Paranoia, or Progressive Systematized Insanity, Paranoidal Forms of Dementia Praecox, and Different Forms of Delusions
About this book
a selection from the beginning of the first chapter: PARANOIA, OR PROGRESSIVE SYSTEMATIZED INSANITY Gentlemen,—Among the symptoms of insanity, delusions and hallucinations, very often associated with each other, have in particular attracted attention, along with the fluctuations of mood. The different forms of delusion—the delusion of greatness and insignificance, the delusion of sin, the physical delusion of persecution, and so on—have often been considered as characteristics of distinct forms of disease. According to our present experience, conclusions as to the clinical meaning of a picture of disease from the existence and purport of the delusions are only permissible to a very limited extent. The tendencies of human fears and wishes can follow the same morbid ways in the most varied forms of insanity. But yet, the nature of the disease remains naturally not quite without influence upon the form of the delusion. In the following lectures we shall have, therefore, somewhat more minutely to observe some relations of this disturbance to definite forms of disease. The stately gentleman, aged sixty-two, who presents himself before us with a certain courtly dignity, with his carefully-tended moustaches, his eye-glasses, and his well-fitting if perhaps somewhat shabby attire, gives quite the impression of a man of the world. He is somewhat testy at first because he has to allow himself to be questioned before the young gentlemen, but soon enters into a long, connected conversation in a quiet and positive manner. We learn from him that as a young man he went to America, and there went through many vicissitudes, finally settling in Quito, where as a merchant he made a small fortune. With this he returned home twenty-one years ago, but on the dissolving of his business connections he was done out of considerable sums. At home he lived at first on his money, spending his time in amusements, reading the newspaper, playing billiards, going for walks, and sitting about in cafés. At the same time he occupied himself with all sorts of schemes from which he hoped for recognition and profit. Thus, he submitted to the leading Minister the plan (with a map) whereby Germany could lay claim to a lot of still unpossessed land, especially in Africa and New Guinea, and, above all, the islands of Galapagos, which the State of Ecuador would willingly hand over, and which would become of great importance after the finishing of the Panama Canal. A short time after that same Minister travelled to Berlin, and now began the German Colonial Policy, without, it must be confessed, due thanks falling to the lot of the real originator, which another nation would not have withheld. Then our patient drew up a plan for the cultivation of cinchona and cacao in our colonies; he also made several inventions for the better connection of railway-metals, by which the jolting, an important cause of derailment, would be done away with. Finally, he applied for a number of situations which seemed suited to him, including that of the consulship at Quito, but had always only failures to record.