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
_Onset of Psychosis:_ Nine days before admission a young
man died in the house where they lived. The next day her
mother insisted on the patient and her sister going to the
funeral. On coming home the patient complained of being
afraid and having a funny feeling. She woke up at 2:30 that
night and lit all the gas, for which she could give no
explanation. The day following, or a week before admission,
she was slow, confused, could not get her clothes together.
The next day she was restless and worried, giving a
superficial explanation for the latter. She played the
piano a great deal. The following day she was fidgety and
cried. At 4 p.m. she was put to bed and appeared to fall
asleep. At midnight when a priest called she said to him
privately that she was all over the world, that she went to
the 12th floor of the Metropolitan Building, that she sat
down and took the man’s money, $7, and came right away. She
recognized the priest. Three days before admission she
wanted to stay in bed, kept her eyes closed. When spoken to
she would smile but did not open her eyes. She did not pass
her urine all day. Her mother then gave her some medicine
which the doctor had left. The patient immediately had a
peculiar attack in which she heaved her breast, drew her
head back, clenched her fists and worked her feet. Saliva
escaped from the side of her mouth. This attack lasted some
three to five minutes.
Her mother then called an ambulance and she was taken to
the _Observation Pavilion_. She thought that the ambulance
doctor was an uncle, a soldier in the Philippines, of whom
she was very fond. There she remained in bed, with all her
muscles relaxed, her mouth constantly open, saying nothing
and indeed resisting efforts which were made to get her to
open her eyes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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