55. Of course these physical phenomena should not blind us to the emotional ones. Now and then the multiple causes of a case may be analyzed, as, for example, one of blindness in which a series of factors emerged, such as excitement, blinding flashes, fear, disgust and fatigue. I cannot here go further into these details, and I need no longer insist upon the fact that surrounding the problem of Shell-shock means surrounding the problem of nervous and mental diseases as a whole, and that thus to be a Shell-shock analyst means to be a neuropsychiatrist.
56. The organic problems of the nervous system are brought up constantly in differential diagnosis, but the functional problems divide themselves up in a perturbing manner into a fraction properly termed the “psychopathic” (that is, after the manner of hysteria), and “non-psychopathic” (that is, after the manner of reflex disorders of Charcot, newly named “physiopathic” by Babinski).
57. For the moment we are not discussing differential diagnosis, but are merely trying to circumscribe the features we wish to call Shell-shock features: We have concluded to call them functional—but what is it to be functional?
Too simple is the reply:
Functional = Non-Organic.
Inaccurate and misleading is the reply
Functional = Psychic.
We may more correctly express the situation, pathologically speaking, in the following categories ([see chart, page 870]):
ORGANOPATHIC (Lesional, destructive):