Burial after explosion of a “coal box”: Automatism, amnesia, deafmutism: Recovery by hypnosis.
Case 525. (Myers, September, 1916.)
A sergeant, 18, with nineteen months service in the army, 11 months in France, was seen by Lt. Col. Myers at a clearing station to which he had been transferred after three days in another clearing station, with a note “Found in the streets of B——, asking his way to the fire trench; could not be got to speak on admission nor since; seems deaf, but now writes rationally.”
Mute and very deaf at the second C. C. S., he regained a good deal of his hearing with encouraging talk and also became able to cough and utter P, B, F and S, finally whispering name, regimental number, and the like. At the same time he could write fluently. After being buried he had lost himself until he had asked his way of a military policeman at the crossroads in B——. There was amnesia again until he had been 48 hours in the clearing station at B——. The throat hurt as if it were pulled down when he tried to speak, and his head ached when he tried to remember. There was much tremor, especially of right arm. In a quiet room adjoining, the tremors increased and there was much agitation. Lt. Col. Myers suggested cure and encouraged the man, finally inducing a mild hypnotic state in which he spoke aloud, at first hesitatingly, later fluently.
The man eventually remembered what had happened after he had extricated himself. He had run, as he thought, towards the fire trench, taken a wrong direction, and met a Frenchman who gave him eggs and bread, allowed him to sleep on a couch, put him on a cart and drove him to B——. He was then very giddy and asked his way of the policeman. The shell by which he was “terribly shaken” was a “coal box.” Posthypnotic suggestion that the headache would not recur and that he would shake hands with the orderly was successful. He now talked in a proper voice, at first hesitatingly. He looked another man as his clay-colored face resumed a normal aspect. After a good night’s sleep he was evacuated to a base hospital, thence to an English hospital, whence he wrote six days later in gratitude for the successful treatment, stating that he was now nearly well and hoped to be fit for light duty.
Six weeks later he wrote that he was still dizzy. He also remembered certain further details of his experience; how he had wandered into a listening sap in front of the Huns’ barbed wire and had had a tussle with three Huns, after which he was buried during the heavy shelling.
This case belongs in the group termed by Myers “A Group,” namely, the physical group, in which the patient has been lifted, buried or knocked over by a shell or otherwise felt physical or chemical effects of an explosion (in contrast with the B Group, or psychical group, in which fear of the noise or emotional response to the mutilation of companions is the exciting cause). Predisposing affections occur as often in the physical group as in the psychical group. The average age of mutism cases seen by Lt. Col. Myers is twenty-five. Mutism is rare among commissioned officers. Lt. Col. Myers has heard of but one or two cases.
With respect to the technique of getting these men to utter sounds, Lt. Col. Myers states that he first assures the patient that he has already cured many cases of loss of speech by the method about to be employed. The patient is next asked to copy his teacher as the sounds (not the vowels) B, D, finally V, S and K are made. The patient is, as a rule, shortly induced to make the necessary movements of lips, tongue or throat. “You see you are beginning to talk. Now let me hear you cough.” The patient coughs. “You see you are able to make a noise. I want you next to cough out an A (Continental pronunciation).” After a time the patient adds this vowel to the cough. Other vowels are now taught him. Eventually a consonant is prefixed to the vowel instead of the cough. The patient is now delighted with his progress and can shortly repeat surname and regimental number.
Mutism: Recovery by hypnosis.