Shell-shock and other neuropsychiatric problems : $b Presented in five hundred and eighty-nine case histories from the war literature, 1914-1918Southard, Elmer Ernest
History
Shell-shock and other neuropsychiatric problems : $b Presented in five hundred and eighty-nine case histories from the war literature, 1914-1918
Southard, Elmer Ernest
War neuroses; World War, 1914-1918 -- Medical care; World War, 1914-1918 -- Psychological aspects
A man, 19, suffered from shock due to emotional stress and shell fire.
He had terrifying dreams. After a short time, he developed paroxysmal
attacks of maniacal excitement. Just before the first attack he had
been helping in the kitchen, lay down on his bed, went to sleep, woke,
startled, flushed, and sweating, and made for the door as if terrified.
He remained in this state as if suffering from hallucinations of sight
and hearing, and without ability to recognize his wife, the doctors, or
the Sisters. When two strangers in uniform came in to observe him, the
adjutant became violent, as if the uniforms had started terror anew.
The attacks lasted from a few hours to a few days, coming on suddenly,
without apparent cause. One day he tried to get over the wall of the
playground. He came back and buried his head in his hands. Major Mott
spoke to him, whereupon he got up, looking terrified, made for the
door, and four orderlies were required for his restraint. At Napsbury
Hospital, to which he was sent, he made a complete recovery.
Mott suggests that we are dealing with a psychic equivalent of epilepsy.
_Re_ epileptic equivalents, compare notes from Lépine under 58 and 59.
IV. PHARMACOPSYCHOSES
(THE ALCOHOL, DRUG, AND POISON GROUP)
Pathological intoxication.
=Case 86.= (BOUCHEROT, 1915-6.)
A Territorial infantryman, aged 37, was in the habit of drinking a good
deal without getting drunk, and at the front drank a good deal of bad
brandy. He had just taken a considerable quantity when his regiment got
the order to charge. The charge was hardly over when the man became
greatly excited and hallucinated. He thought he was surrounded by
Germans and tried to transfix his comrades with the bayonet. Howling
and struggling he was carried to the rear.
He was soon brought to the asylum at Fleury after howling all night
and seeing the Boches and animals fighting among themselves. His hands
and tongue were tremulous and there were cramps in the calves of his
legs. On the 6th he expressed astonishment to find himself in hospital
and was found to have but slight memory of what had happened. He
remembered, however, that he had tried to kill his comrades. With the
deprivation of alcohol he became rapidly normal and was sent back to
the dépôt in a few days.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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