Popular Superstitions, and the Truths Contained Therein: With an Account of MesmerismMayo, Herbert
History
Popular Superstitions, and the Truths Contained Therein: With an Account of Mesmerism
Mayo, Herbert
Mesmerism; Parapsychology and medicine; Superstition
The phenomena of insanity may be arranged under five heads: The first,
the insane temperament; the next three the fundamental forms of mental
derangement; the fifth, the paroxysmal state. The features of the
insane temperament are various; some of them are incompatible with the
simultaneous presence of others. When a group of them is present, as a
change in natural character, without insanity, insanity is threatened:
no form of insanity manifests itself without the presence of some of
them. The features of the insane temperament are these: The patient
withdraws his sympathies from those around him, is shy, reserved,
cunning, suspicious, with a troubled air, as if he felt something to
be wrong, and wonders if you see it; he is capricious, and has flaws
of temper; being talkative, he is flighty and extravagant; he is
hurried in his thoughts, and mode of speaking, and gestures; he has
fits of absence, in which he talks aloud to himself; he is restless,
and anxious for change of place. Of the elementary forms of insanity,
one consists in the entertainment of mental delusions: the patient
imagines himself the Deity, or a prophet, or a monarch, or that he
has become enormously wealthy; or that he is possessed by the devil,
or is persecuted by invisible beings, or is dead, or very poor, or
that he is the victim of public or private injustice. The second form
is moral perversion: the patient is depressed in spirits without a
cause, perhaps to the extent of meditating suicide; or he feels an
unaccountable desire to take the lives of others; or he is impelled
to steal, or to do gratuitous mischief; or he is a sot; or he has fits
of ungovernable and dangerous rage. The third form exhibits itself
in loss of connexion of ideas, failure of memory, loss of common
intelligence, disregard of the common decencies of life. Each of these
three elementary forms is sometimes met with alone; generally two
are combined. Sensorial illusions are common in insanity; auditory,
unaccompanied by visual illusions, are almost peculiar to it, and to
the cognate affection of delirium from fever or inflammation of the
brain. To the head of the paroxysmal state belongs the history of
exacerbations of insanity, of their sudden outbursts in persons of the
insane temperament, of their preferential connexion with this or that
antecedent condition of the patient, of their occasional periodicity.
VII. In congenital idiotcy and imbecility, the relation of the mind and
brain is normal. Often the defective organization is apparent through
which the intelligence is repressed. In many countries a popular
belief prevails that the imbecile have occasional glimpses of higher
knowledge. There is no reason evident why their minds should not be
susceptible of the abnormal relation.
VIII. In sleep, the mind and brain are in the normal relation. But what
is sleep, psychically considered?
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