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
3. For two more months she was apathetic and appeared
disinterested, often would not reply, again, at the same
interview, she would do so promptly and with natural voice.
This condition may be illustrated by the summary of a note
made on January 29, 1908, which is representative of that
period. It is stated that she sat about apathetically all
day, appeared sluggish, but was fairly neat about her
appearance and cleanly in her habits. There was at no time
any evidence of affect, except when asked by the examiner
to put out her tongue so that he could stick a pin in it
she blushed and hid her face. When asked whether she
worried about anything, she denied this. When questions
were asked, she sometimes answered promptly and in normal
voice, again simply remained silent in spite of repeated
urging. On the whole, it seemed that simple impersonal
questions were answered promptly; whereas difficult
impersonal questions or questions which referred to her
condition were not answered at all. She proved to be
oriented. Thus she gave the day of the week, month, year,
the name of the hospital, names of the doctors and nurses
promptly. She also counted quickly and did a few simple
multiplications quickly. But she was silent when asked
where the hospital was located, how long she had been here,
whether she was here one or six months, how she felt.
Questions in regard to the condition she had passed
through, or involving difficult calculations, she did not
answer. However, some questions regarding her condition
asked in such a way that they could be answered by “yes” or
“no” were again answered quite promptly. Thus when asked
whether her head felt all right she said, “Yes, sir.” (Is
your memory good?) “Yes.” (Have you been sick?) “No, sir.”
(Are you worried?) “No.”
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