st
to slow and low answers, and later to much freer speech,
though the inactivity improved only gradually. Thus at the
examination on February 19, though she was quite inactive,
she answered some questions, albeit in whispers and
briefly. This was the case when questioned about the year,
month and date, which she gave correctly, but she merely
shook her head when asked how long she had been here, why
she was here, what was the matter with her. Once she smiled
appropriately. Later she became freer in speech, with a
more natural tone, although her answers continued to be
short. Not infrequently, when asked to calculate or to
write, she would not cooperate, saying "This has nothing to
do with my getting well," or (later) "What has that got to
do with my going home?" or she would simply say she did not
want to. Improvement in her listlessness and inactivity was
more gradual.

The prevailing affective state was indefinite. She denied
repeatedly that she was depressed, though later she
admitted once being downhearted, yet it seems that even
then her mood was not so much one of sadness as of a slight
resentment. On one occasion, however, she showed some tears
when asked about the baby. She repeatedly expressed the
wish to go home, but not in a pleading, rather in a
resentful, way, saying she would never be better here, that
the questions which were asked had nothing to do with her
going home, that she would be all right if she went home.
She never admitted that she had ever been sick enough to be
taken to a hospital, though she quite appreciated that
there had been something the matter with her head at home
and in the hospital. She stated, in answer to questions,
that she had a peculiar feeling in the head which she could
not explain, that she could not remember so well as
formerly. Once she said, "I hear so much around here that
my head gets so full."

When towards the end she was questioned about her
condition, i.e., the reason for her resistance, her mutism,
and her refusal of food, she said that then she "wanted to
be left alone"; that she did not eat "because she did not
want food," and she also spoke of not having had any
interest.

She was discharged on April 29, i.e., ab