The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1942-05-25


his column.
danger is TO the nervous system.
THE war Of nerves" is a very ac-
curate designation Of the situa-
ton.
1t is possible for the nervous sys-
tenn to 90 to pieces in various ways
as a result of the stresses Of war
events. OF course, a person may
have a nervous system perfectly
well geared to handle the average,
ordinary tasks. Yet some may go
entirely TO pieces if some extra
neous event is precipitated into the
routine. II this extraneous event
should be something so sudden and
drastic as bomb bursting in front
Of the house and tearing away the
front Of the house, or the sudden
news Of the death of a son in serv-
ice, it is not surprising that it
might make a mental derelict of
the person permanently.
Mental Dereliction
What is the nature Of this men
tai dereliction? One thing is that
the individual may withdraw into
himself and divorce the outside
world from his consciousness and
lapse into a state of inarticulate-
ness or melancholia, or in the case
of young people, the condition
known as dementia praecox.
Another natural thing is for
them to try to forget the event,
and in doing so, they may by a
process of suggestion, forget some
thing else which is a part Of them
selves. This is the condition which
is known as hysteria. The best
definition | have heard Of the psy-
Geological condition Of a patient
with hysteria is that it is form
Of loss Of memory. One Of the ma
jor symptoms of hysteria is the
divided personality.
These DR.. Jekyll and Mr.. Hyde
individuals are not at all product
Of Stevenson's imagination. There
are plenty Of real examples in
which an individual has split per-
sonality so that some time he is
Mr.. A and other times he is Mr..
B. II does not necessarily follow
that, as in the cases of DR.. Jekyll
and Mr.. Hyde. one personality is
all good and one personality is all
bad, but that while he is Mr.. A he
forgets all about Mr.. B. Some
times, curiously enough, when A
finds that his bank account is over
drawn, he says perfectly ration
ally, "B did that" as il he were
talking about an entirely different
person.
Symptoms of Hysteria
All the symptoms of hysteria,
such as construction Of the visual
fields, the paralysis and the tan
trums can be 2yplained on the
basis of a form of forgetfulness.
For instance, one symptom of hys-
terra is numbness. Now, of course,
numbness or anesthesia may occur
to the skin due TO an injury to
nerve, but anesthesia Of the hand,
if due to a nerve injury, involves
only three and one-half fingers on
one side or one and one-haf fin
gers on the other side and the
anesthesia extends up the arm.
Hysterical anesthesia of the
hand does not follow this pattern,
but the anesthesia stops in a def
mite ring around the wrist. The
hysterical person has forgotten
the mental concept Of the hand.
Differential diagnosis between or
ganic and functional disease can
be made in this way.
So if person says to you, "You
have forgotten yourself" he really
is saying, "You are hysterical,"
and it may happen in war time.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
J. S.: What fruit juices are
advisable TO drink for one that has
gall bladder trouble and arthritis
in the hands. was advised to
cook grape fruit rinds and drink
the juice.
Answer: Any fruit juices are
good for both these conditions. I
certainly do not advise grape fruit
rinds, however, as the rind has
very little nutritive value COM
pared to the inside of the fruit.