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Emotional fugue in a subnormal subject.

Case 43. (Briand, February, 1915.)

A soldier in the Territorial Army, 40, appeared before the examining board in a depressed, dejected-looking state, speaking slowly but collectedly and lucidly. Mobilized the second day, this man was much afraid that he could not get through the marches, and asked for a special examination to determine whether his feet did not make him unsuitable for fatigue. Two physicians thought he was unsuitable for marching, and another thought he put it on. A trial march was not executed well. He was kept in barracks but jumped the wall, put on civilian clothes, and made off for Paris. But a relative, warned by his wife, finally got him to go to the authorities. He was told that he ought to return in the afternoon, when suddenly he was arrested.

It seems that the man relied on the opinion of the two physicians and discounted that of the third. He thought himself the victim of an injustice, and not knowing how to get on, it occurred to him that he would abandon the regiment and get out of the difficulty. It was without resistance, however, that he gave himself up as a prisoner. This fugue was neither unconscious nor amnestic, nor was it due to an irresistible impulse; nor can we say that it was due to a genuine intellectual disorder. It was an emotional fugue, and partly due to the man’s long-standing depression. It seems that he had inherited this character from his father. He was below normal intelligence, had a very poor education, lost his wife, and grew more and more sombre. He married again, but this time a neuropath. He began to be preoccupied with his health and he had even some ideas of suicide. At the time of his leaving the regiment, he had passed through a phase of depression of about 6 months’ duration, and at this time had a number of hypochondriacal ideas with poor appetite and loss of weight.