Responsibility in mental disease / by Henry Maudsley.

  • Henry Maudsley
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Responsibility in mental disease / by Henry Maudsley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    mental state from anything like an adequate appreciation of his relations to his surroundings. Some writers are in the hahit of describing these anomalous states of con- sciousness as states of unconsciousness, moved thereto probably by the metaphysical notion of consciousness as a definite invariable entity which must either be or not be; but this is obviously a misuse of words; and what it behoves us to learn from them is that consciousness is not a constant quantity, but a condition of mind subject to manifold variations both of degree and kind. The form of mental disorder which corresponds to the petit mal or epileptic vertigo may be described as a great confusion of ideas accompanied often by instantaneous im- pulses to violence. Those afflicted hy it become sad and morose without any cause in external circumstances ; are profoundly distressed, and exhibit much irritation against those who are about them; suffer from loss of memory and dulness of intelligence, so that they cannot collect and fix their thoughts; feel sadly that they are no longer themselves, that they are impelled to strange or violent acts by a power which they cannot resist; oppressed by a vague anxiety or dread, they leave their homes and wander about the streets or the country; all the painful ideas which they have conceived at different periods of their lives come back and fasten upon their minds; they are overwhelmed with a vague anxiety and terror. In this state of confusion and distress they accuse their friends of hostility, and imagine persecutions which have no existence out of their morbid fancies; and they do unlawful deeds, such as theft, incendiarism,