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On account of uncertainty in the psychiatric diagnosis of amentia, the absence of the recognized exogenous etiological factors in the three cases described, and the differences in them, Dr. Almásy prefers to call them 'amentia-like'. An editorial note emphasises still further the nosological uncertainty both of the disease types and of the conclusions arrived at in a paper originally published in Hungarian as part of a tribute to Ferenczi.
The first case is that of a man of fifty who was arrested for giving away bank notes to passers-by and forcing them on those who refused. In his short exploratory analysis, significant memories began gradually to fill the blank which the incident had left in the man's mind, and these together with his account of his previous life gave considerable understanding of the determinants of his action, even though absence of infantile material left its deeper sources untouched. After heavy misfortunes and serious over-work in order to earn money, the man was about to repay a bank loan and also to compensate a hard and merciless estate agent, whom he