AERONAUTICS: Hysteria

A shot scared Mrs. Mildred Stevens Morf, 27, of Brooklyn, N. Y. In the next room, she learned, a housepainter had mortally shot his brother, Herman Goldenberg, dentist. Mrs. Morf fainted. Taken home, she did not revive; would not speak or eat. Last week she died, from acute hysteria.

A subway accident at Times Square, Manhattan, last week, killed 16 people, mangled dozens more. Mrs. Jennie Lockridge, 56, onetime actress, heard the horror, saw the shambles, became hysterical. Four days later she was dead.

Hysteria, trickiest of psychopathic states, is an escape from reality, from conflict. Mrs. Morf it protected from the horror of nearby murder. For her it was too thorough. Others it protects from scolding, from efforts. Sometimes hysteria comes on involuntarily; often the man, woman or child (having observed its value) willfully scurries into it; more often the person tries to fight off an attack and, horrified, watches himself sink into contrariness.

A slap in the face or other physical insult will occasionally stop a hysteric fit. But such are dangerous to many victims. Their hysteria is too deeply ground in character, in brain, in nerves. The deep hysteric may pretend practically every disease, every deformity known to medicine. Some women want children so badly that they actually become bloated. The stigmata frequently reported seen on religious exaltes are hysteric in origin. If the hysteric’s malingering continues long the simulated infirmity may cause actual disease. Only the wiliest of doctors can discern the hysteric’s true state. And only the most patient can cure him.