Psychosomatic Aspect of Stuttering: B. C. Meyer. J. of Nerv. and Ment. Disease, CI, 1945, pp. 127–157.

This study is based on the physical and psychological examinations of a hundred stutterers. Meyer maintains the thesis that stuttering is a symptom based on chronic anxiety. The choice of the symptom may be partly determined by imitation. The distribution of stuttering in families does not indicate a clearcut hereditary pattern. No neurological or other physical deviations from the norm are consistently combined with stuttering, but marked emotional tension, nail-biting, bed-wetting and nightmares are frequently associated with it. The onset of the stutter is usually linked with a period of expanding verbalization and usually occurs after a period of undisturbed speech. Very frequently the stutterer and his family links the onset of the stutter with an experience of fright or intimidation. A symptomatic cure of a stutter has occasionally coincided with the outbreak of a psychosis, a fact which may throw some light on the defensive purpose of the stutter. The speech deficiency frequently disappears during the time that the stutterer expresses justified indignation. Meyer summarizes his 'dynamic' concept of the stutter, without further discussion of the psychoanalytic literature, 'as the result of an emotional conflict, the conscious wish to express oneself and the unconscious inhibition of speech'.