Affect in Schizophrenic Reaction Types

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate and discuss by case-records the affective responses of a number of patients with a schizophrenic reaction type of mental illness. Recently the energies, time and attention of neuropsychiatrists have been focused on the newer methods of treatment of the schizophrenics. As a result of such intensive and extensive study, interest in other problems of schizophrenia has been rekindled. The “shock therapies” have seemed to crystallize certain factors for us. They have tended to bring out into clear relief certain old factors and have produced many new facts so that we have been forced to re-orient ourselves in many diverse ways. Prognosis has been altered, and this fact has led to a minute scrutiny of the patients who have been treated to determine what factors are operating for or against a favourable outcome. One of these is the affective factor. Patients that have retained a good affective response may still be able to combat reality and its ever-present problems of adjustment and re-adjustment. They may recover spontaneously, or they may do so quicker with the help of the “shock therapies.”