FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155  
156   157   158   >>  
r, a patient who has committed a crime under stress of such an irresistible impulse should be put under permanent custodial care. _Physical Signs of Insanity_ The physician who is skilled in psychiatry finds in very many insane patients marked physical signs. There are pains, insensitive areas, hypersensitive areas, changes in the pupils of the eyes, unrestrained reflex action, and partial loss of muscular control, as shown in talking, walking, and writing. Constipation and insomnia are very early symptoms of disease in a very large proportion of the insane. It is productive of no good result for a layman to try to classify the insane. The matter of classification will be for several years in a condition of developmental change. It is enough to speak of the patient as depressed or excited, agitated or stupid, talkative or mute, homicidal, suicidal, neglectful, uncleanly in personal habits, etc. _Illustrations of Various Types_ There are very interesting features connected with typical instances of several varieties of insanity, as they were noted in certain cases under the writer's care. A depressed patient with suicidal tendencies cherished the delusion that war with Great Britain was imminent, and that in such an event British troops would be landed on Long Island between New York City and the spot where he conceived the cattle to be kept. This, he argued, would cut off the beef and milk supply from the city. He therefore decided to do his part toward husbanding the present supply of food by refusing to eat; an act which necessitated feeding him through a rubber tube for many weeks. He also attempted suicide by drowning, throwing himself face downward in a shallow swamp, whence he was rescued. This young man was an expert chess player even during his attack. A maniacal patient wore on her head a tent of newspaper to keep the devil from coming through the ceiling and attacking her. She frequently heard her husband running about the upper floor with the devil on his back. As a further precaution she stained her gray hair red with pickled beet juice, and would occasionally hurl loose furniture at the walls and ceilings of her rooms and assault all who approached her. A man who presented a case of dementia pulled the hairs from his beard and planted them in rows in the garden, watering them daily, and showing much astonishment that they did not grow. He spent hours each day in spelling words backward
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155  
156   157   158   >>  



Top keywords:

patient

 

insane

 

depressed

 
suicidal
 
supply
 

downward

 
rescued
 

shallow

 

player

 

expert


maniacal
 

attack

 

necessitated

 

present

 

husbanding

 
refusing
 

decided

 

attempted

 

suicide

 
drowning

throwing

 
feeding
 

rubber

 

pulled

 

planted

 

garden

 

dementia

 
ceilings
 

assault

 

presented


approached

 

watering

 

spelling

 

backward

 

showing

 

astonishment

 

running

 

husband

 

frequently

 

coming


ceiling

 

attacking

 

occasionally

 

furniture

 

pickled

 

precaution

 
stained
 

newspaper

 

troops

 

walking