Body: | The case of "Bedridden" (Hysteria)
Casebook of Biblical Psychiatry © Version 7 (CBP-7)
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The case of
"Bedridden"
Hysteria
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The case of "Hysteria"
Biopsychiatric labels DSM-5
Hysteria, Conversion disorder
Checklist Behaviours DSM-7
Sloth, laziness
Insights MMPI-7
Quick Pick EDS-7.1
Deception, lying, Dependency
Self-disablement EDS-7.2
Employment: Time off work in asylum
Chemical imbalance EDS-7.3
Benefits EDS-7.4
unknown
Monetary EDS-7.5
-
Annoyance Scale EDS-7.6
High
Diagnostic Laws EDS-7.7
Law of Narcissistic Behaviour Choice (NBC) EDS-7.7.1.NBC
Law of Derivative Personal Benefit (DPB) EDS-7.7.2.DPB
Law of Domino Problem Transference (DPT) EDS-7.7.4.DPT
Law of Diagnostic Anosognosia Relativism (DAR) EDS-7.7.7.DAR
Determine the Problem
Unknown
Ask a Child
EDS-7.7.12.PMO
5 years later EDS-7.7.LPT
The case of "Bedridden"
Silas Weir Mitchell 1829-1914 AD: Two bedridden women are cured of
paralysis when one has her bed sheets set on fire and the other is
threatened with rape.
More on Silas Weir Mitchell
"Mitchell was famous for his sometimes eccentric approach to patients with
functional illnesses. He was asked to see a patient who was thought to be
dying, and soon sent all the attendants and assistants from the room,
emerging a little later. Asked whether she had any chance of recovery, he
said "Yes she will be coming out in a few minutes, I have set her sheets on
fire. A clear-cut case of hysteria!" Another story is that he was
confronted with a lady who had a similar problem and having tried all the
tricks he knew to induce her to leave her bed, threatened her with rape and
commenced to undress. He got to his undergarments when the woman fled the
room screaming! These stories may have grown with the years since in many
ways he was rather prim, and Freud's writing shocked him. He is said to
have thrown a book on psychoanalysis into his fire, exclaiming, "Where did
this filthy thing come from?" (www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/959.html)
Discussion:
Hysteria is the manufacture of behaviours to portray oneself as insane or
medically sick for personal benefit. These two women had disabled
themselves for selfish reasons that are unknown. It actually doesn't matter
why they chose to fake that they were dying. This is not a story of people
in an asylum but a medical hospital. Again it matters not for our purposes.
The doctor was asked to "treat drama not disease". Whose performance was
more "over the top?" Was it the woman lying on her "deathbed" pilfering the
resources of a hospital or the doctor who set her bed sheets on fire to
cure her? You treat disease with medicine and drama with drama.
"Some nineteenth-century physicians-notably the famous American neurologist
Silas Weir Mitchell (1829-1914), inventor of the legendary "rest cure"
named after him-recognized that hysterics were malingerers. Having worked
as a physician during the Civil War, he saw a good deal of malingering and
understood it for what it was: the rational assumption of the sick role.
Confronted with such persons-regardless of whether they were called
"hysterics"-he realized that the person who assumes the sick role is not
necessarily sick and that hysteria is not a bona fide disease. ...
Realizing that the problem he was called upon to treat was drama, not
disease, Mitchell treated it accordingly. Consulted about a woman believed
to be mortally ill, Mitchell dismissed all present in the room and then
left himself. "Asked of her chances of survival he answered: 'Yes she will
run out of the door in two minutes; I set her sheets on fire.' Seeing
another hysterical woman who claimed to be unable to get out of bed, he
"threatened her with rape and commenced to undress. He got to his
under-garments when the woman fled the room screaming." (Psychiatry: The
Science of Lies, Thomas Szasz, 2008 AD, p 26)
Benefits from behaviour: This illustrates the Law of Narcissistic Behaviour
Choice (NBC) EDS-7.7.1.NBC
As we said above, we do know why these two women were motivated to
act like they were sick and dying when nothing was actually wrong with
them. However they clearly were deriving some personal benefit from the
theatre. It could have been to escape work, unhappy home life, a husband
she hated, control over some situation.
This case is very similar to the case of "Shampoo", where a woman
deliberately gets herself thrown in a mental hospital because she wanted to
retire early. The point is that we really don't need to know why.
Historically women were often successful in fabricating medical illnesses
and diseases because of the crudeness of medicine 100 years ago. Today's
sophisticated medicine can rather quickly spot in imposter and therefore
the asylum, not the hospital is the destination of choice for these women's
modern counterpart.
Just as there were few medical tests for most diseases 100 years
ago, there never have been any medical tests for any mental illness
including schizophrenia, anxiety, depression etc.
Diagnostic laws that are seen illustrated in the case of "Bedridden":
These women went to extremes to gain some unknown benefit. They
calculated the cost of upsetting all their loved one's that they were dying
on their deathbed, was worth the benefit they would derive from this
behaviour choice. This illustrates the Law of Derivative Personal Benefit
(DPB) EDS-7.7.2.DPB
Whatever problem they were solving by laying sick in a hospital bed,
they were prepared to cause a lot of other people huge problems. The time
and money cost of the hospital stay and doctors. The prayers said in church
for God to heal them. It is just evil. This illustrates the Law of Domino
Problem Transference (DPT) EDS-7.7.4.DPT
The women were hoping that the doctor would label her with some
disease she knew was wrong. It was their lack of faith in the doctor's
ability to diagnose accurately that they were relying upon to continue
their fraud. This illustrates the Law of Diagnostic Anosognosia Relativism
(DAR) EDS-7.7.7.DAR
More on Silas Weir Mitchell
By Steve Rudd: Contact the author for comments, input or corrections.
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