Besalsky and Demoniac Possession

BESALSKY, Konrad (Konrad Biesalski), scientist known for his work in the field of combating disability; born in 1868 in East Prussia. He graduated from the University of Berlin in 1894. Being a student of the famous surgeon Korte and the pediatrician Heubner, Biesalski devoted all his energy to organizing a systematic fight against childhood disability. On his initiative, an all-German census of juvenile disabled persons was carried out in 1906, and the German Society for Combating Disability was founded, uniting all disability homes in Germany. In 1915, Biesalski was offered the chair of orthopedics at the University of Berlin, which he declined, remaining the head of the Oskar-Helene Heim clinic. This model institution, designed for 350 beds, is the central research institute for combating disability in Germany and combines a clinic, a school, and a trade technical school for the disabled. The main works of Biesalski are: Umfang und Art des jugendlichen Krupeltums und der Krumpelfirsorge in Deutschland, Orthopädische Versorgung u. Erwerbsfähigkeit der Einhänder, Die physiologische Methode der Sehnenverpflanzung, Untersuchungen über Knochengelenktuberkulose, and others. DEMONIAC POSSESSION (demonomania), a concept derived from the notion that a person's actions and speech depend on an "evil spirit" that has entered or possessed them. The delusion of demoniac possession is found in mentally ill patients, mainly in manic-depressive psychosis (melancholia) and in schizophrenia. In the former, it grows out of gloomy moods with ideas of sinfulness; in schizophrenics, apparently, from disorders of muscle sense, giving the patient the sensation of the compulsion of their actions and a peculiar disorder of thinking characteristic of this disease. The idea of demoniac possession is also found in hysterical individuals, who explain certain manifestations of their disease in this way (convulsive seizures, involuntary actions, etc.). In our country, the idea of demoniac possession found a peculiar expression in klikushestvo (hysterical wailing, see). The view of mentally ill patients as possessed by "evil spirits" is characteristic of uncultured peoples of all times (in our country — "spoiled," "possessed by devils," "frenzied"). With the spread of Christianity, it acquired the significance of a major social factor that left its gloomy imprint on the entire history of the Middle Ages. At this time, under the influence of the oppression of the Catholic clergy, extensive demonomanic epidemics (of a hysterical nature) appeared, for the treatment of which torture and bonfires were put into action. A countless multitude of mentally ill people perished under the guise of sorcerers and the possessed. The last witch was sentenced to death in Switzerland as late as 1782. In Russia, there were no such large epidemics of possession as in Western Europe, but belief in spoilage, witchcraft, etc., nevertheless cost the lives of a large number of patients here as well. The burning of sorcerers by court sentence ceased in the middle of the 17th century; however, mob justice against them continued until the second half of the 19th century. Hysterical epidemics with ideas of demoniac possession continue to the present time (the last epidemic was described in Moscow Governorate in 1926).

STUPOR AND AMNESIA

of the preceding unconscious state (see Unconscious). Between the depth of the clouding of consciousness and the completeness of subsequent amnesia, there is certainly a parallelism, but not every clouding of consciousness is necessarily accompanied by amnesia. Memories of events during the most severe disorders of mental activity can be preserved in full volume and clarity. When deciding the question of a temporary disorder of mental activity, Soviet legislation, unlike pre-revolutionary legislation, does not use the term of unconsciousness at all.