How to Care for the Insane: A Manual for NursesGranger, William D.
Science
How to Care for the Insane: A Manual for Nurses
Granger, William D.
Psychiatric nursing
Monomania really means an insanity with but one, or, at most, a small
class of delusions of the same character, the rest of the mind showing no
disease. Hardly any one believes in the existence of such a narrow limit
to insanity, and, getting beyond this point, there is no agreement where
the limit should be set up to mark and bound it.
Some think there is a special insanity of the emotions only, and call it
"emotional insanity." There is not an agreement of opinion as to what
emotional insanity is; the idea seems to be that the emotions, or one of
them, so overpower reason and will as to make the person irresponsible.
This condition is supposed to exist without disturbances of the
intellectual faculties, and to be unaccompanied by delusions,
hallucinations, or illusions. Others see in these cases no evidence of
insanity; nothing but over-indulgence of the emotions, or a want of
exercise of self-control, or an excuse for crime.
Some persons believe that the appetites over-indulged become morbid and
produce disease of the nervous system, and as a consequence the reason and
will are weakened in relation to this indulged appetite, and the opinion
is reached that it is a form of insanity. An indulged appetite for drink
is called dipsomania. Others believe that unless there are present the
usual symptoms, associated as they generally appear in insanity, these
cases are nothing but unbridled appetites or vices.
_Moral Insanity._--There are those who claim that the moral nature alone
may be diseased, and the persons in whom this occurs are said to lose the
appreciation of right and wrong, or have an uncontrollable propensity to
do some wrong act, and take a peculiar pleasure in so doing. Special names
are given to these acts, according to their character, as "kleptomania, an
impulse that prompts to steal"; or "pyromania, love of setting things on
fire"; or "homicidal mania, an intense desire to kill." Other persons
considering these cases and finding no delusions, or intellectual
disturbances, or change in feeling, thinking, or acting due to disease,
call the condition one of crime only.
These are difficult matters to understand, and those who make a life-study
of insanity do not fully understand them, or agree together as to what
they know. They are, however, terms of common speech, and it is well to
have some idea of them, as it will add interest to the study of the
patients under care and charge.
CHAPTER IV.
THE DUTIES OF AN ATTENDANT.
_What an Attendant Should First Learn._--The duties of an attendant upon
the insane are varied, arduous, and exacting; they are associated with
irritations, perplexities, and anxieties, bring grave responsibilities,
and call for the exercise of tact, judgment, and self-control.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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