9. Distinction Between Objective Psychic Attack And Subjective Psychic Disturbance-d

The complaints of occult attack may have their source in nothing more or less than the delusions of the insane, and it does not necessarily invalidate this fact that a second person can be found to give supporting evidence. There is a curious form of insanity known to alienists called folie des deux, in which two people intimately associated together share the same delusions. It is usually found in such cases that one is definitely insane, and that the other is of a hysterical type and has become imbued with the delusions of her associate by means of suggestion. I use the feminine pronoun because this form of insanity is rare with males. It usually occurs with two sisters, or with two women living together. There is another pitfall for which the inexperienced do well to watch out in their dealings with the person who complains of an occult attack. Insanity may be periodic in its manifestation, outbreaks of acute mania alternating with periods of complete sanity. This periodic aspect should always be watched for in the case of women, in whom any temperamental instability becomes greatly exaggerated during the times of the monthly periods, at the change of life, during pregnancy, and, in fact, at any period when the sex life is stirred to activity, whether emotionally or physically. It is also well to bear in mind that in pathological cases the periodicity of a woman’s function may be greatly disturbed. I had a sharp lesson in this respect upon one occasion, which exemplifies the need of caution. We had, at the introduction of one of our members, received into one of our community houses a woman whose husband, a well-known man in public life, refused to live with her, so I was told, and had made several attempts to do away with her, and threatened to have her certified insane if she in any way resisted him. These facts were vouched for by a circle of friends to whom both husband and wife were known. I kept this lady under observation for a month in order to see whether there was anything to justify the charge of insanity, and seeing nothing, took up her case, At the seventh week, however, trouble ensued. She got into a great state of excitement, declared that she was being starved, and ill-treated by the person who, in my absence, was responsible for the house. Seven weeks later we had another bout, in which she said that evil influences were proceeding from a certain cupboard in her room, wandered about the house in exceedingly inadequate apparel, and lost all self-control. This attack also passed off in a few days. It came out in the end that she suffered from chronic appendicitis which involved the right ovary, and whenever her exceedingly irregular menstruation occurred, she went right off her head for a few days. The position was greatly complicated by the fact that in the interregnum she was to all outward appearances perfectly sane. After she left our community house she told exactly the same stories about us that she had previously been telling about her husband. The out-and-out lunatic is a much less serious problem to society than these border line cases. They need dealing with extremely cautiously, for they can cause an immense amount of trouble. When an insanity has once become well developed anyone who has had experience of lunatics has little difficulty in recognising it. Each type of insanity has its characteristic facial expression and even gait. But it is not so simple a matter for even the expert to recognise an insanity in its incipient stages. Lunatics are exceedingly plausible, and if they have picked up something of the jargon of the occultist or spiritualist, can make out an extraordinarily good case for themselves. Even the experienced alienist often has to keep a case under observation in order to ascertain whether it is an actual insanity or not. In a field where experts are frequently in doubt, what is the layman to do who finds himself confronted by a case which rouses his suspicions?