KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

634

INSANITY

INSANITY

it denotes a clouding or weakening of the mind, not inconsistent with some measure of memory, reason, and judgment. But the term, in this sense, does not convey any very definite mean ing, since it may range from mere feeble-mind edness to almost the last stages of imbecility. State v. Jones, 50 N. H. 383, 9 Am. Rep. 242; Appeal of Dunham, 27 Conn. 205.— Recurrent insanity. Insanity which returns from time to time, hence equivalent to "lunacy" (see supra) in its common-law sense, as a mental disorder broken by lucid intervals. There is no presump tion that fitful and exceptional attacks of in sanity are continuous. Leache v. State, 22 Tex. App. 279, 3 S. W. 538, 58 Am. Rep. 638.— Moral insanity. A morbid perversion of the feelings, affections, or propensities, but without any illusions or derangement of the intellectual faculties; irresistible impulse or an incapacity to resist the prompting of the passions, though accompanied by the power of discerning the moral or immoral character of the act. Moral insanity is not admitted as a bar to civil or criminal responsibility for the patient's acts, un less there is also shown to be intellectual dis turbance, as manifested by insane delusions or the other recognized criteria of legal insanity. Leache v. State, 22 Tex. App. 279, 3 S. W. 539, 58 Am. Rep. 638; In re Forman's Will, 54 Barb. (N. Y.) 291; State v. Leehman, 2 S. D. 171, 49 N. W. 3. The term "emotional in sanity" or mania transitoria applies to the case of one in the possession of his ordinary reasoning faculties who allows his passions to convert him into a temporary maniac. Mutual L. Ins. Co. v. Terry, 15 Wall. 580, 583, 21 L. Ed. 236.— Psychonenrosis. Mental disease without recognizable anatomical lesion, and without evidence and history of preceding chron ic mental degeneration. Under this head come melancholia, mania, primary acute dementia, and mania hallucinatoria. Cent. Diet. "Neuro sis," in its broadest sense, may include any dis ease or disorder of the mind, and hence all the forms of insanity proper. But the term "psy choneurosis" is now employed by Freud and oth er European specialists to describe that class of exaggerated individual peculiarities or idiosyn crasies of thought towards special objects or topics which are absent from the perfectly nor mal mind, and which yet have so little influence upon the patient's conduct or his general modes of thought that they cannot properly be describ ed as "insanity" or as any form of "mania," especially because ordinarily unaccompanied by any kind of delusions. At most, they lie on the debatable border-land between sanity and in sanity. These idiosyncrasies or obsessions may arise from superstition, from a real incident in the patient's past history upon which he has brooded until it has assumed an unreal impor tance or significance, or from general neuras thenic conditions. Such, for example, are a ter rified shrinking from certain kinds of animals, unreasonable dread of being shut up in some enclosed place or of being alone in a crowd, excessive fear of being poisoned, groundless con viction of irredeemable sinfulness, and countless other prepossessions, which may range from mere weak-minded superstition to actual mono mania.— Katatonia. A form of insanity dis tinguished by periods of acute mania and melan cholia and especially by cataleptic states or con ditions ; the "insanity of rigidity." (Kahl baum.) A type of insanity characterized par ticularly by "stereotypism, an instinctive in clination to purposeless repetition of the same expressions of the will, and "negativism," a senseless resistance against every outward in fluence. (Kraepelin.)— Folie cirenlaire. The French name for circular insanity or maniacal depressive insanity.— General paralysis. De mentia paralytica or paresis. Amentia, dementia, and mania. The classification of insanity into these three types or forms, though once common, has of late given

way to a more scientific nomenclature, based* chiefly on the origin or cause of the disease tag the particular patient and its clinical history. - These terms, however, are still occasionally en- ; countered in medical jurisprudence, and thV names of some of their subdivisions are in con stant use. Amentia. A total lack of intelligence, rea* son, or mental capacity. Sometimes so used as to cover imbecility or dotage, or even as ap plicable to all forms of insanity; but properly restricted to a lack of mental capacity due to original defective organization of the brain (idiocy) or arrested cerebral development, at distinguished from the degeneration of intellec-' tual faculties which once were normal. Dementia. A form of insanity resulting' from degeneration or disorder of the brain (ideo pathic or traumatic, but not congenital) and characterized by general mental weakness and decrepitude, forgetfulness, loss of coherence, and total inability to reason, but not accompanied by delusions or uncontrollable impulses. Pyott v. Pyott, 90 111. App. 221; Hall v. Unger, 2 Abb. U. S. 510, Fed. Cas. No. 5,949; Dennett v. Dennett, 44 N. H. 531, 84 Am. Dec. 97; People v. Lake, 2 Parker, Cr. R. (N. Y.) 21& By some writers dementia is classed as a ter minal stage of various forms of insanity, and hence may follow mania, for example, as its final condition. Among the sub-divisions of de mentia should be noticed the following: Acvfte primary dementia is a form of temporary de mentia, though often extreme in its intensity, and occurring in young people or adolescents, accompanied by general physical debility or ex haustion and induced by conditions likely to produce that state, as malnutrition, overwork, dissipation, or too rapid growth. Dementia par ralytioa is a progressive form of insanity, be ginning with slight degeneration of the physical, intellectual, and moral powers, and leading to complete loss of mentality, or imbecility, with general paralysis. Also called paresis, paretic dementia, or cirrhosis of the brain, or (popular ly) "softening of the brain." Dementia prweox. A term applicable either to the early stages of dementia or to the dementia of adolescence, but more commonly applied to the latter. It is often (but not invariably) attributable to onan ism or self-abuse, and is characterized by men tal and moral stupidity, absence of any strong feeling of the impressions of life or interest in its events, blunting or obscuration of the moral sense, weakness of judgment, flightiness of thought, senseless laughter without mirth, auto matic obedience, and apathetic despondency. (Kraepelin.) Senile dementia Dementia occur ring in persons of advanced age, and character ized by slowness and weakness of the mental processes and general physical degeneration, verging on or passing into imbecility, indicat ing the breaking down of the mental powers in advance of bodily decay. Hiett v. Shull, 36 W. Va. 563, 15 S. E. 146; Pyott v. Pyott. 191 111. 280. 61 N. E. 88; McDaniel v. McCoy, 68 Mich. 332, 36 N. W. 84; Hamon v. Hamon, 180 Mo. 685, 79 S. W. 422. Toxic dementia. Weakness of mind or feeble cerebral activity, approaching imbecility, resulting from contin ued administration or use of slow poisons or of the mere active poisons in repeated small doses, as in cases of lead poisoning and in some cases of addiction to such drugs as opium or alcohol. Mania. That form of insanity in which the patient is subject to hallucinations and illusions, accompanied by a high state of general mental excitement, sometimes amounting to fury. See Hall v. Unger, 2 Abb. U. S. 510, 11 Fed. Cas. 261; People v. Lake, 2 Parker Cr. R. (N. Y.) 218; Smith v. Smith, 47 Miss. 211; In re Gannon's Will, 2 Misc. Rep. 329, 21 N. Y. Supp. 960. In the case first above cited, the following description is given by Justice Field: "Mania is that form of insanity where the men-