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 corporal, 39, began to be sleepless and weary, with headache, pains
in the back, and dizziness. He was homesick. Upon hospital examination
he was very variable in mood, rather hostile in attitude, and at the
same time suggestible. He was so confident of being sent home that he
anticipated the diagnosis by sending his belongings back to Sicily at
the time he was transferred to hospital from his regiment.
After a month’s rest and psychotherapy, the man’s general condition
was greatly improved; he was no longer sleepless and had no longer any
sign of neurotic disorder. He still maintained that his memory was
weak, although in point of fact his memory was very good and quick. He
could narrate all the facts about his neurasthenic state. The man’s
complaints were out of all proportion to any demonstrable somatic
disorder. He was discharged, cured, to be put to work at shoemaking,
with the diagnosis, neurasthenia. This neurasthenic state developed
after antityphoid injection.
_Re_ the occasional curious effects of antityphoid injection, see Case
65.
Neurasthenia (monosymptomatic: Sympathy with the enemy).
=Case 181.= (STEINER, October, 1915.)
A non-commissioned reserve officer, 26, in civil life a merchant, had a
strong hereditary taint, having been also in peace times very nervous
and on that account obliged to give up his studies. At the age of 14,
he had seen a man fall down from a roof and was much excited about it.
At the beginning of mobilization he suffered a functional aphonia for
a few days. He could not let his men shoot at the enemy because of an
idea that occurred forcibly to him: that the enemy’s soldiers had wives
and children! He felt badly on this account. Later he had a constant
taste of blood in his mouth and a smell of corpses in his nose. Toward
nightfall all these symptoms would change for the worse, and the
symptoms would become especially bad whenever he had anything to do
with the wounded. He tended to weep much and was easily frightened and
had also various physical symptoms of neurasthenia.
_Re_ the amazing sympathy with the enemy, see Case 229 (Binswanger) and
Case 554 (Arinstein), in which chloroform lifted from a German and a
Russian consciousness respectively opposite emotional tendencies.
Shell-shock CLAUSTROPHOBIA: Preferred shell exposure to shell-proof
tunnel.
=Case 182.= (STEINER, October, 1915.)
A colleague of Steiner, an army physician, 35 years of age, with strong
hereditary taint, having two sick sisters (one dementia praecox), had
been incapacitated for work through a neurasthenia a few months before
mobilization. However, at first he felt very well, marching through
Belgium and into Northern France.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account