Page:Jung - The psychology of dementia praecox.djvu/151

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
PARANOID DEMENTIA AS A PARADIGM.
127

ment notes—in this the distress is affirmed—this is a right system—crutches—dust development—need immediate help.

Here we have the reverse of the medal. Just as on the one side the fancies lead automatically to every splendor, so on the other side we meet with all possible malicious persecution and suffering. It is for this reason that patient requests an indemnity which she expresses by "I belong to payment," which is synonymous with "the payment belongs to me." In consequence of her distress (Not) she claims bank notes (we shall refer to this pun later). Her complaints are of the physical injuries which are common to paranoid states. What the psychological root of the sufferings described may be I am unable to say.

2. Hieroglyphical (stereotype: "I suffer hieroglyphical"): Just now I suffer hieroglyphical. Mary (nurse) said that I should remain today in the other ward, Ida (nurse) said that she could not even do the patching, it was only due to my kindness that I did the patching—I am in my house and the others live with me—I affirm the asylum sixfold, not that I am capricious to remain here, I was forced to remain here—in the church yard I also affirmed the house—fourteen years I was confined so that my breath could nowhere come out—that is suffered hieroglyphically—this is the highest suffering—that not even the breath could come out—yet I affirm everything—and I don't even belong to a little chamber—that is suffering hieroglyphically—through speaking trumpets which are directed outward.

From this analysis, which was interrupted by an intermezzo with nurses, we are unable to see what she means by "hieroglyphical," though she illustrates by examples. During another analysis of this neologism she says "I suffer in an unknown manner that is hieroglyphical." This explanation is quite sensible. Hieroglyphics for the uneducated is the proverbial example for the incomprehensible. Patient does not understand why and to what end she suffers. It is a hieroglyphical suffering. To be confined for fourteen years so that "not even the breath could come out" seems nothing but a very exaggerated apostrophizing of her being forced to remain in the asylum. The suffering through "speaking trumpets which are directed outwards" seems to refer to the voices from the "telephone." Another interpretation may also be possible.