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
_Nov. 9._ During the night she is reported to have varied
between stiffness with mutism and a more relaxed state.
Once, the nurse found her with tears, saying “I want to go
down the hall to my sister--to the river,” and a short time
later with fright: “Is that my mother?” Again she said: “Oh
dear, I wish this boat would stop--stop it--where are we
going?” In the forenoon she was quiet and unresponsive. In
the afternoon she said in a somewhat perplexed way, “We
were in a ship and we were ’most drowned.” (When was that?)
“Day before yesterday it must have been”--Again she said in
the same manner: “It was like water. I was going down. I
could hear a lot of things.” She claimed this happened
“to-day.” “I saw all the people in here, it was all full
of water,” “I have been lying here a long time--do you
remember the time I was under the ground and it seemed full
of water and every one got drowned and a sharp thing struck
me?” “I was out in a ship and I went down there in a
coffin.” When asked whether she had been frightened at such
times, she said: “No, I didn’t seem to be, I just lay
there.” She also said: “the water rushed in,” and when
asked why she put up her arms, she said, “I did it to save
the ship.”
_Nov. 10._ She is still fairly free. She said that when she
was on the ship things looked changed, “the picture over
there looked like a saint, the beds looked queer.” (How do
things look now?) “All right.” (The picture too?) “The same
as when I was going down into a dark hole.” When asked
later in the day where she was, she said, “In the Pope’s
house, Uncle Edward is it?” but after a short time she
added, “It is Ward’s Island, isn’t it?”
_Nov. 11._ Inactive, inaccessible, but for the most part
not rigid.
_Nov. 14._ Varies between mutism with resistance and more
relaxed inactivity. To-day lies in a position repeatedly
assumed by her, namely, on her stomach with head raised,
resistive towards any interference, immobile face, totally
inaccessible.
_Nov. 15._ Freer. She said: “One day I was in a coffin,
that’s the day I went to Heaven.” She also said she used to
see “the crucifix hanging there” (on the ceiling)--“not now
but when I was going to Heaven.” (When was that?) “Over in
that bed” (her former bed). Later she added, “The place
changed so ... things used to be coming up and down
(dreamily)--that was the day I was coming up on the ship or
going down.” She is quite oriented.
_Nov. 17._ Usually stands about with immobile face,
preoccupied, but she eats voluntarily.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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