The association of psycho-neurosis with mental deficiency / by Charles S. Myers.

  • Charles Samuel Myers
Date:
[1923?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The association of psycho-neurosis with mental deficiency / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    talk, which was incessant, he repeated himself constantly and showed little restraint or selection in the words he used. He could sing extremely well and was distinctly musical. He was mis¬ chievous, cheerful, happy, excitable and suggestible, clever at mimicking others, but he readily lost control over bodily move¬ ments, speech and laughter. He explained his wild behaviour by the words “ me happy.” He exhibited no distrust of strangers. In the absence of external excitement, however, he showed certain dominant interests. Some of them had reference to recent passing events, e.g., his birthday, Christmas, etc. ; these controlled much of his speech and conduct. One interest, however, was permanent. Almost any topic, if pursued, would lead to the subject of death, birth, God, Satan and angels. Thus, when Miss Fildes asked him in an experiment to give an association in response to the word “ goat,” he replied : “ Can milk him—get milk out of him—only butt you like a cow. Oh ! when a cow toss you you come down bang and are dead. God knows, don't He ? I know how God looks [shows this with foot stretching out, hand over eyes]. Satan—God's best angel—naughty—if Satan made you naughty he put you in the burning fire. No good—ought to be in fire himself.” Again, in the middle of solving a jig-saw puzzle, he remarked : “ How did God get you down here when He made you ? Funny how He got you down. Come down small. Mr S.'s baby not growed to boy yet. Been here long time I think. Do you come down hole ? I seen them at funeral put box into hole. Make hole deep—this big—oh ! deeper than this floor. Man put cord round box and put it down slow—not fast—might break it. How do God get box up ? I think it go along and He pull it up by cord —angels carry it to heaven. How do He make you ? Do you be an angel when you get to God ? I seen Him when He make me— ugh ! great big man. Do you remember when He make you ? Funny how He get you to earth,” etc. These instances are typical of a constant form of speech, when¬ ever free speech was allowed ; and there is evidence that the same topic was a favourite one when he talked to other boys. A dream of his recorded is one of ” black things sitting on the end of the bed, which had come to take him.” We were able to get from him his distinct recollection of being taken one day, when he was about three years old, by the woman with whom he had been boarded, to a funeral. He saw the coffin put into the ground and he was told that the coffin lid was screwed