The mind of the child is so unstable and yet so highly developed, that
symptoms of nervous disturbance are more frequent and of greater
intensity than in later life. Only rarely and in exceptional cases do
certain symptoms, common in childhood, persist into adult life or
appear there for the first time, and then usually in persons who, if
they are not actually insane, are at least suffering from intense
nervous strain. We have already mentioned the symptom of negativism
and noted its occasional occurrence as an accompaniment of mental
disorder in adult life, and its frequency among children who are
irritable or irritated. Similarly, we may cite the digestive neuroses
of adult life to explain the common refusal of food and the common
nervous vomiting of the second year of life. Thus, for example, there
exists in adult life a disturbance of the nervous system which is
called "anorexia nervosa." A boy of nineteen was brought to the
Out-patient Department of Guy's Hospital suffering from this
complaint. He was little more than a skeleton, unable to stand, hardly
able to sit, and weighing only four and a half stones. His mother,
who came with him, stated that he had always been nervous, and that
lately, after receiving a call to join the army as a recruit, his
appetite, which had for some time been capricious, had completely
disappeared. In spite of coaxing he resolutely refused all food, or
took it only in the tiniest morsels, although at the same time it was
thought that he sometimes took food "on the sly." A careful
examination showed absolutely no sign of bodily disease. He was
admitted to a ward for treatment by hypnotic suggestion, but before
this could be begun he endeavoured to commit suicide by setting fire
to his bed.
A girl of twenty-four years of age had become almost equally
emaciated. Constant vomiting had persisted for many years and had
defied many attempts at cure. It had even been proposed to perform the
operation of gastro-enterostomy in the belief that some organic
disease existed. In suitable surroundings and with the energetic
support of a good nurse, who spent much time and care in restoring her
balance of mind, the vomiting ceased, and she gained over two stones
in weight. Work was found for her in some occupation connected with
the War, and she left the Nursing Home to undertake this, bearing with
her four pounds which she had abstracted from the purse of another
patient.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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