Ninth annual report to the committee from the medical director : presented 31st December, 1930 / The Cassel Hospital for Functional Nervous Disorders.

  • Cassel Hospital for Functional Nervous Disorders (Richmond, England)
Date:
[1931?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Ninth annual report to the committee from the medical director : presented 31st December, 1930 / The Cassel Hospital for Functional Nervous Disorders. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    taken for another drive and this time, as she humorously remarked, she took her night things with her. She was quite obstinate and resolved to resist everything. It will hardly be credited that she was brought to Swaylands in the same manner, but it has been fully authenticated that this was done. At first, therefore, no attempt at feeding was made ; she was merely told what would happen if she starved long enough. She did not believe it, it was only when she realized how desperately weak she had become, that she gave in. Two interesting histories are found in the anxiety group. M. Age, 22. He complained of inability to continue his medical studies on account of panics in trains, he was also anxious lest he be sick or have a heart attack when travelling. These anxieties were so acute, that he was forced to live with his parents and was unable to do an}/ work at all. He proved a difficult subject, because he tended to use his intellect for speculation rather than for recollection of his earlier experiences, and at times this rendered investigation almost impossible. Treatm.ent had to consist in proving to him that his symptoms were not of organic origin, which was accomplished with difficulty on account of his medical knowledge, which was sufficient to enable him to raise many objections and insufficient to enable him to be convinced easily. Then followed teaching about mentation, both conscious and unconscious, which was difficult, for his natural scepticism gave him opportunity for using his keen intellect to argue excessively. But progress was made and he began to view life from a different standpoint. He was then invited to elucidate the principles he had learnt with illustrations from his own life, which he was able to do with considerable success, though with great reluctance, for he possessed reserve in a high degree. He was able, however, to show himself that his symptoms were due to anxiet}^ which he had felt in childhood lest his mother should desert him, anxieties by no means unfounded in fact, and these as he grew up had led to inhibitions in his development and adjustment to life. He had felt con¬ stant anxiety about his mother when at school or away from home, and so did not learn to mix with other people, whom he left at the earliest opportunity. Later, when he had to work with others, he felt ignorant and shy and suffered acutely. It was an acute feeling of inferiority, and this he could not bear. This mental pain called for relief, and he began to wonder whether he were not suffering from some of the diseases which he was stud3/ing. He came to believe he was, and became so worried that he had to stay at home. The symptoms served two purposes, i.e., they alleviated his still-lingering childhood anxiety about his mother by keeping him at home, and they enabled him to escape from the pain of the feeling of inferiority from which he suffered when forced to associate with others. The case is interesting, because, investigation being almost impossible, teaching methods and persuasion were employed, which enabled him to understand himself without wholesale revelation of self, which he was unable to do. He has returned to his studies and has continued at them. A patient aged 42 complained of having some time previously, suddenly fallen unconscious after a motor run with a friend. He was sent to a convalescent home from which he disappeared one day ; he turned up however at his home about 36 hours later in a confused state of mind and with no memory of the intervening time. It was said of him, that he was responsible for a considerable sum of money which had disappeared from the office and could not be accounted for. He was a partner with his father and an elder brother.