Organic Basis of a Psychosis

Although the field of the psychoneuroses has for long been rather loosely recognized as one of " functional'" disorders, the use of this term in relation to the psychoses has rightly been regarded with some suspicion. The debatable ground between functional on the one side and organic on the other is treacherous in the extreme. Dubois and Dejerine, two most important workers in the investigation of the neuroses, indicated almost fifty years ago how clearly definite physical symptoms could be shown to have a purely functional origin and how readily they would yield to psychotherapy. They both pointed out two important truths-namely, that in any functional neurotic disorder there might well be some superadded real organic disturbance which should always be carefully sought for and recognized by both physician and patient, and also that in their experience persuasion and discussion were useless as applied to, for instance,