The first number of the Journal of Mental Science appeared on 15 November, 1853. It will be noted that we are still in our 99th Volume—the discrepancy is accounted for by changes in the mode of issue during the first few years.

My first words must necessarily be an expression of sincere thanks to the Association for the great honour they have done me in electing me their President for the ensuing year. In the interval since this was proposed I have often reflected on the number of eminent men who have filled the Presidential chair with great distinction, only to become more conscious of my inadequacies to reach the standard they have set.

The present investigation belongs to a series of studies (1) in which an attempt has been made to contribute to an understanding of the mechanisms underlying those forms of therapy of mental diseases which directly involve physiological mechanisms.† In the previous work an experimental analysis was performed in order to determine the common factor involved in the various forms of so-called shock therapy. It was found that all forms of this therapy produced in the experimental animal an increased reactivity of the centres of the sympathetic system to direct (2) and reflex stimulation (3). Chronic experiments (4) also showed that these alterations in autonomic reactivity persisted for a long period of time if the “therapy” (e.g., electroshock) was applied repeatedly as it is commonly done in the human patient. Special experiments revealed that increased sympathetic reactivity can be demonstrated in the hypothalamus (5).

I. Problem and Method.

Recent work on the psychology of intelligence and thinking suggests that perceptual types of intelligence tests are inadequate for dealing with psychiatric cases, young children, old people, mental defectives, and primitive peoples. The argument is that, in these groups, intellectual processes have either deteriorated from or failed to develop to that level with which most perceptual intelligence tests are concerned. The methods of scoring also assume that the correct answers are always reached in the same way, but this is by no means always the case, as Goldstein and Scheerer (1941, p. 14) have pointed out. The studies of Werner (1948), Piaget (1951), Goldstein (1940), Hanfmann and Kasanin (1942), Rapaport (1951), Moursy (1952) et al. show convincing evidence that cognition can take place at different “levels.” The exact determination of the number, nature, and scope of the different levels remains a task for the future, since the present situation is confused, to say the least.

How electro-convulsive therapy (E.C.T.) acts, what is the chain of cause and effect from the electrical application to the clinical improvement, are questions whose answers are as uncertain as ever, in spite of the importance of such knowledge to psychiatry and in spite of the researches of nearly twenty years. The experiments reported in this paper are an attempt to elucidate the links of one possible chain. What are the possibilities? I shall review them briefly, restricting the review to the physiological and biochemical aspects and omitting any reference to the psychological or psycho-analytical.

It has become increasingly apparent in recent years that perception may afford a valuable approach to the study of personality. In this growing awareness several converging trends may be distinguished, which have their origin in different branches of study.

The first duty of your President is to say thank you and this I do with great sincerity. To be elected President of this historic association is indeed an honour, and I very much appreciate it.

The Education Act of 1944 lays on the Local Education Authorities the duty of providing special educational treatment for certain categories of children distinguished as “handicapped.” Included under this heading are maladjusted pupils. These are defined (by regulations) as “pupils who show evidence of emotional instability or psychological disturbance and require special educational treatment to effect their personal, social or educational readjustment.” This definition is, in the words of The Times (1950), “broadly based,” and has indeed been a source of confusion. The first clause asserts a proposition which is very nearly circular, since “emotional instability” and “psychological disturbance” stand as much in need of definition as maladjustment. The second clause makes for even greater uncertainty. Is it intended to indicate that only some children showing evidence of psychological disturbance or emotional instability need “personal, social or educational readjustment”? The suggestion that this can be effected by special educational treatment has led to much bewilderment. Presumably what is intended is that these children have, in common with other handicapped children, a need for special educational treatment, and also a need for personal, social and educational readjustment. For no other class of handicapped pupils is it suggested that the handicap can be treated by education, however widely this term is conceived or however specialized to the particular needs of the handicapped child.

This is the third of a series of articles reporting an investigation of the block design rotation effect. This effect is shown by some patients when they are doing the Kohs' Blocks Test, which is known in other forms as the Block Design Test. In this test the subject has to reproduce patterns with the aid of diversely coloured one-inch cubes. It was observed that some patients, while they reproduced these patterns correctly, left their blocks in an obviously rotated position, apparently with no idea that anything was amiss (see Illus tration i). Such rotation can often be as great as 45°.

In this paper, which is a preliminary communication, I want to present and discuss phantasies of the process of birth and of life before birth, which emerged from certain patients undergoing hypnoanalysis.

I am very grateful for the invitation of the Association to speak about the work I have been doing with twins, as it is an opportunity to thank the very many members who have helped in it. Without your kindness and co-operation the work would not have been possible. Medical Superintendents have put themselves out to make it possible for me to see patients and examine records; medical officers have discussed cases with me; I have been able to see the invaluable reports on family visits by social workers, and P.S.W's. have even made special inquiries on my behalf; hospital secretaries have made visiting books and other records available, and have rummaged through dusty files for ancient case-notes, and they have added to their labours routine inquiries about twinship which have considerably enlarged my series. This help has been given not only to me personally, but also to other workers collaborating with me. For all this and more, which I have no time to mention, I want to say thank you very much.

Corpora amylacea (C.A.) or amyloid bodies found in the brain and the product of amyloid degeneration in other organs derive their name from the starch-like reaction which they give with iodine (Virchow); otherwise these substances have few points in common, and while amyloid disease has become fairly rare nowadays, the presence of C.A. constitutes one of the regular changes in senile and senescent brains. This is perhaps why it has attracted much less attention than amyloid degeneration. For instance in 18 out of 25 papers, containing detailed accounts of the histo-pathological pictures, I found no references to C.A., yet one could hardly assume that amyloid bodies were overlooked. Most text-books pay scanty attention to the subject, while Buzzard and Greenfield (1921) consider it of no pathological significance. Since, however, C.A. are encountered under a variety of conditions (not merely senility), in greatly varying amounts and at different sites in the central nervous system, it may be worth while to investigate their nature, origin and occurrence in the light of recent observation.

Having stated the case for the atomistic approach to Rorschach validation (Keehn, 21), we must now turn to an examination of the methods and results of the application of the approach to a single Rorschach sign.

The importance and relevance of reaction to colour in the interpretation of Rorschach protocols has been so often and so vigorously stressed by proponents of the test that few psychologists can have remained unaffected by their views. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the validity of these views. Already the evidence pertinent to the hypothesis that certain reactions to the blots depend upon the indirect effect of colour, the so-called “colour-shock” signs, has been examined (Keehn, 14). Beyond repeating the general conclusion that such signs seem not to be dependent upon presence or absence of colour this topic will not be discussed, so restricting this paper solely to a consideration of the validity of the hypotheses concerning the direct reaction to colour on the cards. No better or succinct and documented statement of these hypotheses can be made than that of Hertz and Baker (10), who, after summarising numerous studies relating to the topic, conclude that— “There is general agreement that colour factors give a measure of the stability of the emotional life. They show the externally directed or expressed emotionality of an individual. FC represents emotional stability and adaptability, CF, emotional lability, excitability and lack of control, and C, lack of restraint and impulsiveness.”

Extensive lesions of the frontal lobes are followed by pronounced personality changes. This has been shown beyond doubt by the effect of neuro-surgery performed for the removal of brain tumours or for the relief of mental illness. To identify such changes and the lesions responsible for them at least four conditions seem necessary: (a) Knowledge of the limits, variations and connections of the main pre-frontal areas.—In this field the researches of Professor Alfred Meyer and his associates, Mrs. Beck and T. McLardy, are of primary importance (1950).

The term “premenstrual tension” was applied by Frank (1931) to a syndrome developing during the second half of the menstrual cycle and clearing up soon after the onset of the menses.

It has often been noticed that patients in amnesic states are prone to underestimate their age. In cases of Korsakov's psychosis this under-estimation may be very gross, and its extent appears to be determined, in part at least, by the duration of retrograde amnesia (Meggendorfer, 1928). A similar, if less extreme, under-estimation of age may also occur in the early stages of recovery after head-injury. In a recent study Weinstein and Kahn (1951) refer to this phenomenon as disorientation for age and adduce some striking examples. Thus one of their patients, a woman of over 70, insisted that she was 38. These authors do not, however, attempt a systematic analysis of this facet of disorientation.

“The T.A.T. draws forth no more than twenty small samples of the subject's thought. To suppose these will invariably provide a skeleton of total personality is unduly optimistic” (6). With this warning no experienced clinical psychologist is likely to disagree. The present aim has been to provide a method of analysing and quantifying the content of the responses which minimizes dependence on hypotheses derived from outside the test situation and to relate the results to the amount produced and, more particularly, to the rate of production.

Affective disturbances are a common consequence of organic brain lesions of varying aetiology, and it is to be expected that the differentiation between affective symptoms of “functional” origin and those resulting from organic lesions would become an increasingly difficult problem in an age-range which is particularly susceptible to pathological cerebral changes. In fact the classical accounts of mental disorder in old age convey the impression, by their emphasis on the depressive form of senile psychosis, that an affective disorder appearing in senescence is commonly the manifestation of some cerebral degenerative process. This is one of the sources of the widely prevalent view in contemporary clinical practice that there is a large group of cases in which dementia and a depressive (and less often a manic) symptom-complex are associated. The overlap being large, an ill-defined line of demarcation is held to exist in old age between the organic degenerative diseases and the affective illnesses of a “functional” kind.