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., about ten weeks after admission before she had become entirely free.
The last case is interesting in that a depressive onset to a deep stupor was observed in the Institute. It was characterized by constant repetitions of a request to be killed.
Case 15.—Meta S. Age: 16. Admitted to the Psychiatric Institute June 26, 1902.
F. H. The father was dead, and the mother living abroad. Not much could be learned about them and the immediate family.
P. H. An aunt who gave the anamnesis had known the patient only since she came to the United States, a year before admission. After her arrival the patient at once went to work as a servant. It was claimed that her employer liked her, but that she was rather slow about the work. The only trouble known was that she sometimes complained of indigestion. She went to see her aunt about once every two weeks.
Three weeks before admission, when the patient visited her aunt, she seemed quieter than usual. Further, she spoke about sending money home on the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, which was thought peculiar because she had no money, and on a walk
through a cemetery said "I would like to be here too." At the time this did not impress the aunt as very peculiar. The patient continued to work until nine days before admission. The employer then sent for the aunt and said the patient had been very quiet for about two weeks, and that she now had become more abnormal. She suddenly had begun to cry, said the police had come, claimed, without foundation, that she had "stolen," and kept repeating "I have done it, I will not do it again." The aunt took her home with her. There she was quite dejected, cried, spoke of killing herself (wanted to jump out of the window, wanted to get a knife). On the whole, she said very little, but when the aunt pressed her to say why she was so worried, she said she had allowed men to kiss her and had taken money from them. It is claimed that she never menstruated.
After recovery the patient herself described the onset as follows: Ever since she came to this country she had been homesick, and felt especially lonesome for some months before admission. She knew, however, of no precipitating cause, in spite of what she had said to the aunt and what she said at first under observation. She consistently denied that anything had happened with young men. A short time before she left her place (she left it nine days before admission) she could not work, began to accuse herself of being a bad girl and of having stolen. Then she was taken to the aunt's house. There she wanted to die.
Under Observation: 1. On admission the patient appeared depressed, sat with downcast expression, looking up rarely. She spoke in a low tone and slowly. But, in spite of delay, she answered all questions, knew where she was and gave an account of the place where she had worked. When questioned about trouble with men, she claimed that a man who lived in the same house where she worked had tried to make her "lie on the bed," but that she refused; that later a man had assaulted her and had after that repeatedly come to her room when she was alone. Yet when asked whether she worried about this, she denied it.