The Irish standard., 1895-01-19
DISEASES OF THE WILL
Some Strange Mantle stations Of
Mental Alteration.


Persons Who Wish to DO tho Simplest
Falling Will Powers Man Who
Couldn't Put on His Coat.
Persons who are interested In the Gu
rions side of human nature should look
into the work of the French doctor and
scientist Ribot on the diseases of the
human will, where are to be found some
extraordinary instances of men and
women losing their powers Of volition in
regard to certain acts while they keep
fully active and healthy in all others.
Eschewing all research as to first
causes Ribot takes volition as form Of
activity and studies it in purely path
illogical sense. That strange power in
us which every day says II will" that
power which summons, suspends Or dis
misses, as another Frenchman, Renou-
vier, defines it; that force in us and be-
hind us which, in it's ultimate POSSIBLE
ties, can hardly be limited. is shown in
this work to be subject to the strangest
diseases and to be modified IN the most
peculiar manner.
There are some persons, says the Chi
cago Times, and they enter into all the
daily circle of life, whose wills arc SO
soft and plant that they need the
strength of another will to be joined
to theirs before they can act. This
~ =
tuated in disease to degree hardly
deemed possible by the nonobservant.
Persons suffering from this form of
diseased volition can will themselves
according to the dictates of reason.
They can feel a desire to act, but they
cannot make move toward that end.
They are powerless to translate that
desire into an act
Esquirol mentions in this instance
the case of a magistrate highly distin-
guished for his learning and his powers
as speaker, who was seized with mo-
nomania in consequence of certain
troubles OF the mind. He regained his
reason, but would not go into the world
again, though he acknowledged him
self to be in the wrong in not doing SO.
When advised to travel or to attend to
his u1uch-neglected affairs he would
say:
81 know that ought to do so, but !
am unable. Your advice is very good,
and I wish ] could follow it. 1t is Ger
tain that have no will save not to will,
for have my reason unimpaired.
know what ought to do, but strength
fails me when ought to act"
!. The case of the magistrate, however,
is hardly as strange as that recorded
by Prot. j. FL. Bennett of man who
could not carry out what he wished to
perform, even to the simplest acts OF
daily life.
Often, on endeavoring to undress,
this man was two hours before he could
get his coat off. All his mental facul-
tiles were perfect, but his will was i'm.
tpaired. Once he ordered glass OF
water. When the servant brought it
he was utterly unable to take it off the
tray, though he was most anxious to do
So. The servant waited half an hour
before him, at the end Of which time
the man oyercame the difficulty. seized
the glass and drank down it's contents.
He described his feelings afterwards
''as if another person had taken posses
sion of his will"
! The abuse of opium produces some
what similar condition. De Quincy
says: S'The opium eater loses none OF
his moral sensibilities or aspirations.
He wishes and longs as earnestly as
ever to realize what he believes to be
possible and feels to be exacted by duty.
But his intellectual apprehension OF
what is possible infinitely outruns it's
power, not of execution only, but even
the power to attempt"
/! Another curious instance quoted by
DR.. Billiod of Nancy is that of man
who was greatly frightened at thirty
years of age by certain civic tumults III
which he, unfortunately, became in
volved. Thereafter, though he retained
perfectly his mental balance, he would
not remain alone, either on the street
Or in his chamber, but was always &C.
companied. If he went out it was i1n-
possible for him to return alone.
! whenever he went out alone, which
he rarely did, he would soon halt on
the street and there remain indefinite
ly, neither going on or turning back,
unless some one led him.
! Gle seemed to have will, but it was
that of those around him. Whenever
the attempt was made to overcome this
resistance of the man he would fall into
swOon."
There are dozens of persons who
every year take refuge in asylums be-
cause they are tormented all the time
with the impulse to kill those who are
dear to them.
Sometimes" says Ribot, fixed ideas
of a character frivolous or unreason-
able find Judgment in the mind, which,
though it deems them absurd, is pow
erless to prevent them from passing
into acts"
Westphal tells Of a man who was
haunted by the thought that he might
perchance commit to writing that he
had been guilty of some crime and