Nervous ills, their cause and cure

by Boris Sidis

		{ Conscious
I.	Sensory	{
		{ Subconscious
		{ Conscious
II.	Ideational	{
		{ Subconscious

The fear of the etherized or chloroformed patient is entirely of the subconscious type. It is the arousing of subconscious fear which, from the nature of the case, cannot be reached and alleviated that gives rise to functional psychosis and neurosis.

From this standpoint it may be said that psychopathic diseases are subconscious fear states, in other words functional psychosis or neurosis is essentially a disease of subconscious activities. This is, in fact, confirmed by my clinical experience and by my psychopathological research work.

Dr. L. J. Pollock, professor of nervous diseases at Northwestern University Medical School, made an extremely interesting “Analysis of a Number of Cases of War Neurosis.” This analysis fully conforms to the results obtained by me in my work on functional psychosis and neurosis carried on for a great number of years. It fully confirms the results of my studies, clinical and psychopathological, that the causation, or etiology of functional psychopathic states depends on fluctuations of the levels of neuron energy, or physical exhaustion, fatigue, hunger and thirst, or shock to the system, and more especially on the ravages of the fear instinct, aroused during the dangers and horrors of war.

“Of several hundred cases which I observed in base hospitals in France, copies of about 350 records were available. From these 200 of the more detailed ones were selected to determine the relative frequency of some of the factors.... From the numerical group has been excluded cases of emotional instability, timorousness, hospital neuroses occurring as an aftermath of an illness or a wound, the phobic reactions of gassed patients and constitutional neuroses, and those not directly related to the war.

“Heredity as a factor plays but a small part, and the incidence of neuropathic taint constituted little over 4 per cent.

“Of these 43 per cent followed shell fire, 36 per cent after concussion as described by the soldier.... A definite history of fatigue and hunger was obtained in 30.5 per cent. Both probably occurred in a greater percentage, but were frequently masked by other symptoms which occupied the patient’s attention to a greater extent. Fatigue and hunger are important factors, not only because they prepare the ground for an ensuing neurosis by breaking down the defensive reactions, but also in that when the patient is more sensitive and impressionable, the natural physical consequences of fatigue are misinterpreted by him as an evidence of an illness, and give rise to apprehension and fear.

“As frequently as fear is seen in some form or other in the neuroses of civil life, so does it manifest itself in the war neuroses. Fifty per cent of the cases admitted considerable fear under shell fire. Concussion was the immediate precipitating cause of the neuroses in 31 per cent of the cases. The symptoms of the neuroses could be divided into those of the reactions of fear and fatigue.”

These results corroborate my work on neurosis as due to exhaustion of Neuron Energy and Self-Fear.