Benign Stupors: A Study of a New Manic-Depressive Reaction Type. August Hoch
2. Then she became more preoccupied, the restlessness was much less in evidence, it became necessary to tube-feed her, she retained her urine, answered a few questions, and when asked where she was, she said, "Calvary, ain't it?" (What house?) "Heaven, ain't it?" She still called the physician by the name of her brother. After a few days this gave way to a more marked stupor which lasted nearly two years. This was characterized most frequently by a complete inactivity. She usually lay or sat motionless, sometimes with mouth partly open, letting the flies crawl over her face, gazing in one direction, soiling, wetting, resisting moderately or markedly any interference, and had to be tube-fed. But this was not the invariable state. The most constant feature was her mutism, but even that was a few times interrupted. Thus, when after a visit from her uncle (towards the end of July, 1902) she tried to get out of the window and was prevented, she swore at the nurse. Or in August, 1902, when she got into another patient's bed and was taken out, she resisted and said promptly: "I think it is a damned shame I can't get into my own bed." But this was the extent of her talk for a year and a half. Nor was she always totally inactive. In the middle of July, 1902, she sometimes tried to get out of bed, wandered about, got into other patients' beds. It was on such an occasion that the above incident happened. In August, 1902, she sometimes tried to get out when the door was opened, and we have seen that she tried to get out of the window, but she did not change her placid expression at such times. Her motive was not known. On two occasions towards the end of 1902, when she was taken to a dance and was made to take part, she waltzed with considerable animation but did not speak. This was quite striking in that these incidents occurred in a setting of marked inactivity (i.e., a condition in which she had to be pushed to the table, pushed to the closet). She did not soil any more, but she sometimes drooled and had to be spoon-fed. However, on a third occasion when this was tried, she had to be dragged around. Finally, though her facial expression showed at times a preoccupied staring, she more often looked around, sometimes quite freely and often looked up promptly enough when accosted. But there was very little evidence of any affect at any time. We have seen that twice she swore a little when opposed. On another occasion she slapped a patient when the latter helped her. Twice she was seen crying a little without apparent provocation, but she did not laugh, and the only suggestion of pleasurable emotion was that at the two dances mentioned she could be led into a certain animation. Usually, even when she got less resistive towards the end, she was essentially apathetic.
Once in January, 1903, she could be made to write her name but wrote her maiden name. In the end of 1903 she improved gradually (a condition not well observed), so that by December she answered some questions in a low tone. Even in April, 1904, she was still described as apathetic, though she had begun to do some work.
3. Then she improved markedly and began to work, looked after herself in a natural way, spoke freely, was entirely oriented and her mood generally presented nothing striking. But her mental attitude was still peculiar when she was questioned. She seemed somewhat inattentive, sulky, sneering. Thus, when asked why she was here, she said, "You will have to ask those who brought me here."
She denied ever having been pregnant, said the nurses on the ward had spoken of her having had a child and that they had showed her a child (one was born on that ward about August, 1903) but that it was not hers. She thought it was wrong for the nurses to speak on the ward of her having been pregnant. Again questioned about her marriage, she first said she had not been married, again that she was married "a year ago" (was in the hospital then). Again she spoke of her husband as her "gentleman friend," claimed she called herself Mary M. (maiden name) until a girl friend wrote her a letter addressed to Mrs. F. From then on, she called herself by her married name. But she thought that probably they sometimes spoke of her marriage in fun. If she were Mrs. F. she would be living in Mr. F.'s house.
On June 29, when again asked about her marriage, she said she was to have been married in December (correct date). (Were you?) "So they say." (Do you remember it?) "In a way." (When was the baby born?) "You will have to ask somebody more superior to me, more experienced." Then, when further questioned about the age of the baby, she said, "The baby I saw in the ward was about a year old," and she claimed not to remember ever having a baby. When asked why she had come here she said, "Well, I don't know, perhaps you know better, through sickness I guess," and later: "Well, don't you ever get a cold and want doctors to examine you?" (What kind of a place?) "This is a nice place for sensible people who have enough knowledge to know and realize what they come for." But she knew the name of the place, the date, the names of persons.
Questioned about the trouble with her father or her husband's trouble with him, she denied it, "If he did (sc. have any trouble), I don't remember." About her not speaking, she said, in answer to questions, "I didn't know what I was here for, what was the object in keeping me here"; and to other questions about her condition, "I don't know, those who examined me can tell you more about that." Finally, she said in reply to the question, why she came here, "I don't remember unless it was through fire," but would not explain what she meant.
In the beginning of July, she again said that she had no recollection of her marriage.
She then improved a great deal and finally appeared very natural, gave the retrospective account noted in the history, had a clear appreciation of the fact that she was married and had a child. She claimed that she had previously forgotten about her marriage and thought she was still merely keeping company with Mr. F. She claimed not to remember coming to the hospital, did not know what ward she came to, who the doctor and nurses were, in fact claimed that it was about a year before she knew where she was. But she remembered having been tube-fed. She could not say why she did not speak. But she appreciated that she had been ill.
Ten years after discharge the husband, in answer to an inquiry, stated that she had been perfectly well and had had no trouble at three successive childbirths.
Case 4.—Mary D. Age: 20. Admitted to the Psychiatric Institute September 17, 1907.
F. H. The grandfather and the father of the patient were alcoholics. The father died three years before the patient's admission; he was killed in an accident. The mother stated that she herself was nervous, but she made a normal impression.
P. H. The patient was described as bright at school and efficient in her work as a dressmaker, but she was rather quiet, inclined to stay at home and had not much inclination to consort with the other sex. She was rather proud. As an example of this is stated the fact that she was always somewhat sensitive, because the family lived in the basement of the house in which her mother was janitress. She did not menstruate until 16. It was about this time that her father was killed in an accident. She was considerably upset by this, talked a good deal about the way he was killed, but did not break down. The patient on recovery stated that it worried her because the father died without having any chance to get a priest.
Six weeks before admission the patient was given a vacation, as there was not work enough in the shop, but she worked at home.
Two or three weeks before admission her appetite failed somewhat, and ten days before admission, without any appreciable cause, she began to sleep badly, seemed somewhat nervous, became a little "fidgety" and said she worried because her mother had to work so hard. Later she began to speak about people saying that the ambulance would come for her and she heard voices saying "You will be dead." It is not known in what emotional setting these remarks were made. Her mother took her to a dispensary. On the way she asked the mother where she was going and said "I can't tell the number and I don't know where I am going. I think I am losing my mind." She also said she could not understand any more what she read. She was put to bed. She then talked less, appeared stupid, and was inclined to refuse food.
Four days before admission she claimed that she could see her dead father beckoning to her, again she said a certain young man was God. She was sent to the Observation Pavilion. On the day she went there she was reported to have shown a slight jaundice.
The patient, after her recovery, added to the above account of the mother, that about two weeks before admission, for no reason which she could state, she began to feel quiet, and that after that her father's death began to prey on her mind, and that later she had a vision of her father. She claimed that in this period she had no