D. TREATMENT AND RESULTS OF SHELL-SHOCK.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Southard, Elmer Ernest
“E però leva su, vinci l’ambascia
con l’animo che vince ogni battaglia
se col suo grave corpo non s’accascia.
“Più lunga scala convien che si saglia:
non basta da costoro esser partito
se tu m’intendi, or fa sì che ti vaglia.”
“And therefore rise! conquer thy panting
with the soul, that conquers every battle,
if with its heavy body it sinks not down.
“A longer ladder must be climbed:
to have quitted these is not enough;
if thou understandest me, now act so that it may profit thee.”
Inferno, Canto XXIV, 52-57.
In previous sections we have already become acquainted with many therapeutic successes and failures: indeed it was almost necessary to detail treatment in certain cases to show the nature of the disease in hand or the correctness of a given diagnosis. In the present Section we approach the question more systematically.
After presenting a few examples of various spontaneous and non-medical recoveries, we bring into contrast the types of medical recovery that may be termed rapid (or miracle) cures and those that fall under the general head of reëducation. Admixed are cases of failure as well as of success: if it be remarked that the case method puts forward the best foot, it is probable that the same is true of almost any therapeutics as reported in early articles. As we go to press, trench reports indicate that at least one part of the profession is far more hopeful of successful psychotherapy even in the physiopathic group of disorders than their expounder, Babinski, could concede. The true statistical evaluation of the results must come years later.
Some neuropsychiatrists have been fond of saying that there is nothing new in Shell-shock, that specialists have long been familiar with the psychoneuroses, etc. Yet in the past, specialists have not learned overmuch about the true inwardness of the psychoneuroses. Even a casual inspection of the various therapeutic efforts here described shows how much novelty of observation and ingenuity of plan must eternally be shown in these ever-so-simple psychoneuroses!