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
Another odd feature was that the patient, who had been sober in civil
life, had become intoxicated several times after going into the
army. Physically, he was of low stature, but otherwise well built.
Neurologically, he was entirely negative. There was no sign of venereal
disease. There were a few stigmata of degeneration; for instance, there
was very little hair upon the face, the ears were unequal in size, and
the teeth were somewhat anomalously set. Mentally, he was below par;
for instance, he could not add mentally two numbers of two digits.
As to his desertion, the patient says he does not know what he did;
that he learned of his act only from his comrades in the morning; that
he remembered having left his duty _pour aller satisfaire un besoin_.
A specialist in escapes (epileptic fugues).
=Case 62.= (LOGRE, March, 1917.)
An epileptic fugue with recidivism is described by Logre. He described
himself as a specialist in escapes. As a schoolboy, he had practised
escapes and run away without purpose, and without remembering fully
what he had done. His father would bring him back to school. At first
they had punished him and then would pardon him. These escapades in
his work as a shoemaker caused him to lose various places, but he had
been kept by one employer for a long time nevertheless. From 11 years
on, this patient had never ceased living either in foreign parts or in
prison.
The fugues on military service began to multiply. The military chiefs
did not abide the escapades like the schoolmaster or the employer.
Every punishment he received had to do with some fugue. Three times
he gave himself up to the military authorities. Three times after a
few more days’ service or a week in prison, he left the barracks or
escaped. There had never been any appeal throughout this history to an
alienist. On the declaration of war, he had returned to Belgium and
was put into the army; whereupon in January, he carried out a fugue of
a few hours which was rewarded with eight days in prison. There was a
five-days fugue in July, whereupon he was taken before the council.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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