Diseased cravings and paralysed control : dipsomania, morphinomania, chloralism, cocainism / by T.S. Clouston.

  • Clouston, T. S. (Thomas Smith), 1840-1915.
Date:
[1890]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseased cravings and paralysed control : dipsomania, morphinomania, chloralism, cocainism / by T.S. Clouston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    DR T. S. CLOUSTON ON [MAY in the artistic temperament in all its varieties. The law of com- pensation comes in here as everywhere. If a man has one o-0od quality strongly, he is, I fear, apt also to have some weak points to make up for it. There are some cases where the loss of control is in one direction only, while it exists in a high degree in all others. The typical dipsomaniac \s commonly a “ poor creature” all along the line. But it is certain that an irresistible craving to gamble, for instance, may exist in great natures, and may coincide with remarkable intellectual qualities, with the highest sense of honour, and with unusual power of control in all other respects. The stories of so many of the great statesmen of last century illustrating this cannot all be unfounded. The craving to gamble to excess seem3 to be one to which all races, from the highest to the lowest, are subject; and all men, from the philosopher down to the imbecile. In away it is a nobler vice than any of the cravings we have been consider- ing. It is more intellectual and less animal than any of these. Many persons are so constituted in brain that they must have some u excitement ” in some shape or other. In fact, all sound and normal brains crave stimulants to some extent. It is a law of their existence. The question is always—What is the proper physio- logical and healthy stimulus to be employed to rouse the normal excitement? Is it to be social intercourse? or happy family life? or some reasonable amount of gaiety not too often repeated? or political activity? or rousing religious services? The excitement and stimulus of being in love must come at some period and in some form to all healthily constituted youths and maidens. It is perfectly possible, in the case of persons whose inhibition is weak, for any one of these harmless and physiological stimuli to become a strong craving and to run to excess, so that control becomes difficult. It is very common in the early stages of simple mania, which is usually characterized by a partially paralysed control, for patients to show this by doing perfectly legitimate and simple social acts to excess. I knew one gentleman who, when about to take such an attack of mania, always showed it by calling on all his friends at unconventional times, and never knowing when to leave. His desire for the stimulus of social intercourse was simply not controlled at the time by the conventional rules of his class, which at other times had been powerful enough to influence him. In this stage of mania patients cease to be able to control their own power of attention too. Paralysed control often takes the form of morbid indecision. In the early stage of melancholia, before depressed emotion comes on, patients constantly complain of this together with a loss of control over their fears. They cannot come to a conclusion quickly, and especially they cannot act on it; and they find themselves conjuring up consequences and risks, that d ring normal periods of then- lives they would never have thought of. This is, to a slight extent,