Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-05
The Amputated Life.

1t was William James who directed
attention to fact well known that
people who lost an arm or a leg for
years continued to have feelings in the
amputated limb. Why this is so Is
clear. Sensations continue in the irri-
tated stump. and as these feelings
come from nerves that were formerly
connected with the fingers, the patient
saws, IT have q pain in my hand to-
day." though the arm was lost months
or years ago. II piece OF skin Is
transplanted to cover scar, then lfor
time), when touched, the place Will
be referred to where 1t used to be, not
where it is. The old sensation persists.
In some cases the patient feels only
the fingers and not the intervening
arm. There seems to be nothing pc
tween stump and fingers. Even the
sensation of position continues, and
some will feel the phantom fingers as
bent or cramped, and as time goes on
the fingers may seem to shrink back TO
the stump. If an artificial arm Is worn,
then gradually the sensations are re-
ferred out again from the stump to the
finger tips, much as we feel things az
the tin of the cane which we hold
in the hand. These are all inter-
esting facts in sensation and Illusion.
They show that when the system OF
feeling was once established in the
nervous system it keeps on, though
there are no further real sensations.
The same is true of the organization
of these sensations apart from mus
cles, though the evidence is then dil-
ferent. The person with the ampu-
tated arm is aware all day that he has
no arm, and is learning to do things In
new ways without it-a trying piece OF
re-education, and the body OF sensa-
tions may be still stronger by the loss
of leg and the new sensation OF car
rving crutches. How soon does he al
WAYS think of himself as crippled? AND
when he dreams does he dream OF him.
self as using one arm or two, OF walk
ing as he used to or as he does now?
The dream test may be applied to the
blind and the deaf, especially when, as
after an accident, the loss comes SUD-
denly. :,
There is still need for well observed
cases to furnish the details of this in
teresting, if pathetic, experiment In the
psychology of personality. The cases
show a great variation in the time OF
adjustment Some make the change
rapidly in few months, adopting their
new "amputated life" promptly and ac-
cepting the situation; others do so very
gradually and for years are sound and
whole in their dreams.
Prof. Conklin, In commenting on these
cases, writes: 1.-THE profoundly serious
thing is the change in the self-concept
and in the emotional reactions which
the patient undergoes in the course OF
the process of learning to live the am
putated life" This goes quite beyond
the sensory and motor changes that
are registered in his nervous system,
and supplies the sense feelings and the
movement feelings of cripple. 1t ex-
tends, as Prof. Conklin continues TO
describe it, to the entire feelings OF
personality that are SO vital in self
consciousness.
1.-THE disturbances of ambitions" he
says, "the interference with professional
life, which may be rendered difficult
if not impossible; the social situation
of appearing on crutches and the atti-
tude of others-all these contribute to
the changes in the self-concept and in
turn to a most complicated and disturb
ing change in emotion reaction patterns.
The SloWness with which many ampu-
tated persons readjuSt to life, or the
occasional failure to do so, must be
attributed to these conceptual and emo
tional alterations"
Which means that the difficult adj
justment is higher up. It's easier to
get adjusted to the feeling of walking
on clutches and using your left arm
instead of your right than it Is to ac-
cept yourself as cripple in leg or arm
The altered personality Is hard to
accept.
Serious emotional readjustments. with
out the sensory accompaniment, tell the
same tale. Many widow or widower
will testify that for years after the be-
reavement he continues to think and
feel of himself in the long accustomed
relation, and in his dreams he or she
goes back to the richer, completer, and
forgets the amputated emotional life.
Naturally, all these readjustments come
more easily to the vigorous and young,
and those who lose an arm or leg or
become blind or deaf in youth and in
middle life that they have thoroughly
become the curtailed selves that fate
has made them. In this respect the
Great War will furnish many tragic
confirmation.
So psychology in all sympathy adds
to its lessons from the tragedies and
losses in life. An analysis of the am
putated life shows clearly the organi-
cation of mind, first by way OF sensa-