Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-03-07

much productive labor. why Snoulu
he be burned upon the funeral pyre?
Let us consider the epileptic who is
frequently insane. In many states.
institutions are used solely for his
care. He usually leads a happy, con-
tented though deteriorated existence.
He may be employed in the farm,
gardens or industrial shops. He at
tends dances, movies and other en-
tertainments. His malady is painful
tits true, but the usual epileptic
doesn't go about weeping and wailing
and gnashing his teeth. Why should
he perish upon the altar of sacrifice?
Let us peruse for moment the
case of the general paralytic. He
suffers no prolonged mental pain.
Many general paralytics remarkably
improve under proper therapy but
for those who do not respond to
treatment why interfere with that
rapid dissolution which nature is so
ably taking care of.
Take the senile dreaming in his
dotage. Why not let him finish out
the short way he is to go? He is the
last of all to be fettered by chains OF
psychic terror.
Why cast into oblivion the man
with the hardened cerebral arteries ?
His mind is often clouded and he is
afflicted with no diabolical distress.
His is a complacent routine because
the haze shuts out painful scenes
from the past and prevents the in
ception of annoyances of the pres
ent
And it Is much the same way with
all other organic mental states.
The insane alcoholic is of course
now q "rara avis and it will not be
necessary to consider him.
The feebleminded need not be gone
into here because they do not strict
ly come within the insane group and
do not believe the originators of the
"psychoticide idea" intended to in
clude the mentally defective.
The cases which do suffer severe
mental conflicts, pain and anxiety in
clude the neurasthenic, psychasthenic
and hysteric. Many of these are
chronic but to put them to a pain
less and merciful death" would be
the same as inf1icting mortal injury
upon any chance conner in the street.
The psychoneurotic shows little or no
destruction of his personality, his
mentality on the whole is as keen as
anyone's and above all he is forever
solicitous regarding the most trivial
thing pertaining to his welfare.
Last of all mention the manic de-
pressive patient. He is the only one
of the classes discussed. whose case
is recoverable and he is the one who
in the depressed phase of the disease
suffers more agony and misery than
any patient in any other group.
AS to the immediate family of the
mentally afflicted 1 have to say that
perhaps a chance. remark is some
times made by them that the patient
would be better off dead" neverthe-
less, when death becomes a grim real
ity they invariably feel it's presence
just as completely as in any other in
stance because in the innermost re-
cesses of their consciousness they
cannot help but retain the memory
of what the patient once was.
l do not wish to infer that the life
of the mental patient is in any de-
gree Utopian, for such is not the case,
but merely wish to try to show that
his case is not SO profoundly deplor-
able after ALL, and that the great
| majority of hospital heads are not
attempting to inculcate or to foster
the gem of malignant mediaevalism.
Can anyone find any reason for ap
plying the latest psychiatrical idea
discussed so freely by the press?
DIR JOHN H. TRAVIS,
Asst. Ply, State Hospital,
Augusta, Me,