ID# 1944:
Mary Dendy letter to Karl Pearson, about definitions and confusing terms used to grade feeble-mindedness (12/5/1912)
Date:
1912
Pages: (1|2|3|4|5|6)
Source:
University College London, KP, 186

Mary Dendy letter to Karl Pearson, about definitions and confusing terms used to grade feeble-mindedness (12/5/1912)

sionally destructive and apparently cruel, though it is probably that their acts of cruelty are due not to an instinct to give pain, but to an instinct to destroy. If able-bodied they can be taught to work, i.e. to repeat the same movement over and over again, in a purely mechanical manner. They often use repeated movements of some part of the body quite without purpose, as striking the head rhythmically with the hand. Their articulation is generally quite defective and they sometimes have little or no speech. [handwritten follows]They often do not swallow the saliva & dribble of the mouth.[end handwritten] (3) Idiots:- Those who are so helpless bodily and mentally as to be unable to care for themselves in any respect. They need to be washed and dressed and often to be fed. They are often deformed, especially about the head. The special senses are incomplete, feeble or lacking. I have seen one child of ten years old who had never seen, heard or spoken or made any voluntary movement. He had never given any sign of intelligence except (and this was a doubtful one) that he had occasionally put his bread and milk out of his mouth. Types of want of self-control (i.e. of Lack of inhibition). These are apt to occur according to the passion which is most developed in the individual. The one most common to the medium and low-grade cases is absolute lack of self-control with regard to eating. It is common to find lads who will go on eating long after repletion must have been reached, even though the consequences are very unpleasant for themselves. In the high-grade cases this is less common. Perhaps the most common type is [obscured] distinguished by inability to control the impulse of anger. Violent passions are easily aroused in the physically strong and result in attacks made upon those who have caused the anger or upon inanimate objects. In the physically weak anger results in storms of tears and cries of rage. This particular form of loss of control tends to [obscured] become less in proper circumstances. The habit [following lines deciphered - bottoms of works cut off] of being angry can be checked by avoiding causes of anger [illegible] [end]

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