Dead Carl Wickland - 30 Years Among the Dead

Dr. William Hanna Thomson, physician to the Roosevelt Hospital and Professor of the Practice of Medicine and Diseases of the Nervous System, New York University Medical College, in referring to Tuke's Dictionary of Psychological Medicine, asserted that: “The contributors to this great encyclopedia are from the most eminent professors, experts, and superintendents of insane asylums in Great Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland and Russia. In the articles by the writers on kleptomania, dipsomania, chronic mania, etc., there is not a word about the pathological anatomy, (because none can be found). Just so it is in the article on melancholia, puerperal insanity, katatonia, circular insanity, homicidal insanity or epileptic insanity; in none of these is there a word about pathological anatomy, for the sufficient reason that not one of these forms of insanity shows any pathological or diseased condition in the brain different from the sound brain of a healthy man killed in an accident.”

He also said: “It is high time that we now look in the direction of toxemia (or blood poisoning) for the explanation of the insanities which produce no changes whatever in the brain.”

Recent announcement was made that a large percentage of cures reported by the New Jersey State Hospital for the Insane at Trenton were effected by the removal of diseased teeth, tonsils or affected organs. In a resume of the Trenton method, Dr. R. S. Copeland wrote: “The hypothesis upon which this treatment is founded is that insanity is a toxemia or poisoning due to germ infection in some part of the body. If this is true it follows that removal of the infected tissue, when the case has not gone too far, will be followed by disappearance of the mental disturbance.”

When statistics compiled by the United States Government, as well as by others, show that the increase in the number of the insane is proportionately greater than the increase of the general population, it seems incongruous to credit decayed teeth and diseased tonsils as being primary causes of mental unbalance at this time when dental and surgical attention is so general, whereas, the facts are that when dentistry was little known and practised, and people went about with all conditions of decayed teeth, insanity was less prevalent than now.

Without attempting to discredit the Trenton reports, it may be stated that our experience has shown that in many cases of mental derangement, although the patient bad badly decayed teeth, mental balance was fully restored by dislodging the obsessing spirit before any attention was given to the teeth.

Since it has been found that obsessing spirits are sensitive to pain, I am constrained to suggest that such cures as announced by the Trenton Hospital may, at least in part, be due to the fact that intruding spirits were dislodged, by dental or surgical interference.

To the investigator in Abnormal Psychology on the spiritistic hypothesis much of the symptomatology of the “War Neurosis'' or shell shock, - excepting cases of malingering -as recorded by Dr. F. E. Williams, Acting Medical Director, National Committee for Mental Hygiene, New York City, suggests obsession or possession by spirits of dead soldiers, unconscious of their transition, as the exciting cause. This is indicated by “delirium, hallucinations, anxiety states, functional heart disorders, paralysis, tremors, gait disturbances, convulsive movements, pain, anesthesia, hyperesthesia, blindness, disorders of speech, etc.”

The spirit hypothesis regarding War Neurosis is further evidenced by the rapid recovery of patients under severe electrical treatment - (driving out obsessing entities?) -“as instituted by Dr. Vincent who, Dr. Williams stated, would cure in a few hours Patients that had been in the care of other psychiatrists for months, and would have them walking about and climbing ladders.”

The above theory is also favored by Dr. Williams' further statements that: “This neurosis is rare among prisoners who have been exposed to mechanical shock . . . as well as among wounded exposed to mechanical shock.... Severe injury to the central nervous system and brain is not accompanied by symptoms found in shell shock.... Success attends the therapeutic measures employed for the psychological rather than the mechanical side. . . . Diagnosis should be made and treatment begun at once before the shell shock” - (obsession) - “becomes a fixed psycho-neurosis.”

Newspapers recently reported the case of a young man, Frank James, a boy thug of New York City, who, after a fall from a motorcycle when ten years old, changed from a cheerful, affectionate and obedient child into a surly, insolent boy, developing into a confirmed robber and criminal. After several terms in the reformatory and five years in Sing Sing prison he was declared hopelessly insane, and sent to the State Insane Asylum. Frank James, however, escaped, and when pursuers attempted his capture, was hit on the head with a club, and falling unconscious, was taken to a hospital.

The next morning the boy awoke, extraordinarily changed; he was gentle and deferential, showing no further indications of an unbalanced mind, and from that time exhibited not the slightest impulse to commit crime of any kind. The article concludes: “Just what happened to the mechanism of the boy's brain is not entirely understood by medical men.”

How explain such a case on the toxemia theory? Could a blow on the head eradicate the supposed toxemia and restore mental balance? The simple explanation from our viewpoint would be that, following the shock of the boy's fall, an obsessing spirit criminal had taken control of the boy, and that the blow from the club on the man's head, with its accompanying pain, caused the obsessing entity to become dislodged.

The success credited to hydrotherapy as practiced in institutions for the insane, especially when a strong stream of water, or a continuous bath, is used, can also be accounted for by the dislodgment of obsessing entities, who object to the discomforts incident to such treatment.

Dr. Prince, in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, wrote: “If we are to establish sound principles underlying the mechanism of the mind we must correlate the findings of all methods of research, experimental as well as clinical, and give due consideration to the results obtained by all competent investigators.”

After careful elimination of all superstitious notions and absurdities adherent to the subject of Normal and Abnormal Psychology, excluding also febrile and idiopathic psychoses or idiosyncrasies, as well as all neuro-pathogenic psychoses, there still remains a residuum of abnormality in a majority of cases of mental aberrations.

That alienists of renown and the foremost authorities widely disagree as to the cause of insanity is sufficient reason for thinking men to investigate any theory which promises to lead to results, regardless of personal or popular prejudice. The situation which confronts us is a serious one, and nothing but the broadest toleration and liberality can cope with it. Since insanity is chiefly a manifestation of mental or psychological disturbance - a Psychic neurosis-the symptomatology therefore should offer a guidance in ascertaining the etiology, and assist as well in arriving at a solution of the mental pathology.

This proposition, however, necessitates not only research and study of Normal and Abnormal Psychology but, in order to have a complete premise, also implies the recognition of the duality of man, matter and spirit, physical and spiritual.

Insanity is not a stigma; the public attitude toward this affliction should be one, not of aversion but of understanding, and a realization of the close inter-relationship of the visible and invisible worlds.

Spirit obsession is a fact - a perversion of a natural law - and is amply demonstrable. This has been proven hundreds of times by causing the supposed insanity or aberration to be temporarily transferred from the victim to a psychic sensitive who is trained for the purpose, and by this method ascertain the cause of the psychosis to be an ignorant or mischievous spirit, whose identity may frequently be verified.