Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/88

84 fleeting, and for this reason they are called changeable. On the other hand, certain of these delusions are fixed. They persist for long periods of time, and although they may not remain rigidly the same, their general character persists in spite of slight alterations or elaborations.

One may also consider the delusions from another standpoint. Some of them have very few mental connections, and they do not result in forms of activity which are combined with the remainder of the individual’s mentality. Apparently they do not become an integral part of his personality and they do not appear to affect him in many ways. His life is carried on as though these beliefs were not present. Such delusions we call unsystematized. Opposed to them we have others in which there is greater or less systematization. The belief of the patient with general paralysis of the insane that he is wealthy causes him to go out and order dozens of horses, to purchase hundreds of knives or razors, to dine at the most expensive restaurants, to commit all kinds of absurd actions which are quite consistent with his beliefs, but which are inconsistent with the experience of his neighbors. Such delusions which lead to appropriate reactions, and which dominate the activities and mind of the individual are spoken of as systematized. They have become a part of the individual.

From another standpoint delusions have been divided into a number of classes in accordance with the ways in which the ideas have relation to the individual. We may speak, therefore, of somatopsychic delusions when the delusions refer to the body, of autopsychic delusions when they refer to the personality, and of allopsychic delusions when they refer to the external world. These different classes are not always distinct, and it is not always possible to classify all delusions in this manner. As examples of these delusions the following may be cited: of the somatopsychic, the individual may believe there is a snake or rabbit in the abdomen, or that the abdomen does not contain its full quota of organs, or that the individual has lost a leg or that the whole body is missing; of the autopsychic, delusions of poisoning (possibly also somatopsychic), the individual has very great strength or power, he has a hypnotic eye; of the allopsychic, those in relation to the external world, the individual may be a Messiah, he has committed the unpardonable sin. There are many varieties of these referring to the different parts of the body and to the different relations of parts, and at the same time the somatopsychic, the allopsychic and the autopsychic may be compounded into one.

Some delusions have a gradual growth, others are almost fully developed in an instant. The latter are usually found associated with hallucinations, or strictly speaking, they themselves may be hallucinations. If we consider the mode of development of one of these delusions, we shall realize this. Let us say, for example, that an individual