August Hoch

Benign Stupors August Hoch

Book Excerptould only stare blankly. For a day she followed her mother around, clung to her, said once she wanted to say something to her, but only stared and said nothing. Four days before admission she became quite immobile, lay in bed, did not speak, eat or drink. She also had some fever. The patient herself, when well, described the onset of her psychosis as follows: She knew of no cause except that her brother, some time before the onset (not clear how long), was run over by an automobile and had his foot hurt. She claimed that while still working she lost her ambition, lost her appetite, did not feel like talking to any one; that when she went out with her mother it merely seemed to her that people stared at her. The day before she went to the Observation Pavilion her cousin came to see her, and she thought she saw, standing beside this cousin, the latter's dead mother. She also thought there was a fire, and that her sister was sweeping little babies out of the room. Then, she claimed, she felt afraid