The mental state of hystericals : a study of mental stigmata and mental accidents / by Pierre Janet, with a preface by Professor J. M. Charcot; translated by Caroline Rollin.

Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The mental state of hystericals : a study of mental stigmata and mental accidents / by Pierre Janet, with a preface by Professor J. M. Charcot; translated by Caroline Rollin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Other reflexes, on the contrary, raise a more difficult question: they are reflexes very often altered or sup- pressed in hysterical anaesthesia, the start or the grimace being usually made when someone pinches us or sud- denly burns us; the reflex that follows upon tickling, either on the sole of the foot or on the hip; the nausea reflex, after titillation of the pharynx; the palpebral re- flex, after touching the conjunctiva, etc. These reflexes, we must say, are very often absent. We believe they are particular reflexes which might be called sensitive, be- cause they depend not upon a precise sensation, but on a general sensation, as a pain. We shall return to it at the end of this chapter, when we shall speak more specially of the sensation of pain. An anaesthesia may also be the cause of physiological troubles in an indirect way, simply because the subject no longer takes sufficient precautions to protect members he no longer feels. With animals, the members rend- ered insensible through a section of a nerve are often liable to be contused and otherwise injured. We know how patients, affected by that interesting and recently described affection, syringomyelia, conduct themselves. They have traces of burns on the fingers and complain of burning themselves frequently without feeling it. We have twice noticed a similar accident among hystericals, but it can take place only under special and wholly ex- ceptional circumstances; as a general thing, they can show neither contusions nor burns on members that ob- viously have sensitiveness neither to pain nor to heat. This anaesthesia does not, therefore, prevent the patient from protecting himself against divers accidents. This relative absence of objective troubles is generally accom- panied by a most important subjective symptom. This an- aesthesia is not noticed by the subject; he does not care for it and generally passes it by unperceived. Sometimes you hear a patient say: “ I was touching my forehead.