Benign Stupors: A Study of a New Manic-Depressive Reaction TypeHoch, August
Science
Benign Stupors: A Study of a New Manic-Depressive Reaction Type
Hoch, August
Manic-depressive illness; Stupor
_P. H._ As a child she was quick tempered, quite a spitfire
and given to tantrums. At the age of 14 she became a
vaudeville actress in Cleveland, which was the home of her
childhood. When 17 she married a Jew, although she was
herself a Catholic. Her husband noted that she was fretful,
sensitive, resentful and quick tempered, although apt to
recover quickly from her rages. Previously healthy,
neurotic symptoms began with marriage, taking the form of
stomach trouble and a tendency to fatigue. Shortly after
marriage an abortion was induced. After being married for
two years she had a quarrel and separated from her husband.
They were reconciled later, but in the meantime she had
been having relations with another man. When 20 an
abdominal operation was performed in the hope of relieving
her gastric symptoms, but no improvement occurred. The
patient after recovery stated that she continued to be
nervous, shaky and dizzy, at times trembling when going to
bed at night. Two years later, however, she took up
Christian Science and showed objectively some improvement
in her health, although according to her later accounts she
continued to feel somewhat nervous and fatigable. Her
husband stated that at this time she also began to ponder
much about such questions as the difference between life
and death, what “matter” was, and also studied “grammar”
and “etiquette.” According to the patient some five or six
months before admission she began to have peculiar
sensations following intercourse--a feeling of bulging in
the arms, legs and back of the neck. One evening after an
automobile ride there were peculiar sensations on her right
side like “electricity” or as if she were inhaling an
anesthetic. She gasped and thought she was dying. Two
months before her admission she went with her husband and
his family to a summer resort where she felt increasingly
what had always been a trouble to her, namely, the nagging
of this family.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account