have you done?) âI donât know.â Or she spoke of people watching her. When asked the day, she said âJudgment Day,â yet she knew the month. Once when asked what the place was she said, âThis is the hereafter.â When asked what had happened at home, she said: âVoices told me I was to be killed.â She was not clearly oriented, called the place Bellevue, asked âIsnât this a hospital?â yet again said, âWardâs Island, where they work.â On the day of admission she thought she came âthe day before,â but knew she had come in a boat. When asked her address, she said slowly, âDidnât I live at, etc.,â giving the address correctly. To the physician she said, âAre you my brother?â And on another occasion, âMy God! You are Charlieâ (brother). It was difficult to get her to eat, and she had to be spoon-fed. 2. Then she became more preoccupied, the restlessness was much less in evidence, it became necessary to tube-feed her, she retained her urine, answered a few questions, and when asked where she was, she said, âCalvary, ainât it?â (What house?) âHeaven, ainât it?â She still called the physician by the name of her brother. After a few days this gave way to a more marked stupor which lasted nearly two years. This was characterized most frequently by a complete inactivity. She usually lay or sat motionless, sometimes with mouth partly open, letting the flies crawl over her face, gazing in one direction, soiling, wetting, resisting moderately or markedly any interference, and had to be tube-fed. But this was not the invariable state. The most constant feature was her mutism, but even that was a few times interrupted. Thus, when after a visit from her uncle (towards the end of July, 1902) she tried to get out of the window and was prevented, she swore at the nurse. Or in August, 1902, when she got into another patientâs bed and was taken out, she resisted and said promptly: âI think it is a damned shame I canât get into my own bed.â But this was the extent of her talk for a year and a half. Nor was she always totally inactive. In the middle of July, 1902, she sometimes tried to get out of bed, wandered about, got into other patientsâ beds. It was on such an occasion that the above incident happened. In August, 1902, she sometimes tried to get out when the door was opened, and we have seen that she tried to get out of the window, but she did not change her placid expression at such times. Her motive was not known. On two occasions towards the end of 1902, when she was taken to a dance and was made to take part, she waltzed with considerable animation but did not speak. This was quite striking in that these incidents occurred in a setting of marked inactivity (i.e., a condition in which she had to be pushed to the table, pushed to the closet). She did not soil any more, but she sometimes drooled and had to be spoon-fed. However, on a third occasion when this was tried, she had to be dragged around. Finally, though her facial expression showed at times a preoccupied staring, she more often looked around, sometimes quite freely and often looked up promptly enough when accosted. But there was very little evidence of any affect at any time. We have seen that twice she swore a little when opposed. On another occasion she slapped a patient when the latter helped her. Twice she was seen crying a little without apparent provocation, but she did not laugh, and the only suggestion of pleasurable emotion was that at the two dances mentioned she could be led into a certain animation. Usually, even when she got less resistive towards the end, she was essentially apathetic. Once in January, 1903, she could be made to write her name but wrote her maiden name. In the end of 1903 she improved gradually (a condition not well observed), so that by December she answered some questions in a low tone. Even in April, 1904, she was still described as apathetic, though she had begun to do some work. 3. Then she improved markedly and began to work, looked after herself in a natural way, spoke freely, was entirely oriented and her mood generally presented nothing striking. But her mental attitude was still peculiar when she was questioned. She seemed somewhat inattentive, sulky, sneering. Thus, when asked why she was here, she said, âYou will have to ask those who brought me here.â She denied ever having been pregnant, said the nurses on the ward had spoken of her having had a child and that they had showed her a child (one was born on that ward about August, 1903) but that it was not hers. She thought it was wrong for the nurses to speak on the ward of her having been pregnant. Again questioned about her marriage, she first said she had not been married, again that she was married âa year agoâ (was in the hospital then). Again she spoke of her husband as her âgentleman friend,â claimed she called herself Mary M. (maiden name) until a girl friend wrote her a letter addressed to Mrs. F. From then on, she called herself by her married name. But she thought that probably they sometimes spoke of her marriage in fun. If she were Mrs. F. she would be living in Mr. F.âs house. On June 29, when again asked about her marriage, she said she was to have been married in December (correct date). (Were you?) âSo they say.â (Do you remember it?) âIn a way.â (When was the baby born?) âYou will have to ask somebody more superior to me, more experienced.â Then, when further questioned about the age of the baby, she said, âThe baby I saw in the ward was about a year old,â and she claimed not to remember ever having a baby. When asked why she had come here she said, âWell, I donât know, perhaps you know better, through sickness I guess,â and later: âWell, donât you ever get a cold and want doctors to examine you?â (What kind of a place?) âThis is a nice place for sensible people who have enough knowledge to know and realize what they come for.â But she knew the name of the place, the date, the names of persons. Questioned about the trouble with her father or her husbandâs trouble with him, she denied it, âIf he did (sc. have any trouble), I donât remember.â About her not speaking, she said, in answer to questions, âI didnât know what I was here for, what was the object in keeping me hereâ; and to other questions about her condition, âI donât know, those who examined me can tell you more about that.â Finally, she said in reply to the question, why she came here, âI donât remember _unless it was through fire_,â but would not explain what she meant. In the beginning of July, she again said that she had no recollection of her marriage. She then improved a great deal and finally appeared very natural, gave the retrospective account noted in the history, had a clear appreciation of the fact that she was married and had a child. She claimed that she had previously forgotten about her marriage and thought she was still merely keeping company with Mr. F. She claimed not to remember coming to the hospital, did not know what ward she came to, who the doctor and nurses were, in fact claimed that it was about a year before she knew where she was. But she remembered having been tube-fed. She could not say why she did not speak. But she appreciated that she had been ill. Ten years after discharge the husband, in answer to an inquiry, stated that she had been perfectly well and had had no trouble at three successive childbirths. CASE 4.--_Mary D._ Age: 20. Admitted to the Psychiatric Institute September 17, 1907. _F. H._ The grandfather and the father of the patient were alcoholics. The father died three years before the patientâs admission; he was killed in an accident. The mother stated that she herself was nervous, but she made a normal impression. _P. H._ The patient was described as bright at school and efficient in her work as a dressmaker, but she was rather quiet, inclined to stay at home and had not much inclination to consort with the other sex. She was rather proud. As an example of this is stated the fact that she was always somewhat sensitive, because the family lived in the basement of the house in which her mother was janitress. She did not menstruate until 16. It was about this time that her father was killed in an accident. She was considerably upset by this, talked a good deal about the way he was killed, but did not break down. The patient on recovery stated that it worried her because the father died without having any chance to get a priest. Six weeks before admission the patient was given a vacation, as there was not work enough in the shop, but she worked at home. Two or three weeks before admission her appetite failed somewhat, and ten days before admission, without any appreciable cause, she began to sleep badly, seemed somewhat nervous, became a little âfidgetyâ and said she worried because her mother had to work so hard. Later she began to speak about people saying that the ambulance would come for her and she heard voices saying âYou will be dead.â It is not known in what emotional setting these remarks were made. Her mother took her to a dispensary. On the way she asked the mother where she was going and said âI canât tell the number and I donât know where I am going. I think I am losing my mind.â She also said she could not understand any more what she read. She was put to bed. She then talked less, appeared stupid, and was inclined to refuse food. Four days before admission she claimed that she could see her dead father beckoning to her, again she said a certain young man was God. She was sent to the Observation Pavilion. On the day she went there she was reported to have shown a slight jaundice. The patient, after her recovery, added to the above account of the mother, that about two weeks before admission, for no reason which she could state, she began to feel quiet, and that
{'title': 'Benign Stupors: A Study of a New Manic-Depressive Reaction Type by August Hoch', 'source': 'Project Gutenberg', 'lang': 'en'}