72. Summary of general considerations concerning the nature of the Shell-shock neuroses ([paragraphs 40-71]).
Having (a) roughly delimited the Shell-shock neuroses from syphilis, epilepsy, and somatic disease, we inquired
(b) What, after all, are functional neuroses? We remained dissatisfied with a definition by negatives. But we found that
(c) practically the problem seemed to reduce to telling the organic apart from the functional and we found that
(d) in almost all cases we have to raise the hypothesis of the organic. Also that
(e) the absence of external injury is no guarantee against the existence of internal injury. Also that
(f) cases are frequent enough in which organic and functional phenomena are combined. Also that
(g) essentially functional cases may be peritraumatic or metatraumatic (in the sense of Charcot’s hysterotraumatism). But
(h) the statistical majority of cases remains essentially functional.
(i) We then looked over a series of cases developing incidentally in the war and