Psycho-Analysis and the War NeurosesFreud, Sigmund
History
Psycho-Analysis and the War Neuroses
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis; War neuroses
The material brought forward by Oppenheim to support his views was
in no way suited to uphold his abstruse theories. To be sure, he
described with his usual precision characteristic symptoms, which this
war has produced in deplorable numbers, and also gave to them somewhat
high-sounding names (Akinesia amnestica, Myotonoklonia trepidans) that
said nothing as to their nature; these descriptions, however, are not
especially convincing with reference to his theoretical conceptions[2].
There were, it is true, many who agreed with Oppenheim’s views, though
for the most part with limitations. Goldscheider holds that the cause
of these nervous symptoms is partly physical and partly psychical;
Cassierer, Schuster and Birnbaum are of the same opinion. Wollenberg’s
question, as to whether the war neuroses were caused through emotion
or shock, Aschaffenburg answered by stating that there was here
concerned the joint effect of emotion and concussion. As one of the few
who obstinately persisted in maintaining the mechanistic idea I will
mention Lilienstein, who categorically demanded that the word and the
concept of “mind”, also that of “functional” and “psychic”, and more
especially that of “psycho-genesis” should be struck out of the medical
terminology; he maintained that this would simplify the conflict
and facilitate the investigation, treatment and examination of the
casualties; the progressive anatomical technique would certainly sooner
or later discover the material foundations of the neuroses.
We must here refer to the train of thought pursued by V. Sarbó,
who seeks for the cause of the war neuroses in the microscopical
destruction of tissue and hemorrhages in the central organ of the
nervous system; these, he says, originate through direct concussion,
sudden pressure of the cerebro-spinal fluid, compression of the spinal
cord in the foramen magnum, etc. V. Sarbó’s theory is only supported
by a few authors. In this connection I might mention Sachs and Freud,
who consider that the shock puts the nerve cells into a condition
of heightened excitability and exhaustability, which is then the
immediate cause of the neuroses. Finally, Bauer and Fauser look upon
the traumatic neuroses as the nervous results of disturbances of the
endocrine glands produced by the shock, and as similar therefore to the
post-traumatic Basedow’s disease.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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