748 ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY 



connection with his intellectual operations he has feelings of diffi- 

 culty, of insufficiency, of instability, of imperfect perception, of 

 gloom, of strangeness, of jamais-vu, of mal-orientation, of isola- 

 tion, of mal-recognition, of d&jh-vu, of presentment, of unreality, of 

 dreaming, of the lapse of time, of lack of intelligence, of obscurity, 

 of doubt. In connection with his emotions there occur feelings of 

 indifference, of weariness, of anxiety, of ambition, of need of excite- 

 ment. In connection with his personality, one may note feelings 

 of self-estrangement, of double personality, of depersonalization, of 

 death, etc. 



These feelings are far from being fictitious; they are based upon 

 a real depression of the physiological and psychological functions. 

 It is possible to establish real disorders of will which are manifested 

 in indolence, irresolution, slowness, enfeebled effort, fatigue, failure 

 of achievement, absence of resistance, misoneism, social aboulia 

 with insurmountable timidity, professional aboulias and inertias 

 of all sorts. One may establish disorders of intelligence which are 

 manifested in amnesias, doubts, arrests of instruction, unintelli- 

 gibility of perceptions, inattention, reveries, and veritable eclipses of 

 mind. In connection with the emotions one may note indifference, 

 melancholy, need of loving and of being loved, fear of isolation, 

 and a return to childhood. 



It is quite probable that depression phenomena similar to those 

 just discussed, and that feelings of imperfection similar to those just 

 summarized, are fundamental to many of the deliriums. In the 

 delirium of persecution there are many phenomena of this sort, 

 along with disturbances which are vaguely designated disorders 

 of the general sensibility, and which characterize the first period of 

 inquietude. 



If these symptoms of depression the motor retardation, the 

 difficulty of apprehension and of association become aggra- 

 vated, one finds various forms of melancholia, whose interpre- 

 tation constitutes an important problem of pathological psycho- 

 logy. Indeed, it is the chief problem as Kraepelin and his pupils 

 have pointed out. Certain of these depressions are definitive and 

 irreparable; they terminate more or less rapidly in one or other 

 of the forms of dementia. Other depressions are transitory and 

 curable. Is it possible to distinguish them from the outset? That 

 is, at the present time, one of the most important practical pro- 

 blems. 



It is a remarkable fact that almost all of the depressions which 

 we have discussed - hysteria, psych asthenia, as well as melan- 

 cholia may, under certain circumstances, disappear or change 

 into the opposite condition. We may designate this change as an 



