Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 1: Psychiatric Studies by Fordham Michael Read Herbert Jung C. G. Hull R. F.C. Adler Gerhard

Author:Fordham, Michael, Read, Herbert, Jung, C. G., Hull, R. F.C., Adler, Gerhard [Jung, C. G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 1957-02-24T05:00:00+00:00

IV

A CASE OF HYSTERICAL STUPOR IN A PRISONER IN DETENTION

A CASE OF HYSTERICAL STUPOR IN A PRISONER IN DETENTION1

[226] The following case of hysterical stupor in a prisoner in detention was referred to the Burghölzli Clinic for a medical opinion. Apart from the publications of Ganser and Raecke, the literature on cases of this kind is very scanty, and even their clinical status seems uncertain in view of Nissl’s criticisms.2 It therefore seems to me of interest to put such a case on record, particularly as the special clinical picture it presents is of considerable importance for the psychopathology of hysteria in general.

[227] The patient, Godwina F., was born May 15, 1854. Her parents were stated to have been healthy. Two of her four sisters died of consumption, another died in a lunatic asylum, the fourth was normal. One brother was also normal and very steady-going. The second brother was Carl F., an habitual criminal. Her two illegitimate daughters were both healthy. Nothing was known of any previous major illnesses. The patient came of poor circumstances; she began work in a factory at the age of 14. At 17 she started a love affair, had her first illegitimate child at 18, her second at 28. She was entirely dependent on her lover, who provided her regularly with money. She alleged that three years earlier she had received from him some 20,000 marks, which she quickly spent. Consequently she got into financial difficulties, let her hotel bills pile up, and then left the hotel, repeatedly promising the proprietor that she would pay as soon as she got the sum due–10,000 marks–from her lover. Suspected of theft, she was arrested on May 31, at 5 P.M. At the preliminary hearing on the same day, and on the following days, she conducted herself quite correctly, and her behaviour in custody was altogether quiet and respectable.

[228] Her daughter stated that the patient had lately been irritable and depressed, which was understandable enough in view of her difficult situation. Otherwise nothing abnormal could be ascertained.

[229] When, on the morning of June 4, 1902, the cell was opened at 6:30, the patient was standing “rigid” by the door, came up to the wardress “quite rigid” and furiously demanded that she should “give back the money she had stolen from her.” She waved away the food that was put before her, remarking that there was “poison in it.” She began to rage and shout, threw herself about in the cell, kept on asking for her money, saying that she wanted to see the judge at once, etc. At the call of the wardress, the jailer came with his wife and assistant, and together they tried to calm her down. Apparently there was a fairly lively scene; they held her by the hands and (according to the wardress) also “shook” her. They denied hitting her. The patient was then locked up again. When the cell was opened again at 11 o’clock the patient had torn the top half of her clothes to shreds.

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