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Ambulatory schiz
Ambulatory schiz
Ambulatory Schizophrenia
Gregory Zilboorg
To cite this article: Gregory Zilboorg (1941) Ambulatory Schizophrenia, Psychiatry, 4:2, 149-155,
DOI: 10.1080/00332747.1941.11022329
Article views: 2
While under the influence of Wundt ing this trend, Kraepelin overlooked al-
Kraepelin became interested almost ex- most entirely the intimate characteristics
clusively in the formal aspects of patho- of his patients' personalities; their specific
logical thinking. These offered him a individual histories and problems con-
reservoir of symptoms, but his primary cerned him only in so far as they were
interest always was the field of coherent similar to those of a given group of pa-
clinical pictures. In this search for well- tients. The total picture of man's psycho-
defined clinical pictures he was, strictly logical adaptation as a person seems to
speaking, not so much under the influence have escaped Kraepelin's attention.
of what the study of clinical psychiatry It may be fairly said that Kraepelin
offered directly as he was concerned with introduced the scientific principles of
the assumption that since psychiatry deals clinical investigation into psychiatry, but
with diseases it must follow the pattern it is not an exaggeration to add that in
of general medicine: like general medi- doing this he almost discarded the very
cine, it should have a set of distinct dis- object of the investigation: the individual
eases, definitely outlined, properly diag- psychology. It is a mistake to think, as so
nosed and correctly prognosed. In this many seem prone to do, that Kraepelin's
respect psychiatry developed not so much formulations marked a true revolution in
in accordance with the nature of its own psychiatry. As a matter of fact, Krae-
subject matter and its own clinical prob- pelin's contemporaries did not take kindly
lems, but more by imitation of the ex- to his definition of dementia prmcox.
ternal development of clinical medicine, Objections, criticism and incisive rejec-
which offered such a wealth and variety tions were heard from many authoritative
of diseases and disease groups. In follow- quarters. Shortly after Kraepelin's de-
• M.D. Psychoneurological Institute St. Petersburg Russia 17, M.D. College Phys. and Surg. Columbia
N.Y.C. 26; Physician Base Hosp. Russian Army 15-16; First Revolution Petrograd 17; Secy. to Ministry of
Labor Cabinets of Lvov and Kerensky 17; Newspaper Editor Kiev 17-18;U. S. 19, Naturalized 25; Lecturer
Journalism and Theater 19-26; Staff Bloomingdale Hosp. 26-31; Asst. Psychoanalytic Inst. Berlin 29-30; Private
Practice Psychiatry Psychoanalysis 31-; Secy. and Dir. Rsc. Comm. Study of Suicide; Noguchi Lecturer
History of Medicine Johns Hopkins 35; ViSiting Lecturer Psychoanalysis W.S.P. <lM-; Uomm. Hsc. Amer.
Psychiatric Assn. 34; Comm. Legal Aspect~ of Psychiatry; one-time Secy. N.Y. Psychoanalytic Soc.; one-time
Pres. N.Y. Soc. for Med. Hist.; F.A.M.A.; F.A.P.A.; F.A.O.A.; A.A.A.S.; M. N.Y. Med. Soc., Nat!. Comm. Mental
Hygiene, N.Y. Acad. Med., N.Y. Neurol. Soc., N.Y. Soc. elin. Psychiatry, Amer. and Internat. Psychoanal.
Assns., Assn. Rse. N. and M. Disease, Hist. Sci. Soc., Pan ArneI', Med, Assn., Amer. Assn. Hist. Med., Ami'll'.
EthnOl. Soc., etc.; Co-editor The Psychoanalytic Quarterly. .I!'or bibliography. see Reference Lists scction
of this issue.
t Read before The New York Neuro)oljir.al RociAt.y amI t.hp Spction of Npl1I'OJ0P.1' and Piychiatry of the
New York Academy of Medicine. 11 March 1941.
[149 ]
150 GREGORY ZILBOORG
scription of dementia prrecox, the Rus- personality of the patient in its inner
sian psychiatrist Serbsky trenchantly totality and content.
summed up the opposition by wondering There were three other innovators who
about those cases of dementia prrecox at this time began to be preoccupied with
which, according to Kraepelin himself, the problem of schizophrenia. These
recover or show an arrest of the disease, were, in the order of their age, Bleuler,
and which therefore do not end in de- Freud and Adolf Meyer. Whatever dif-
terioration-dementia. Are those cases, ferences the final formulations of these
argued Serbsky, to be considered de- men represent among themselves, Bleuler,
mentias without dementia? Freud and Meyer had one thing in com-
Nor did these objections appear only mon: they laid stress on the ideational
after Kraepelin's formulations. For many content rather than on the external char-
years there have been voices in psychiatry acteristics of patients. Meyer, following
calling upon the clinician not to overlook consistently the study of the psycho-
the man behind the disease. There have biological adaptation of man, came to the
been psychiatrists who have insisted that conclusion that schizophrenia is not an
a mentally sick patient is first of all a organic disease, but a complex form of
person who flounders-as a result of a adaptation; Bleuler clung to the last to
disease, and not merely because a disease his conviction that schizophrenia is an
happens to strike him. In the last quarter organic brain disease; and Freud, while
of the nineteenth century Schiile said, standing closer to Meyer's point of view,
"We deal not only with sick brains but did not fully reject the possibility of the
with sick individuals." A number of years organic causation of dementia prrecox.
before, in 1817, a French doctor, Fodere, From the standpoint of scientific orien-
had stated, "When one has seen a number tation, however, Bleuler and Freud are
of mentally sick persons; one can recog- much closer together than Meyer and
nize that there are as many differences Freud. Strangely enough, both chose as
among them as there are characters their point of departure the same aspect
among individuals whose minds are of psychology as Kraepelin: the associ-
healthy. Any attempt at a minute dif- ativistic psychology of Wundt. Unlike
ferentiation of mental diseases as such is Kraepelin, however, both actually concen-
useless. Hence, it is truly difficult to trated on the study of the associative
create classes of mental diseases which characteristics of schizophrenic thinking
will not prove fictitious." And a short and on its relationships to the affective
time before Kraepelin, Heinrich Neumann life of the patient. Thus escaping Krae-
had despairingly said, "We shall never pelin's mistake, they came to the conclu-
succeed in making a true forward step in sion that the schizophrenic actually feels,
psychiatry until we all definitely decide that his affects are not gone, that his
to throw overboard the whole business of delusions and hallucinations are actual
classification." Despite this suspicion in products of affective reactions and that
relation to classifications, the classifica- the apparent absence of affect is only ap-
tory trend prevailed in Kraepelin's work. parent, and that even clinically the affect
Since the validity of scientific matters may come out in full force and in accor-
cannot and should not be established by dance with all its essential characteristics.
a majority vote, it is permissible to state Both rejected or failed to accept the
that Kraepelin's success and popularity. Kraepelinian dictum that dementia prre-
particularly in this country, may not be cox is incurable, and both refused to con-
taken as the measure of his scientific sider the diagnosis of dementia prmcox
achievement. Kraepelin's formalism, con- as indicated only in those cases which
centrating on the description of external displayed a certain type of delusions,
intellectual deviations and of failures in auditory hallucinations and possible signs
standardized social behavior, threatened of deteriorations. Cases of this type they
to eliminate the very foundation of clini- considered advanced cases.
cal psychiatry: the understanding of the The less advanced Cnsel'l have heen
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES 151
noted, but not seriously considered. When would ,not be difficult, for instance, to
of recent years such cases engaged the recognize a schizophrenia in certain cases
attention of the clinician, they were of alcoholic hallucinoses, which ordinarily
usually approached with the euphemistic one may be inclined to consider as belong-
labels of borderline cases, incipient schizo- ing to organic deliria. BIeuler himself,
phrenias, schizoid personalities, mixed despite his well-known inclination to see
manic-depressive psychoses, schizoid the source of all, or almost all, evil in
manics or psychopathic personalities. alcohol, suggested that schizophrenia
Such an attitude is untenable either logi- should not be excluded in certain seem-
cally or clinically; nor is it in the best ingly purely alcoholic hallucinoses. Nor
tradition of clinical medicine, the level of would it be difficult to discern a schizo-
which psychiatry has always striven to phrenia under whatever guise we choose
achieve. In medicine we do not refuse to to consider a pathological phenomenon to
make the diagnosis of pulmonary tubercu- appear: a compulsion neurosis, a border-
losis merely because the tubercular pro- line case, an "incipient" schizophrenia or
cess has not yet caused a cavity formation even a hysteria. "Even a hysteria" is said
or hemorrhage. We do not refuse to make with a degree of emphasis, for it is well
a diagnosis of appendicitis merely because known that the differentiation between
the appendix has not ruptured and no hysteria and schizophrenia is at times
peritonitis has as yet set in. Nor do we highly difficult. It was this difficulty
fail to recognize a pneumonia even though which apparently caused Charcot to fail
the process of hepatization is not yet in I to take into consideration the contribu-
evidence. The unspoken but practiced tions of Hecker and Kahlbaum. One must
tradition of psychiatry, however, seems admit that Kraepelin did not prove much
to insist that only the terminal or pre- more responsive, since he did not give
terminal stages of dementia prrecox de- Kahlbaum's catatonia any recognition un-
serve the diagnosis. It is obvious that til a few years after he formulated his
this tradition is clinically unjustified and concept of dementia prrecox, although
scientifically misleading, disregarding as Kahlbaum had differentiated catatonia
it does the far-reaching and illuminating twenty years earlier.
studies of schizophrenia by Bleuler and In order to obtain the necessary per-
Freud. Anyone who does consider these spective in the process of differentiating
studies from the standpoint of what new schizophrenia from other psychopatho-
contents they reveal in schizophrenias, logical states, we must consider the ide-
rather than from the standpoint of ter- ational content and its emotional rationale
minological innovations, will at once ap- as did Bleuler and later Freud.
preciate that schizophrenia is not de-
mentia prrecox and that schizophrenia is It is outside the scope of this paper to
a generic name covering a certain type of go into detailed considerations of differ-
psychopathological processes. That these ential diagnoses, and one must of neces-
psychopathological processes should pre- sity limit one's self to giving but a brief
sent themselves in various degrees of in- outline of the outstanding features of
tensity, various stages of development- schizophrenia. It must be repeated that
from the earliest to most advanced forms such flagrant symptoms as ideas of refer-
-and in various degrees of overtness of ence, delusional formations, auditory hal-
clinical manifestations, should be self- lucinations, flatness or dullness of affect,
understood. We may then speak of schizo- are not considered here. These belong to
phrenias in the plural and be so clear in the clinical picture of well-advanced
this respect that a confusion of this psy- schizophrenias; they are pathognomonic,
chopathological process with any other to be sure, but they are terminal phe-
will be avoicien, nomena and therefore give little mure
It would not then be difficuH to differ- ill::lighl than thp. knowledge ot a psychi-
entiate it from any other process, even in atric classificatory label. Also, these ter-
the presence of organic complications. It minal phenomena give one such a sense
152 GREGORY ZILBOORG
of finality that they only add to our thera- word and not the fact with all the affec-
peutic pessimism and impotence. tive values which objects usually have for
Stated briefly, the psychological picture us. The schizophrenic may become very
of a schizophrenia may not present any emotional and solemn, even morally en-
striking appearance at all. The individual thused, about something which would
may appear normal in all respects, even revolt a non-schizophrenic-normal, or
suave and almost worldly; he may some- neurotic.
times give the impression of a warm per- There are striking examples. When
sonality. On occasions, admittedly rare, Fiorenza, the murderer of Mrs. Titterton,
he may even have a position and keep it, was asked why he killed her, he replied
doing not very well and not very badly, rather coolly that he did it because he
but keeping it. Intellectually he may not had fallen in love with her. The actual
appear brilliant, but he will be adequate, concept of love excludes hostility and
almost always with a cultural bent. He murder and connotes tenderness, but
thinks more than he talks, and a tendency when the primitive sexual impulse is at-
to be taciturn is most frequent-a ten- tached to the word itself, when it is the
dency often mistaken for a depressive word which carries the emotional, instinc-
state. This tendency should not be over- tive energy, there is no connotation of
looked. It is the first sign of autistic con- tenderness, warmth, romance, or any of
templation, or, as Bleuler preferred to the other affective, conceptual elabora-
term it later, de-reistic thinking, the out- tions of men. There is only the word
standing feature of any schizophrenia. "love," meaning only the word and carry-
It must be carefully noted that autistic ing with it only the primitive impulse.
thinking is not day-dreaming, although Hence there appears a certain emotional
day-dreaming is one of its variants. flatness, as if the emotions are lacking,
Autistic thinking is a special kind of men- or frozen.
tation, which while well described by Fish, the sixty-year-old murderer of the
Bleuler was not fully understood by him; little nine-year-old girl whom he abducted
he tried to gain a clearer insight into it from her parental home and dismembered
by attempting to consider the relative with butcher's tools, was later appre-
hereditary characteristics of syntomic and hended and executed. He was appre-
schizoid traits. Bleuler was nearer to an hended as a result of a letter he wrote to
intuitive grasp of autism when he ex- the girl's mother six years after her little
pressed his preference for the term "de- daughter's disappearance, in which he
reistic," the thinking away from things. told her that the girl was killed and that
Schizophrenic thought is really no he derived a great deal of satisfaction
thought at all in so far as every thought from the fact that she died a virgin. The
is related to some object. Without think- word "virgin" was all that was apparently
ing of objects we do not think. Even the important to Fish. That he stood before
most obscure abstract thinking is related that girl in the nude and had an orgasm,
to things which we group into concepts. and that he killed her and dismembered
Pathological abstract thinking, when it is her, appeared to him a phenomenon apart,
not schizophrenic, is a conceptual think- not related to his own life, or to the victim,
ing, as in compulsion neurotics. The in- or to her parents. Hence there is an
terest of the schizophrenic is concentrated almost sanctimonious, an unctuous, yet
on the word itself and it is the word that cool, almost affectless emphasis on the fact
he endows with all the qualities which the that the girl died a virgin-as if the label
so-called normal person sees mostly in "virgin" saved the whole situation.
things, and which the compulsion neurotic Both examples happen to be taken from
is apt to see mostly in concepts. As a the records of murderers, but the schizo-
result, the schizophrenic is apt to appear phrenic in point is not always a murderer.
bizarre to us, for since the word he uses He may be an office clerk, or a physician.
becomes the most important link and the He can and does do a job of work, seem-
substance of his thinking, he endows the ingly weIland without untowardcompli-
FEATURES OF SCHIZOPHRENIA 153
nal assault on the child or in his coming years have elapsed after the completion
to his death in the electric chair. Similar or interruption of the treatment.
behavior characterized Fiorenza until the Suffice it here to say that the shallow-
very last moment; he did not seem even ness of affect so conspicuous in the ex-
puzzled. Nor was Fish. While in the ternal aspects of the clinical picture
death house, Volkman and Fish, and should not be mistaken either for the
probably Fiorenza, showed their emo- absence of affect or for some special
tional attitude toward their crime and mysterious disturbance of what is called
forthcoming execution in an excessive, the "emotional sphere." In actuality,
seemingly endless masturbation, almost when the patient is viewed from within,
within the view of the prison guards. This rather than from without as the Kraepe-
is a typically schizophrenic reaction in linian tradition unfortunately requires,
which the instinctual impulse, primarily the emotional sphere appears in a dif-
sexual, acts as a safety valve for anxiety, ferent light. The emotion appears lacking
as "pure" sensation without the affective in the schizophrenic only because that
and intellectual elaborations within the part of his personality which deals with
total personality of a civilized man- external realities of life and which is
which are recognized as love, actual or known under the technical name of Ego
fantasied. plays a minor role in his life, particularly
References to this criminal, murderous if he is an ambulatory schizophrenic. It
type are made here because of the rather acts more as a perceptive registering ap-
intimate knowledge of them gained paratus. It registers whatever happens
through the study of certain records automatically, and it does not seem inte-
which were made available by Governor grated with his affective, instinctual life.
Lehman for the purposes of psychiatric Hence realities are not facts, but words.
research. But this does not mean that the His real thinking becomes mere feeling,
majority of these ambulatory schizo- pure apperception. Consequently the
phrenics are capital criminals. Some of schizophrenic is de-reistic and his im-
them are quiet, unobtrusive, ineffective pulses are primitive, direct, unintegrated.
people, who look "for a place in life" and The problem, theoretical and practical,
who seem to be chronic failures whenever is that of affective re-integration, which
they undertake to do something, or before is the major task of therapy in such cases.
they undertake to do anything. Some of This was touched upon some time ago in
them reach even a point where they par- my report on "Affective Reintegration in
tially soil themselves, while on the ana- the Schizophrenias." 1 Such integration
lytical couch or while walking in the bids fair to be quite successful in ambula-
street. The psychoanalyst, who through tory schizophrenias, although it is labori-
the very nature of the psychoanalytic ous and prolonged. Unfortunately, as has
been already stated, the present status of
therapy cannot miss such phenomena, is
our medico-legal prejudices and cultural
the only one who knows of such things, misconceptions keeps these schizophren-
and it is very striking to observe the ics from the psychiatrist, and unless they
indifference, the almost unembarrassed reach the electric chair, they play the role
serenity, with which these patients relate of a psychopathic ballast in their sur-
or face their behavior of this type. roundings-without benefit of or to psy-
A detailed report of individual cases of chiatric knowledge, and without service
this order must await some future oppor- to the community.
tunity. The intimate quality of the gen-
NEW YORK CITY.
eral psychotherapy of psychoanalysis of
such persons precludes the possibility 1 Zilboorg, Gregory, Affective Reintegration in the
Schizophrenias. Archi'll. Neurol. and Psychiat.
of reporting many details until several (1930) 24:335-347.