[Disorders of the Functions of Intellect.]
- Disorders of Sensation
- Hyperesthesia (exaggeration of sensation) as found in neurasthenia, or in mania. Anesthesia (absence of sensation) as in the numbness of hysteria; in sensory paralysis. Retardation as in dementia and melancholia. “Clouding” or dulness as in simple depression. Perversion as in dementia and melancholia. Sweet may taste sour; fresh food may smell decayed.
- Disorders of Perception (being dependent on sensation is always disturbed with it).
- Hyperesthesia (exaggeration) as in neurasthenia or mania. Anesthesia as in hysteria or paralysis. Retardation as in dementia and melancholia. “Clouding” or dulness as in simple depression. Illusion found in normal mind—easily corrected; found in many insanities. Hallucinations frequently met in the infection-exhaustion psychoses, in dementia, in paranoia, in acute hallucinosis of alcoholism.
- Disorders of Ideation
- Hypochondriasis found in many of the hypersuggestible, frequent in the mild depressions and in all victims of self-attention. Retardation found in most depressions. Deficiency as in idiocy—the inability to form new concepts. Acceleration as in hypo-mania. Poverty as in the abnormally self-centered; as in melancholia. Rambling ideas as in chronic insanity. Flight of ideas as in manias, hysterias, and acute deliriums. Fixed ideas as in paranoia. Perversions (concepts change their meaning altogether) as in dementia. Ideogenous pains as in hysteria. Compulsive ideas common in borderland states; in psychasthenia, or hysteria. Disorientation
- (wrong idea of
- {
- thing,
- place, or
- person);
- found in confused conditions; in delirium from infections; in insanities. Confusion as in the infection-exhaustion psychoses; in insanities.
- Disorders of Memory
- Absent-mindedness. Amnesia (morbid forgetfulness).
- Aphasia
- {
- temporary,
- prolonged,
- permanent (see later explanation).
- Perversion as fabrications, due to memory-confusion or inaccuracy; also due to excessive ideation and defective judgment.
- Disorders of Reason
- Delusions
Systematized Transient Fixed - Somatic as in hypochondriasis. Persecutory as in paranoia. Unworthiness as in simple depression or melancholia Grandeur as in mania or paranoia. Nihilistic often found in melancholia. Reference as in paranoia. Altered personality as in hysteria. Perverted personality (patient may believe he is a dog); as in dementia.
- Emotional thinking. Shut-in personality as seen in the deficient social capacity of potential dementia præcox.
- Disorders of Judgement
- Defective judgment in all insanities; in hysteria. Ex.: Patient who accepts mental suggestion of disability as reality. Perverted judgment in severe dementias—as influenced by unreasonable fear, hatred, etc.; in all acute insanities—as manifested in inability of patient to rid himself of his delusions. Absence of judgment in all acute insanities; in later dementias. Limitations in many so-called normal and in all the abnormal.
- Disorders of Emotion
- Suggestibility in hysteria. Excitement in mania. Depression in melancholia. Phobias as found in psychasthenia. Deficiency as in the apathy of depression. Perversion in mania, in depression, in catatonia. Deterioration in dementia. Sense of unreality found in all borderland cases.
- Disorders of Will
- Wilfulness in many “normal.” Very common in hypomania. Willessness (aboulia or paralysis of will) often found in psychasthenia; and in depressive states. Morbid inhibition as in depressive states. Indecision as in psychasthenia; as in simple depression. Obsessions found pre-eminently in psychasthenia. Tics in many borderland cases; in the hypersensitive as often the only expression of any neuropathic tendency. Distractibility as in hypomania and frequently in hysteria. Negativism as in catatonia. Mutism as in catatonia. Compulsive acts as in psychasthenia, hysteria, etc. Psychomotor overactivity (volition unable to check) as in mania. Psychomotor retardation (volition unable to energize) as in depression.
| (wrong idea of | { | thing, |
| place, or | ||
| person); |
| Aphasia | { | temporary, |
| prolonged, | ||
| permanent (see later explanation). |
From this limited survey of the mind’s disorders we realize that every departure from the normal mental attitude tends to associate itself with one of the following five states of mental disability.
- Depression,
- Exaltation,
- Perversion,
- Enfeeblement,
- Deficiency.
CHAPTER IX
VARIATIONS FROM NORMAL MENTAL PROCESSES (Continued)
Hyperesthesia is abnormal sensitiveness to stimulation.
Anesthesia is loss, either temporary or permanent, of any of the senses.