Word: schizophrenia
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...other artist could survive so big a one-man show so well. It ranged from an academic study of moonlight and roses, painted in 1898 when Picasso was 17 and had already set himself up as an independent artist in Barcelona, to 1939 portraits in which he practices artistic schizophrenia and tries to catch several views of a face at once...
Today psychiatrists again apply with scientific refinements something very like medieval shock treatment to victims of schizophrenia (dementia praecox). Most common form of insanity, schizophrenia packs 200,000 patients in U. S. mental hospitals. Whether social, psychological or physical difficulties cause schizophrenia no one knows. A schizophrenic may believe that he is Napoleon, or that his children are trying to kill him. Or he may fall into rigid positions, lasting for hours. For many schizophrenics there are no more human emotions-only a slow retreat from life into deathlike stupor. Less than 6% are lucky enough to come back...
Until 1934, medical science could do very little for schizophrenia. Then Dr. Manfred Sakel of Vienna, now in Manhattan, announced that since 1928 he had been shocking schizophrenics back to sanity with large injections of insulin. In 1935, Dr. Laszlo von Meduna of Budapest successfully shocked schizophrenics with metrazol, a camphor-like drug. Psychiatrists the world over hailed this revival of the old medieval technique, enthusiastically set to work to confirm the results of their European colleagues...
...treatment, may take several months to "ripen" into sanity. Best results occur in young patients, between the ages of 17 and 25. But more stable is the sanity won by persons of more mature age, who do not have to contend again with the psychic hazards of adolescence. For schizophrenia victims who have been ill more than six months, there is little hope, although obstreperous patients may become gentler, more obedient after treatment. Quick treatment is important after symptoms emerge...
Theory. How "convulsant therapy" works, nobody knows. A score of theories have been offered, both physiological and strictly psychological. Boldest: 1) certain poisons invade the brain cells, cause schizophrenia, and shock treatment helps the body to combat these poisons; 2) the terrible fear of death caused by shock treatment inspires despairing schizophrenics to turn back to life...