bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
On the Maniacal-Depressive Insanity of Kraepelin.
Authors: Drapes Thomas
Published: August 2008

The lectures of Prof. Kraepelin, as presented to us in Dr. Johnstone's excellent translation, form a fascinating study. Yet it is probable that with respect to some of them a reader is apt to rise from their perusal with a certain amount of mental confusion. His descriptions, from a clinical standpoint, are delightful reading, and lucid in the highest degree; but when, with the help of new terms, which really only express old familiar facts up to this otherwise expressed, he casts into new groupings cases which have two or three features in common, although differing considerably in their course and in the varying phases of mental disturbance which they present, there is a difficulty in following him. And any scheme of classification founded on a more or less casual and fortuitous similarity as far as a few symptoms are concerned, while ignoring important points of difference, cannot do anything else than create confusion. No doubt Kraepelin's object, so far as we can judge of it, is to group cases of insanity in such a way as to constitute a real help to diagnosis, and, what is of more importance, to prognosis, in the multitudinous phases of mental derangement which come under our notice, and this object is, so far, a meritorious one. But is the object attained by this method? Is it attainable? The fallacy—for it is nothing else but a fallacy—of regarding any mere grouping of symptoms of insanity as a distinct disease entity is apparent throughout. Insanity is protean in its manifestations, and the symptoms in any particular case may at one point of its course resemble those of one of the so-called varieties, and at another they may correspond with those of quite a different grouping. This fact alone would seem to indicate the futility and uselessness of founding any system of classification of insanity on symptomatology. The endeavour to do so can only be regarded as an impossible feat, a feat which is nevertheless being constantly attempted with a persistent fondness which is quite pathetic by most classifiers, who seem anxious to rival the punitive labours of Sisyphus or the daughters of Danaus, with similar fruitless results.
Ependymal Alterations in General Paralysis
Authors: Baird Harvey
Published: August 2008

A Granular condition of the ventricular ependyma, especially that of the fourth ventricle, has long been recognised as one of the most important of the post-mortem lesions of general paralysis. In the opinion of the writer it is present in at least 90 per cent. of the cases, and the more carefully the examination of the ependyma is made, the greater will be the percentage of cases showing granulation in asylum post-mortem books. In the Journal of Mental Science, July, 1905, the writer recorded the frequency of this condition in an analysis of 131 consecutive post-mortems on male paralytics at Wakefield Asylum, and on 112 male and 19 female cases at Horton Asylum. The percentages were 878, 90, and 100 respectively. Blatchford (Journal of Mental Science, 1903, p. 483) states 70 per cent. of paralytics were recorded as exhibiting granular ependyma, and of the non-paralytic deaths 16·6 per cent. of men and 5·3 per cent. of women. There were 83 paralytic deaths and 369 non-paralytic. The writer is convinced that granularity of the ependyma, especially that of the fourth ventricle, is the most valuable naked-eye diagnostic sign of general paralysis. This statement is supported by that of Bolton, who considers the most characteristic naked-eye sign of dementia paralytica to be granularity of the ventricular ependyma, referring specially to the lower half of the fourth ventricle.
Electric Bath Treatment in 108 Cases of Mental Disorder, controlled by Warm Baths in 16 cases; and the Results of an Inquiry into the Influence of the Baths upon the Excretion of Creatinine in certain of these
Authors: Wallis R. L. Mackenzie , Goodall Edwin
Published: August 2008

As long ago as 1901 my attention was called to the therapeutic value of electricity administered through the medium of warm water in a bath by my friend Dr. Lewis Jones, Physician in Charge of the Electrical Department, St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. He considers this is the best means of employing electricity for general therapeutic purposes, describing it in his work on medical electricity as a method of great value whenever general stimulating and tonic effects are required. In this work will also be found reference to the treatment, some years since, of eighteen males and five females at Claybury Asylum by Dr. Robert Jones, with results which he considered satisfactory. In these induction coil currents were used in the bath. The method appeared to me likely to prove much more convenient and practical than the usual methods of faradism and galvanism, which do not lend themselves to the purposes of general as apart from special and local application. Largely, I think, for the lack of a convenient method of general application, electrical treatment has been almost discarded, at any rate in this country, in mental diseases. I hope in this communication to show that this therapeutic means is one which should not be neglected.
The Care and Training of the Feeble-minded
Authors: Douglas Archibald R.
Published: August 2008

From the earliest ages in the history of man, we find evidences of the existence of beings stunted in body and defective in mind, whose relations with their fellows varied through the centuries. At one epoch they were exalted almost to the level of a deity, and their symptoms were interpreted as manifestations of Divine will. At another they were looked upon with loathing and disgust, not unmingled with fear. Still later, they were either the playthings of kings or the victims of cruel jibe and blow, and their existence at the present day, and the associated conditions of insanity, crime and intemperance, constitute one of the most serious, if not the most serious problem which a civilised community is called upon to solve.
The Causes and Treatment of Asylum Dysentery
Authors: Steward Sidney J.
Published: August 2008

Until the specific causes of the various types of colitis are ascertained dysentery may be regarded as a group of symptoms which are presumably the result of microbic action, although it does not follow that the organisms which have been isolated from the intestines are invariably the specific cause of the symptoms, or that their presence will necessarily produce the symptoms; even the Shiga (or Flexner) bacillus, which is looked upon by many as the origin of non-amoebic tropical dysentery, has been found in the fæces of healthy persons (v. Allchin). It is probable that the specific organisms are some of the various bacilli and micrococci which are commonly to be found in the intestines, and which are normally benign in character, but through certain influences within and around the subject, become pathogenic.
America
Authors: McDonald William
Published: August 2008

It has not always been an easy task—this preparation of the American section of the epitome on psychiatric work. Year after year the writer has paused before that word “Progress'’ with a big “P,” obsessed by the limitations which it places on the subject-matter, perplexed at his inability to sift the wheat from the chaff, and to delineate clearly in all the activity called psychiatric only those features which surely made for progress.
A Theory of the Toxic and Exhaustion Psychoses
Authors: Stoddart W. H. B.
Published: August 2008

Mr. President and Gentlemen,—I have had a little difficulty with my title, because the disease to which I want to refer is known under so many names. “Exhaustion psychosis” is one, and the same disease is also described as “post-febrile insanity,” “acute confusional insanity” and “acute hallucinatory insanity”; while on the Continent, I think, psychiatrists are unanimous in applying to it the name “amentia.” But “amentia” in this country has a different meaning, so that we cannot adopt that term here. Having, however, given you the list of names by which the condition is known, you will recognise the disease to which I refer.
The Viscosity of the Blood in Epilepsy
Authors: Brown R. Dods
Published: August 2008

It is only within the last few years that any serious attempt has been made to investigate the viscosity of the blood and to find out what importance, if any, could be attached to the variations in the fluid friction of the blood in health and disease. Prior to this period a few physiologists did pay attention to this subject, but many of their results have been ignored on account of the difficulty encountered by the coagulation of the blood. Defibrinated blood or blood to which an anti-coagulator had been added was used in later investigations.
A Clinical Study of Anæsthesia, Mental Confusion, and Moods, in Epilepsy, Confusional Insanity and Hysteria
Authors: Baugh Leonard D. H.
Published: August 2008

Manifestations of anæsthesia, mental confusion, and moods are frequently met with in general medicine and psychiatry. Their occurrence is not confined to pathological states; in normal people it must be studied in the domains of physiology and psychology. It is by no means always easy to differentiate the physiological from the pathological, or in psychology the normal from the abnormal. This difficulty in demarcation has tended to render investigation arduous and the findings imperfect.
On the Mechanism of Mental Processes, with Special Reference to Emotional Control
Authors: Jeffrey George Rutherford
Published: August 2008

Some psychiatrists attribute great importance to the neuro-insane diathesis as a factor in the causation of insanity, whilst others belittle its influence. The term is misleading, for it suggests that this diathesis is confined solely to the mentally afflicted, and, further, its precise meaning is vague. A person is generally accused of possessing the neuro-insane diathesis if he presents a temperament which appreciably diverges from the mean of the sanguine and of the phlegmatic; if his actions are unduly strenuous or torpid, his expressions unwarrantably enthusiastic or lukewarm, his moods very variable or religiously constant; in brief, the neuro-insane diathesis may be resolved into a tendency to psychic or motor reaction disproportionate to the exciting stimulus. In common speech the person is emotional. But every person who is emotional is not an incipient lunatic. The faculty of conceiving undue enthusiasm, of persevering unfalteringly in ambition, in order to attain the acme of success in any sphere of life, demands an emotional power in excess of the normal. It is ridiculous thus to brand the best men of all nations as possessors of the neuro-insane diathesis. The term, with its plausible air of scientific accusation, is misleading and vague, and should be wholly discarded. All that psychiatrists wish to convey by it may be more accurately and more descriptively called the emotional diathesis.
Clinical Aspect and Treatment of Asylum Dysentery
Authors: Perdrau J. R.
Published: August 2008

The object of this paper is to set out briefly some of the chief clinical points observed during an epidemic of dysentery at the Devon County Asylum, as the treatment of this disease still leaves much to be desired with a mortality of nearly 1 in 5 for all asylums in England. The epidemic started two years ago, and although the number of cases has much diminished during the past few months, there are as yet no certain indications that the epidemic is drawing to an end. Personally I have only seen those cases which have occurred since October, 1909, i.e., 142 in a period of twelve months.
Notes on Gynæcological Conditions Coincident with Mental Disturdances
Authors: Collins E. Tenison
Published: August 2008

When Dr. Goodall suggested to me that I might bring before this Association some details of gynæcological work we have been doing in this Institution, I felt it to be a compliment and opportunity I could not fail to take advantage of. Let me, however, premise that I am a gynæcologist, and do not possess more than a general knowledge of the problems in medical psychology which present themselves to you daily, and that whatever, therefore, I may put before you is more from a gynæcological than a mental standpoint.
Mental Organization: An Introductory Chapter
Authors: Maudsley Henry
Published: August 2008

The command laid upon mankind to increase and multiply on earth has been gladly obeyed and abundantly fulfilled. In parts thereof the multiplication has sometimes gone beyond the means of subsistence, and the unoccupied parts suitable for human habitation become scarcer, though there are yet vast areas of undeveloped land in the South American Continent. Nevertheless the race continues to multiply without regard to the possible risk that it may one day outgrow its means of subsistence, increase of population and increase of trade being the ideals which it is thought right to pursue in order to maintain and increase the health, wealth, and prosperity of the nation in particular and of the race in general. The more babies that are born and reared in a country, the more bargains that are made in it, the more wants and their gratifications are multiplied, the sounder is its strength and the brighter its future outlook, although it is not unimaginable that fewer children, fewer wants, fewer bargains might sometimes produce more health, more virtue, more progress, more stability. That, however, is an unbecoming suspicion to harbour, for it is unworthy the trust which it behoves a right-thinking mind to put in the providential scheme of the universe and its benevolent workings for human ends. Impotent to comprehend the mystery of things, foolish to expect it, fatuous to bewail his inability to get behind the veil, which would be to get absolutely out of his relative self, man is yet sure that the universe was created and works for his advantage and perfecting, and in that happy faith counts an unlimited procreation in gratification of a natural lust his proper and pleasing duty. The instinct of human nature dictates it, therefore the laws of universal nature were framed to sanctify it.
The Forms of Mental Disorder occurring in connection with Child-bearing
Authors: Clarke Geoffrey
Published: August 2008

The conception of puerperal insanity and of the mental diseases accompanying childbirth and lactation has undergone a considerable change during recent years.
Criminal Types in a County Asylum
Authors: Lord John R. , Bartlett G. N.
Published: August 2008

The prime importance of classification of patients in asylums with a view to securing the best results of treatment cannot be denied. By classification is meant, not a rigid division of patients strictly according to their form of mental disorder, but rather a selective grouping of patients in wards and villas, where the amount of supervision, the nature of treatment, the extent of freedom and the general environment is best calculated to promote recovery, to discourage mental excitement, and to secure contentment and the highest possible standard of conduct in each case.
America
Authors: McDonald William
Published: August 2008

If, in this the ninth annual letter of your correspondent to the Journal, he should leave out the usual introductory plaint as to the impossibility of crowding the important psychiatric news of the year, even in shortest form, into the allotted space, the patient reader—if there be such—might welcome the change of style. Some vindication, however, is due the writer if he seems to supply a parcel of fragments rather than a true epitome.
The Causes of Mental Disease
Authors: Jarvis E.
Published: August 2008

The valuable report on the history and condition of the McLean Asylum for the Insane for the year 1858, derives a peculiar importance from the few pages which the Superintendent devotes to the causes of insanity, so far as they were developed and affected by the peculiar circumstances of the year, and were connected with the recent financial crisis and the religious excitements of that period. Dr. Tyler discourses wisely upon these matters, and gives admonitions which, were they heeded, would save many from mental disturbance and more from mental death.
On the Condition of the Insane, and on the Treatment of Nervous Diseases in Turkey
Authors: Foote R. F. F.
Published: August 2008

The English Hospital at Constantinople, is a good one, and situate near the Tower of Calata, overlooking the ancient Chalcedon, the modern Kadeköui, the ancient Byantrum, the modern Stamboul, with its elegant minarets, and well proportioned mosques; in the distance is the snow-clad Olympus, and within a few hundred yards, the Golden Horn, crowded with ships from all parts of the Globe. What a magnificent site, as far as view is concerned, would this offer for a hospital for the insane. But the ground is too valuable to afford any opportunity to enclose proper courts for exercise, and gardens for occupation.
The Pupil and its Reflexes in Insanity
Authors: Firth A. H.
Published: August 2008

Progressive general paralysis is remarkable for the frequency, multiplicity, and variety of its pupillary symptoms, which may often be evident even in the incipient stage of the disease.
Some Cases of Psychological Interest from Private Practice
Authors: Middlemiss J. E.
Published: August 2008

As the cases which come under notice in the present paper are of a somewhat miscellaneous character, and as, moreover, no one of them could, by the widest interpretation of the term, be described as insane, one feels a certain hesitancy in contributing them to a journal avowedly devoted to psychiatry. Though varying in type, they have this in common, however— that there was in every case an underlying or concomitant mental factor which afforded a clue to the case, and the most reliable indication for the line of treatment to be adopted. Briefly they belong to the category of the psychoneuroses, and in the main were treated on psychotherapeutic lines. No uniform method was adopted, waking suggestion, persuasion, hypnosis, or the induction of a hypnoid state being utilised, separately or in combination, according to the exigencies of the particular case. Where necessary, it was supplemented by medicinal and general hygienic measures, but except in one case there was no attempt at psycho-analysis in the accepted sense. In most of the cases an attempt was made to induce hypnosis, but in Cases 3 and 6 it was only possible to attain what is called by American writers the hypnoidal or sub-waking state. In this state, according to Sidis (1), “Emotional excitement subsides, voluntary activity is changed to passivity, and suggestions meet with little resistance. The sub-waking state is above all a rest state, a state of physical and mental relaxation.” The utmost that was obtainable in these cases was a condition of passivity, and of cessation from voluntary activity, in which there was increased susceptibility to suggestion, and which lacked many of the characteristic phenomena of true hypnosis. Whether this is merely a mild degree of hypnosis, or a condition sui generis, as Sidis contends, is not practically important, though in favour of the latter view it is to be noted that it is difficult to pass from it into true hypnosis even after many sittings. Nor is there the tendency to attain deeper stages of “sleep,” which characterises the genuine hypnotic state. Apart from the increased suggestibility, the mere state of quiescence and tranquillity (which can be maintained for an indefinite period) affords a valuable means of nerve recuperation where psychomotor unrest and anxiety are prominent symptoms. Thus it is particularly useful in typical neurasthenia, mild degrees of melancholia, and conditions in which the nervous energy is depleted, and where physiological rest is the primary requisite.
The Relationship between Epilepsy and Tuberculosis
Authors: Shaw B. Henry
Published: August 2008

In their report on this Asylum for 1913, the Lunacy Commissioners state: “Almost 20 per cent. of the patients in each of the Staffordshire asylums are epileptics; this unusually high proportion appears to obtain in each of the Staffordshire asylums, and to be a subject worthy of further inquiry locally.” It is also noteworthy that associated with this high proportion of epileptics is a high tuberculosis death-rate, viz., 25.2 per cent., the average epileptic percentage of the number of patients remaining at the year's end in county and borough asylums in England and Wales being, for 1911, 12.5, while the proportion of tubercular deaths per cent. of deaths from all causes (1902–1911) is 16.6
The Diagnosis and Treatment of Parenchymatous Syphilis
Authors: Mott F. W.
Published: August 2008

Gentlemen,—It is customary for the President of a Section to open the proceedings by an address, but I feel that it would serve a more useful purpose if I opened the discussion on the diagnosis and treatment of parenchymatous syphilis by giving an account of the observations which I have been making regarding the microscopic and bio-chemical pathology of tabes and general paralysis; for it is by an understanding of the pathological processes underlying these diseases that we are able to make a correct diagnosis, and prevent their occurrence or arrest their progress. My personal experience of the effect of treatment is somewhat limited as compared with that of many of those who are to take part in the discussion, and therefore I shall especially devote my attention to the observations which have been made in the Pathological Laboratory of the London County Asylums.
William Blake
Authors: Norman Hubert J.
Published: August 2008

The association between the artistic temperament and eccentricity has frequently been noted, and in the lives of Turner, Vandyck, Michael Angelo, Benvenuto Cellini, Morland, Romney, Maclise, Landseer, Haydon, Cosway, and many others there is much to support Nisbet's contention that “nerve-disorder is a fundamental element of genius in relation to colour and form.” To the list already given, the name of William Blake may fittingly be added, for, just as some of those named at times passed the boundary which separates sanity from insanity, so most certainly did Blake also cross the borderland.
The Luetin Test in Parasyphilis
Authors: Ross D. Maxwell
Published: August 2008

During the spring of this year, my friend Lieutenant Crocket, R.A.M.C., obtained, through the kindness of Dr. Noguchi, a small supply of luetin, and with this he carried out a series of tests, to which he was anxious to add some observations on its use in mental cases. By permission of Dr. G. M. Robertson he was able to examine a series of cases in Morningside Asylum, and I was fortunate in being asked to co-operate with him. Owing to our small supply of luetin, the number of tests done was necessarily limited, and we intended carrying our observations further when Crocket was called away to duty. Only a short time ago the sad news of his death in action was received, and it is largely on this account that I venture to place on record so small a number of observations.
Notes on Juvenile General Paralysis, with the Clinical Description of a Case
Authors: Gostwyck C. H. G.
Published: August 2008

Juvenile general paralysis is of interest as illustrating one of the many ways in which syphilis may produce its detrimental effect on the human race. The disease may commence at a very early age; according to Thomson, progressive symptoms may be evident in children as young as three years. Males and females are victims in practically equal proportions. The symptoms are very similar to those of the adult form, progressive dementia being very marked; such variations as are present are due to the more undeveloped mental state of youth, and on the whole it corresponds to the demented or confused type of the adult. Periods of acute excitement, or of mental depression, are met with, and epileptiform seizures, which may be present at any stage, are often observed. Delusions of persecution are not uncommon, and grandiose delusions occur; hallucinations are also evident occasionally at some time during the course. In the younger patients a type of advancing spastic diplegia is most common, and even in older cases spastic symptoms are more prominent than in the adult form. The pathological appearances in the nervous system have the same characteristics as those seen in cases of mature age. The duration is usually from two to four years, although sometimes it may be more protracted.
The Clinical Simulation of General Paralysis of the Insane
Authors: Perdrau J. R.
Published: August 2008

It happens not unfrequently that a provisional diagnosis of general paralysis is made in the insane, which the subsequent course of the case fails to confirm. In the three cases on which this paper is based a diagnosis of general paralysis was made, in one of them quite confidently, and in the two others only as a last resort, because the course of the disease presented so many unusual clinical features. These three cases are specially interesting because a post-mortem examination was made on each of them, and so permitted of a confirmation or otherwise of the diagnosis, and also on account of the very interesting pathological findings.
Meningo-vascular Syphilis associated with a Retro-olivary Syndrome
Authors: Stewart R. M.
Published: August 2008

Although modern research has placed the treatment of syphilis on a scientific basis, the Treponema pallidum continues to exact a heavy toll among all classes of society. The seriousness of the disease is largely due to the ever-present risk of a return of symptoms, perhaps many years after the acquirement of infection, and to the frequency with which the central nervous system is attacked.
Record of a Case of Pregnancy occurring in a Female suffering from General Paralysis of the Insane
Authors: Rashbrook H. M.
Published: August 2008

The birth of living children to female general paralytics, in whom the symptoms have so far advanced as to bring them under asylum treatment, is of a somewhat rare occurrence.
A Descriptive Record of the Conversion of a County Asylum into a War Hospital for Sick and Wounded Soldiers in 1915
Authors: Thomson D. G.
Published: August 2008

Ladies and Gentlemen,—I wish your President, especially as you are condemned to abide under his aegis for a second year, had been a man able to enthrall you with some lofty theme appropriate to this time of stupendous events.
“The Secretes of Alexis.” A Sixteenth Century Psychiater
Authors: Norman Hubert J.
Published: August 2008

The sceptics maintain with some show of plausibility that medical treatment—the therapeutics of mental disorder included—has made little progress with the passage of the centuries; and that what is called progress is really pretentiousness, and is more verbal than actual. Some of the new schools of dogmatists certainly give reason for criticism of this kind; they bandy high-sounding phrases one against the other, until the plain man becomes confused with the welter of verbiage. It were invidious to specify too accurately. Each one according to his predilections can annotate the context. If he favours the neologisms of that school in which the new oneiromancy and the modified confessional bulk so largely in their dealings with the mentally disordered, he will exempt them from criticism; and he who considers that treatment should pass along lines less airy and less tenuous will, for his part, look elsewhere for firm ground from which to aim his darts at the flitting shadows beloved of the practisers of psychomancy. Yet, all this granted, a look backwards suffices generally to convince us that, when ephemeral and transient notions are regarded in their proper perspective, there has been a real and valuable progression towards clarity and truth—even, in some cases it may be, attainment. If there is, therefore, such good to be derived from this process of retrospection, one may be forgiven for directing attention for a short space to former times. As we look backwards, however, we are almost dismayed at the similarities which we notice between the errors and follies of those who lived many centuries ago and those of our time. At the first glance it appears that almost do we move in a circle. The same old errors, the same old superstitions in other guises. We are almost prevailed upon to say, with La Bruyère, “En effet les hommes n'ont point changé selon le cóur et selon les passions, ils sont encore tels qu'ils étoient alors,” more than two thousand years ago. There seems to be little abatement of what were designated as the “animal passions”; and along with that there has been an accompaniment of credulity which the few master-minds have not been able to overcome. Superstition holds its ground in many civilised communities, and as to war—in a time like the present—it is needless to speak. Yet withal we are prepared to maintain that enlightenment is being brought about.
Catatonia as a Type of Mental Reactions
Authors: Henderson David K.
Published: August 2008

In 1896 Kraepelin first introduced and defined his conception of the manic-depressive psychoses and dementia præcox. It has been fairly generally admitted that his was a brilliant piece of work, but since that time he has been led, in certain more or less minor respects, to modify his views. Briefly put, Kraepelin described in a very thorough and detailed way the symptomatology of these disorders, and then, according as the case was one of manic-depressive insanity or dementia præcox, the prognosis was held to be either good or bad respectively. Such a simple method of differentiation and of deciding on the prognosis seemed too good to be true, and although it must be admitted that in the main it holds good, yet in certain fundamental respects it fails. We all know that certain types of the manic-depressive psychosis do not get well, and on the other hand we all probably have seen cases which, symptomatologically, were cases of dementia præcox that recovered. In no group of cases has this been more clearly seen than in catatonia.
“Pseudologia Phantastica, or Pathological Lying, in a Case of Hysteria with Moral Defect.”
Authors: Dunn Williamina Shaw
Published: August 2008

So little has been written in this country on Pseudologia Phantastica, or Pathological Lying, that Dr. George Robertson, Physician Superintendent of the Royal Asylum, Edinburgh, has urged me to report the following case of this disorder associated with hysteria and a certain degree of moral defect.
The Treatment of Cases of Mental Disorder in General Hospitals (Reprinted from the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. clxx, No. 17, pp. 637–642, April 23rd, 1914.) Philip Coombs Knapp, A.M., M.D.
Authors: Knapp Philip Coombs
Published: August 2008

The author maintains the thesis that acute and borderland cases of mental disease can be received and temporarily cared for in general hospitals. He admits that mental patients are not looked upon with favour by the nursing staff or by the other patients, on account of—in many cases—their restless, noisy conduct. Yet almost all general hospitals must include at times among their inmates some patients who, in the course of treatment for such conditions as acute infections, accidents, etc., become turbulent and violent.
Optimism and Pessimism
Authors: Maudsley Henry
Published: August 2008

When two persons meet together to discuss some enterprise or future event, or other speculative matter, without coming to an agreement, they may separate by one thinking or calling the other an optimist and the other thinking or calling his opponent a pessimist. Thereby they settle the matter temporarily, although of course they leave it undecided and agree only to differ. What they really settle is that two congenitally different temperaments necessarily view the subject from two different aspects and conclude accordingly. They do not stay to enquire which is the true view, the one being inclined by his temperament to look on the dark side of things and see the evils, hates, strifes, sufferings, failures and follies in the world, the other inclined by his temperament to look on their bright side and accordingly see the good, love, joys, and successes in it. Why, indeed, should they stop to enquire? Every mind in the world necessarily construes it in terms of itself, and therefore feels and thinks its individual world—the mind of the fool a different world from that of the sage, the mind of the sinner from that of the saint, the mind of the Andaman Islander from that of the Anglo-Saxon, the mind of the particular person from that of his neighbour. There must naturally be one common world in the necessarily common notion of a like-structured species, but there are as many particular worlds as there are persons in it.
Psychoanalysis, a New Psychosis. Une Psychose Nouvelle: La Psychoanalyse. Mercure de France, September 1st, 1916
Authors: Delage Yves
Published: August 2008

[The following article from the pen of the eminent biologist, M. Yves Delage, was brought under the Editors' notice through the kindness of Sir Bryan Donkin. The vein of irony and caustic humour, more or less scathing, which runs through it will, no doubt, be distasteful to those who have accepted in their totality the theories of the Freudian school, but it is as well that the teaching of that school should be presented for the nonce from a different standpoint from that adopted by its whole-souled adherents. And while it may perhaps offer some rather “strong meat” for our readers' consumption, and while, in particular, the interviews so graphically described may seem too out-spoken and realistic for some ultra-sensitive British minds, it can hardly be questioned that they are, unfortunately, true to fact; and it might be a blunder on the part of psychiatrists who cannot bring themselves to admit the soundness of the principles of Freudism to content themselves with the adoption of a merely passive attitude towards them, and, ostrich-like, to shut their eyes to an aspect of a movement which is spreading with more or less rapidity in our own and other countries outside Germany, and which in the view of many sober thinkers is, in much of its theory, scientifically unsound, and at least capable of becoming demoralizing in practice; and if, through a no doubt pardonable repugnance to anything savouring of prurience or salacity, they were to allow themselves to drift into the opposite extreme of a too meticulous and hardly justifiable prudery.
Dr. Hughlings Jackson on Mental Disorders
Authors: Savage George
Published: August 2008

I have long felt that the relationship of Dr. Jackson's teaching in reference to nervous disorders has not been sufficiently considered from the psychiatric side. I fear that I shall not be able to do justice to the subject, yet I believe it to be almost a duty for me to attempt it.
Hailucinations in the Sane
Authors: Steen Robert Hunter
Published: August 2008

In insanity hallucinations are frequently present. This is no recent observation and has been duly noted in the literature since the dawn of medicine. Hippocrates, Asclepiades, and Celsus make mention of them in their writings.
The Psychology of Fear and the Effects of Panic Fear in War Time
Authors: Armstrong-Jones Robert
Published: August 2008

It is an acknowledged fact that in the whole annals of mankind the most eventful period of a nation's psychology is that during which its people is passing through the crisis of war, and the history of nations, from the earliest dawn of society, presents continuous records of warlike operations. The present war, which has already lasted over two and a half years and which is without any immediate prospect of cessation, has disturbed the mind and altered the course of life of whole continents; yet all of us are agreed that it should never be possible for this “malady of princes” to occur again, and it is with the view of preventing its recurrence that civilisation (which means the united culture of all the Allies as well as of the “benevolent” neutrals) is now making a final and intense effort.
The Management of Confusional States with Special Reference to Pathogenesis
Authors: Williams Tom A.
Published: August 2008

Confusion is a hallmark of the effects of toxin upon the cerebrum. When very slight, special tests are required to elicit it. Interference with neuronal conductivity is the chief pathogenetic factor. The topical incidence of this is one of the determinants of the form taken by the psychosis, whether hallucinatory, disorientative, depressive, delusional, or what not. Another factor is the state of the body secretions as affected by the toxins; a third factor is the patient's psychological status, as determined by the capacity and the opportunity for experience.
Madness and Unsoundness of Mind
Authors: Mercier Charles A.
Published: August 2008

It is considerably more than a quarter of a century since I first promulgated the doctrine that madness and unsoundness of mind are not the same thing; that madness includes more than unsoundness of mind, and that unsoundness of mind very often occurs in the sane, and is, indeed, one of the most frequent disorders of the sane. This doctrine has always seemed to me as manifestly true as the doctrine of natural selection, and, like the doctrine of natural selection, needs, it appears to me, only to be stated to secure the adhesion of every reasonable mind. In fact, I have found by experience that to the immense majority of my acquaintance it does only need to be stated to secure their adherence. Nearly everyone—everyone outside the membership of this Association—to whom I have stated it, without a single exception, has, in fact, accepted as self-evident that what matters in influencing our judgment of madness or sanity is not what a man thinks or feels, but what he says or does; not his mind, but his conduct. Even within this Association the doctrine has many adherents among the younger members, for I often receive letters from them, telling me how great an assistance it has been to them; so that things are moving, and I trust that before long we shall reach the stage that I predicted in a correspondence in the British Medical Journal, when not only will the doctrine be universally admitted to be true, but also we shall all declare that we never held any other, and that any claim of mine to have originated it will be strenuously denied. However, litera scripta manet. The minute-book of the Educational Committee will show that when I urged that conduct, as being the most important factor in madness, should be systematically studied, I could not secure even a seconder. When I subsequently brought the subject forward in this Association I had not one supporter. Nor had I when I brought it before the Royal Society of Medicine three years ago. In the third edition of Dr. Craig's book on Psychological Medicine, which has just appeared, the doctrine is not so much as even mentioned, and Dr. Craig says that insanity cannot be defined. This he says in face of the fact that at the Royal Society of Medicine I showed that there are several different concepts confused under the name of insanity, and I carefully defined every one of them; nor has any one of my definitions ever been impugned. I venture to assert that if these definitions had emanated from a German source they would have been welcomed with enthusiasm and received with reverence.
Materialism and Spiritualism
Authors: Maudsley Henry
Published: August 2008

Of all the consoling illusions which mankind have harboured to irradiate, hearten, seduce and dupe them in their onward way to the perfection, universal peace and brotherhood which they hope and expect to approach, if not attain—after the devastating deluge of this long war for an unknown Divine event is over—none is perhaps more wildly irrational than that of a complete regeneration of human nature, and the coming of a perfect transformation scene on the troubled earth; for all the world as if the method of vital progress which has been since the beginning of life is appointed to come abruptly to a stop, or to be reversed; with the optimistic belief, too, that life shall be thereby exalted and glorified immeasurably. Could the fatuity of egotistic optimism go farther? Was the universe specially created to be a stage on which man—equally with other species and the rest of animate nature—lives, suffers, decays, and dies, might play his transitory part? Was that the illusive goal which at its outset launched it on its transcendental aim and its mysterious career, along which it has groaned since in long protracted travail? Naturally in that matter the devotees of religion believe the most, hope the most, cry aloud the most; otherwise their faith might be rudely shaken.
Henry Maudsley, M.D., F.R.C.P.Lond., Ll.D.Edin. (Hon.)
Authors: Savage G. H.
Published: August 2008

In my endeavour to provide a suitable obituary notice of Dr. Henry Maudsley, I shall make frequent use of his own words. and thus I begin with an extract from his obituary of his father-in-law, Dr. Conolly: “The history of the man is his character. When a man dies who has occupied a conspicuous place in the world's eye, there is a great noise of lamentation heard. At the moment it seems as if nothing ever could compensate for the mighty bereavement. But Nature's serene features, fixed in their majestic and unchanging calm, reveal no sympathy with the sorrows of her children. The individual loss is her gain, death is the new condition of life, and the funeral dirge the song of joy for the new Conception.”
Moral Sanity
Authors: James J. G.
Published: August 2008

Many years ago Mr. H. G. Wells entered the “den of lions” and addressed the “Mind Association,” which embraces the most distinguished experts in metaphysics, on “Philosophy.” He was well received, however, and doubtless the expert mind was refreshed by the pres entation of the philosophy of the “plain man,” as expounded by the talented writer. Much more daring and bold is the present writer, who makes no claim to be a specialist in any direction, and does not possess expert learning except, perhaps, in metaphysics, in thus writing on so difficult and technical a subject as sanity for those who have made psychotherapeutics their life study. The object of this paper may, at once, be stated to be to express the profoundest admiration and appreciation of the methods of mental specialists, whose principles are in the estimation of the writer so eminently sound as viewed from the standpoint of both philosophy and religion.
Psychoses in the Expeditionary Forces
Authors: Pearn O. P. Napier
Published: August 2008

At the present time, to investigate fully the psychoses of those in military service would necessitate an inquiry into the mental health of the male moiety of the entire British nation. Admitting the truism that the war has not produced any new form of mental disease, it is nevertheless interesting to bring forward and accentuate the differences and similarities found in psychiatric military and civil institutional practice.
The Factors of Criminal Actions
Authors: Donkin H. Bryan
Published: August 2008

An article under the title of “The ætiology of Crime” by Dr. Goring, in the April number of the Journal for 1918, consists to a great extent of criticisms of one by me, entitled “Notes on Mental Defect in Criminals,” which appeared in the January number for 1917, and contained special comments on Dr. Goring's well-known work “The English Convict: a Statistical Study.” As it then seemed to me necessary to consider Dr. Goring's views when writing on this subject, it seems equally necessary now to make some comment on his criticisms. The main reason for the following remarks is the interest and importance of the subject-matter on which he and I differ; but since some of his strictures depend greatly on misrepresentations of what I have written, or on imputations of arguments and opinions that I have not uttered, I am forced to occupy more space in this paper than I could have wished in quoting from Dr. Goring's charges and re-stating my own position.
The Genesis of Delusions: Clinical Notes
Authors: McDowall Colin
Published: August 2008

Men and women hold to and have faith in certain opinions as the result of long thinking around and along certain lines. Our social and political tendencies are the outcome of an analysis more or less critical, and believed by the individual to be impartial. A scattered phrase or an apparently insignificant incident may attract attention, and be the beginning of a prolonged mental conflict which is finally determined by a definite line of thought. It does not follow that the reasoning is always logical, or the argument conclusive to people of other opinions, but nevertheless a conclusion is arrived at, and it is final.
Goitre and the Psychoses
Authors: Phillips Norman Routh
Published: August 2008

That there is some relationship between goitre and the psychoses is beyond all question. We have only to recall the mental syndromes of Graves' disease and endemic cretinism—goitre occurs in all but a few exceptional cases of the former, and in about 50 per cent, of the latter. Moreover it is by no means uncommon to find goitre in adult myxcedema.
On the Cytology of the Cerebrospinal Fluid in Mental Disease
Authors: Brunton G. L.
Published: August 2008

The fluid obtained by the easy and now frequent procedure of lumbar puncture affords, when subjected to simple tests, valuable aid in the diagnosis of mental disease.
Psycho-analysis and the Psychoses
Authors: Baynes H. G.
Published: August 2008

The question, “What is the efficacy of psycho-analysis in the treatment of the psychoses?” recalls to one's mind the problem of the utility of surgical procedures as a remedy for cancer. For in both we have to deal with an ætiological factor that is still obscure.
A Study of Hallucinations in a Case of Schizophrenia
Authors: Devine Henry
Published: August 2008

In the latter part of 1919 a patient who had hitherto proved inaccessible began to speak freely of his hallucinatory experiences. His observations were so interesting that it seemed to be an excellent opportunity to gain some insight into the obscure question of hallucinations, and I have therefore kept a complete record of everything which the patient has told me in the course of our conversations during the last year. The method of study has been purely conversational. The method of free association was not utilised for various reasons, and, in a sense, it was scarcely necessary since the patient really analysed himself naturally, and in his remarks made the origin of his experiences quite apparent. It is only proposed, in the present instance, to describe the hallucinations, and to discuss their origin and significance. There are many other features of interest in this case, such, for instance, as the reactions provoked by hallucinations, but these matters are much beyond the scope of a short paper. A brief history of the case will first be given.
The Problem of the Feeble-minded in South Africa
Authors: Dunston J. T.
Published: August 2008

Mr. President and Gentlemen,—TO make more clear to you the general position in South Africa as it affects the subject of mental disorders and defects, I propose, if you will allow me, to begin my paper by referring briefly to matters outside its scope as indicated by the title.
Fantasies of Childhood and Adolescence as a Source of Delusions
Authors: Mapother E. , Martin J. E.
Published: August 2008

The subject of the relation of recurring dreams of adult life to that almost inseparable mixture of real experience and fantasy which forms the mental life of the child was dealt with by Rudyard Kipling in The Brushswood Boy, and by George du Maurier in Peter Ibbetson, after a fashion not given to psycho-pathologists. The psycho-analytic school has of late years endeavoured to trace the genesis of the psycho neuroses to aspects of the same period generally considered less attractive. There has, I think, been less effort to establish such a connection in the major psychoses.