The Psychology of Dementia Praecox

The frequent obstructions (the retardations of reaction time) are explained by Sommer via visual fixation 6 v. Leupold, who recently elaborated this symptom, calls this manifestation "das Symptom der Benennung u. des Abtastens" (the symptom of naming and touching). On the Symptomatology of Catatonia.. The condition of absent-mindedness among normal persons occasionally shows similar phenomena; for example, amazement and “staring into vacancy.” Because of this analogy between the catatonic condition and normal absent-mindedness, Sommer affirms something similar to Tschisch and Freusberg—namely, that there is a diminution of attention. Catalepsy, according to Sommer, is another phenomenon closely related to optical fixation, which he considers “in all cases a phenomenon of thoroughly psychic origin.” With this conception, Sommer places himself in sharp contrast to the view of Roller, to which Clemens Neisser also unconditionally adheres.

Says Roller: “The presentations and sensations which, among the insane, chiefly come to perception, forcing themselves into the field of consciousness, are those which have been caused by the morbid states of the subordinate centers, and when active apperception (attention) becomes active, it becomes fixed and held by the morbid perceptions,” etc. 7 Cited from Neisser, On Catatonia, p. 61.

By way of addition, Neisser observes: “Wherever we look in insanity, we always meet with something strange that cannot be explained according to the analogy of normal psychical activity. The logical mechanisms in insanity are put in motion not through the apperceptive or associative conscious psychic activity, but by pathological irritations lying under the threshold of consciousness.” 8 Ernst Meyer also leans toward this view, which was then held by Kraepelin. Neisser therefore agrees with the concepts of Roller. This view does not seem to me to be without its objections. Firstly, it is based upon an anatomical conception of the psychic processes, a view against which too much warning cannot be given. What part the “subordinate centers” play in the origin of psychic elements—such as presentations, feelings, etc.—we do not know at all. An explanation of this kind rests merely upon words.