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
This man had been placed in the auxiliary service by the Council,
called to the colors December 13, 1914, and finally sent to the front
in May, 1915. In July he was made prisoner in a brush. He said, “I
cried out, ‘Comrades, what difference does it make to me whether I am
German or French? My officers are imbeciles that drink the blood of us
unlucky ones!’” He was interned in some camp whose name he could not
exactly give and reported that the Germans were very gentle with him,
that his real enemies were the French, for the French were against
him night and day. “As a matter of fact, among Germans the French are
nothing but _cochons malades_. The Germans are fine types.”
He was repatriated in May, 1916. He kept making verbose and neologistic
eulogia of the Germans. He had been a farm boy in Brittany, where he
had had headaches. He had been at Quimper Asylum in 1910. In fact, he
said his parents had tried to poison him and to have him assassinated;
they had charged him with setting fire to their house. His mother was
an imbecile, he said, who believed she was the Queen of France. His
recriminations did not stop short of himself. He had been accused of
kissing a girl and stealing apples; as a matter of fact he knew what to
do with girls.
He had a coarse face and a number of stigmata besides his name
_Agapithe_. He was kept at Villejuif as an imbecile.
Unfit for service: Question of feeblemindedness.
=Case 49.= (KASTAN, January, 1916.)
Walter N. was declared unfit for military service in 1912, on the
ground of mental incapacity. He had shown this clearly during his
period of training. He committed a number of slight offences secretly,
but not so secretly but that they were immediately discovered and
punishment meted out therefor. He could do nothing without aid. It
appears that his mental weakness had not been noticed in school, but
that his employers had thought him both feebleminded and irresponsible.
Nevertheless he always executed orders properly. While in hospital in
1912, he had occupied himself very little, sitting indifferently, quiet
and dreaming. At that time, he had shown poor calculating ability and
decreased power of perception. It also appears that he did not grasp
the nature of simple orders, the requisite associations being disturbed.
Despite this history, on September 11, 1914, he found himself being
transported. He claimed to be very tired. Upon reaching the city,
he picked up a large stone and raised his arm as if to strike the
transport leader. While N. was being bound by the transport leader in
consequence, he kicked at his leader’s shins.
In the clinic he resisted examination, moving his legs without
speaking, staring at the floor, moaning frequently, sitting motionless
with head hanging, answering monotonously repeated questions, but
turning his head at a loud noise. He felt ill. It appeared that he
was oriented and that his knowledge was well preserved although his
calculation ability was poor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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