Book Description

I believe strictly recent insanity in very many cases, is radically curable under the prompt, persistent, and united use of medical and moral means. These, to be efficient, demand individualized application, i. e., that same immediate, close, and sharp personal service which the general practitioner necessarily gives to the early stages of typhus, diphtheria, cholera, etc. Individualized treatment is called for in insanity as imperatively as in the case of acute forms of other physical disease. The form of treatment is different according as the practitioner is hopefully working for a cure in an acute case, or as in some chronic case of long standing, he is simply administering palliation and general care. The first requires his personal and persistent attention, the second may be treated in a general way and may be committed to others. This power, essential to the largest success, is limited, as in all individual efforts, by number. Applicable to the few, it cannot be extended to the many. While here and there it may reach one in a crowd, the general result proves the limitation. I not only discuss the treatment of chronic insanity, but its prevention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved)