Mental Alienation Research Articles

Autobiography of a Maniac [Selbst-Biographie eines Falls von Mania Acuta]. (Arch. f. Psych., Bd. xxxiv, H. 3.)

The subject of this paper who records her own experiences was a Miss L. S—, described as a highly gifted and well-educated lady. She was admitted to the asylum at Zürich, December 21st, 1882, being then thirty-two years of age. There was a record of insanity in her family. As a child, she was intelligent, imaginative, and impressionable, unpractical, not good at arithmetic, but fond of drawing. As she grew up, she had religious scruples and doubts, especially about the time of confirmation. She was affected by listlessness and melancholy. At her own request, she was sent to a parsonage in the Pays de Vaud, where the cloud soon passed away. When twenty-one years of age, L. S— visited Italy. Amongst her Italian studies she read the Decameron. This book did not affect or excite her at the time, but left much that was impure in her memory, which had an evil effect in later days. She never read any other books of an indelicate character. She fell in love with a man with whom she used to study, who was nine years younger than herself. Apparently they were engaged to be married. He became insane, which deeply affected her. Before her own mental derangement she had a lasting dull headache, especially at the occiput, and sometimes pains and peculiar feelings in the head, but the attack of mania came on quite suddenly. When admitted to the asylum, she was very much excited, and seems to have been put under restraint and treated with the Deckelbad (the warm bath), the head remaining uncovered through a lid. She describes her terrors, the chain of ideas which rushed through her mind. She recalls that she used many words to which she gave quite a different meaning to that they usually bear; some of them were of provincial or of foreign origin. She did not think she was insane nor recognise her excitement, and was surprised that people were afraid of her. She could, however, appreciate the mental alienation of her fellow-patients. She took great pleasure in feeding birds; she had many hallucinations and dreams which passed into her memory as illusions. She heard voices though she denied it. Her hallucinations or delusions were of various kinds and degrees, rising from mere suppositions to convictions; sometimes when spectral figures appeared to her she would guess who they were, try to identify them with real persons; for example, she saw an elderly woman of commanding aspect, very pale, and dressed in white robes, whom she supposed might be Queen Elizabeth of England. In honour of this personage she thought she saw a young horse sporting about in the sea. Looking out at the window of her cell, she saw the figure of a little grey monkey, of almost human expression, rising from the ground, and making signs for her to come away with it. This she felt willing to do, and thought that there was a kind of understanding between them. Another time, she thought that she was in purgatory, and that her companions in the asylum were going through penance there. She believed that she saw Pope Leo XIII, Dante, St. Catherine of Siena, and Francis of Assisi, and nourished the delusion that her grandmother was the original of Gretchen in Faust, and that her family were connected with Goethe. She thought that the currents of air which passed through the gratings were intended as signals from persons who wished to help her, and she stuck little things in the wire to keep up the correspondence. The birds who flew about the windows she took as messengers of freedom. She heard a tumult outside which she believed to be caused by anarchists, and a hollow voice as if preaching, but so quietly that she could not follow the words. She also heard noises like that of machinery. She thought that her teeth had been so calcified that they were all grown together, and expected them to be forcibly separated. A large number of hallucinations and delusions are tabulated in a brief form. After thirteen months' detention in the asylum she was discharged cured, and although nearly twenty years have now elapsed, she has had no return of mental derangement.

Autobiography of a Maniac [Selbst-Biographie eines Falls von Mania Acuta}. (Arch. f. Psych., Bd. xxxiv, H. 3.)

The subject of this paper who records her own experiences was a Miss L. S—, described as a highly gifted and well-educated lady. She was admitted to the asylum at Zürich, December 21st, 1882, being then thirty-two years of age. There was a record of insanity in her family. As a child, she was intelligent, imaginative, and impressionable, unpractical, not good at arithmetic, but fond of drawing. As she grew up, she had religious scruples and doubts, especially about the time of confirmation. She was affected by listlessness and melancholy. At her own request, she was sent to a parsonage in the Pays de Vaud, where the cloud soon passed away. When twenty-one years of age, L. S— visited Italy. Amongst her Italian studies she read the Decameron. This book did not affect or excite her at the time, but left much that was impure in her memory, which had an evil effect in later days. She never read any other books of an indelicate character. She fell in love with a man with whom she used to study, who was nine years younger than herself. Apparently they were engaged to be married. He became insane, which deeply affected her. Before her own mental derangement she had a lasting dull headache, especially at the occiput, and sometimes pains and peculiar feelings in the head, but the attack of mania came on quite suddenly. When admitted to the asylum, she was very much excited, and seems to have been put under restraint and treated with the Deckelbad (the warm bath), the head remaining uncovered through a lid. She describes her terrors, the chain of ideas which rushed through her mind. She recalls that she used many words to which she gave quite a different meaning to that they usually bear; some of them were of provincial or of foreign origin. She did not think she was insane nor recognise her excitement, and was surprised that people were afraid of her. She could, however, appreciate the mental alienation of her fellow-patients. She took great pleasure in feeding birds; she had many hallucinations and dreams which passed into her memory as illusions. She heard voices though she denied it. Her hallucinations or delusions were of various kinds and degrees, rising from mere suppositions to convictions; sometimes when spectral figures appeared to her she would guess who they were, try to identify them with real persons; for example, she saw an elderly woman of commanding aspect, very pale, and dressed in white robes, whom she supposed might be Queen Elizabeth of England. In honour of this personage she thought she saw a young horse sporting about in the sea. Looking out at the window of her cell, she saw the figure of a little grey monkey, of almost human expression, rising from the ground, and making signs for her to come away with it. This she felt willing to do, and thought that there was a kind of understanding between them. Another time, she thought that she was in purgatory, and that her companions in the asylum were going through penance there. She believed that she saw Pope Leo XIII, Dante, St. Catherine of Siena, and Francis of Assisi, and nourished the delusion that her grandmother was the original of Gretchen in Faust, and that her family were connected with Goethe. She thought that the currents of air which passed through the gratings were intended as signals from persons who wished to help her, and she stuck little things in the wire to keep up the correspondence. The birds who flew about the windows she took as messengers of freedom. She heard a tumult outside which she believed to be caused by anarchists, and a hollow voice as if preaching, but so quietly that she could not follow the words. She also heard noises like that of machinery. She thought that her teeth had been so calcified that they were all grown together, and expected them to be forcibly separated. A large number of hallucinations and delusions are tabulated in a brief form. After thirteen months' detention in the asylum she was discharged cured, and although nearly twenty years have now elapsed, she has had no return of mental derangement.

Notes on Hallucinations. I.

Although hallucinations are so common and universally recognised as an indication of insanity (Esquirol reckons, probably truly if we count every stage of every case, that they occur in 80 per cent. of cases of mental alienation, and we all know that even with the general public there is no proof of aberration more convincing), yet there are many points connected with the study of hallucination which are worthy of more attention than they generally receive.

EXAMINATION OF THE STOMACH CONTENTS IN THE INSANE

Since the introduction of laboratory methods into asylums for the care of insane, the secretions and excretions of insane patients have been subjected to various chemical and physical tests. In the beginning the majority of cases were examined for scientific purposes to determine, if possible, whether any cause could be found in the blood, urine or glandular secretions to account for the mental alienation. While the microscope thus far has failed to reveal the ultimate cause of insanity, all of these investigations have been of use clinically and of decided benefit to the patients themselves. Nowadays routine examinations of the urine, blood and sputum are made in asylum laboratories and it is ‘in advocation of such regular examination of the gastric content and condition that the following few cases are cited. At the Michigan Asylum, examination of the stomach content in sixty cases, has been made within the past year, to aid in diagnosis. This number of cases has not been sufficient to warrant definite or absolute statements or conclusions and this paper is largely a report of progress. A considerable part of the earlier work was done in conjunction with Dr. D. Murray Cowie, of the Department of Medicine of the University of Michigan, and a report of it may be found in the transactions of the Michigan State Medical Society for I9oo. In nearly all the cases examined, Ewald’s test breakfast consisting of 50 grams of white bread without crust and a glass of water was the only one given. As a rule, the passage of the stomach tube was attended with no

Mental Alienation Resulting from Surgical Operations

Mental Alienation Resulting from Surgical Operations

1. German Retrospect

Dr. Ripping, in the “Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie (Band xxxix., Heft 1), considers the important clinical question of the relation of the diseases of the sexual organs in women to mental alienation. While he admits that changes in the uterus and its appendages, whether physiological or pathological, have an effect upon the mental susceptibilities of women, he is doubtful whether this effect is profound enough to become a potent cause of insanity. He is rather disposed to place such affections in the second or third line of causes as adjuvantia. The uterine diseases and the mental disturbance are sometimes the result of a common cause. “I have never observed,” writes Dr. Ripping, “a single case in which the insanity was a pure reflex neurosis of disease of the genital organs.” If in some patients this seemed to be probable, it was found on more careful examination that there were other circumstances which gave an easy and unforced explanation of the mental derangement. It is only after uterine disorders which, from their severity, implicate the whole organism, or lower the strength, as in continued bleedings, that insanity can be held to supervene as a result.

Observations on Cannabis Indica and Syphilis as Causes of Mental Alienation in Turkey, Asia Minor, and Morocco

A recent holiday sojourn in Morocco having enabled me to complete certain information which I obtained some years ago while on a tour through Turkey and Asia Minor with respect to how far cannabis indica and syphilis are factors in the production of mental disease in the East, I proceed to record the following information which I have gathered on the subject:—

Syphilis and Mental Alienation; further Cases illustrative of their Relationships

Case IV.—History of Syphilis: namely, venereal sore; sore throat; and subsequent general “rheumatic” pain. Later on, melancholia and suicidal propensity. Severe and prolonged cranial, and mainly nocturnal pain, with local tenderness, relieved by specific treatment. Hepatic disease; incipient pulmonary phthisis. Recovery.

Syphilis and Mental Alienation; further Cases illustrative of their Relationships

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The Morisonian Lectures on Insanity for 1878

Syphilitic Insanity.—This is the first of the varieties of insanity in Dr. Skae's classification that is due to the action of a poison introduced from without. As might be expected, its symptoms are much more definite than those of the more constitutional and hereditary varieties of mental alienation. Something, too, is known of its pathology, and yet it is only about twenty years since the fact was recognised that the syphilitic poison could produce mental derangement at all. It has been described by English, French, and German authors on insanity and syphilis, but Dr. Wille, the latest German writer on the subject, has given us by far the most complete account of the disease in all its forms so far as it is at present known. An excellent abstract of his paper appeared in the “Journal of Mental Science” for January last, by Dr. Addison.† It is one of the forms of insanity that must be studied in connection with the other syphilitic affections of the nervous system, if we wish to understand it. To describe its symptoms without reference to the syphilitic form of epilepsy, of paralysis, and neuralgia, would be a mistake in every respect. Dr. Reade, of Belfast, and Dr. Todd, of London, were the first in this country to direct special attention to the occurrence of mania as a direct result of syphilis. They both showed that it was one of a train of symptoms that had the specific infection for its starting point; that those symptoms proved clearly that the nervous system, both spinal cord and brain, as well as their membranes, were involved in such cases, and that whatever cured the syphilis cured the neuroses. Dr. Duncan published three very interesting cases of syphilitic insanity in 1863.∗ Dr. Hugh Grainger Stewart published three cases in 1870.† Dr. Wille has collated the symptoms of 77 cases of syphilis, in which there were mental symptoms of one kind or other. Many of Lancereaux's cases, given in his work on syphilis, have mental impairment or disturbance as a part of their history.

The Morisonian Lectures on Insanity for 1873

Syphilitic Insanity.—This is the first of the varieties of insanity in Dr. Skae's classification that is due to the action of a poison introduced from without. As might be expected, its symptoms are much more definite than those of the more constitutional and hereditary varieties of mental alienation. Something, too, is known of its pathology, and yet it is only about twenty years since the fact was recognised that the syphilitic poison could produce mental derangement at all. It has been described by English, French, and German authors on insanity and syphilis, but Dr. Wille, the latest German writer on the subject, has given us by far the most complete account of the disease in all its forms so far as it is at present known. An excellent abstract of his paper appeared in the “Journal of Mental Science” for January last, by Dr. Addison.† It is one of the forms of insanity that must be studied in connection with the other syphilitic affections of the nervous system, if we wish to understand it. To describe its symptoms without reference to the syphilitic form of epilepsy, of paralysis, and neuralgia, would be a mistake in every respect. Dr. Reade, of Belfast, and Dr. Todd, of London, were the first in this country to direct special attention to the occurrence of mania as a direct result of syphilis. They both showed that it was one of a train of symptoms that had the specific infection for its starting point; that those symptoms proved clearly that the nervous system, both spinal cord and brain, as well as their membranes, were involved in such cases, and that whatever cured the syphilis cured the neuroses. Dr. Duncan published three very interesting cases of syphilitic insanity in 1863.∗ Dr. Hugh Grainger Stewart published three cases in 1870.† Dr. Wille has collated the symptoms of 77 cases of syphilis, in which there were mental symptoms of one kind or other. Many of Lancereaux's cases, given in his work on syphilis, have mental impairment or disturbance as a part of their history.

The Shower-bath in Insanity

At a meeting of a Society such as ours, where everything which has the remotest tendency to promote or aid the recovery of patients who labour under mental alienation, becomes an object of interest, I feel no hesitation in bringing forward a short paper on the use of cold water applied to the human body in the form and much after the same fashion as that in which nature finds it most beneficial to the vegetable kingdom.

The Shower-bath in Insanity

At a meeting of a Society such as ours, where everything which has the remotest tendency to promote or aid the recovery of patients who labour under mental alienation, becomes an object of interest, I feel no hesitation in bringing forward a short paper on the use of cold water applied to the human body in the form and much after the same fashion as that in which nature finds it most beneficial to the vegetable kingdom.

Unsolved Problems of the Law, as Embraced in Mental Alienation. No. 2

Unsolved Problems of the Law, as Embraced in Mental Alienation. No. 2

Unsolved Problems of the Law, as Embraced in Mental Alienation

Unsolved Problems of the Law, as Embraced in Mental Alienation

Observations deduced from the Statistics of the Insane

That a uniform statistical method should be generally adopted by all those connected with the insane is greatly to be desired, for though statistical researches have met the fate of all other methods (‘Annales Psychologiques,’ July, 1856), have been received with un-reflecting infatuation, or been the subject of unmerited reproach, according as they have given us useful facts or have led us into error, yet everything leads us to expect that the extension of a statistical programme, would furnish us with useful data, for the examination of some of the most important questions relative to mental alienation.

Case: Extensive Disorganization of the Brain, with Paralysis, Epilepsy, Gout, and Albuminaria; Recovery from Mental Alienation and Paralysis; Eventual Death from Congestion of the Lungs, Hypertrophy of the Heart, Paralysis of the Pneumogastric Nerves, and Albuminuria; Autopsy. by D. F. Tyerman, M.R.C.S., &c

Case: Extensive Disorganization of the Brain, with Paralysis, Epilepsy, Gout, and Albuminaria; Recovery from Mental Alienation and Paralysis; Eventual Death from Congestion of the Lungs, Hypertrophy of the Heart, Paralysis of the Pneumogastric Nerves, and Albuminuria; Autopsy. by D. F. Tyerman, M.R.C.S., &c - Volume 4 Issue 24

Essay on the Classification of Mental Alienation, by Dr. M. Baillarger, Physician to the Salpetriére, Paris, being the Introductory Lecture for the Summer 1854, communicated by Dr. Blount

In following the order that we have fixed upon, we most begin with general pathology, which as you see in the above diagram, is divided into three groups of lesions. 1st, Partial 2nd, General 3rd, Those primitively partial which tend to become general.

Essay on the Classification of Mental Alienation, by Dr. M. Baillarger, Physician to Salpetrièrs, Paris, being the Introductory Lecture for the Summer 1854, communicated by J. H. Blount, M.B. Londin., etc

Gentlemen, It is my intention to give you in this our introductory lecture, an exposition of the classifition of insanity. I shall endeavour to make it as practical as possible, and so to furnish you with a method which may serve to guide you in your relations with your patients ; and in order to be the more certain of its application, we will endeavour to prove it, by examination of patients after the lecture.

Anatomical Pathology of Mental Alienation — Concluded

Anatomical Pathology of Mental Alienation — Concluded