4. A schoolgirl was dissatisfied with the place allotted to her in
the schoolroom, and pretended that she felt a draught on her neck
coming from a window on her left. The initial movement was an
elevation of the shoulder as if to bring her clothes a little more
closely round her neck, then she commenced to depress her head and
indicate her discomfort by facial grimaces, and these eventually
passed beyond voluntary control (Raymond and Janet[85]).
5. In order to deceive his friends, the patient assumed a forced
attitude of gaiety when really sick at heart, by inclining his
head, raising his shoulders, and arching his back, and at the end
of a few months a bantering remark revealed the surprising fact
that he could not correct the position (Raymond and Janet[86]).
6. A woman used to pass the day sewing or knitting at her window
and amusing herself from time to time by pensively looking out into
the street. Not long afterwards she noticed how much more pleasant
it was to allow her head to turn to the right, and how troublesome
it was to keep it straight. At length she found this impossible,
except with the aid of her hands (Sgobbo[87]).
7. Worried by severe occipital pains, an individual became so
concerned to find they were being replaced by a feeling of great
weakness, that he let his head rest by inclining it now and then to
the left, an act which he is certain was the cause of his
torticollis (Feindel[88]).
One further instance may be cited from Séglas,[89] where a
neurasthenic lady, fifty years old, had been for three years a
martyr to vague pains which finally settled in her neck, and
asserted themselves on the slightest exertion. She sought to
mitigate her sufferings--a veritable topoalgic obsession--by
leaning her head on her shoulder, and the desire thus to procure
alleviation gradually became irresistible and the movement
unconscious.
Multiplication of examples is unnecessary. It is abundantly evident from
the above that the repetition of a deliberate and voluntary functional
act, co-ordinated and systematised, is the first step in the genesis of
mental torticollis.
The mere memory of a frequently repeated movement, especially if the
latter occur in the prosecution of one's avocation, may determine the
type of torticollis, as in Grasset's "post-professional colporteur tic,"
to which reference has already been made.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account