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
An engineer, 31, in the Landwehr at the outset of the campaign, was
first put on sentry service in Berlin on the ground that he was
an Adventist. He was later put into the military service and had
difficulty because he did not want to serve on Sunday. He was shoved
from one company to another. He refused to be inoculated and was
arrested therefor. In the prison, he began to hear God’s voice calling
to him distinctly to tell his fellow-men that the end of this was going
to be the end of all things. Back in the barracks, he again heard a
voice--“_Come forth!_”--“_Go!_” He went! He had his revelations then
published in the form of tracts, and held Bible readings day and night
among his friends in Bremen--looking for the signs of the times in the
Bible sayings. One of his fellow Adventists finally warned the police,
and the military authorities put him under psychiatric observation. He
proved to have numerous stigmata of hysteria. He talked freely about
his visions, and was aware that he was punishable.
Here, then, was a case of hysterical psychosis, liberated by military
service.
Fugue, psychoneurotic.
=Case 173.= (LOGRE.)
The question, Is this escape really a fugue? is brought up not only
in epileptic, alcoholic, and melancholic cases, but also in cases
suggestive of psychoneurosis. A son of an insane person was subject
to what may be called a phobic or obsessive fugue. The case may be
called one of morbid cowardice and was observed in a soldier in the
trenches. In point of fact, the man had always been an anxious and
fearsome person, given to phobias. He had night terrors and fear of
diseases and death. He was agoraphobic in adolescence, and had to have
a policeman or passerby go with him through a public place. He had had
also suicidal and homicidal obsessions, and periods of psychoneurotic
anxiety.
This man’s sojourn at the front put his morbid personality to a cruel
test. He was soon known by all in the trenches as a _froussard_. He had
a terrible fear of the guns, jumped, grew pale, trembled, complained
of palpitations, lumps in the throat, etc. He was the laughing-stock
of his comrades; but according to the patient himself, he was more
afraid of his own emotion than of the shells, although his comrades
couldn’t understand it. He was employed as a kitchenman, in a post not
much exposed. A more resolute comrade helped him to escape, escaping
also himself, thus bringing up the problem of _fugue á deux_. Limited
responsibility was decided for the case, although the fugue had been
aided by his morbid anxiety. Of course, his place was not in the
trenches at all. He was condemned to two years in prison. After his
sentence, he was given a chance to rehabilitate himself by sending him
again to the trenches, but he had to be evacuated a few weeks later on
account of his increasing emotionality.
Shell-shy; war bride pregnant: Fugue with amnesia and mutism.
=Case 174.= (MYERS, January, 1916.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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