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
February 12, 1915, he returned to the hospital with a complete aphonia.
This was immediately after the naval engagement in the North Sea.
Three days later he was treated with electricity directly applied to
the vocal cords. March 20 he was discharged with speech completely
recovered. As soon as he went on leave, however, his voice was lost for
the third time, and he was still aphonic at time of report.
Shell-shock MUTES observed, then DREAMED OF: MUTISM developed the
SECOND NIGHT after shell explosion.
=Case 265.= (MANN, June, 1915.)
A volunteer of 20 was made unconscious for a short time by a shell
explosion, but was still fully able to speak when brought to the field
hospital.
In the second night after the explosion, however, he dreamed that
he had lost his speech. In the ward, meantime, he had seen a number
of shell-shock mutes. Following this dream of aphasia, came several
weeks of mutism, which then cleared up. According to Mann, this is
experimental proof of the psychogenic origin of a mutism.
Mortar explosion: Hysterical deafness.
=Case 266.= (LATTES and GORIA, March, 1917.)
A young soldier, a peasant, fell down unconscious when a mortar
exploded killing several men. He regained consciousness a few hours
later but was deaf on both sides. He looked dazed and did not
spontaneously move, having to be called for meals. Communicating by
writing, he could tell all the details of the accident.
The laryngeal and corneal reflexes were absent and there was a
hyperesthesia and hypalgesia of the right side of the body. No
anatomical basis for the deafness could be determined.
Shell explosion: Onomatopoeic noises in ears.
=Case 267.= (BALLET, 1914.)
A Zouave was with his squad at Tracy-les-Val Church, October, 1914,
when the roof was burst in by a shell which wounded four men. The
Zouave felt a strange emotion with trembling, and whistling in his
ears. However, he helped his comrades into a neighboring car. From
that time forward, he was very emotional, and felt noises in his ear,
sometimes humming, sometimes whistling. At Compiègne Hospital a lumbar
puncture was made, perhaps with a therapeutic purpose, but this gave
no results. The noises were heard as a whistling _pseeee_ followed by
a _boom_,--an onomatopoeia recalling the whistling and bursting of
the bomb. There was, in short, no labyrinthine lesion, but merely an
obsessive mental phenomenon. There were no ear lesions objectively. The
man developed a stuttering some time after the humming and whistling in
the ear.
Injury of eyes by gravel from shell-burst: Photophobia, blepharospasm,
facial anesthesia, pains.
=Case 268.= (GINESTOUS, January, 1916.)
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