tion types always pointed to a disturbance of attention. According to our experimental proofs Pelletier is right when she refers to the shallow types of dementia præcox as the result of lowered attention. She calls this diminution by the words of Janet, "abaissement du niveau mental." From this work, too, it can be seen that the disturbance is again taken back to the central problem of apperception.
It is to be noted that the author overlooks the perseverations, but on the other hand we are grateful to her for the valuable observation on symbolism and symbolic relations so very frequent in dementia præcox. She says : "It is to be remarked that the symbol plays a very great part in the discursions of the insane. It is encountered everywhere among the persecuted and weak-minded. It is a very inferior form of thought. The symbol couid be defined as a false perception of a relation of identity or very marked analogy between two objects which in reality present only a very vague analogy."[1]
This quotation shows that Pelletier brings the catatonic symbols into relation with disordered attention. This supposition is decidedly supported by the fact that the symbol has since long been known as a usual manifestation in revery and dreams.
The psychology of negativism, concerning which numerous publications already exist, forms a separate chapter. The symptom of negativism certainly ought not to be considered as something definite. There are many forms and grades of negativism which have not as yet been clinically studied and analyzed with the necessary accuracy. The division of negativism into active and passive forms can be easily understood. The most complicated psychological cases appear under the form of active resistance. If an analysis were possible in those cases, it would frequently be found that very definite motives exist for the resistance, and it would then be doubtful if one could still talk of negativism. In the passive form, too, there are many cases which are difficult to interpret. Notwithstanding this there are numerous cases in which one may clearly point out that even simple processes of volition are always blindly converted into their opposite. According to our view negativism always ultimately depends on corresponding associations. Whether there
- ↑ Pelletier : l. c., p. 129.
