Practical manual of mental medicine / with a preface by M. Benjamin Ball. Authorized translation by H. M. Bannister. With introduction by the author.

  • Régis, E. (Emmanuel), 1855-1918.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical manual of mental medicine / with a preface by M. Benjamin Ball. Authorized translation by H. M. Bannister. With introduction by the author. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    4. Homicide, especially frequent with delusions of persecution, epilepsy, etc. 5. Theft, incendiarism, in states of dementia, imbecile furor, epilepsy, etc. As regards consequences, morbid acts resolve themselves into dangerous and non-dangerous. As regards their nature they are distinguishable into reflex acts and irresistible or impulsive actions. Impulsions.—A morbid impulse is an irresistible tendency to perform an action. In the normal condition every sensation tends to translate itself with an action, but this tendency is restrained by the ego^ which intervenes, perceives the sensation, analyzes it, and finally decides for or against the accomplishment of the act. • The equilibrium between the tendency to the act and the restraining power of the ego (determinism), consti- tutes the normal condition in this point of view. The impulse results from a rupture of this equilibrium. The equilibrium being lost, either by weakness of of the ego^ or by an increase of the tendency to re- flex action, or by both together, it follows that the impulse may be the consequence of one or other of these conditions, hence it occurs in those forms of alienation in which it is observed. Practi- cally, it is especially in the emotional neurasthenia, the degenerative conditions, imbecility, dementia, (enf eeblement of the ego), acute mania, hallucinatory insanities (exaggerated reflex tendency), and, finally, in epilepsy^(mixed state), that we meet with impul-