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
In one of the wards she said she thought people were there
on her account, were waiting for her death. She did not
care for a time whether she died or not. She knew she tried
to choke herself occasionally. Asked how she behaved, she
first said she was quiet. (Were you not restless?) “I used
to get tired and have backache and roll around in bed.” She
also felt like running away sometimes, wanted to get out of
bed and wanted to walk about. (What about going to the
river?) “I used to say that.” She claimed not to have been
mixed up at any time and to remember everything. Remarkable
is the fact that she claimed she _did not worry at all_,
“_I felt I was lost and would not worry._ I used to worry
at home and at Dr. M.’s (the private sanatorium) but not
here. Here I never worried, I did not care where I went.”
She said she did not talk because she was bashful in the
presence of doctors, sometimes she felt afraid of them,
afraid they would kill her, put poison in her food when
they fed her. “When my people came, I said I did not want
to live, wanted to kill myself. I used to cry.” Again asked
why she did not talk, she admitted she really did not know.
Once she said she was bashful because she soiled her bed.
She did not want to go to the closet because she was afraid
of the nurse. She denied hearing voices.
In addition to the activity incidental to her attempts at self-injury,
this patient showed an unusual degree of resistiveness and with this
some affect, for she appeared to be irritated and at times moaned. Still
more unusual were the appearances of delusions not associated with
death but with a vivid form of life, namely, a love affair. Occasionally
she spoke of her imaginary lover “Harry.” Another atypical feature was a
fair memory for the period when she was in stupor. She claimed to
remember much of her movements and this claim was substantiated by her
answers to questions after recovery.
CASE 10.--_Margaret C._ Age: 23. Single. Admitted to the
Psychiatric Institute November 13, 1913.
_F. H._ Heredity was absolutely denied. The mother is
living and made a natural impression. The father died at
65, nine months before patient’s admission, of cardio-renal
disease. Two brothers and one sister died of acute
diseases. One sister died in childbirth. Three brothers and
one sister were said to be well.
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