CHAPTER VII
THE EFFECT ON THE MIND
It is hardly necessary to describe to the stammerer who has passed beyond the first stage of his trouble the effect of stammering on the mind. Most any sufferer in the second or third stages of the malady has experienced for very brief periods the sensation of thoughts slipping away from him and of pursuing or attempting to pursue those thoughts for some seconds without success, finally to find them returning like a flash.
The stammerer who recalls such an incident will remember the feelings of lassitude or momentary physical exhaustion, as well as the feeling of weakness which followed the lapse-of-thought. This mental flurry is but an indication of a mental condition known as Thought-Lapse, which may result from long-continued stammering, especially a case which has been allowed to progress into the Chronic or Advanced Stage.
A CASE OF APHASIA: One writer, in citing instances of thought-lapse, or aphasia, tells of the case of a man unable to recall the name of any object until it was repeated for him. A knife, for instance, placed on the table before him, brought no mental image of the word representing the object, yet if the word "knife" were spoken for him, he would immediately say, "Oh, yes, it is a knife."
A chapter could be filled with instances of this sort, but I shall not attempt to quote further any of the symptoms of aphasia in a stammerer, for in cases that become so far advanced, there is considerable question as to the possibility of bringing about a cure. I say this, notwithstanding the fact that my experience with students having this tendency has been very satisfactory indeed.
Cases of unreasoning despondency, which result in the stammerer's desire to take his own life, are so numerous as hardly to require comment. Very frequently you see in some of the large metropolitan papers an account of a suicide resulting from a nervous and mental condition brought on by stuttering and stammering. This condition seems to be very marked in the cases of stammerers between the ages of twelve and twenty, records showing that most of the suicides of stammerers are persons between those ages.
The intense mental strain, the extreme nervous condition, the continual worry and fear cannot fail, sooner or later, to have its effect upon the mind. This is clear to any stammerer, who is familiar with the mental condition brought about by the first few hours of one of his periods of recurrence. Another case where the mental strain is extremely great is that of the synonym stammerer—the mentally alert individual who, in order to prevent the outward appearance of stammering, is continually searching for synonyms or less difficult words to take the place of those which he cannot speak. This continual searching for synonyms results in a nervous tension that is sure to tell on the mental faculties sooner or later, and I have found, in examining many thousands of cases, that the synonym stammerer is usually in a more highly nervous state than any other type.
MENTAL STRAIN EVENTUALLY TELLS: The effect of stuttering or stammering on the sufferer's concentration is very marked. The sufferer notes an inability to concentrate his mind on any subject for any length of time, finds it impossible to pursue an education with any degree of success or to follow any business which requires close attention and careful work.