ABSTRACT
June Field, aged fifteen, was admit ted to hospital in a cata tonic stupor. She was said to have shown no mental symp toms until six months earlier when her person al ity had begun to change. She had become rude and aggress ive at home and had given up her old interests. She no longer played games or went to church or mixed with people, not even going out with her best friend. Three days before admis sion she had begun to sleep badly and had become increas ingly agit ated, complain ing that voices threatened her, telling her that she had destroyed the world. In hospital she lay rigidly in bed refus ing food and remain ing mute. When asked about herself she simply looked suspi ciously at the ques tioner. The most press ing nursing problem was her refusal to eat, and it was arranged that her mother should come to feed her. This worked well, and within a week she was feeding herself and had begun to talk. From the clin ical point of view she showed such features as with drawal from external reality, rigid ity of posture and movement, thought disorder (vague ness, thought-block ing), affect ive
flat ten ing, incon gru ity of thought and affect, and bizarre delusions, e.g. that she was being poisoned, that she was liable to be tortured, that her parents were dead, that she had destroyed the world, that she had harmed people who had died for her.
