Madeleine Pelletier[1] examines in her thesis associations in manic flight of ideas, and in mental debility. By mental debility we understand typical cases of dementia præcox. The theoretic standpoint from which this author considers flight of ideas agrees in its essentials with that of Liepmann.[2] A knowledge of Liepmann's work is presupposed.
Pelletier compares the shallow flow of associations in dementia præcox to the flight of ideas. The characteristic of flight of ideas is "absence du principe directeur" (absence of directing principle). The same takes place in the course of the associations in dementia præcox. "The directing idea is absent and the state of consciousness remains vague without any ordering of its elements." The only state of normal psychic activity which can be compared to mania is revery, yet revery may rather be a weak-minded than a maniacal mode of thinking. Pelletier is right in finding a great similarity between normal revery and the shallow associations of maniacs, but only when the associations ire written on paper. Clinically the manic does not by any means look like a dreamer. The author evidently feels this and finds the analogy rather more fitting for dementia præcox, which condition has been compared to that of dreams since the times of Reil (e. g., Chaslin: "La confusion mentale primitive"). The richness and acceleration of presentations in manic flight of ideas differentiates it sharply from the very stagnant slowly-coursing association type of dreams and especially from the poverty and numberless perseverations in the associations of catatonics. The analogy is correct only in so far as concerns the directing idea which is absent in both of these cases; in mania because all presentations crowd themselves into consciousness with marked acceleration and with strong feeling tones,[3] there-
- ↑ L'Association des idées dans la manie aiguë et dans la débilité mentale. Thèse de Paris, 1903.
- ↑ Liepmann: Über Ideenflucht, Begriffsbestimmung u. psychologische Analyse. Halle, 1904.
- ↑ It is true that Aschaffenburg found a certain prolongation of the association time in manic cases. It should, however, not be forgotten that in acoustic-speech experiments attention and speech expression play a great rôle. One observes or measures expression of speech only, and not connections of ideas.
