Show shock clears mind of insane new method effects cutes As patients reenact re enact their deliriums BEACON N Y the lost world in which the insane dwell is no long er a mystery it is brought into full view by a new shock treatment which hits the emotions only and is announced in a journal of imper serial relations this new kind of shock is curing insanity furthermore for probably the first time in mental records the emotional shock enables the insane to reproduce at will detail by detail the fantastic appearance of the real world as it looks to insane eyes the shock is induced if mental patients re enact in lucid moments the experiences of their delirium these sensations have been one of the closed doors of insanity truly forgotten from the very moment of recovery akin to sugar shock the ideas that led to penetration of this barrier came partly from a study of another form of shock for the insane the so called sugar shock and camphor shock the former caused by excessive doses of lin the latter by a form of camphor known as about four years ago dr manfred sakel young viennese physician astonished the medical world by div ing mental patients overdoses of in sulin insulin has no known connect tion with insanity but it if dr sakel sake continued the insulin until the in sane were in a coma and near death many woke up with clearing minds the clearing was not instant ane ous but was rapid this was tested all over the world A few lives were lost but many mental hospitals adopted the sugar shock treatment later followed camphor shock with similar good results become actors but the shock patients did not always stay cured psychiatrists found it was a great help if the re stored person could be made to un der stand exactly what had been wrong in his mind what the fan tanies had been not a clue to this state was avail able from shock treatment itself dr J L moreno nationally known psychiatrist who ho maintains a vate theater for spontaneous dra matic productions by mental pa reasoned a milder emotion al shock might help clear a diso dered mind at the same time as the patient would remain fully conscious the physician might get the much sought clues to the nature of the delusions it would be an emotional shock he knew for a person temporarily lucid to go to the stage and try to reenact re enact what he had been doing and thinking while out of his mind mental patients have an aversion to this these persons were not however requested to act for at first they had no recollection of what they had thought but they were asked to put their bodies in the positions as the insane attacks mem ones ories then began to return the first acts dr moreno says were of usually short duration gradually the patient got control of roles he played during an insane attack |