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 physician examined the Belgian soldier and declared him responsible,
although a little sick. All three were condemned to imprisonment. The
Belgian attracted attention in prison through crises of anxiety and
agitation; he had terrible nightmares, seeing Germans in his cell and
hearing gunshots. He was accordingly sent to a special infirmary of
the dépôt, whence July 24 to Sainte-Anne, July 26 to Villejuif. He
talked Flemish, hardly understanding French, and spoke slowly and with
difficulty. He hardly knew how to read or write. He had been a truckman.
At 18, this soldier, according to his own account, began to have
nervous crises in which he fell, lost consciousness, bit his tongue,
foamed at the mouth and urinated involuntarily. The attacks were
somewhat rare. His father sent him in 1910 to Gheel where he stayed two
years. Returning home he helped his father in the trucking work.
When the Germans came the family fled to France and, about the end of
1914, he was put into the military service and sent to the front after
a very short period of instruction.
The man had followed the example of his two comrades without taking
the slightest thought. He did not understand the gravity of his act.
He was not remorseful, regretful or angry against his judges. He was
well oriented but quite indifferent. He was a tall, intelligent looking
man with adherent lobules, slight facial asymmetry and evidence of
tongue biting. He wrote like a child and read slowly, spelling out the
complicated words. He was employed at various manual tasks during his
sojourn at the asylum and had no epileptic attack. He was given over to
the Belgian military authorities October 5, 1915.
Seizures in a feebleminded subject--psychogenic components.
=Case 57.= (BONHOEFFER, July, 1915.)
A 21-year old tailor, unused to marching, went into the field in
August. A month later, after a period of long standing, he was
nauseated and fell in a faint. Upon waking, his fingers were stiff
and he had pains in his legs. He got better in the reserve hospital
and was sent back to the line. On the way he had a similar seizure,
with nausea and fainting. On the way back to Berlin, he had a seizure
in the railway station, and was carried to the Charité Clinic. At the
clinic he stated that he could feel an attack come on; that he first
had _Angst_ all over his body, and that it was hot inside of his head.
Latterly he had been able to stop an attack by clenching his teeth,
after which the attack would not proceed except that all became black
before his eyes.
He was observed for four weeks but no seizure appeared. He was
somatically negative; his Wassermann reaction was negative. There was
nothing hysterical about his make-up; he was somewhat surly and of low
mental grade. He was unwilling to walk alone for fear of attacks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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