s under the general group of the psychoses of degeneracy. He
does not add anything worthy of note to what Raecke had to say
concerning this mental disorder, but the differentiating points which he
advances between it and the genuine catatonia are of interest and should
be mentioned here. Among these he mentions, first, the development of
the disorder upon a grave degenerative basis; second, the sudden
development of the psychosis as the immediate result of a situation
strongly affective in nature, such as a threatening or beginning
prolonged imprisonment; third, the more or less sudden disappearance of
the entire symptom-complex upon a change of environment; and lastly, the
lack of secondary dementia. This absence of dementia cannot be explained
by mere assertions that these cases have perhaps not been followed out
long enough. Bonhoeffer kept account of some of these cases for as long
as ten years, and in none of them could he observe any sign of a
deteriorating process.

It may, perhaps, be of interest to finally mention here Raecke's
fantastic form of degenerative psychosis, which is nothing more nor less
than another attempt at describing the original Ganser twilight state in
a modified form.

It will be seen from the preceding that the disease-pictures described
by Reich, Moeli, Kutner, Ganser, Rish, and others, are so closely
related that any attempt at separation must of necessity be more or
less of an artificiality. The question whether this condition, because
of certain isolated hysterical components, deserves to be considered as
hysterical in nature, is by no means solved. The mere presence of
physical, so-called hysterical, stigmata, is not sufficient to call a
disorder hysterical. Bonhoeffer, who, in opposition to such authors as
Wilmanns, Birnbaum, Siefert, and others, insists that this
so-called prison-psychotic-complex in its narrower sense is of
hysterical nature, does so because he claims to be able to see in these
patients the dominance of a wish factor, namely, the wish to be
considered insane, and consequently to be transferred to an institution
for the insane.

He explains the recovery of these patients upon being transferred to
such an institution on the basis of the fulfillment of this wish. My
experience has been that it is very difficult in most instances to
differentiate these acute psychogenetic states from certain hysterical
conditions. Some of them show a good many hysterical symptoms, wh