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This is a preliminary report of a comparative study of nonpsychotic stutterers, psychotic stutterers and psychotics who were formerly stutterers. Five brief case histories are presented. Pitrelli concludes that stuttering is symptomatic of a character neurosis having genogenic, morphogenic, neurogenic, chemogenic, psychogenic, and socio-environmental etiological factors. Among these is the epileptic complex. Psychogenic factors include at one and the same time oralerotic, anal-erotic, homoerotic, phallic, and Oedipal components. The stuttering constitutes a defense against repressed instinctual urges and when the symptom is removed by hypnotism, pentothal or other equally abrupt interference without adequate psycotherapy, it may be replaced by another symptom, panic or psychosis. Rorschach findings reveal an increase in introversion, a decrease in dominance, sociability and confidence.
The theoretical implications advanced are much too broad for the few cases cited and the limited dynamics unearthed. There is no clue as to the relative importance of the multiple etiological agents claimed nor of the symbolic significance of the organ compliance involved.