ms.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] See Chapter XV.

CHAPTER V

THE IDEATIONAL CONTENT OF THE STUPOR

_Brief survey of the ideas associated with stupor:_ Having thus
described the formal manifestations of the various stupor reactions, it
will now be interesting to see what ideas seem to be associated with
these reactions. It is, of course, impossible to obtain during a
considerable part of the stupor any statement of the patients' thoughts.
We therefore have to depend on their utterances during periods when the
inactivity temporarily ceases, or on the retrospective account which the
patient gives after the stupor has completely disappeared; and as we
shall see, we also may obtain considerable information by studying the
ideas which occur in the period preceding the stupor. These last may be
autogenous delusions or thoughts about actual events which precipitated
the psychosis.

It is not likely that many observers have a very clear conception about
what sort of ideas to expect. We have, as a rule, not been in the habit
of paying much attention to the content of delusions, hallucinations,
and the like. So far as we could judge, therefore, the ideas expressed
might be expected to be fairly multiform, and it was distinctly
interesting to us when we found a marked tendency for the trends of
ideas to remain within a certain small compass.[6] It was possible, to
state this at once, to show that in by far the majority of cases the
same set of ideas returned, and that these ideas had among themselves a
definite inner relationship, being concerned with thoughts of "death."
In isolated instances other ideas were found as well, and they will have
to be discussed later. For the present we shall take up more habitual
content.

In addition to the eleven cases already described, it may be well to
cite four others which present material now of interest to us.

CASE 12.--_Charlotte W._ Age: 30. Admitted to the
Psychiatric Institute October 21, 1905.

_F. H._ The father was alcoholic and quick-tempered; he
died when the patient was a child. The mother was alcoholic
and was insane at 40 (a state of excitement from which she
recovered). A brother had an attack of insanity in 1915. A
maternal uncle died insane.

_P. H._ The patient was described as jolly, having many
friends. She got on well in school and was efficient at her
work.

She was married at 23 and got o