The Perpetual Motion Machine: A schizophrenic contribution to folklore

Physicists have long since relegated to the limbo of crackpot ideas the so-called perpetual motion machine. Taking their stand on the principles of the conservation of energy and the universal existence of friction, they have characterized the idea of any such invention as belonging in the realm of the insane. In this diagnosis they have undoubtedly been justified, as the present case well shows, but, as it also reveals, the psychopathologist at times finds it profitable to begin where the physicist quite naturally leaves off.

The patient here in question has the diagnosis of hebephrenic schizophrenia with paranoid coloring. His perpetual motion machine, which is, mechanically speaking, senseless and which he himself sometimes treats with a hint of facetiousness, is a prominent part of a loosely organized set of queer ideas. Unlike those strictly paranoid psychotics who consider themselves victimized by alien machines, the machine with which he is concerned is his own friendly creation. The purpose of the present contribution is to examine the special significance which it has for him psychodynamically and, more particularly, psychosexually. The interpretive method employed attempts to follow and interrelate the patient's own associations.

D. J. was admitted to the State Hospital* on November 7, 1921 at the age of sixteen. Just previous to admission he attended a trade school for six months—an experience that perhaps helped to formulate his symptoms. About a month before commitment he wrote a letter to Edison about his new mechanical ideas, but finally decided not to mail it. A similar letter was, however, sent to Henry Ford. He also journeyed to Detroit in the interest of his discoveries though he stayed there for only one day. When asked why he had been sent to the hospital, he explained that people thought his invention might turn him into a millionaire and this possiblity made them “nervous.”