JEWISH PSYCHOPATHOLOGY 



267 



I am not here concerned with any of those characteristics except the 

 psychopathic ones. If they are endowed with exceptionally great 

 mental gifts, it is beyond the scope of this paper to consider them. 

 What I now propose to show is that they suffer from constitutional 

 mental inferiorities, or psychopathic tendencies to a degree entirely out 

 of proportion to the occurrence of such infirmities among the general 

 population. First we will consider our own country. As fully two 

 thirds of the Jews in the United States are in New York, it will be 

 unnecessary to go out of that state to procure the evidence. In the 

 year ending September 30, 1909, out of a total of 5,222 admissions to 

 all the New York State hospitals for the insane, 488 were Jews. 8 

 While these statistics do not show the total number of Jews insane 

 from all causes to be greatly in excess of the ratio which they bear to 

 the general population, they plainly indicate that they do not fall below 

 the general average, and when we come to analyze them in detail we 

 find that they show a disproportionate number of cases due to consti- 

 tutional mental inferiority. Taking those insanity groups which in 

 all classifications are universally admitted to be due to bad heredity, 

 the total number among the non-Jews was 2,297 or 48 per cent, of 

 the total number of non- Jewish admissions. On the other hand, 65 per 

 cent, of the Jewish insane belonged to the constitutionally inferior 

 groups. 9 



Table of Admissions to the Manhattan State Hospital fob the Insane 

 Classified by Eace and Nature of Psychosis for the 

 Year ending September 30, 1908 u 



Psychoses 



Senile psychoses 



General paresis 



Alcoholic psychoses 



( Dementia prsecox) 



(Manic-depressive insanity). 

 Epileptic psychoses . 



Other psychoses | 22.58 



Total number of each race 



Negro 



9.80 

 29.41 



7.82 

 13.72 



9.80 



3.92 

 25.53 



51 



The practical freedom of this race from the alcoholic psychoses is 

 a matter of common knowledge. Now alcohol was responsible for 

 over ten per cent, of the insanities admitted to the New York state 

 hospitals for the year ending September 30, 1909. But the Jews ad- 

 mitted for alcoholic psychoses for the same period constituted less 



8 Twenty-first Annual Report of the State Commission in Lunacy, Statistics 

 of the Insane, tables 4 and 14. 



8 These percentages are deduced from tables 4 and 14, Statistics of the 

 Insane, State of New York, 1908-09. 



11 De Fursac and Eosanoff , quoting Dr. Kirby in ' ' Manual of Psychiatry, ' ' 

 p. 6. 



