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 private, 28, was seen by Lt. Col. Myers at a base hospital. This
deaf-mute wrote, “I was standing and a shell bursted and that is all
I can remember.” This might have happened six days previously. The
patient wrote vaguely about a walk to “windy corner”; about being
billeted in a dug-out, a train journey, and another hospital. He was
deaf, deficient in sensibility throughout, especially in the left arm
and left side of the face, and had severe headache. Two days later he
started distinctly when hands were clapped while he was writing, but at
the next hand-clapping there was no response.
After Lt. Col. Myers wrote down, “Imitate me,” and made consonant
sounds, the patient succeeded imitating them. “You hear me a little
now,” Lt. Col. Myers wrote. “Is this the first time you have spoken?”
Patient replied, “I hope the Lord I can get my speech.” “But you did
speak just now. Read this word. Say it.” Whereupon he was got to say
his name and number.
The therapy was proceeding properly when suddenly he was seized with
convulsions, limb movements chiefly clonic, back arched, eyes starting,
later upturned. The patient pulled out a crucifix from a locker near
the bed and regarded it ecstatically (pulse 85, corneal reflexes
preserved). Three minutes later there was quieting down, and the
patient was induced to talk. He began to talk about his wife. He had
just been “seeing a farm and all the fighting.” A shell must have come
in there. He had “seen the Lord Who saved him.” Intense headache and
thirst followed. According to the patient the excitement was due to
recovery of speech.
He later said, “It was just like a dream when I came to. I was sweating
awful. I was seeing the Lord while I was in the farm by the Captain. I
dreamed that I had the cross in my hand to meet him coming. I saw the
trenches and the dug-outs and the wife.” In point of fact, the Captain
at the farm had had his arm blown off, and he had found him lying on
the straw unconscious. Under hypnosis it appeared that he had gone to
a dugout from the farm and that at the clearing station he had been
“raving, seeing things, shells, trenches, and things like that, sir.” A
slow recovery was made after evacuation to England. Seven months later
he returned to the front.
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