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
The ideas which she expressed during this time referred to
a few topics only, namely, marriage, wealth, and State
prison. The remarkable fact was that all the ideas about
marriage and wealth were spoken of, often immediately,
again after some interval, now in the positive and again in
the negative sense. Thus she said she was “Mrs. S.,” again
“You kept me from marrying Mattie S.,” or “I am not
supposed to be here--I am a married person,” but also “You
kept me from getting married.” Or, “Take off that black
dress, I am a bride,” again “You have taken my bridal crown
off my head,” “The steamboats (seen from the window) are
mine--I own the ships, the oceans, the land and
everything,” or again, she said she owned a kingdom, was
Sh.’s wife, a wealthy woman, had millions. Sometimes she
connected the millions with Sh. “Sh. has millions.” On the
other hand, she said: “I owned all this before I came. I
have nothing now,” or “You have taken the regal crown from
me,” “You have made a pauper of me,” “They did it again,
they took my millions away,” or “Let me out, they are
taking my millions.”
Other ideas throughout this period were that this was a
State prison, that “bums” were around. On one occasion she
said “You can’t put down all these things and make me out a
lunatic.” At another time she pulled a patient’s hair and
then said without fun: “I fixed the leading lady of the
dump--she knows a lot, but she does not know enough to
keep her soup cool.” When questioned about this woman (who
at the time while cleaning had moved the furniture), she
said: “I don’t know where I am at.”
The orientation during these days was not markedly
disordered, when one got down to it. Although she spoke of
State prison, it was always found she knew the name and the
location of the hospital, the names of people around her,
even the date approximately, though she was apt to say it
was February 19, 1492, or October 19, 1492, or when the
year was not given as 1492 she said it was “1900 or 1901,
or 1911 or 1912.” Frequently, however, it was hard to hold
her attention.
Finally, it should be mentioned that she very often wet
herself in bed or when standing, even when standing in the
examining room.
2. The period following and lasting for two months may be
given in the form of abstracts of each note.
_November 7:_ Yesterday quiet, though struggling. Says
without change of expression, “I saw four people killed--my
mother, my brother, a priest, and my dear sister--we were
all killed.” Again, “I don’t know where I am,” “I am an
orphan, my people died” (without affect).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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