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
He stated at his hearing that no one had the right to send him back.
At that time even he conveyed the impression of being not quite normal
and was let off with his arrest only. Later he refused again to go on
guard duty, saying, “You have nothing to say at all. Perhaps you will
find out that we shall meet each other again in hell tomorrow morning.”
He was taken before the physician, who considered him mentally inferior
and not entirely appreciative of the nature of his acts. He was told
that the death penalty would meet such behavior, whereupon he remarked,
“I am not afraid of the death penalty,” staring excitedly at the
officer and trembling throughout his body. It seems that he had already
made an impression of mental inferiority in the troop, and had once
before said to an officer who wanted to send him to the front, that he
would not go; this had been regarded as almost a breach of discipline.
He had been in the habit of not reacting to the calls of his superiors,
and had smiled at their reproaches. He seemed to hold the opinion
that not even a company commander had power to order him to go back.
Examined in the clinic he held to the same opinion, that there was no
need of his going back; that they took volunteers; and that he wanted
to remain at the front. On the day of the deed, he had drunk a rye
whiskey. He had shaken off the non-commissioned officer because the
leader had seized him by the throat. In the clinic he often smiled and
wrinkled his forehead. He gave evasive and inadequate answers. Asked
about oaths and perjury, he remarked, “I prefer to remain silent.”
He said that one of his sisters was a little stupid. Study of his
previous history indicates that Friedrich L. had formerly been a quiet
and steady man, although he often had attacks of rage, breaking out
upon sudden excitements. As to his capacity in school, nothing could be
learned, since the Russians had taken the school registers away.
The analysis of this case seems to reduce to the question of
feeblemindedness and schizophrenia, unless some form of inborn
qualitative inferiority of mind be preferred as the diagnosis. On the
whole, possibly, the diagnosis of feeblemindedness seems preferable.
The entire symptom picture seems to relate to the patient’s one mental
attitude about sticking at the front, _ruat coelum_.
A French soldier who admired Germans.
=Case 48.= (LAUTIER, 1915.)
A man with the extraordinary first name of _Agapithe_ (Laurent insists
on the frequency of strange first names in degenerate families) came
from Val-de-Grâce to Villejuif June 5, 1916, with the diagnosis
of mental weakness, interpretative ideas of persecution, mental
excitement, recrimination, logorrhoea, and a tendency to revengeful
reactions.
On arrival the patient said he must be in an insane asylum because he
heard _spiritiques_ talking together. He, however, was “not insane”
and began expounding his plans for revenge with the words “Kill,”
“Cut-throat.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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