apparently affected indifference and superficiality about certain critical points so that this pseudo-self-control surprised me. But a few hours later I would be called to the ward because this very patient had fallen into a spell. It was then ascertained that the trend of the conversation subsequently attained an affect. The same thing can be seen in the origin of paranoid delusions (Bleuler). Janet[1] observed in his cases that at the time of the event which should have really acted as an excitant they remained calm, but after a latent period of a few hours or even days the corresponding affect manifested itself. I can confirm this observation of Janet. Baelz[2] observed on himself, during an earthquake, the manifestations which he calls "emotional paralysis."
The affective states without adequate ideational content which are so frequent in dementia præcox have likewise their analogies in hysteria. Let us for example recall the state of anxiety in obsessive neuroses! Here as a rule the ideation is so inadequate that even the patients recognize it by its logical instability and rate it as senseless, yet it seems to be the source of anxiety. That this is not so is shown by Freud, in a manner which until now has not been refuted and we can only confirm it. I recall the patient from Contribution VI of "Diagnost. Assoz.-Stud.," who had the obsession that she infected her minister and physician with her obsessive ideas. In spite of demonstrating to herself that this idea was totally unfounded and senseless, it did not cease to cause her intense anxiety. The frequent depressions in hysteria are in a great many cases referred by the patients to reasons which can only be predicated as concealing-reasons (Deckursachen). Really one deals with normal reflection and thought which is hidden in the repression. A young hysterical woman suffered from such a marked depression that at each answer she causelessly burst into tears. Her depression she obstinately and exclusively referred to a pain in her arm which she accidentally felt while at work. It was finally found that she had a love affair with a man who refused to marry her, which was the real cause of her constant vexation. Therefore before we state that the precocious dement is depressed for reasons
