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
As to his military crime, he said he had been celebrating the emperor’s
birthday the last three days, being urged on by acquaintances and
drinking whiskey. He was, in fact, on a spree and did not eat properly.
He had met a student in the railway station and had forgotten all about
his military service. He remembered having spoken with the waiter,
remembered telling the student that he was going to commit suicide, and
the student had drunk seltzer with him. January 29, he for some reason
drank no more, and then it occurred to him that he ought to go back to
duty. He remembered that he was easily led astray. He had once thought
of becoming a tanner but had been dissuaded from the trade because of
its bad smell.
The analysis of this case must consider, first, syphilis.
Supposing, however, that this hypothesis is not substantiated
by laboratory findings, the hypothesis of feeblemindedness
might well be raised. It seems possible, if not probable,
that this patient was in the subnormal group, lying between
normality and feeble-mindedness proper. The value of mental
tests would here be extreme. There seems to be no evident
epilepsy, and the majority of the phenomena can perhaps best be
explained by alcoholism. Possibly the case is one of so-called
pathological intoxication. The patient’s own story that,
although he had been always subject to drink, he had been less
tolerant of alcohol since a fall from his horse, seems to be
entirely consistent with the post-traumatic history of numerous
cases, so that it would hardly be wise to consider that alcohol
accounts for the whole story. We must raise then in succession
the hypothesis of syphilis, feeblemindedness, alcoholism, and
coarse brain disease, bearing in mind also early stammering.
As to the utilization of such a man, it would appear that a
supervision of him with absolute countermanding of alcohol in
view of the decrease in tolerance of alcohol since the fall
from his horse might perhaps preserve this man for some form of
military service.
_Re_ German and French war alcoholism, Soukhanoff remarks that the
conditions in these countries were in strong contrast to those in
Russia. In Russia there was a great decrease in the number of cases of
acute alcoholic psychosis; particularly at the time of mobilization,
there were few cases of alcoholic psychosis. He says that during the
Russo-Japanese war, alcoholic psychoses constituted a third of all the
mental cases observed. This figure corresponds with that quoted above
from Lépine (see under Case 86). Soukhanoff, writing in 1915, had not
observed personally a single case of alcoholic psychosis. Incidentally,
the number of cases of psychosis in the Russian army had remained in
general small.
Desertion by mild alcoholic dement.
=Case 91.= (KASTAN, January, 1916.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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