process taking years. The following examples will show what I mean.
A catatonic sang persistently for hours a religious song with the refrain "Hallelujah." Then she began to verbigerate for hours "Hallelujah," which gradually degenerated into "hallo," "oha," and finally she verbigerated "ha—ha—ha" accompanied by convulsive laughter.
In the year 1900 a patient combed his head a few hours every day in a stereotyped manner, so as to remove the "gypsum" which "was smeared into the hair" during the night. The following year he gradually stopped using the comb on his head. In 1903 the patient beat and scraped his chest with it, and at present he has reached the inguinal region.
In quite a similar manner the voices and delusions degenerate.[1] In a like manner the "word-salad" originates. The original simple sentences become more and more complicated with neologisms, they are constantly loudly or quietly verbigerated and gradually become blurred, so that an unintelligible medley results which probably sounds similar to the "stupid chattering" with which many patients are affected.
A patient under my observation during convalescence from acute dementia præcox begins quietly to relate to herself how she packs her trunk, goes from the ward to the asylum gate, then to the street, and then to the railroad station; how she gets into the train and reaches her home, where her wedding is solemnized, etc. This story became more and more stereotyped, the individual halting places became mixed without any order, the sentences became imperfect, some were abbreviated to a single catch-word, and now after more than a year the patient only occasionally uses a catch-word; all other words she has replaced by "hm—hm—hm—" which she utters in a stereotyped manner with the same tone and rhythm as when she formerly told her story. At times when she becomes excited the former sentences reappear. We also know from hallucinatory patients that the voices in time become emptier and quieter, but when they become excited the voices regain in content and distinctness.
- ↑ Compare especially Schreber: Denkwürdigkeiten. Schreber describes very well how the contents of the auditory hallucinations become grammatically abbreviated.
