We have also found that the form of visualization common in normal speech is
the visualization of eye sensations; that in unusual situations we may have
visualizations from other sense areas, such as the ear, taste or smell, but
these are the RARE EXCEPTION.
From all this data it would naturally follow that some sort of term is
needed to designate this condition. Last year I probed to find such a term
without much success.
At present I see no reason why it should not be called an Asthenia; it is
surely the weakening of a mental process that is strong in normal
individuals. The evidence here presented shows that. I doubt whether there
is any marked pathological change, since the individual may be educated out
of it; but this does not necessarily follow as proven with my dog in
Berlin.[2] As a general designation, then, I should consider Asthenia as
apropos.
One objection to this is that the weakness is by this terminology lacking in
localization. Our data above has shown us that the location of the trouble
is visual; that is, it is situated about a centre of sensory registration
that deposits data from the eye; this must naturally then be located
somewhere in or near the cuneus. We could therefore add to the terminology
this idea of a minute localization and call it a Centre Asthenia.
Some may prefer to carry the matter one step farther and add the name of the
centre in which this weakness is located, but I fear if I take this step and
complete my terminology by the word "Visual Centre Asthenia," it will, as
such, not cover quite all the cases, for I find that sometimes the
visualization is absent in other areas as well, and also the holding of an
emotion of pleasure or pain and of other dominating mental attitudes that
are sometimes visualized would not, therefore, be included. I would
therefore retract the broader claim in order to place the term on a
conservative basis and call the essence of the lesion simply no more or less
than a Centre Asthenia. As well as visual Asthenia, the following terms
might be considered as applicable: collaborative centre asthenia;
imaginative centre asthenia; visual creative centre asthenia; picture
producing centre asthenia. We say neurasthenia when the trouble is not in
the nerves as such, so much as it is in the collaborative centres. More of
this later. Here in stuttering the trouble is also collaborative, and we
can be still more definite than that and say the trouble is with the
collaboration of visualization. So if I were forced, however, to choose one
term from all these, my choice would be "Visual Centre Asthenia." This
indicates a new and rational treatment. But of this later.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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