Benign Stupors: A Study of a New Manic-Depressive Reaction Type. August Hoch
that simple impersonal questions were answered promptly; whereas difficult impersonal questions or questions which referred to her condition were not answered at all. She proved to be oriented. Thus she gave the day of the week, month, year, the name of the hospital, names of the doctors and nurses promptly. She also counted quickly and did a few simple multiplications quickly. But she was silent when asked where the hospital was located, how long she had been here, whether she was here one or six months, how she felt. Questions in regard to the condition she had passed through, or involving difficult calculations, she did not answer. However, some questions regarding her condition asked in such a way that they could be answered by "yes" or "no" were again answered quite promptly. Thus when asked whether her head felt all right she said, "Yes, sir." (Is your memory good?) "Yes." (Have you been sick?) "No, sir." (Are you worried?) "No."
4. This apathy cleared up too, so that by the middle of March she was bright, active and smiled freely. With the nurses she was rather talkative and pleased, though this was not marked. Towards the physician only was she natural and free. She then gave the retrospective account of the onset detailed above. When questioned about her condition she claimed not to remember the Observation Pavilion, although recalling vaguely going there in a carriage. She was almost completely amnesic for a considerable part of her stay in the Institute. She claimed it was only in November or December that she began to know where she was (five months after admission). In harmony with this is the fact that she did not recall the tube- and spoon-feeding which had to be resorted to for about four months of this period. No ideas or visions were remembered. As to her mutism she said, "I don't think I could speak," "I made no effort," again "I did not care to speak." She claimed that she remembered being pricked with a pin but that she did not feel it. She remembered yelling when taken to the tub (towards end of the marked stupor) and claimed she thought she was to be drowned.
When she went home (March 24, 1908) she got into a more elated condition. She was talkative, conversed with strangers on the street, said to her mother that she was now sixteen years old and wanted "a fellow." When the mother would not allow her to go out, she said it would be better if they both would jump out of the window and kill themselves. She then was sent back to the hospital. In the first part of this period after her return, she was somewhat elated and overtalkative, though she did not present a flight of ideas, and was well behaved. She soon got well, however, and was discharged, four months after her readmission, fully recovered.
After that, it is claimed, she was perfectly well and worked successfully most of the time with the exception of a short period in the spring of 1909, when she was slightly elated.
In 1910 she had a subsequent attack, during which she was treated at another hospital. From the description this again seems to have been a typical stupor (immobility, mutism, tendency to catalepsy, rigidity). According to the account of the onset sent by that hospital (it was obtained from the mother), this attack began some months before admission, with complaints of being out of sorts, not being able to concentrate and fearing that another attack would come on. Finally the stupor was said to have been immediately preceded by a seizure in which the whole body jerked. She made again an excellent recovery.
The patient was seen about two years after this attack, and described the development of the psychosis as follows: She claimed she began to feel "queer," "nervous," "depressed," got sleepless. Then (this was given spontaneously) she suddenly thought she was dying and that her father's picture was talking to her and calling her. "Then I lost my speech." As after the first attack, she claimed not to have any recollection of what went on during a considerable part of the stupor but recalled that she began to talk after her brother visited her. It is not clear how she was during the period immediately following the stupor.
She made a very natural impression and came willingly to the hospital in response to a letter and was quite open about giving information.
Case 2.—Caroline DeS. Age: 21. Admitted to the Psychiatric Institute June 10, 1909.
F. H. The father died of apoplexy when patient was nine. The mother had diabetes. A paternal uncle was queer, visionary.
P. H. The patient was always considered natural, bright, had many friends, and was efficient.
Some months before admission the patient's favorite brother, who is a Catholic, became engaged to a Protestant girl, and spoke of changing his religion. The family and the patient were annoyed at this, and the patient is said to have worried about it, but was otherwise quite natural until seven days before admission. Then, at the engagement dinner of the brother, the psychosis broke out. She refused to sit down to the table, and then suddenly began to sing and dance, cry and laugh and talk in a disconnected manner. Among other things, she said "I hate her," "I love you, papa" (father is dead), "Don't kill me." She struck her brother. She was in a few days taken to the Observation Pavilion.
The patient stated after recovery that what worried her was that the brother would marry a Protestant and that he would leave home (favorite brother).
At the Observation Pavilion she was excited, shouted, screamed, laughed, called out "Don't kill me," again "Brother, brother," "You are my brother" (to doctor).
Under Observation: 1. On admission, and for two weeks, the patient presented a marked excitement, during most of which she was treated in the continuous bath. She tossed about, threw the sheets off, beat her breasts and abdomen, put her fingers into her mouth, bit the back of her hands, waved her arms about, sometimes with peculiar gyration, etc., at the same time shouting, singing, again praying, laughing or crying, sometimes fighting the nurses and resisting them. She also talked quite a little as a rule, but there were periods when, although excited, she would not talk or answer questions. She was very little influenced in her talk by the environment. When on one occasion asked if she had any trouble, she said: "No—I don't want, somebody else gave me a book—all right I love myself, Uncle Mike too—all right too—all right I am in Bellevue—I love everybody except the Jews all right, all right—give me water, give me milk, give me seltzer—white horse uncle—Holy Father, he is killing me, I want my mother," or "Wait a minute, say, that's a lie—oh no, Holy water—no I didn't wash the water away—oh, she forgets, I am sick—mother why don't you come—look at the baby, they knocked my head against the wall—wait a minute, isn't that terrible?—I was married—I was so—I forgot—April fool—I kiss you seven kisses and one more—I love papa and mamma, I like others too—I am papa's angel child—yes I confess I love him, but I don't want to die myself." On another occasion, when asked where she was, she said: "I am at the ball—I am going to Heaven—don't shoot me" (affectless). (Why are you afraid?) "Because you see—high water (in the tub)—white horse." (What about the water?) "My name is Caroline—if you love me, father, tickle me under my feet," or, rolling her eyes up, "Oh, isn't that awful, that ring, that diamond, that is the key to Heaven."
2. For about ten days she was somewhat different. She became quieter and at first lay muttering unintelligibly, saying some things about being killed, but speaking little, often restlessly tossing about and tremulous. She had to be tube-fed. On one day (July 1) she smiled more and talked more, said to the physician "You have been arrested for me—you arrested the first man that I ever—New York State—let me see that book" (note pad). Then she went on: "Oh, I am all apart—diamonds—they didn't know—must I keep them clean?—what is your name?—that is another thing I would like to know." But when asked what house she was in she said: "This is the same Ward's Island" and then added, "How long have I been here?—there is my picture up there (register), who is that? (listening) it's Ida ..." She began to sing softly. Then again she whined. "O mamma, mamma!" When asked how long she had been here, she said: "Since Decoration Day, when my father went in my sister's house, nobody could catch up with me—somebody blackened her eyes." When asked whether she was sick, she said "No, insane."
Although, as was stated, she said at one time, "This is the same Ward's Island," usually questions regarding orientation were not answered, as she gave few relevant replies, but she repeatedly said spontaneously that she was in "Hoboken or Bellevue," and called the nurse by the name of a former teacher. A few days after this state had developed she had a fever. Once this rose to 104°. The fever lasted two weeks, coming down gradually. It was associated with a leucocytosis of 15,000 on June 29 (no differential