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SINGULAR AND PLURAL
 OXFORD STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF LANGUAGE

Series editor
Laura M. Ahearn, Rutgers University
This series is devoted to works from a wide array of scholarly traditions that
treat linguistic practices as forms of social action.
Editorial Board
Alessandro Duranti, University of California at Los Angeles
Paul B. Garrett, Temple University
Justin Richland, The University of Chicago

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in Jerusalem
Chaim Noy
Singular and Plural: Ideologies of Linguistic Authority in 21st Century Catalonia
Kathryn A. Woolard
SINGULAR
AND PLURAL
Ideologies of Linguistic Authority in
21st Century Catalonia

Kathryn A. Woolard

1
1
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide.Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.

Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press

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© Oxford University Press 2016

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above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above.

You must not circulate this work in any other form

and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Woolard, Kathryn Ann.
Title: Singular and plural: ideologies of linguistic authority in
21st century Catalonia / Kathryn A. Woolard.
Description: Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, [2016] |
Series: Oxford Studies in the Anthropology of Language |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015039517 | ISBN 978–0–19–025862–7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978–0–19–025861–0 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 978–0–19–025863–4 (ebook) |
ISBN 978–0–19–060046–4 (online content)
Subjects: LCSH: Language policy—History—21st century—Spain—Catalonia. |
Ideologies—Span—Catalonia. | Catalan language—Social aspects. |
Catalans—Ethnic identity. | Catalonia (Spain)—Languages—Political aspects.
Classification: LCC P115.5.S7 W77 2016 | DDC 306.442499—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015039517

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
CONTENTS

List of Figures and Table vii

Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Abbreviations xvii
Note to the Reader on Terminology and Transcription xix

1. Introduction 1

PART I: Theoretical and Empirical Overview

2. Ideologies of Linguistic Authority: Authenticity,

Anonymity, and Naturalism 21
3. Reframing Linguistic Authority in Spain and Catalonia 39

PART II: Shifting Discourses of Language in Catalan Politics and Media

4. “Deeds Not Words”: An Immigrant President and the Politics

of Linguistic Parody 97
5. Linguistic Cosmopolitanism in the Celebration of Locality 143
6. “Singular and Universal”: Branding Catalan Culture in the
Global Market 169
vi • Contents

PART III: Changing Discourses of Language in Personal Life

7. Back to the Future: High School Revisited 211

8. Is the Personal Political? Linguistic Itineraries across Time 257

9. Conclusion 299

Epilogue 305
References Cited 307
Index 341
L I S T O F F I G U R E S A N D TA B L E

Figures
1.1 Demonstration for Catalan independence, 2010 2
3.1 “Use your tongue/​language” 76
3.2 La Queta, mascot of the Dóna corda al català
“Wind up Catalan” campaign 77
3.3 “Catalan, a shared, integrative, modern language” 78
3.4 2006 parliamentary campaign flyer, Ciutadans 82
3.5 2006 parliamentary campaign poster, Ciutadans 84
4.1 “Deeds not words”; 2006 parliamentary
campaign image of José Montilla, Catalan Socialist
Party candidate 98
4.2 Montilla at work; lower section of campaign image
in Figure 4.1 99
4.3 Fontdevila cartoon, “Urban legends of today” 113
4.4 Fontdevila cartoon, “The challenges of the Montilla
government” 114
4.5 Email quiz on “Montillan” language 123
4.6 Two Montillas: José Montilla and Sergi Mas
on Polònia 130
5.1 “Catalan, shared language” 167
6.1 “Catalan Culture, Singular and Universal”:
Poster by Miquel Barceló for the Frankfurt
Book Fair, 2007. 203

Table
7.1 Mean Status Scores by Language Guise and Year 220
P R E FA C E

When I first began research in Catalonia in 1979, it was a place where the
unusual alignments of political, economic, and linguistic forces defied stereotypi-
cal expectations about minority languages. It was also alive with aspirations for
political and sociolinguistic transformations, as it returned to political autonomy
after the end of the Franco regime. Catalonia has gotten all the more complex and
surprising in this millennium, and once again it is alive with aspirations for politi-
cal transformations, now for sovereignty. The historical layering of complexity as
well as my own increased awareness of it has made this book about Catalonia in
the 21st century more challenging to write than my first monograph on it was.
Given this, I want to acknowledge briefly the stance I have taken here as an author
and comment on how I have imagined possible readers.
It meant a lot to me when a sociolinguist told me that he found in my first
book a sympathetic account of the perspectives of both of the linguistic groups
in contact. I hope that readers of this new book will again find that to be true of
my portrayal of individuals who generously shared their experiences and views
with me. At the level of public controversies discussed in Parts I and II, it will be
evident that my own sympathies are for the continued vibrant and significant use
of Catalan, especially in creative patterns that do not quite fit traditions of any
stripe. This book tries to give both a critical and a sympathetic view of the ideo-
logical foundations of contemporary Catalanism, with the former framed well
within the latter. This is in part to redress a public record that I find imbalanced.
The book is primarily addressed to an audience outside of Catalonia, especially
in the United States, where Catalanist voices are rarely heard except among a
relatively small circle of supporters.
While writing this book, I have found that the news about Catalonia that
reaches the United States and Northern Europe is generally filtered through the
perspective of the Spanish state, in part because most international reporting
originates in Madrid, and in part because of the invisibility to social scientists,
journalists, and lay audiences of the banal nationalism of already existing states.
As a result, I often encounter systematic incomprehension of the Catalanist
x • Preface

movement, even at the basic factual level. A peer-​reviewed political science arti-
cle mischaracterizes the centralized Spanish state as federal; an anthropologist
of Latin America asks me, “What more do the Catalans want? They’re already
completely autonomous,” and is surprised to learn that Catalonia has more lim-
ited powers than any state in the United States. I could cite many more examples
of misconceptions that come from international newspapers of record as well as
social science.
Catalanist politics and policies rest on ideological grounds, not disinterested
objective truths, just as Spanish nationalist policies do. Thoughtful critique of
linguistic and educational policies is always in order, and that is true of Catalonia
as elsewhere. However, critical studies that demythologize the ideological foun-
dations of minority nationalist movements often leave the implication that there
is some alternative and better non-​ideological, disinterested position in our actu-
ally existing world. By default, that implicit alternative is the status quo of the
dominant state. In this case, the politicized Spanish positions from which cri-
tiques of Catalan policies are often launched go unremarked. Failure to acknowl-
edge the dialogic nature of minority movements and to critique the positions
to which they respond leaves the nationalist underpinnings of a state like Spain
unquestioned and even strengthened. “I don’t believe in any nationalisms,” pro-
gressive colleagues tell me to explain their bewilderment or skepticism about the
Catalan sovereignty movement. Does that include the kind that you don’t notice,
I ask; the kind that takes for granted that in Spain one should speak Spanish, but
doesn’t comprehend that anyone in Catalonia or the Basque Country might be
expected to learn—​or might want to learn—​Catalan or Euskara? Sometimes the
response is a shrug. Sometimes it is an avowal that the return to electoral democ-
racy after Franco made further demands from minority regions illegitimate. That
claim is increasingly hard to square with the stark contrast between Britain’s
recent democratic handling of Scottish demands for independence and Spain’s
absolutist refusal to even engage the question of a Catalan “right to decide.” This
situation is a significant backdrop for the way I present my research here.
A further note on the place of politics in the account given in this book
is in order. I do not attempt to offer here a full account of language policy-
making in autonomous Catalonia, much less of the complexities of Catalan
politics and the sovereignty movement. There are analyses wholly devoted to
these phenomena, and I give references to some of them throughout the book.
Nonetheless, the point of the now well-​established study of language ideolo-
gies is to understand representations of language as socially positioned. A book
about language politics is, obviously, a book about politics, involving strate-
gies, rhetorics, and policies of competing political organizations and actors
who are not naïve. Throughout this book I have tried to locate the discourses
 Preface • xi

I analyze in relation to electoral politics as briefly as possible without embroil-

ing general readers in all the details of the increasingly complex Catalan politi-
cal scene. I am not convinced of how successful I have been, but this is not
intended as an analysis of organized party politics as such. Instead, I am inter-
ested in identifying the linguistic ideological frameworks that electoral poli-
tics draws on, and in seeing how these reflect and are reflected in other spheres
of social life. To this end, the political and media texts that I discuss are taken
from a wide variety, even a patchwork, of sources to illustrate discursive trends
that cut across different domains. At the same time, instead of surveying the
discourses on language of the full spectrum of political parties, my examples
are often weighted toward particular parties because they appeared to me dur-
ing my fieldwork to indicate important new discursive trends. Current events
confirm for me that that view was not mistaken.
As a researcher I am equally interested in Catalonia and in language ideol-
ogies, but I realize that not all readers will share both of those interests to the
same degree. I have tried to address this book to those who are not specialists in
Catalonia. Catalan observers will probably not find that I say many things they
did not already know, although I hope they might find something of use in the
way I put it. I try to give enough background information to allow readers unfa-
miliar with the setting to follow my account and analysis, but I do not give an
introduction to the history of Catalonia or of the language. For an abbreviated
version of that, readers may see my earlier book (1989a) or a number of other
sources referenced in this one. Those who are knowledgeable about Catalonia
may be nonplussed at the many details that I gloss over, especially when I do not
identify all the players and commentators by name in my in-​text discussions.
I have chosen, with apologies, to compromise on those details for the sake of the
general reader, and I believe that those who are interested will find the relevant
identities and other details in footnotes and in the citations I give for all sources.
I assume that most readers of this book will have at least some background
in the study of the social life of language and the linguistic life of society, but
I have tried to make my account accessible to readers who are not expert in socio-
linguistics or linguistic anthropology by being relatively sparing with technical
vocabulary. It has proven impossible to avoid a number of such terms: iconiza-
tion, indexicality, intervocalic fricative, just to take a few examples from one point
in the alphabet. When I introduce them, I try to give a basic definition and/​or
example. On a few occasions, I have resorted to telegraphing a point to specialists
through the use of some technical terms. I hope these moments will not be too
baffling to nonspecialists, and that all readers will find here both empirical and
theoretical arguments that are worth their consideration.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Over the decade that I’ve worked on this project, I’ve had many interchanges
about ideas and been much influenced by the comments and the work of Catalan,
American, and international colleagues. The result is an Escher-​like experience.
As I rewrite, reread, and occasionally newly discover published pieces I missed
earlier, I keep meeting myself and some of my colleagues on the stairs going up, or
is it down? Although I have tried to acknowledge these influences, bibliographic
citation and prefatory thanks are inadequate to capture the deep resonance I find
with the work of a number of colleagues. I take heart that this intertextuality
means that we are on to something, and I hope those who might meet themselves
on the stairs of this book feel the same way.
Several institutions made this research and writing possible. I did the fieldwork
as a visiting researcher affiliated with the Department of Catalan Philology at the
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, kindly sponsored by Professor Joan Argenter
and supported by a fellowship from the Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i
de Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya (grant # 2005PIV2-​31). The Wenner-​
Gren Foundation provided indispensable funding for the fieldwork, and the
University of California, San Diego (UCSD) contributed support for both field-
work and manuscript completion. The analysis was completed and much of the
writing was done when I was a resident fellow at the Netherlands Institute for
Advanced Studies (NIAS), which provided me the perfect sabbatical environ-
ment in its Brigadoon by the sea. Many thanks to all these institutions. All views
expressed in this work are my own and not those of the funding agencies.
In carrying out the fieldwork and analysis, I had the help of more people
than I can name here. My deep gratitude goes to the students and teachers who
patiently let me follow and record them throughout their school day, and espe-
cially to the former students who went out of their way to respond to me and
bring me up to date after twenty years. There has not been space to tell all their
stories in the course of this book, but all of them contributed to my understand-
ing of contemporary Catalonia. I hope that those whose lives and views I do
discuss and whose words I quote find that I have represented them fairly and
xiv • Acknowledgments

faithfully. All personal names used in this book except those of public figures are
pseudonyms, as is the name of the high school where I did my case studies. I am
not able to acknowledge these indispensable people properly by name, but I hope
they accept my thanks.
In Barcelona and beyond, Melissa Moyer and Susanna Fosch have been
extraordinarily generous friends who have sustained me both personally and pro-
fessionally and solved all kinds of problems for me. Many thanks also to Núria
Guàrdia, Manel Udina, Adela Ros, and Adrianne Saltz for much support, and to
Helen and Roger Bryce for providing respite.
I owe Susan Gal special thanks for the conceptual distinction that organizes
this book, though she is not responsible for how far I have taken it. I’m grateful to
all my fellow fellows at NIAS for creating a friendly and supportive environment,
most particularly Leonie Cornips and Vincent de Rooij, who invited me to join
their research group, and co-​participants Peter Auer, Ad Backus, Jürgen Jaspers,
Barbara Johnstone, Tanja Petrović, and Irene Stengs. For insights and collegial
assistance of different kinds in different moments, my thanks to Celso Álvarez-​
Cáccamo, Albert Bastardas, Emili Boix,Verena Berger, Michael Berman, Marcelo
Borges, Jordi Ballart, Albert Branchadell, Mary Bucholtz, José del Valle, Nicolau
Dols, Joe Errington, Paja Faudree, Susan Frekko, Jonathan Friedman, John
Haviland, Judit Hersko, Miyako Inoue, Misty Jaffe, Eva Jaurros-​Daussà, Stewart
King, Liesbeth Koenen, Maarten Mous, Michael Newman, Luci Nussbaum,
Bernadette O’Rourke, Nancy Postero, Bambi Schieffelin, Miquel Simonet,
Miquel Strubell, Jackie Urla, Xavier Vila, Max Wheeler, and Ana Celia Zentella.
Laura Ahearn, Hallie Stebbins, and Rob Wilkinson have been encouraging and
patient in the editorial process of turning this work into a book.
The Centre de Documentació de la Direcció General de Política Lingüística
de la Generalitat de Catalunya was essential to the research in Part II of this book,
and I thank Elena Heidepriem for her help in navigating its collection. Thanks
also to Pere Mayans of the Servei d'Ensenyament del Català de la Generalitat for
helping me understand the history of Catalan education policy, and to Kathy
Creely, Karen Heskett, and Kirk Wang of the UCSD library for generous help
with technology for producing the final manuscript. I’m grateful to artist Miquel
Barceló and representative Hannah Rhadigan, cartoonist Manel Fontedevila,
Josep Gisbert and Susanna Fosch again, and the artists and representatives of sev-
eral organizations for facilitating permission to reproduce the illustrations in this
book.
Throughout the fieldwork and again in correcting the whole manuscript,
Maria Rosa Garrido Sardà has been an extraordinary research assistant who
always goes an extra mile, and I am extremely grateful to her. For their work on
transcription, translation, analysis, and bibliography over the years, my thanks
also to Míriam Arboix, Cristina Aliagas, Vanessa Bretxa, Teresa Ciurana, Andrea
 Acknowledgments • xv

Davis, Susanna Llop, Aida Ribot Bencomo, Page Piccinini, Daniel Scarpace,
Elena Vicario, and Katia Yago. A special thank you to Josep Soler Carbonell for
much collegial help.
Susan DiGiacomo has been a great friend and colleague since we met doing
fieldwork in Barcelona in 1979, and with this book project she’s been beyond
generous, giving almost every chapter of the manuscript a careful and encourag-
ing reading and consulting on all kinds of questions. My debt to her is enormous.
Joan Pujolar also provided help over the years of this project and read many chap-
ters in manuscript. Along with Maria Rosa Garrido, they saved me from many
of my embarrassing gaffes and gave me much to think about, some of which
I haven’t been able to reflect adequately here. The errors that remain are my own
fault. Many, many thanks to Joel and Ben Sobel for living with this research proj-
ect in the field and for their sympathetic support in the interminable preparation
of the final manuscript. Thanks also to my father Tom Woolard for his patience
as I fixed just one more thing and then another.
Finally, I thank the journals and publishers for allowing me to draw on and
develop material from these earlier publications:

2007 La autoridad lingüística del español y las ideologías de la autenti-

cidad y el anonimato. In La lengua, ¿patria común? Ideas e ideologías del
español, ed. Jose del Valle, pp. 129–​142. Madrid: Vervuert Iberoamericana.
2008 Language and identity choice in Catalonia: The interplay of con-
trasting ideologies of linguistic authority. In Lengua, nación e identidad:
La regulación del plurilingüismo en España y América Latina, ed. Kirsten
Süselbeck, Ulrike Mühlschlegel, Peter Masson, pp. 303–​323. Madrid/​
Frankfurt: Iberoamericana/​Vervuert.
2009 Linguistic consciousness among adolescents in Catalonia: A case
study from the Barcelona urban area in longitudinal perspective. Zeitschrift
für Katalanistik 22: 125–​129.
2011 Is there linguistic life after high school? Longitudinal changes in the
bilingual repertoire in metropolitan Barcelona. Language in Society 40
(5):617–​648.
2013 Is the personal political? Chronotopes and changing stances
toward Catalan language and identity. International Journal of Bilingual
Education and Bilingualism 16 (2):210–​224.
2014 What’s so funny now? The strength of weak pronouns in Catalonia.
(with Aida Ribot Bencomo and Josep Soler Carbonell). Journal of
Linguistic Anthropology 23 (3) 127–​141.
A B B R E V I AT I O N S

ANC Assemblea Nacional Catalana

Catalan National Assembly
CAL Coordinadora d’Associacions per la Llengua Catalana
Coordinated Associations for the Catalan Language
C’s Ciutadans—​Partido de la Ciudadanía
Citizens—​Party of the Citizenry
CiU Convergència i Unió
Convergence and Union (Coalition of Democratic Convergence of
Catalonia and Democratic Union of Catalonia)
CT Catalan
CS Castilian
ERC Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya
Republican Left of Catalonia
IEC Institut d’Estudis Catalans
Institut of Catalan Studies
IRL Institut Ramon Llull
L1 First language
L2 Second language
PP Partido Popular
Popular Party/​People’s Party
PSOE Partido Socialista Obrero Español
Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party
PSC Partit Socialista de Catalunya
Catalan Socialist Party
TV3 TV3-​Televisió de Catalunya
Television of Catalonia
NOTE TO THE READER ON TERMINOLOGY
AND TRANSCRIPTION

Terminology
All personal names except those of public figures are pseudonyms, as is the name
of the school where I conducted the research for Part III. For public figures and
scholars, I follow the common usage of giving both paternal and maternal sur-
names, hyphenated when that reflects their own use, as well as referring to the
person within the text only by the paternal surname.
In Catalonia and the rest of Spain, “Spanish” (CS español, CT espanyol) and
“Castilian” (CS castellano, CT castellà) refer to the same language. “Castilian” is
the more common term and will be used in this book except where sources use
the term “Spanish,” which is politically significant. As here, I use the abbrevia-
tions CT for Catalan and CS for Castilian when identifying linguistic forms.
For ethnolinguistic categories, compound words are used in both Catalan
and Castilian to identify speakers by their first and/​or dominant language: CT
catalanoparlant, castellanoparlant, CS catalanohablante, castellanohablante, the
way the terms anglophone and francophone are used in Canada. Unfortunately
English doesn’t have equivalent forms, and terms like “Catalanspeaker” are
infelicitous to the English-​reading eye, so I gloss these as “Catalan speaker”
and “Castilian speaker.” In Catalonia the terms are usually used for social cat-
egories rather than as strictly linguistic descriptors, but there is slippage in the
usage. Neither term as used in this book means that the speaker is monolingual,
although as Xavier Vila (2003) has explained, self-​described castellanohablantes
often do not speak Catalan. Those of Castilian-​speaking background who do
speak Catalan are more likely to identity themselves as “bilingual.” All “Catalan
speakers” also speak Castilian, although a few of them claim not to be very com-
fortable in that language. Most of the individual “Castilian speakers” among the
two generations of informants for this study do speak Catalan, many of them very
fluently. When I wish to stress the native language of an individual, I will use the
terms “first language” or “L1” Castilian or Catalan speaker in contrast to “second
xx • Note to the Reader on Terminology and Transcription

language” or “L2” speaker, and occasionally “native speaker” when social roots are
being emphasized.
I use several terms to label political-​ideological positions and actors so that
the general reader can keep track of them. “Independentist” and “sovereigntist”
are inelegant terms in English but are direct translations from the Catalan and
the Castilian forms. “Catalanist” is a translation of catalanista, and advocates for
the Catalan language as well as for the nation and/​or sovereignty generally use
that term for themselves, though perhaps not everyone to whom I apply this label
in this work. I use it for both the linguistic and the political position. Espanyolista
generally means Spanish nationalist. When writers or speakers whom I quote
actually used this term, I incorporate it in my text. When I am not quoting a
source and am imposing my own label, I use the term Hispanicist to identify posi-
tions that I classify as Spanish nationalist. I apply the label “Castilianist” more
narrowly to advocates for the Castilian language in various debates, although
their critics might call them espanyolista. Nobody in Catalonia calls him/​herself
Castilianist, and many of those to whom I apply the term would say they are not
Castilianist, but rather liberal, fair-​minded, normal, etc. This may be true of some
of those I call Catalanist as well.

Quotations and Transcription

The originals of all Catalan and Castilian-​medium quotes that appear in
English in the body of the text are given in footnotes. Translations to English
are my own except where indicated. In quoting from media sources, I do not
use different conventions to represent the Catalan and Castilian languages,
again except where noted. This is because quotations given in the media do
not usually indicate the language the speaker actually used. They are routinely
translated to the standard medium of the periodical or news outlet without
any indication of the source language. Moreover, more than one news out-
let has both Catalan and Castilian versions, and the choice between them in
my corpus is not significant, so it would be misleading to mark the linguistic
medium of my source.
In quotes from my own recordings of interviews and interactions (most of
them appearing in Part III), short extracts from only one speaker are generally
given only in English in the text; the original appears in the footnotes. Longer
dialogic stretches are given in the original and the English gloss in parallel, to
indicate at least some of the interactional dynamics that affected the discussion.
In these transcript extracts, interviewees’ turns are identified by the first initials of
their pseudonyms. “KW” refers to the interviewer.
 Note to the Reader on Terminology and Transcription • xxi

In interactional and interview extracts, the typeface distinguishes the more

marked from the less marked of the two languages in that data set. Regular roman
type is used for the more frequently used of the two and italics indicate the less fre-
quent language. Because these were different in the interviews with the younger
and older informants, the conventions I use are also different. In Chapter 7,
reporting on the younger informants, Catalan is unmarked and Castilian is itali-
cized. In Chapter 8, since Castilian was the medium of the greater part of the
interviews discussed, Castilian appears in unmarked roman type and Catalan is
in italics. In textual citation of lexical items in these chapters as in others, both
languages are italicized without distinction.
These transcriptions of interviews and interactions, like the English glosses,
are quite broad in order to be more readily accessible to readers, and they are
not intended for close interactional or sociolinguistic analysis. Stumbles and
hesitation phenomena are generally transcribed, but only the most salient pho-
nological forms are represented graphically with nonstandard spelling. These are
specifically deletion of intervocalic /​d/​(acabao for acabado “finished”) and the
aspiration of /​s/​in stylized Andalusian Castilian. Following Joan Pujolar (2001),
I represent the emblematic aspirated form with orthographic “h”; e.g., ehpañoleh
in place of standard Castilian españoles “Spaniards.” In Catalan, the yodization of
initial voiced palatal-​alveolar fricatives is represented by orthographic “i”; e.g., io
for jo (“I”), ia for ja (“already”). Although this pronunciation makes those spe-
cific words bivalent, i.e., identical in Catalan and Castilian, they are widespread
and commonly accepted forms in vernacular Catalan.

Transcription Key
[words] speech overlapping with interlocutor’s, also marked in adjacent turn
(.)   short pause
(word) uncertain transcription
(x)   unintelligible
(( ))     analyst’s comment, clarification, or substitution
…   material omitted
:     elongation of speech segment
word  neither only Catalan nor Castilian: bivalent or English in original
=    latched speech, no pause
-​    word breaks off
SINGULAR AND PLURAL
 1 INTRODUCTION

What makes a particular language authoritative in community mem-

bers’ eyes and ears? What relationship to language allows a government
and its institutions to be perceived as legitimate? And what entitles a
speaker to use a language freely and to convince others with that use?
Monolingual speakers of dominant languages rarely have to pause to
consider such questions, but members of bilingual and minoritized
speech communities routinely confront them, implicitly and explic-
itly. The answers matter because the foundations of linguistic author-
ity are also foundations of identity, community, nation, polity, and
citizenship. The subject of this book is a constellation of ongoing con-
sequential changes in the foundations of linguistic authority and com-
munity in Catalonia, where language has long been a powerful social
symbol and political issue.
Catalan language and identity have been mobile in recent years,
in multiple senses: political, demographic, ideological. Politically,
Catalan national identity moved into the international spotlight in
September, 2012, when 1.5 million people demonstrated in the streets
of Barcelona to demand what is called “the right to decide” on sover-
eignty for Catalonia, currently an autonomous political community
within Spain.1 The next year, even more people linked hands to form
the Via Catalana, the “Catalan Way to Independence,” stretching 480
kilometers from south to north and again capturing the attention of
international news media (Televisió de Catalunya 2013a, 2013b).2
A broad coalition from center-​right to progressive left parties in the
Catalan Parliament joined to call a referendum on independence for
2014 (Minder 2013). Despite the conservative Spanish government’s

1. “Dret a decidir.” For an English-​medium collection of sympathetic views on the sovereignty

movement from intellectuals as well as Catalan political activists, see L. Castro 2013.
2. This display of support for Catalan independence was organized by a civic group, the
Assemblea Nacional Catalana (Catalan National Assembly) and modeled after the successful
1989 “Baltic Way” that had symbolically put the Baltic states on the path to independence.
2 • Singular and Plural

Figure 1.1 Demonstration for Catalan independence, 2010. Photograph by Josep

Renalias.
Source: Wikimedia Commons. https://​commons.wikimedia.org/​wiki/​File:Ebullició_​indepen-
dentista.JPG

flat rejection of any vote as illegal and unconstitutional, 2.3 million voters turned
out in November 2014 for a nonbinding citizens’ consultation in which 90%
supported statehood for Catalonia and 80% voted for outright independence
(Generalitat de Catalunya 2014, El País 2014).3 This movement had erupted pub-
licly in 2010, in response to the Spanish Constitutional Court’s curtailment of
significant clauses of the revised Catalan Statute of Autonomy (Fig. 1.1). Within
just a few years, Catalonia had become visibly rife with previously unthinkable
possibilities, as well as apparent impossibilities given the intransigence of the
Spanish government and the challenges that party politics present.
International media attributed this mobilization for Catalan independence
both to the effects of the global economic crisis that began in 2008 and to Catalans’
longstanding “fierce pride in a distinct culture and language” (e.g., Associated
Press 2014). Economic grievances in the wake of the crisis were undoubtedly

3. Catalonia has a total population of about 7.5 million, of which eligible voters were estimated
at roughly 5.4 million. The turnout for this nonbinding vote was low in comparison to parlia-
mentary elections, both Spanish and Catalan, but not unlike turnout in recent elections for
the European Parliament.
 Introduction • 3

crucial to this 21st century surge and widening social base of Catalan nation-
alism. And Catalan language and identity do indeed intertwine with economic
and political tensions in giving rise to the movement (Muñoz and Tormos 2012).
The Catalan language has traditionally been viewed as key to the existence of the
Catalan nation itself and to Catalan identity for individuals. Moreover, in the
last decade autonomous Catalonia’s established language policy, particularly in
education, has repeatedly been challenged in Spanish government actions and
in lawsuits brought in the Spanish courts, and this has aggravated sentiment for
Catalan independence. With the first new wave of this relatively broad popular
mobilization for independence in 2010, the official language policy of an inde-
pendent Catalonia became a topic for debate in public forums, well before a date
was even set for a referendum, much less the outline of an independent state
sketched.
In the dominant perspective on minority nationalisms inherited from the
19th century Romantic tradition, the equation of a language, a culture, and a
nation that is evoked by the international reporting on this Catalan indepen-
dence movement is not surprising. However, the ethnolinguistic backdrop of the
contemporary Catalan sovereignty mobilization is considerably more surpris-
ing and complex than conventional accounts of language and national identity
would suggest, and those complexities motivate the research behind this book.
Demographically, a shift was already well established in late 20th century
Catalonia as a result of mass labor migration to industrialized Catalonia from
other parts of Spain. Roughly three-​quarters of Catalans are estimated to have
immigrants in the family tree who arrived since 1900 (Cabré 1999, 164).4 The
twenty-​five most common surnames in Catalonia are all of Castilian origin
(IDESCAT 2014). Less than one-​third of the population of Catalonia now
speaks Catalan as its first language. In contrast, about 55% of the adult popula-
tion are first-​language speakers of Castilian (the term for the Spanish language
generally used in Catalonia and the rest of Spain) (IDESCAT 2013). Most of
these Castilian speakers are working-​class immigrants themselves or the chil-
dren and grandchildren of such immigrants from other parts of Spain. In short,
the autochthonous and Catalan-​speaking population of Catalonia is demo-
graphically outweighed by Castilian speakers with roots in the rest of Spain,

4. English speakers are often confused when the term “immigrants” is used for those who
moved to Catalonia from other parts of Spain, but it was the term in general use there. It
indexes the significance of the historical national boundary even though no state boundary is
crossed. This usage of the term was displaced by transnational immigration in the 21st century.
One of my interviewees asked me in some confusion how she should refer to her parents, who
had moved to Catalonia from Andalusia in that great migration, now that “immigrants” come
from other countries and she could no longer use it for her family.
4 • Singular and Plural

complicating any easy Romanticist assumption of a fiercely motivating pride in

Catalan language and cultural heritage.
Despite such a demographic divide in geographical and linguistic origins,
in the run-​up to the November 2014 vote, polls showed that 75%–​80% of the
potential voters of Catalonia supported the call for the popular consultation on
sovereignty. Estimates of support for independence itself varied considerably
depending on the pollster and the polling question, but most showed it hovering
a little below 50%.5 These figures suggested that appreciable numbers of Spanish
immigrant-​descent and Castilian-​speaking citizens supported the bid to hold a
referendum, and a smaller but still noteworthy percentage figured among those
calling for independence. Indeed, immigrant-​origin and Castilian-​speaking resi-
dents of Catalonia formed organizations to support the cause such as Súmate
(“Join In”), and these included participants in the significant new transnational
immigration as well as the earlier immigration from other parts of Spain.
Within this putatively post-​national era of globalization, and especially in
such a convoluted and potentially fragile ethnolinguistic context, the mobiliza-
tion for national sovereignty and independence that swept Catalonia was not
expected. Not only international but also Spanish and even Catalan observ-
ers and politicians were caught off guard when the movement for the “right to
decide” took off so resoundingly in autumn 2012. Even many of those who par-
ticipated were astonished by their own numbers.
One of the most challenging aspects for observers (in Spain as much as the rest
of the world) to comprehend is how the potential for a divide along ethnolinguis-
tic lines that coincide strongly with social class differentiation within Catalonia fits
with such a broad sovereignty movement. What role do ethnolinguistic identity
and the Catalan language in particular play in Catalan citizens’ and leaders’ views
of themselves and their society? One perspective depicts Catalonia as a “divided
society” with a “pronounced ethnolinguistic cleavage” and a linguistic policy that
does not reflect the preferences and interests of the primarily working-​class-​origin
Castilian-​speaking population (Miley 2013). However, I ended my first book
about Catalonia with a point that will be pursued in this one, and that has become
all the more relevant with the sovereignty movement:

The complexities of ethnic politics in Catalonia point out an important

constraint on generalizations about the causes of ethnic conflict. …
Attempts to understand the relation of class and ethnicity must con-
sider the context of power in which conflicts take place, and in which

5. In spring 2014, a Catalan official poll showed support for independence a little below 50%,
and The Economist reported an estimate of a majority vote, at 55% (The Economist 2014).
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Another patient aged twenty-seven had whooping cough, which
lasted six weeks, and was followed by severe pain in the back. For
this she consulted various physicians, being treated for Pott's
disease and spinal irritation. She, however, continued to grow worse,
and every jar and twist gave severe pain. At this time she had lost
much flesh, had pain in her back and elsewhere, and was subject to
numerous and violent spasms. When first seen by the physician who
consulted me she was complaining of pains in her legs, hips, and left
shoulder, which she considered rheumatic, and with pain in the
abdomen. Examination of the back with the patient on her side
showed a slight prominence over the position of the first or second
lumbar vertebra. The spot was painful on pressure, and had been so
ever since the attack of whooping cough three years before. A tap on
the sole of either foot made her complain of severe pain in the back.
The same result followed pressure on the head. The patient was
unable to stand or walk, but occasionally sat up for a short time,
although suffering all the time. There was no muscular rigidity. The
limbs and body were quite thin, but, so far as could be detected, she
had no loss of motor or sensory power. At times, when the pains
were worse, the arms would be flexed involuntarily, and she stated
that once the spine was drawn back and a little sideways. The pain
in the hips was augmented by pressure. During the application of a
plaster bandage she had a sort of fit and fainted, and the application
was suspended. She soon recovered consciousness, but refused to
allow the completion of the dressing. I diagnosticated the affection as
largely hysterical, and a few months later received word that the
patient was on her feet and well.

Kemper109 relates the case of a lady who eventually died of sarcoma

of the vertebræ, the specimens having been examined by J. H. C.
Simes of Philadelphia and myself. She was supposed at first and for
some time to be a case of hysteria with spinal irritation. In the case
of a distinguished naval officer, who died of malignant vertebral
disease after great suffering a short time since, this same mistake
was made during the early stages of the disease: his case was
pronounced to be one of neurasthenia, hysteria, etc. before its true
nature was finally discovered. The absence of muscular rigidity in the
back and extremities is the strongest point against vertebral disease
in these cases.
109 Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, vol. xii., No. 1, January, 1885.

In hysterical hemianæsthesia, ovarian hyperæsthesia, hystero-

epileptic seizures, ischuria, and other well-known hysterical
symptoms have usually been observed. The anæsthesia in
hysterical cases is most commonly on the left side of the body, but it
may happen to be so located in an organic case, so that this point is
only one of slight value.

Some older observers, as Briquet, who is quoted and criticised by

Charcot, believed that hemianæsthesia from encephalic lesions
differed from hysterical hemianæsthesia by the fact that in the former
case the skin of the face did not participate in the insensibility, or that
when it existed it never occupied the same side as the insensibility of
the limbs. Recently-reported cases have disproved the accuracy of
this supposed diagnostic mark. In his lectures, delivered ten years
ago, Charcot observed that up to that period anæsthesia of general
sensibility alone appeared to have been observed as a consecutive
on an alteration of the cerebral hemispheres, so that obtunding of
the special senses would remain as a distinctive characteristic of
hysterical hemianæsthesia. He, however, expected that cases of
cerebral organic origin would be reported of complete
hemianæsthesia, with derangements of the special senses, such as
is presented in hysteria. His anticipations have been fulfilled. In the
nervous wards of the Philadelphia Hospital is now a typical case of
organic hemianæsthesia in which the special senses are partially
involved.

Paralysis and contractures, if present, are apt to be accompanied in

cases of organic hemianæsthesia, after time has elapsed, by marked
nutritive changes, by wasting of muscle, and even of skin and bone.
This is not the case in hysteria.

The subsequent history of these two conditions is different. The

hysterical patient will often recover and relapse, or under proper
treatment may entirely recover; while all the treatment that can be
given in a case of organic hemianæsthesia will produce no decided
improvement, for there is a lesion in the brain which will remain for
ever. Hemianopsia, so far as I know, has not been observed in
hysterical hemianæsthesia.

In the monograph of Shaffer, with reference to both true and false

knee-joint affections certain conclusions are drawn which I will give
somewhat condensed:

Chronic synovitis produces very few if any subjective symptoms;

hysterical imitation presents a long train of both subjective and
objective symptoms and signs, the former in excess. Chronic ostitis
may be diagnosticated if muscular spasm cannot be overcome by
persistent effort; when the spasm does not vary night nor day; when
it is not affected by the ordinary doses of opium or chloral; when
reaction of the muscles to the faradic current is much reduced; when
a local and uniform rise of temperature over the affected articulation
is present; when purely involuntary neural symptoms, such as
muscular spasm, pain, and a cry of distress, are present. Hysterical
knee-joint is present, according to this author, when the muscular
rigidity or contracture is variable, and can be overcome by mildly
persistent efforts while the patient's mind is diverted, or which yields
to natural sleep, or which wholly disappears under the usual doses
of opium or chloral; when the faradic response is normal; when rise
of temperature is absent or a reduced temperature is present over
the joint; when variable and inconstant, emotional, and semi-
voluntary manifestations are present.

To recognize the neuromimesis of hip disease Shaffer gives the

following points: The limp is variable and suggests fatigue; it is much
better after rest; it almost invariably follows the pain. Pain of a
hyperæsthetic character is usually the first symptom, and it is found
most generally in the immediate region of the joint. “In place of an
apprehensive state in response to the tests applied will be found a
series of symptoms which are erratic and inconstant. A condition of
muscular rigidity often exists, but, unlike a true muscular spasm, it
can in most cases be overcome in the manner before stated. A very
perceptible degree of atrophy may exist—such, however, as would
arise from inertia only. A normal electrical contractility exists in all the
muscles of the thigh.”

In the neuromimesis of chronic spondylitis or hysterical spine the

pain is generally superficial, and is almost always located over or
near the spinous processes; it is sometimes transient, and frequently
changes its location from time to time; a normal degree of mobility of
the spinal column under properly directed manipulation is preserved;
the nocturnal cry and apprehensive expression of Pott's disease are
wanting.

With reference to the hysterical lateral curvature, Shaffer, quoting

Paget, says “ether or chloroform will help. You can straighten the
mimic contracture when the muscles cannot act; you cannot so
straighten a real curvature.”

In the diagnosis of local hysterical affections one point emphasized

by Skey is well worthy of consideration; and that is that local forms of
hysteria are often not seen because they are not looked for. “If,” says
he, “you will so focus your mental vision and endeavor to distinguish
the minute texture of your cases, and look into and not at them, you
will acknowledge the truth of the description, and you will adopt a
sound principle of treatment that meets disease face to face with a
direct instead of an oblique force.” According to Paget, the means for
diagnosis in these cases to be sought—(1) in what may be regarded
as the predisposition, the general condition of the nervous system,
on which, as in a predisposing constitution, the nervous mimicry of
disease is founded; (2) in the events by which, as by exciting
causes, the mimicry may be evoked and localized; (3) in the local
symptoms in each case.

Local symptoms as a means of diagnosis can sometimes be made

use of in general hysteria. A case may present symptoms of either
the gravest form of organic nervous disease or the gravest form of
hysteria, and be for a time in doubt, when suddenly some special
local manifestation appears which cannot be other than hysterical,
and which clinches the diagnosis. In a case with profound
anæsthesia, with paraplegia and marked contractures, with recurring
spasms of frightful character, the sudden appearance of aphonia and
apsithyria at once cleared all remaining doubt. Herbert Page
mentions the case of a man who suffered from marked paraplegia
and extreme emotional disturbance after a railway collision, who,
nine months after the accident, had an attack of aphonia brought on
suddenly by hearing of the death of a friend. He eventually
recovered.

To detect hysterical or simulated blindness the methods described by

Harlan are those adopted in my own practice. When the blindness is
in both eyes, optical tests cannot be applied. Harlan suggests
etherization.110 In a case of deception, conscious or unconscious, he
says, “as the effect of the anæsthetic passed off the patient would
probably recover the power of vision before his consciousness was
sufficiently restored to enable him to resume the deception.”
Hutchinson cured a case of deaf-dumbness by means of
etherization. For simulated monocular blindness Graefe's prism-test
may be used: “If a prism held before the eye in which sight is
admitted causes double vision, or when its axis is held horizontally a
corrective squint, vision with both eyes is rendered certain.” It should
be borne in mind that the failure to produce double images is not
positive proof of monocular blindness, for it is possible that the
person may see with either eye separately, but not enjoy binocular
vision, as in a case of squint, however slight. Instead of using a
prism while the patient is reading with both eyes at an ordinary
distance, say of fourteen or sixteen inches, on some pretext slip a
glass of high focus in front of the eye said to be sound. If the reading
is continued without change, of course the amaurosis is not real.
Other tests have been recommended, but these can usually be
made available.
110 Loc. cit.

The diagnosis of hysterical, simulated, or mimetic deafness is more

difficult than that of blindness. When the deafness is bilateral, the
difficulty is greater than when unilateral. The method by etherization
just referred to might be tried. Politzer in his work on diseases of the
ear111 makes the following suggestions: Whether the patient can be
wakened out of sleep by a moderately loud call seems to be the
surest experiment. But, as in total deafness motor reflexes may be
elicited by the concussion of loud sounds, care must be taken not to
go too near the person concerned and not to call too loudly. The
practical objection to this procedure in civil practice would seem to
be that we are not often about when our patients are asleep. In
unilateral deafness L. Müller's method is to use two tubes, through
which words are spoken in both ears at the same time. When
unilateral deafness is really present the patient will only repeat what
has been spoken in the healthy ear, while when there is simulation
he becomes confused, and will repeat the words spoken into the
seemingly deaf ear also. To avoid mistakes in using this method, a
low voice must be employed.
111 A Textbook of the Diseases of the Ear and Adjacent Organs, by Adam Politzer,
translated and edited by James Patterson Cassells, M.D., M. R. C. S. Eng., Philada.,
1883.

Mistakes in diagnosis where hysteria is in question are frequently

due to that association with it of serious organic disease of the
nervous system of which I have already spoken at length under
Complications. This is a fact which has not been overlooked by
authors and teachers, but one on which sufficient stress has not yet
been laid, and one which is not always kept in mind by the
practitioner. Bramwell says: “Cases are every now and again met
with in which serious organic disease (myelitis and poliomyelitis,
anterior, acute, for example) is said to be hysterical. Mistakes of this
description are often due to the fact that serious organic disease is
frequently associated with the general symptoms and signs of
hysteria; it is, in fact, essential to remember that all cases of
paraplegia occurring in hysterical patients are not necessarily
functional—i.e. hysterical; the presence of hysteria or a history of
hysterical fits is only corroborative evidence, and the (positive)
diagnosis of hysterical paraplegia should never be given unless the
observer has, after the most careful examination, failed to detect the
signs and symptoms of organic disease.”

PROGNOSIS.—Hysteria may terminate (1) in permanent recovery; (2)

in temporary recovery, with a tendency to relapse or to the
establishment of hysterical symptoms of a different character; (3) in
some other affection, as insanity, phthisis, or possibly sclerosis; (4) in
death, but the death in such cases is usually not the direct result of
hysteria, but of some accident. Death from intercurrent disorders
may take place in hysteria. It is altogether doubtful, however,
whether the affection which has been described as acute fatal
hysteria should be placed in the hysterical category. In the cases
reported the symptom-picture would in almost every instance seem
to indicate the probability of the hysteria having been simply a
complication of other disorders, such as epilepsy, eclampsia, and
acute mania.

As a rule, hysterical patients will not starve themselves. They may

refuse to take food in the presence of others, or may say they will not
eat at all; but they will in some cases at the same time get food on
the sly or hire their nurses or attendants to procure it for them. In
treating such cases a little watchfulness will soon enable the
physician to determine what is best to be done. By discovering them
in the act of taking food future deception can sometimes be
prevented. Hysterical patients do sometimes, however, persistently
refuse food. These cases may starve to death if let alone; and it is
important that the physician should promptly resort to some form of
forcible feeding before the nutrition of the patient has reached too
low an ebb. I have seen at least two cases of hysteria or hysterical
insanity in which patients were practically allowed to starve
themselves to death, but an occurrence of this kind is very rare.
Feeding by means of a stomach-tube, or, what is still better, by a
nasal tube, as is now so frequently practised among the insane,
should be employed. Nourishment should be administered
systematically in any way possible until the patient is willing to take
food in the ordinary way. In purposive cases some methods of
forcible feeding may prove of decided advantage. Its unpleasantness
will sometimes cause swallowing power to be regained.

Wunderlich112 has recorded the case of a servant-girl, aged nineteen,

who, after a succession of epileptiform fits, fell into a collapse and
died in two days. Other cases have been recorded by Meyer. Fagge
also speaks of the more chronic forms of hysteria proving fatal by
marasmus. He refers to two cases reported by Wilks, both of which
were diagnosticated as hysterical, and both of which died. Sir
William Gull describes a complaint which he terms anorexia nervosa
vel hysterica. It is attended with extreme wasting; pulse, respiration,
and temperature are low. The patients were usually between the
ages of sixteen and twenty-three: some died; others recovered under
full feeding and great care. In many of the reported fatal cases
careful inquiry must be made as to this question of hysteria being
simply a complication.
112 Quoted in The Principles and Practice of Medicine, by the late Charles Hilton
Fagge, M.D., F. R. C. P., etc., vol. i. 1886, p. 736.

Are not hysterical attacks sometimes fatal? With reference to one of

my cases this view was urged by the physician in attendance.
Gowers113 on this point says: “As a rule to which exceptions are
infinitely rare, hysterical attacks, however severe and alarming in
aspect, are devoid of danger. The attacks of laryngeal spasm
present the greatest apparent risk to life.” He refers to the paroxysms
of dyspnœa presented by a hemiplegic girl as really alarming in
appearance, even to those familiar with them. He refers also to a
case of Raynaud's114 in which the laryngeal and pharyngeal spasm
coexisted with trismus, and the patient died in a terrible paroxysm of
dyspnœa. The patient presented various other hysterical
manifestations, and a precisely similar attack had occurred
previously and passed away, but she had in the interval become
addicted to the hypodermic injection of morphia, and Raynaud
suggested that it might have been the effect of this on the nerve-
centres that caused the fatal termination. Such cases have been
described in France as the hydrophobic form of hysteria.
 113 Epilepsy and Other Chronic Convulsive Diseases, by W. R. Gowers, M.D.,
London. 1881.

114 L'Union médical, March 15, 1881.

Patients may die in hysterical as in epileptic attacks from causes not

directly connected with the disease. One of these sources of danger
mentioned by Gowers is the tendency to fall on the face sometimes
met with in the post-epileptic state. He records an example of death
from this cause. He also details a case of running hysteria or
hystero-epilepsy, in which, after a series of fits lasting about four
hours, the child died, possibly from some intercurrent accident.

TREATMENT.—Grasset,115 speaking of the treatment of hysteria, says

that means of treating the paroxysm, of removing the anæsthesia, of
combating single symptoms, are perhaps to be found in abundance,
but the groundwork of the disease, the neurosis or morbid state, is
not attacked. Here he indicates a new and fruitful path. In his own
summing up, however, he can only say that the hysterical diathesis
offers fundamental grounds for the exhibition of arsenic, silver,
chloride of gold, and mineral waters!
115 Brain, January, 1884.

No doubt can exist that the prophylactic and hygienic treatment of

hysteria is of paramount importance. To education—using the term
education in a broad sense—before and above all, the most
important place must be given. It is sometimes better to remove
children from their home surroundings. Hysterical mothers develop
hysterical children through association and imitation. I can scarcely,
however, agree with Dujardin-Beaumetz that it is always a good plan
to place a girl in a boarding-school far from the city. It depends on
the school. A well-regulated institution may be a great blessing in
this direction; one badly-managed may become a hotbed of hysteria.

Recently I made some investigations into the working of the public-

school system of Philadelphia, particularly with reference to the
question of overwork and sanitation.116 I had special opportunities
during the investigations to study the influences of different methods
of education, owing to the fact that the public-school system of
Philadelphia is just now in a transition period. This system is in a
state of hopeful confusion—hopeful, because I believe that out of its
present condition will come eventually a great boon to Philadelphia.
At one end of the system, in the primary and the secondary schools,
a graded method of instruction has been introduced. The grammar
and the high schools are working on an ungraded or differently
graded method. I found still prevailing, particularly in certain of the
grammar schools for girls, although not to the same extent as a few
years since, methods of cramming and stuffing calculated above all
to produce hysteria and allied disorders in those predisposed to
them.
116 The results of these investigations were given in a lecture which was delivered in
the Girls' Normal School of Philadelphia before the Teachers' Institute of Philadelphia,
Dec. 11, 1885.

Education should be so arranged as to develop the brain by a

natural process—not from within outward; not from the centre to the
periphery; not from above downward; but as the nervous system
itself develops in its evolution from a lower to a higher order of
animals, from the simple to the more complex and more elaborate.
Any system of education is wrong, and is calculated to weaken and
worry an impressionable nervous system, which attempts to overturn
or change this order of the progress of a true development of the
brain. To develop the nervous system as it should be developed—
slowly, naturally, and evenly—it must also be fed, rested, and
properly exercised.

In those primary schools in which the graded method was best

carried out this process of helping natural development was pursued,
and the result was seen in contented faces, healthy bodies, and
cheerful workers. In future the result will be found in less chorea,
hysteria, and insanity.

To prevent the development of hysteria, parents and physicians

should direct every effort. The family physician who discovers a child
to be neurotic, and who from his knowledge of parents, ancestors,
and collateral relatives knows that a predisposition to hysteria or
some other neurosis is likely to be present, should exercise all the
moral influence which he possesses to have a healthy, robust
training provided. It is not within the scope of an article of this kind to
describe in great detail in what such education should consist.
Reynolds is correct when he says that “self-control should be
developed, the bodily health should be most carefully regarded, and
some motive or purpose should be supplied which may give force,
persistence, unity, and success to the endeavors of the patient.” In
children who have a tendency to the development of hysteria the
inclinations should not always or altogether be regarded in choosing
a method or pursuing a plan of education. It is not always to what
such a child takes that its mind should be constantly directed; but, on
the contrary, it is often well to educate it away from its inclination.
“The worst thing that can be done is that which makes the patient
know and feel that she is thought to be peculiar. Sometimes such
treatment is gratifying to her, and she likes it—it is easy and it seems
kind to give it—but it is radically wrong.”

In providing for the bodily health of hysterical children it should be

seen that exercise should be taken regularly and in the open air, but
over-fatigue should be avoided; that ample and pleasant recreation
should be provided; that study should be systematic and disciplinary,
but at the same time varied and interesting, and subservient to some
useful purpose; that the various functions of secretion, excretion,
menstruation should be regulated.

The importance of sufficient sleep to children who are predisposed to

hysteria or any other form of nervous or mental disorder can scarcely
be over-estimated. The following, according to J. Crichton Browne,117
is the average duration of sleep required at different ages: 4 years of
age, 12 hours; 7 years of age, 11 hours; 9 years of age, 10½ hours;
14 years of age, 10 hours; 17 years of age, 9½ hours; 21 years of
age, 9 hours; 28 years of age, 8 hours. To carefully provide that
children shall obtain this amount of sleep will do much to strengthen
the nervous system and subdue or eradicate hysterical tendencies.
Gymnastics, horseback riding, walking, swimming, and similar
exercises all have their advantages in preventing hysterical
tendencies.
117 Education and the Nervous System, reprinted from The Book of Health by
permission of Messrs. Cassell & Co., Limited.

Herz118 has some instructive and useful recommendations with

reference to the treatment of hysteria in children. It is first and most
important to rehabilitate the weakened organism, and especially the
central nervous system, by various dietetic, hygienic, and medicinal
measures. It is important next to tranquillize physical and mental
excitement. This can sometimes be done by disregard of the
affection, by neglect, or by removal or threatened removal of the
child from its surroundings. Such treatment should of course be
employed with great discretion. Anæmia and chlorosis, often present
in the youthful victims of hysteria, should be thoroughly treated. Care
should be taken to learn whether children of either sex practise
masturbation, which, Jacobi and others insist, frequently plays an
important part in the production of hysteria. Proper measures should
be taken to prevent this practice. The genital organs should receive
examination and treatment if this is deemed at all necessary. On the
other hand, care should be taken not to direct the attention of
children unnecessarily to those organs when they are entirely
innocent of such habits. Painting the vagina twice daily with a 10 per
cent. solution of hydrochlorate cocaine has been found useful in
subduing the hyper-irritation of the sexual organs in girls accustomed
to practise masturbation. Herz, with Henoch, prefers the hydrate of
chloral to all other medicines, although he regards morphine as
almost equally valuable, in the treatment of hysteria in children.
Personally, I prefer the bromides to either morphia or chloral. Small
doses of iron and arsenic continued systematically for a long period
will be found useful. Politzer of Vienna regards the hydrobromate
and bihydrobromate of iron as two valuable preparations in the
hysteria of children, and exhibits them in doses of four to seven
grains three to four times daily.
 118 Wien. Med. Wochen., No. 46, Nov. 14, 1885.

Hysteria once developed, it is the moral treatment which often really

cures. The basis of this method of cure is to rouse the will. It is
essential to establish faith in the mind of the patient. She must be
made to feel not only that she can be helped, but that she will be.
Every legitimate means also should be taken to impress the patient
with the idea that her case is fully understood. If malingering or
partial malingering enters into the problem, the patient will then feel
that she has been detected, and will conclude that she had better get
out of her dilemma as gracefully as possible. Where simulation does
not enter faith is an important nerve-stimulant and tonic; it unchains
the will.

Many physicians have extraordinary ideas about hysteria, and

because of these adopt remarkable and sometimes outrageous
methods of treatment. They find a woman with hysterical symptoms,
and forthwith conclude she is nothing but a fraud. They are much
inclined to assert their opinions, not infrequently to the patient
herself, and, if not directly to her, in her hearing to other patients or
to friends, relatives, nurses, or physicians. They threaten, denounce,
and punish—the latter especially in hospitals. In general practice
their course is modified usually by the wholesome restraint which the
financial and other extra-hospital relations of patient and physician
enforce.

Although hysterical patients often do simulate and are guilty of fraud,

it should never be forgotten that some hysterical manifestations may
be for the time being beyond the control of patients. Even for some
of the frauds which are practised the individuals are scarcely
responsible, because of the weakness of their moral nature and their
lack of will-power. Moral treatment in the form of reckless harshness
becomes immoral treatment. The liability to mistake in diagnosis,
and the frequent association of organic disease with hysterical
symptoms, should make the physician careful and conservative. It is
also of the highest importance often that the doctor should not show
his hand. The fact that an occasional cure, which is usually
temporary, is effected by denunciation, and even cruelty, is not a
good argument against the stand taken here.

Harsh measures should only be adopted after due consideration and

by a well-digested method. A good plan sometimes is, after carefully
examining the patient, to place her on some simple, medicinal, and
perhaps electrical treatment, taking care quietly to prophesy a
speedy cure. If this does not work, in a few days other severe or
more positive measures may be used, perhaps blistering or strong
electrical currents. Later, but in rare cases only, after giving the
patient a chance to arouse herself by letting her know what she may
expect, painful electrical currents, the hot iron, the cold bath, or
similar measures may be used. Such treatment, however, should
never be used as a punishment.

The method of cure by neglect can sometimes be resorted to with

advantage. The ever-practical Wilks mentions the case of a school-
teacher with hemianalgesia, hemianæsthesia, and an array of other
hysterical symptoms who had gone through all manner of treatment,
and at the end of seven months was no better. The doctor simply left
her alone. He ordered her no drugs, and regularly passed by her
bed. In three weeks he found her sitting up. She talked a little and
had some feeling in her right side. She was now encouraged, and
made rapid progress to recovery. Neglect had aroused her dormant
powers. It must be said that a treatment of this kind can be carried
out with far more prospects of success in a general hospital than in a
private institution or at the home of a patient. It is a method of
treatment which may fail or succeed according to the tact and
intelligence of the physician.

I cannot overlook here the consideration of the subject of the so-

called faith cure and mind cure. One difference between the faith
cure as claimed and practised by its advocates, and by those who
uphold it from a scientific standpoint, is simply that the latter do not
refer the results obtained to any supernatural or spiritual agency. I
would not advise the establishment of prayer-meetings for the relief
of hysteria, but would suggest that the power of faith be exercised to
its fullest extent in a legitimate way.

A young lady is sick, and for two years is seen by all the leading
doctors in London; a clergyman is asked in and prays over her, and
she gets up and walks. The doctors all join in and say the case was
one of hysteria—that there was nothing the matter with her. Then,
says Wilks, “Why was the girl subjected to local treatment and doses
of physic for years? Why did not the doctors do what the parson
did?”

Tuke119 devotes a chapter to psychotherapeutics, which every

physician who is called upon to treat hysteria should read. He
attempts to reduce the therapeutic use of mental influence to a
practical, working basis. I will formulate from Tuke and my own
experience certain propositions as to the employment of
psychological measures: (1) It is often important and always
justifiable to inspire confidence and hope in hysterical patients by
promising cures when it is possible to achieve cures. (2) A physician
may sometimes properly avail himself of his influence over the
emotions of the patient in the treatment of hysterical patients, but
always with great caution and discretion. (3) Every effort should be
made to excite hysterical patients to exert the will. (4) In some
hysterical cases it is advisable to systematically direct the attention
to a particular region of the body, arousing at the same time the
expectation of a certain result. (5) Combined mental and physical
procedures may sometimes be employed. (6) Hypnotism may be
used in a very few cases.
119 Influence of the Mind upon the Body.

The importance of employing mental impression is thoroughly

exemplified, if nothing else is accomplished, by a study of such a
craze as the so-called mind cure. Not a few people of supposed
sense and cultivation have pinned their faith to this latest Boston
hobby. A glance at the published writings of the apostles of the mind
cure will show at once to the critical mind that all in it of value is
dependent upon the effects of mental impression upon certain
peculiar natures, some of them being of a kind which afford us not a
few of our cases of hysteria. W. F. Evans has published several
works upon the subject. From one of these120 I have sought, but not
altogether successfully, to obtain some ideas as to the basis of the
mind-cure treatment. It is claimed that the object is to construct a
theoretical and practical system of phrenopathy, or mental cure, on
the basis of the idealistic philosophy of Berkeley, Fichte, Schelling,
and Hegel. The fundamental doctrine of those who believe in the
mental cure is, that to think and to exist are one and the same, and
that every disease is a translation into a bodily expression of a fixed
idea of mind. If by any therapeutic device the morbid idea can be
removed, the cure of the malady is assured. When the patient is
passive, and consequently impressible, he is made to fix his
thoughts with expectant attention upon the effect to be produced.
The physician thinks to the same effect, wills it, and believes and
imagines that it is being done; the mental action to the patient,
sympathizing with that of the physician, is precipitated upon the
body, and becomes a silent, transforming, sanitive energy. It must
be, says Evans, “a malady more than ordinarily obstinate that is
neither relieved nor cured by it.”
120 The Divine Law of Cure.

Hysteria cannot be cured by drugs alone, and yet a practitioner of

medicine would find it extremely difficult to manage some cases
without using drugs. Drugs themselves, used properly, may have a
moral or mental as well as a physical influence. Among those which
have been most used from before the days of Sydenham to the
present time, chiefly for their supposed or real antispasmodic virtues,
are galbanum, asafœtida, valerian, castor and musk, opium, and
hyoscyamus. The value of asafœtida, valerian, castor, and musk is
chiefly of a temporary character. If these drugs are used at all, they
should be used in full doses frequently repeated. Sumbul, a drug of
the same class comparatively little used, is with me a favorite. It can
be used in the form of tincture or fluid extract, from twenty minims to
half a drachm of the latter or one to two drachms of the former. It
certainly has in many cases a remarkably calmative effect.
Opium and its preparations, so strongly recommended by some, and
especially the Germans, should not be used except in rare cases.
Occasionally in a case with sleeplessness or great excitement it may
be absolutely indispensable to resort to it in combination with some
other hypnotic or sedative. The danger, however, in other cases of
forming the opium habit should not be overlooked. According to
Dujardin-Beaumetz, it is mainly useful in the asthenic forms of
hysteria.

Of all drugs, the metallic tonics are to be preferred in the continuous

treatment of hysteria. Iron, although not called for in a large
percentage of cases, will sometimes prove of great service in the
weak and anæmic hysterics. Chalybeates are first among the drugs
mentioned by Sydenham. Steel was his favorite. The subcarbonate
or reduced iron, or the tincture of the chloride, is to be preferred to
the more fanciful and elegant preparations with which the drug-
market is now flooded. Dialyzed iron and the mallate of iron,
however, are known to be reliable preparations, and can be resorted
to with advantage. They should be given in large doses. Zinc salts,
particularly the oxide, phosphide, and valerianate; the nitrate or
oxide of silver, the ammonio-sulphate of copper, ferri-ferrocyanide or
Prussian blue,—all have a certain amount of real value in giving tone
to the nervous system in hysterical cases.

To Niemeyer we owe the use of chloride of sodium and gold in the

treatment of hysteria. He refers to the fact that Martini of Biberach
regarded this article as an efficient remedy against the various
diseases of the womb and ovaries. He believed that the
improvement effected upon Martini's patient was probably due to the
fact that this, like other metallic remedies, was an active nervine. He
prescribed the chloride of gold and sodium in the form of a pill in the
dose of one-eighth of a grain. Of these pills he at first ordered one to
be taken an hour after dinner, and another an hour after supper.
Later, he ordered two to be taken at these hours, and gradually the
dose was increased up to eight pills daily. I frequently use this salt
after the method of Niemeyer.
The treatment of hysteria which Mitchell has done so much to make
popular, that by seclusion, rest, massage, and electricity, is of value
in a large number of cases of grave hysteria; but the proper selection
of cases for this treatment is all important. Playfair121 says correctly
that if this method of treatment is indiscriminately employed, failure
and disappointment are certain to result. The most satisfactory
results are to be had in the thoroughly broken-down and bed-ridden
cases. “The worse the case is,” he says, “the more easy and certain
is the cure; and the only disappointments I have had have been in
dubious, half-and-half cases.”
121 The Systematic Treatment of Nerve-Prostration and Hysteria, by W. S. Playfair,
M.D., F. R. C. P., 1883.

Mitchell122 gives a succinct, practical description of the process of

massage: “An hour,” he says, “is chosen midway between two
meals, and, the patient lying in bed, the manipulator starts at the
feet, and gently but firmly pinches up the skin, rolling it lightly
between his fingers, and going carefully over the whole foot; then the
toes are bent and moved about in every direction; and next, with the
thumbs and fingers, the little muscles of the foot are kneaded and
pinched more largely, and the interosseous groups worked at with
the finger-tips between the bones. At last the whole tissues of the
foot are seized with both hands and somewhat firmly rolled about.
Next, the ankles are dealt with in the same fashion, all the crevices
between the articulating bones being sought out and kneaded, while
the joint is put in every possible position. The leg is next treated—
first by surface pinching and then by deeper grasping of the areolar
tissue, and last by industrious and deeper pinching of the large
muscular masses, which for this purpose are put in a position of the
utmost relaxation. The grasp of the muscles is momentary, and for
the large muscles of the calf and thigh both hands act, the one
contracting as the other loosens its grip. In treating the firm muscles
in front of the leg the fingers are made to roll the muscles under the
cushions of the finger-tips. At brief intervals the manipulator seizes
the limb in both hands and lightly runs the grasp upward, so as to
favor the flow of venous blood-currents, and then returns to the
kneading of the muscles. The same process is carried on in every
part of the body, and especial care is given to the muscles of the
loins and spine, while usually the face is not touched. The belly is
first treated by pinching the skin, then by deeply grasping and rolling
the muscular walls in the hands, and at last the whole belly is
kneaded with the heel of the hand in a succession of rapid, deep
movements, passing around in the direction of the colon.”
122 “Fat and Blood,” etc.

Massage should often be combined with the Swedish movement

cure. In the movement cure one object is to call out the suppressed
will of the patient. This is very applicable to cases of hysteria. The
cure of cases of this kind is often delayed by using massage alone,
which is absolutely passive. These movements are sometimes
spoken of as active and passive, or as single and duplicated. Active
movements are those more or less under the control of the individual
making or taking part in them, and they are performed under the
advice or direction, and sometimes with the assistance, of another.
They proceed from within; they are willed. Passive movements come
from without; they are performed on the patient and independently of
her will. She is subjected to pushings and pullings, to flexions and
extensions, to swingings and rotations, which she can neither help
nor hinder. The same movement may be active or passive according
to circumstances. A person's biceps may be exercised through the
will, against the will, or with reference to the will.

A single movement is one in which only a single individual is

engaged; speaking medically, single movements are those executed
by the patient under the direction of the physician or attendant; they
are, of course, active. Duplicated active movements require more
than one for their performance. In these the element of resistance
plays an important part. The operator with carefully-considered
exertion performs a movement which the patient is enjoined to resist,
or the latter undertakes a certain motion or series of motions which
the former, with measured force, resists. Still, tact and experience
are here of great value, in order that both direct effort and resistance
should be carefully regulated and properly modified to suit all the
requirements of the case. By changing the position of the patient or
the manner of operating on her from time to time any muscles or
groups of muscles may be brought into play. It is wonderful with what
ease even some of the smallest muscles can be exercised by an
expert manipulator.

The duplicated active movements are those which should be most

frequently performed or attempted in connection with massage in
hysterical patients. The very substance of this treatment is to call out
that which is wanting in hysteria—will-power. It is a coaxing,
insinuating treatment, and one which will enable the operator to gain
control of the patient in spite of herself. As the patient exerts her
power the operator should yield and allow the part to be moved.

Much of the value of massage and Swedish movements, in hysteria

as in other disorders, is self-evident. Acceleration of circulation,
increase of temperature, direct and reflex stimulation of nervous and
muscular action, the promotion of absorption by pressure,—these
and other results are readily understood. “The mode in which these
gymnastic proceedings exert an influence,” says Erb,123 “consists, no
doubt, in occasioning frequently-repeated voluntary excitations of the
nerves and muscles, so that the act of conduction to the muscles is
gradually rendered more facile, and ultimately the nutrition of the
nerves and muscles is augmented.”
123 Ziemssen's Cyclopædia.

The objects to be attained by the use of electricity are nearly the

same as from massage and duplicated active movements: in the first
place, to improve the circulation and the condition of the muscles;
and in the second place, to make the patient use the muscles. The
faradic battery should be employed in these cases, and the patient
should be in a relaxed condition, preferably in bed. A method of
electrical treatment introduced some years ago by Beard and
Rockwell is known as general faradization. This is sometimes used
in the office of the physician. In this method the patient is placed in a
chair with his feet on a large plate covered with chamois-skin; the