Feeble-mindedness

Feeble-mindedness, a term used in psychiatry not only to denote persistent defects of mind and intellect, but also persistent defective states of the psyche in general. On the one hand, a distinction is made between congenital feeble-mindedness (see Oligophrenia), and on the other hand, acquired defective states that developed after various mental illnesses. In the era of symptomatic psychiatry, this feeble-mindedness that developed as the outcome of an acute illness was called consecutive, or secondary feeble-mindedness (see) - dementia consecutiva, dementia secundaria (see Dementia). At the present time, a distinction is made between schizophrenic, paranoid (as a subtype of schizophrenic), epileptic, arteriosclerotic, paralytic, organic, senile, and other types of feeble-mindedness, each of which basically carries the characteristics typical of the disease of which it is the outcome. Thus, schizophrenic feeble-mindedness is characterized mainly by impoverishment of emotional life, apathy, and disjointed thinking; epileptic feeble-mindedness by rigidity, stubbornness, and viscosity of the psyche; organic feeble-mindedness by easy mobility of affects, weakening of individual mental functions with general preservation of personality; senile feeble-mindedness by a sharp disturbance of memory, especially for recent events, etc. (for details, see the description of the corresponding mental illness). Kraft-Ebing in his classification distinguished acute curable feeble-mindedness or stupor (dementia primaria curabilis, s. stupiditas), however, modern authors do not single out such an independent form. Wernicke distinguishes the so-called false feeble-mindedness - pseudodementia (see), which develops psychogenically, which should not be confused with feeble-mindedness.