THE INTELLECTUAL STATUS OF PATIENTS WITH PARANOID DEMENTIA PRAECOX

Abstract

The present investigation is an effort to obtain the intellectual status of apparently well preserved cases of paranoid dementia praecox. Gregor and Hansel¹hold that there is little impairment of memory until the terminal stages of the disease. Kraepelin²also considers that there is comparatively little involvement of memory until profound dementia sets in. In addition the latter finds that retention is often quite well preserved, while Gregor finds the power of retention considerably affected. It is in the field of memory and the higher associative processes that the present work is chiefly concerned, for it is felt that on the basis of the organic findings obtained by the author 3 in her series of selected cases of dementia praecox an intellectual disintegration occurs much earlier than is generally conceded. While the higher psychic processes are dependent on a preservation of memory, the ability to retain and recall