You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
In this paper attention is restricted to the psychological effect of sleep and convulsion treatment of functional psychoses. The physiological aspect of such treatment is omitted.
During sleep treatment the patients are more affectionate, erotic, and interested in the world of objects; more active, more accessible and consequently more tractable and sociable. The case report of a schizophrenic patient is given and the prolonged narcosis of this person with strong defenses against instinctual, particularly oral desires led to an alternation between oral object mutilation and depressive ego destruction on the one hand, and manic submersion of the superego and the ego with atonement and gratification of primitive desires on the other.
The effect of sleep treatment is milder than that of shock-treatment which leaves in the patient a memory of helpless surrender to the point of annihilation. Almost all patients experience it as a threat against life. The author asks the question: what distinguishes epileptic regression from the neurotic