Anxiety


by Lida Prypchan
Very few people free themselves from anxiety, though at least Siegfried, the hero of The Ring of the Nibelungen, was born completely free from anxiety.  But it was a rare privilege.  Worries are the historical baggage of humankind.
As typical examples we have the company director who observes that another takes over his position because he is younger, or the student who nervously counts the days until an exam that is crucial for his future.
As can be seen, anxiety in itself is not abnormal; it is simply an all-embracing response by our personality when facing situations that threaten us.  Subjectively, it is characterized by a state of uncertainty, apprehension, tension, and helplessness when facing a threat that we perceive in a vague and imprecise form.
However, it is not necessary to think that everything about anxiety is negative, because in some cases, and depending on the person, it becomes a prod that drives us to attaining something that really matters to us.
But anguish becomes irrational when we exaggerate the response, that is, when in all or in the majority of our activities we allow it to destroy our thoughts, and there it is true that the matter is complicated because this extreme anxiety could easily lead us to depression or even to suicide.  As to its origin, it has been demonstrated that anxiety has genetic roots, but to a larger extent the environment in which the individual operates influences this.  That is why today’s society, with excess population, traffic, crowding, neurosis, and the struggle to “keep up with the Joneses”, produces excessive stress on the inhabitants of these societies.
In the specific case of Venezuela, having few men prepared to deal with the large demand for qualified men to meet the needs of the country, we see that these few do the work of many.

Castration Complex Origin of the Neurosis?

by Lida Prypchan

Both the Oedipus and castration complexes are very likely to be found in human societies and must be considered as a normal stage in the development of children.
Castration is understood as the removal of the testicles.  In psychoanalysis, castration means the removal or loss of the penis.
It is worth remembering at what age in development fears and fantasies about castration take place.  Freudian theory emphasizes a series of stages, such as: oral, anal and genital.  In the oral stage, newborns find pleasure in the mouth.  In the anal stage, during the first year of age, satisfaction derives from the anal sensation of defecation.  But it is at the end of the first year of age, when children learn to control their anal sphincter, when they grant more importance to the anus.  Both stages comprise the pregenital stage, which lasts until three years of age.  It is followed by the genital stage, beginning at three years of age, in which boys grant importance to their penis.  This stage lasts until five years of age.  During this stage, boys turn their penis into an object of sexual interest.  Sexual attraction towards the mother is associated with jealousy and fear of the father, who becomes a sexual rival.  This constitutes the Oedipus complex and it is in this stage that the castration complex starts to become important.  Freud thought that the fear of castration was awakened at a very early age by the threats and punishments arising from masturbation.  When the boy is told that sexual interest in the mother is also taboo, he begins to believe that if he persists in this interest, he may be punished with castration.
The castration complex in men is extremely deep and persistent.  According to some legends and myths, castration is horrifying.  In Phrygian mythology, Attis, the god of vegetation, bled to death after having castrated himself.
Both the Oedipus and castration complexes are very likely found in all human societies.  And they must be considered as a normal stage in the development of boys.  Freud stated that the castration complex was the main reason, but not the only one, for the mechanism of repression and that it not only affected integrity of personality, but rather that it could also lead to neurotic manifestations.  He believed that symptomatic formation in phobic, hysterical and obsessive neuroses could be traced back to anxiety about castration.  But this is no longer believed.  Neurosis is a social or cultural problem that is much more complex than what Freud thought, and he did not give importance to the social environment in which his neurotic patients operated.  This is why his theory of neurosis comes up short, without denying that it opened the way for men now engaged in this area to find new interpretations of the problem of neurosis.  
Alfred Adler, a colleague of Freud, criticized this Freudian theory of castration.  According to Adler, based on the central idea of ​​his work “Individual Psychology,” boys, threatened with castration by a stronger rival, can counter their feelings of sexual and physical inferiority through a struggle for domination of others, power and self-confidence or sexual conquest.
Melanie Klein expanded on and propagated Freud’s theory.  According to Klein, fear of castration is experienced from an earlier age than that proposed by Freud, both in boys and in girls, and that at that age they are already aware of the genitals of both sexes.

The Brain: A Computer with Secrets


by Lida Prypchan
A genius and a fool can have a brain that is identical in appearance: neither its size nor its structure under the microscope are useful in deciphering intellectual capacity.  The heart speaks through palpitations, but the brain is quiet; it does not reveal its secrets, although it generates electrical impulses that allow us to study the way it works.
In 1870, Erich Hitzig, a Prussian medical officer, walking through a battlefield at Sedan, looked for corpses whose brains were exposed.  With an electrical battery attached to two metal ducts, he discovered that when part of the brain is stimulated with an electric shock, the limbs on the opposite side of the body performed certain movements.
Our movements and sensations cause electrical impulses that travel through a network of neurons or nerve cells to the brain (which is the command center).  We have neurons all over our bodies, even in the most hidden places, and they are all connected to a huge network.  Messages arrive to the brain and it sends out an order.
The neuron is radical in the manner in which it acts: all or nothing, it either generates an electrical impulse or it does not.  It is not yet known how the brain decodes the messages and makes its decisions.  However, the route the messages follow is known.  What is impressive is the amount of different things that the brain does at once and how fast it does them.
Computers are a man-made model of the brain.
I had the opportunity to play a game of chess with a computer, which had seven levels.  I never beat it, not even at the first level.  The computer has magnificent memory, which has the basic rules of the game and a number of possible alternative moves to beat its opponent on magnetophonic tape.  What happens is that the computer does not forget anything: it has perfect memory.
Throughout life, the brain memorizes a series of data that reach the sensory organs.  Such data increases with age.  But since we are not computers, our brains remember very little of all the information we receive throughout our lives.  This is explained by the following comparison: what we use most often is what we most remember; what we use less frequently, we store in boxes and have trouble remembering.
Thousands of neurons fire simultaneously during certain specific classes of mental activity.  This rhythmically generates a series of electric discharges, called brain waves, which can be recorded by placing electrodes on the scalp and can be amplified by using an amplifier that is connected to a system of pens, graphically representing the information on paper.  This device is called the electroencephalograph and is used to explore the changes that take place in the conscious brain.  The strong, slow and steady line predominates when we sleep, daydream or rest with our eyes closed.  When we are stimulated by sensations or are awake, the line is more rapid and irregular.  Using electroencephalography, we can detect an epileptic focus.  
Brain lesions cause characteristic changes, as do certain emotional states and certain mutations, to the body’s metabolism.

The Oedipus Complex and Neurosis “Know Thyself”


By Lida Prypchan
In 1897, Freud began what may be called the most heroic act of his life: the psychoanalysis of his own unconscious.
The ancient oracle of Delphi, who said “Know thyself,” has since ancient times led philosophers and thinkers to try to pursue this goal, but their inner resistance did not allow any to reach it as deeply as did Freud.  The unconscious, the existence of which had already been speculated on, was still shrouded in darkness.  Heraclitus’s words still stood: “The soul of man is a far off land that cannot be approached or explored.”  It is not known all at once.  It involves slow intuition.  Freud senses that he needs to self-analyze himself in order to advance in his research.  For three or four years his neurotic suffering increases, but in the end he achieves greater serenity and stability, which causes him to feel free to continue his research with unwavering energy.  Two types of research arise that are closely related to his own analysis: the interpretation of dreams and the study of child sexuality.
As Freud progresses in his research, he begins to recognize, through himself, the basis of the existence of a certain child sexuality.  He believes to have discovered that as a child he felt excessive love for his mother and jealousy of his father.  His knowledge of Greek literature immediately reminded him of the tragedy of Oedipus Rex, which he interprets as an undeniable affirmation of his thesis.
Oedipus, son of the king of Thebes, Laius, and his wife, Jocasta, is the protagonist of this Greek legend, in which Oedipus kills his father, unaware that he is his father, and marries his mother, unaware that she is his mother, has two children with her and, upon learning that he married his mother, tears his eyes out.  This act of pulling his eyes out to Freud represents Oedipus’s desire to atone for his guilt.
According to Freud, the oedipal stage occurs between three and six years of age, even in abnormal people.  This stage is characterized by excessive love of the mother, jealousy of the father, who is seen as a rival, confusion as he admires and loves his father, but he observes him with jealousy, as a rival.  The oedipal complex is resolved through the father and son becoming close in order to have greater communication and identification.  By becoming closer with his father, the boy assimilates the image and behavior of his father, resolving his conflict.
According to Freud, all boys without exception go through this stage and drag certain reminiscences of the Oedipus complex into adulthood.  But to the extent that this complex is resolved, the individual will find themselves closer to or further away from being normal or being neurotic.  The Oedipus complex has to be suppressed.  But while a normal person needs to make little effort to resolve this conflict, an affected individual will be forced to deploy most of their energy to fight it.  Freud considered that the Oedipus complex was the basis for neurosis and the cause of much unconscious anxiety of guilt.  It can be explained as follows: the child feels guilty about harboring contradictory and destructive feelings toward his father; this is accentuated since the child admires and loves his father; in his mind he fears that the retaliation from his father when he learns of his feelings will be to castrate him.  The child therefore feels great anxiety regarding being caught and castrated, as well as regarding losing his mother and the love and attention of his father.  Everything is solved depending on the relationship that the child manages to establish with his father.  If afterward the father and son become closer, the child goes about resolving his conflict.  While if there are family conflicts, the child will seek even more refuge in the mother figure and will distance himself from the father figure, the conflict remaining latent.  The father figure is very important in this stage for the child, as up to that time the child only possesses a primitive conscience: he does what is right, if it goes against what his impulses dictate, only out of fear of punishment from the outside.  Thus upon the child identifying himself with his father, he imitates, assimilates and absorbs the behavior, norms and prohibitions of the father, thereby forming his own conscience.
Freud, therefore, realized nonetheless that many of the difficulties in the process of development of a child, in an earlier stage, could be determinant regarding the subsequent solution of the Oedipus complex.
Achieving the adequate solution of the Oedipus complex depends on several factors.  The innate formation of the child is important.  Extreme reactions to the child’s behavior during this stage tend to cause disorders.  Parents who are excessively punitive or lenient with their children’s feelings do not help them in solving their emotional problems.
Strict laws cannot be established on how to treat children in this stage of their development.

Intuition


by Lida Prypchan
Intuition is a really valuable factor. Albert Einstein.
The word intuition has slightly different usages. It is defined as a sudden understanding or clarification of a situation, a bright idea that oftentimes blossoms in one’s conscious and which may occur to us when we are not consciously thinking about a given subject; but intuitions are also those that occur to us suddenly, when we consciously think about a problem.
In this regard, prince Kropotin wrote: “Months of intense thought followed with the aim of finding some meaning in all that chaos of various observations, until one day, and suddenly, everything became clear and understandable as if I had been enlightened by a ray of light…” “There are not many joys in life that equal the joy of the birth of a generalization that comes to enlighten the mind after a long period of patient investigation.”
Sometimes intuitions present themselves during sleep. Otto Locur, professor of Pharmacology at the University of Gras, recounts that one night he woke up with a brilliant idea. He searched for paper and pencil, wrote down some notes. When he got up in the morning, he realized that he had had an inspiration during the night; however, try though he did, he could not decipher what he had written. All that day in the laboratory, he tried to remember the idea and understand his notes, but it was in vain. When he was going to bed, he still had not been able to remember anything, but during that night, to his delight, he awoke again with the same flash of inspiration; this time he made sure to take note of everything carefully before going to sleep. The following day, he headed to his laboratory and in one of the simplest, clearest and most definitive experiments in the history of Biology, he verified the chemical mediation of nervous impulses.
Most scientists are familiar with the phenomenon of intuition. In a survey done by the American chemists Platt and Baker, 33 percent reported being frequently aided by intuition, 50 percent only occasionally and 17 percent reported no help from intuition. The last group do not understand what an intuition is and believe that their ideas only derive from conscious thought. It may be that some of those opinions are based on an insufficient examination of our own mind’s work process.
Nor should be believe that all intuitions are correct. Unfortunately, intuitions, as the product of a fallible human mind, are not always correct.
Psychology of Intuition: The most characteristic circumstances for an intuition are the following: an intense period of work on the problem, accompanied by the desire to solve it; abandonment of the work, dedicating oneself to something else and the sudden appearance of the idea, often accompanied by a certain sensation of certainty. Frequently one feels delight and perhaps surprise that that idea had not occurred to one previously.
The psychology of this phenomenon has not been fully understood. There is a general, albeit not universal, agreement regarding the fact that intuitions arise from the subconscious activities of the mind, which has continued to think about the problem, even when the conscious mind is perhaps not paying attention to it.

The concept of the psychology of intuition set forth above provides us an explanation for the importance of: a) the freedom of the other problems and competitive concerns, and b) the help represented by periods of rest by allowing the appearance of intuitions, because these messages from the subconscious cannot be received by the conscious mind if it is constantly occupied or too fatigued. There are various cases of famous generalizations which have occurred to persons when they were sick in bed. Einstein refers to the fact that his profound generalization, relating space and time, came to mind while he was sick.
Baker affirms that the ideal moment is when one is in the bathtub and suggests that it was this favorable condition that helped Archimedes to discover his famous principle and not the fact that he noticed that his body floated. The favorable effects, both of the bed and of the bath, are probably due to there being no distracting elements and to the fact that all the circumstances help in fantasizing.
Different people have noted the favorable influence of music; nonetheless, not everybody agrees with this. Some forms of music help intuition: enjoyment of music is very emotionally similar to that derived from a creative mental activity, and the appropriate music induces an appropriate predisposition of one’s mood to creative thought. There is nothing better than music to inspire us to write a poem, as long as that type of music is appropriate to make us feel that we are in a subconscious state. It has happened to me several times that I have written a poem and then, a few days later, I read it again and I can’t explain to myself how I could have written that: the unreality of the subconscious blooms.
The huge emotional stimulus that many people experience when they carry out a new discovery or have a brilliant intuition also comes to bear. Probably, this emotional reaction is related to the amount of mental and emotional effort and that was dedicated to the problem. Also contributing to form that reaction is the sudden release of all the frustrations that have been associated with the work on that problem in particular. In this regard it is very interesting to note the statement of Claude Bernard: “Those who do not know the torment of the unknown cannot obtain the joy of discovery.”
Emotional sensitivity is a valuable attribute for a scientist; in any case, a notable scientist must be considered to be a creative artist, and it is entirely false to think that a scientist is a man who simply follows the laws of logic and experiments. Some of the great masters of the art of research have also possessed other types of artistic talent. Both Einstein as well as Planck were good musicians, lovers of music: that which understands it all. Pasteur and Bernard, from an early age, showed skill in painting and literature, respectively. Without having to go too far, in Valencia we have Dr. Guillermo Mujica Sevilla, head of the Histology Department at the U.C.: an anatomic pathologist, an educator, a supremely cultured person, lover of literature and music, especially opera. There is no place where he is not seen to collaborate. Dr. Mujica, always calm, has time for everything and for everyone.

WHY IS AN ALCOHOLIC AN ALCOHOLIC?

by Lida Prypchan

Only by understanding the numerous and complex causes of alcoholism, can the gravity of the problem be appreciated so that therapy may be practiced on an individual level and the disease combated on the social scale.  There are four main causes: DESIRE, TOLERANCE, PERSONALITY, BIOLOGICAL TYPE and HEREDITY:

DESIRE: Firstly we must analyze the hedonic value and the mythical prestige of alcohol: The history humanity shows man’s tendency to seek out pleasure and flee from pain.  This epicurean propensity makes man an easy prey to alcohol, because it has an effect as a tonic and euphoriant, relieves anxiety and frees repressions.  Secondly, certain social prejudices or false beliefs such as the one which attributes medicinal properties to alcohol, or the one which says that it increases a man’s strength and virility.  Thirdly, social pressures.  It is well known that the act of “drinking together” creates solidarity between men.  On the other hand, some drink with their colleagues after work because of peer pressure, so as not to be rejected by the group.  Other pressures come from bombardments of commercials which advertise alcoholic drinks, their cheapness, and the abundance of drinking establishments.  All this great economic power is in the hands of the alcohol magnates, owners of wealthy alcohol manufacturing companies, for whom anti-alcohol campaigns are not profitable.

TOLERANCE: By this is understood the relationship between the concentration of alcohol in the body and the degree of intoxication.  Tolerance varies from one individual to another according to age, sex, hereditary predisposition, food habits, the physical and psychic state and the time of intoxication.  For the alcoholic to seek out drink and to become used to it, he must have a form of tolerance which protects him from major organic disturbances and a form of habituation which makes alcohol a sort of food supplement necessary for the balance of his disturbed metabolism.  This has given rise to the opinion that the metabolic disturbances of alcoholism may in turn condition the alcoholic habit.

PERSONALITY AND BIOLOGICAL TYPE: The “alcoholic personality” has been discussed.  They are individuals who display moral frailty, weak character, lack of social adaptability, sexual disturbances and frequently neurosis.  It must, however, be recognized that often a bad beginning in life, social failure and, particularly, conflicts in the emotional arena can cause a nervous depression which the individual attempts to overcome by “stimulating” himself with alcohol.

With regard to the biotype, it can be said that the pyknic type (with a tendency for obesity and cyclothymic disturbances) tends toward chronic alcoholism, while the long and lean type (schizoid) tends toward delirious alcoholism.

HEREDITY: It was formerly believed that the alcoholic had hereditary defects in his ancestry which were magnified as they passed down the line.  The authors of this theory stated, “Degenerates breed drinkers and drinkers breed degenerates, a vicious cycle maintained by alcohol”.  This degeneration theory is accepted less and less.  It is undeniable, however, that alcoholism is more frequent in the families of alcoholics.

In practice, a greater incidence is observed in persons who have a family history of alcoholism.  In this respect, it would be appropriate to ask whether it is a function of example, early initiation, defective education or genetic factors.

Only one thing amongst all this is certain and that is that alcohol, although socially permissible, is a drug which, like all the others, needs people to campaign for its eradication.

WHICH CAME FIRST: ALCOHOL OR CRIME?


In July 1982, Drs. Román Prypchan and Pedro Téllez Carrasco presented for their professional advancement a detailed study on 150 psychiatric skills entitled: “Problems in the Practice of Psychiatry in Venezuela.  Analysis of some Sample Cases”.  In this work the authors found that alcoholic psychoses constituted 9% of the total sample.  There were 9 cases of pathological inebriation, 2 with alcoholic delusions of jealousy, 1 case of alcoholic hallucinosis and 1 of alcoholic paranoia.  Among the total number of sample cases there were 67 crimes against persons, subdivided into 49 homicides, 1 accessory to homicide, 6 uxoricides, 2 infanticides and 9 cases of injury.  Upon correlation of alcoholic psychoses with crimes against persons it was observed that 10 alcoholic psychoses were responsible for 7 homicides, 2 uxoricides, and 1 case of injury.  Only 2 cases were related to offenses against property and 1 to an offense against morals.  From this it can be deduced that the influence of alcohol was practically insignificant in the offenses against property and morals, whereas in the crimes against persons its influence was most significant.  It was noted, moreover, that the days when the greatest incidence of crime occurred, were on the weekends and holidays (a fact which has not varied since the beginning of the century).

Very interesting data may also be found in the work of other authors reviewed by Téllez and Prypchan.  For example, Rendón Aponte and Arocha Echenagucia, in their work entitled “Homicide and Alcoholic Influence” among 2,220 delinquents in the Penitenciaría General of Venezuela, found that 616 of the 1,467 homicides were committed under the influence of alcohol;  this goes to show that although alcohol is not a causative agent, it does facilitate the onset of crime.  However, the case may be argued to the contrary: that the individual imbibes alcohol in order to work up courage for the crime.  
On the other hand, in the work “Statistical Cause of Four Social Problems in Venezuela” Ricovery López maintains that in 60% of the cases where blood was spilled, the causative agent was the influence of alcohol.  
J.M. Echeverría reports in his study “Alcoholism and Crime”:  “in marginal groups, vagrancy, crude language and drunkenness act together in causing violence.  In these groups there is a marked tendency toward primitivism;  social standards and controls lose their inhibitory effect and lead to crime, for which reason the greatest incidence of community disputes, use of knives, pointless injuries and homicides occurs in these environments during paydays, weekends, Christmas, Carnival, and Holy Week.”
J.M. Mayorca, in an article published in a Caracas newspaper on the issue of advertisements for alcoholic drinks, reported that from 1970 to 1980 the per capita consumption of alcohol in Venezuela had increase from 103.74 to 176.27.  As a consequence the number of suicides also increased from 243 to 285, and homicides from 1,002 to 1,576.
With regard to the question “Which came first, alcohol or crime?” we would have to ascertain not man’s first sin, but his first crime, and whether or not it was unleashed by alcohol.  What is certain is that without actually causing crime, alcohol makes people aggressive and irritable even for a stupid reason.  To confirm this you need only watch a few cowboy movies:  at dusk they congregate in the tavern, at midnight they begin the shoot-out, and by dawn there is not a soul left to tell the tale other than one Manuel Matorrales who was the only male not drinking, because he had gastritis.

THE BOTTLE’S EMPTY, WIVES RUN FOR COVER

There are a few rare cases of people who enjoy long life and excellent health in spite of their alcoholic excesses, while others who drink less decline after just a few months of excess.  Alcoholism depends on the quantities imbibed by a person on a daily basis, subject to certain conditions which are inherent in or acquired by an individual.  It is the permanent psychic anomalies and the neurological and general symptoms which define chronic alcoholism.  Initially the psychic symptoms vary, but as cerebral and general lesions develop, they soon become uniform, developing into alcoholic dementia.  The essence of the alcoholic character resides in emotional fragility, intensity of the emotions, weakness of willpower and absence of inhibitions.  Depending on upbringing, the alcoholic remains amiable in his relations with others, as long as he is not opposed.  If this occurs, with his family, his boss or occasionally his peers, then he can lose control, becoming aggressive and brutal.  During the first years of his alcoholic excesses, because he is pleasant and agreeable, as well as intelligent and not a little hypocritical, he is well-liked, while at home he is a tyrant, an abject creature who plunges his family into misfortune.  Frivolity is typical of the alcoholic: he is moved by external stimuli, his emotions are in constant flux.  His behavior is characterized by inconstancy, nonchalance, amorality, satisfaction of his immediate needs without heed of ethics or the consequences of his actions.  That superficial euphoria is typical of the alcoholic temperament, a certain odd sentimentality or an eternity of abrupt complaints, producing an impression of authenticity when it is merely hypocrisy.

His loss of energy (abulia) is likewise typical.  His intellect declines considerably, terminating in alcoholic dementia.  Mental disturbances occur in the following order, beginning with lack of attention, inability to concentrate, forgetfulness, inability to learn, reduction of the psychic horizon, and in addition to forgetfulness, loss of memory.  Associations are loose and superficial, he is incapable of thought and his judgment is unsound.  The alcoholic mentality is characterized by a search for excuses to stop drinking and for reasons to continue, but whether he is a refined intellectual, wealthy businessman or an illiterate laborer, for some reason he always attempts to justify himself.

The physical symptoms are what finally enable a diagnosis to be made: facial expression, trembling kinetic symptoms, motor symptoms, sensitive symptoms, skin reflexes, nutritional state, alterations in the heart and liver, changes in sleep patterns, sexual disturbances and, if any, convulsions.

An alcoholic has permanently reddish facial features with networks of broken capillaries at the end of his nose and on his cheeks.  Trembling when in need of sustenance is not invariable, nor is it exclusive to alcoholism, but it frequently appears as a regular tremor with minute twitching.
Kinetic symptoms such as a trembling moustache when talking, (for this to be visible, the moustache has to be thin, because if it is thick and aggressive like Magnum’s, not even someone with bionic eyes would be able to see), trembling of the upper eyelid, mioclonic contractions of various muscles and unsteady gait in the more advanced stages.  Motor symptoms are: superior polio encephalitis, hemiplegia or monoplegia following pachymeningitis, or cerebral hemorrhage in cases of serious cerebrovascular accident.  There is also partial paresis or a certain looseness of facial muscles.  Sensitive symptoms are erratic pains or hypesthesia of the lower limbs and cramps in the calves.  In the majority of cases skin reflexes are greatly intensified.  As for general nutrition, there are fat alcoholics (those who drink beer and wine), and thin alcoholics (those who drink spirits), but loss of weight even marasmus, is nearly always evident in severe alcoholism.  Cardiac hypertrophy and fatty degeneration, causing arrhythmia and heart failure, are also evident.  In their digestive systems alcoholics may also suffer initially from gastritis, which later develops into a gastro duodenal ulcer accompanied by vomitus matutinus.  Fatty degeneration occurs in the area of the liver, followed later by cirrhosis then finally failure of the liver.  Among the sleep disturbances, the most frequent is insomnia.  Toward the end of the illness convulsions of the comitial type may occur.  Sexually, the alcoholic has an elevated libido and reduced potency, the latter being responsible for his frequently delayed orgasm or ejaculation and later impotency, an affliction which increases his delusions of jealousy.  I have left delusions of jealousy to the end because these are a very frequent characteristic of chronic alcoholism.  This type of delusion is curious in that while the alcoholic remains insensitive to his wife’s certain infidelities, even condoning them, his fits of jealousy occur when there is the least reason for them.  Such fits occur when he arrives home drunk in the early hours of the morning and roughly accuses his wife of her infidelities, even looking between the sheets for traces of them (or looking for her lover underneath the bed and maybe even, alas, finding him) or in the closet, or for clues on his wife’s face or clothes, some indication in her excuses or in his children’s words or attitudes.  Such a rage of jealousy provokes blows, insults and not infrequently, the violent death of the unfaithful wife and, what is saddest, often without her being unfaithful at all.  This is why, when the bar closes at the hour of dawn and the liquor has all gone, the bottles empty… the wives run for cover.

STATES OF AFFINITY

by Lida Pripchan

The attraction, union or closeness between individuals is ruled by circumstance but also by identification and antagonism.

Affinity, either for a similar concept of life, for a shared ideology, for interests in common.  Antagonism, such as that observed between the man and woman who achieve perfect unity by complementing one another.  But individuals of the same sex also can be united by antagonism, an example of which is the relationship between a purely academic individual and a practical one, or between a man who, though wealthy, lacks ideas and one who lacks resources but not ideas.  This introduction leads me to the subject of habits, since antagonism and affinity have a lot to do with them.  So it is easy to see that a drinker can meet another and be friends with him by affinity, but in the end one cannot tell whether the friendship is due to friendship per se or to alcohol; alcohol, money and food make many friends by themselves, but they are friends of circumstance, because when these three factors disappear, so also do the friends.  

The opposite of the preceding case would be the individual factors disappear, so also do the friends.  The opposite of the preceding case would be the individual who recognizes his excessive predilection for drinking and seeks out acquaintances that do not drink.  It can be inferred from these two situations, that the first individual abandons himself without precaution to his appetites, while the second cautiously channels them into other paths.  In this sense one should view youth as a stage which determines the formation of habits, particularly alcoholic ones,  since one unfortunate trait or bad habit is like a pig, which when young, does not make much trouble, but fully grown created havoc everywhere.

During adolescence it is common to allow oneself to be influenced by others (peer pressure), to question, to break with convention, as it is almost impossible to realize that one can be unconventional and very original without doing harm to oneself.  As a result it is a period of great confusion when one does not understand oneself but needs to be accepted by others.  This results in imitation, but not exactly of what is best.  Moreover, to imitate other people’s habits believing them to be one’s own is to live a dangerous lie, because the habits could well become one’s own.  Becoming accustomed to what is inadequate is to fall into a spider’s web, from which it is difficult to extricate oneself later on.  It is also hard to recognize what is going on… Changes occur constantly and with them new ways of focusing life, and although some individuals change more easily than others, there are some who never do, or if they do they don’t appear to , and instead of living through this stage and passing on to the next, they remain stuck in the same one all their lives. 

The question most frequently asked of the alcoholic by the curious is: “Why do you drink?”  I believe that when you ask this question, you expect a confession from a man ruined by adverse circumstances, but what you receive on the contrary is a very pleasant and entertaining answer on how amusing one becomes after a few little drinks.  Let’s examine the best answer, given me two years ago by Mr. C.  He told me: “Look, I’ve been drinking for years now.  I’m a social alcoholic, that’s to say I enjoy the alcoholic habit in company, although I have always been very careful.  But my wife considers me an alcoholic and not exactly anonymous.  Why do I drink?  That’s easy.  For the same reasons that I drink anything; firstly for pleasure, next for pleasure and because it’s a habit, and then for pleasure and because it’s a habit and because you realize that you become married to alcohol which is an acceptable love but not very much respected, but with drink as your companion you can walk down the street with your head held high.  Sure, you’ll find someone who will invent reasons for drinking, like a friend who says he does it because his mother didn’t nurse him (as if mother’s milk had alcohol in it!). 

Someone else says it’s because he’s too shy, another because he’s too forward and alcohol puts a bridle on him (especially when he drinks “Caballito Frenao” ¹), others because they’re in love and don’t know how to appease their passion, others because it’s what the doctor ordered.  As far as I’m concerned, that’s a load of baloney.  You drink for pleasure, for pure enjoyment, because you feel happy and content and alive inside. Anyway, everything has to do with alcohol:  business, politics, art, sports (because they always go on a binge after a championship), even witchcraft is connected with alcohol, you go to a spiritualist session or to Maria Lionza’s mountain², and just see how they put away those big bottles of rum – you’d think they’d called up the Indian Guaicaipuro!  Give me a drink from just half of that bottle and I assure you the First Negro, and all his brothers too ³, would be down in me!  Look, alcohol’s mixed up in everything.  

Why do you think this country is as it is?  Because all political meetings and all important decisions are settled with drinks, of course.  From birth to death alcohol goes with everything: when a baby is born you have to celebrate his first tinkle, when your neighbor dies, as soon as you get through with your sobbing – let the party begin!  Birthdays, baptisms, weddings (you have to be crazy or drunk to get married), silver weddings, golden weddings, copper weddings, Mother’s Day, Student’s Day, Father’s Day, Youth Day, Worker’s Day, the five hundredth anniversary of the town where you were born, Doctor’s Day, Nurse’s Day, Lawyer’s Day, Public Accountant’s Day, Social Worker’s Day, the following day, whatever day you want, the day you name and the one you don’t name too, the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year, and the month and a bit before and after elections.  What are election campaigns all about anyway?  Handing out liquor to the public to send their brains to sleep.  Why is there so much corruption?  Because the politicians steep the public in alcohol, so they can do whatever they want with them.  Forget it, there’s no remedy, society has been alcoholized.  Here’s to your health!”






¹   Literally, “The Bridled Horse”, a popular brand of extremely strong dark rum.
²   Well-known spiritualist rendezvous in Maracay, Venezuela.
³   Mythical spirit figures.

DELIRIUM TREMENS


by Lida Prypchan

Delirium tremens was identified as a clinical syndrome by Sutton (an English doctor) in 1813, but he was unaware of its alcoholic nature.  It was Rayer, in 1819, who gave a new and excellent description of this delirium and insisted upon its alcoholic etiology.

Delirium tremens is the most serious of the complications of chronic alcoholism; although it only develops in chronic drinkers, it is not necessarily a complication of chronic alcoholism, since not all drinkers end up victims to it even though they run the risk of this.  The concurrence of certain somatic factors is first necessary before it presents an appearance.  This is observed exclusively in individuals who present organic lesions resulting from extreme abuse of alcohol over a period of from seven to ten years.  It is characterized by oneiric delirium with typical symptomatology and certain physical symptoms among which the most significant are psychomotor agitation and trembling.

A few decades ago it was only noticed among persons from the lower classes, but for some time since then cases have also been observed in the upper classes, as well as among women, which was formerly the exception other than among prostitutes.

The age at which it occurs is generally between thirty and fifty.

Sudden deprivation of alcohol (abstinence) is very rarely the cause of D.T.

Constitutional predisposition toward alcoholism has been rejected as a significant factor leading to the appearance of D.T. because of the preponderance of people suffering from cyclothymic delirium, which should not be interpreted in the sense that the manic-depressive constitution predisposes one to D.T., if not to alcoholic habits.  Normally it is not usual to find psychopathic or psychotic deficiencies among those suffering from D.T., only that they are individuals of vigorous mental and physical health, whose natural robustness has resisted their alcoholic excesses for years.

D.T. is due to certain metabolic alterations which increase the toxins in the central nervous system, or prevent their destruction.  Some authors focus on hepatic insufficiency as a decisive factor in the production of these toxins; others, on the other hand, refer to renal insufficiency and yet others to cardiac insufficiency.  What is certain is that general pathogenesis cannot be inferred but the almost invariable presence of hepatic lesions speaks in favor of a single pathogenesis of metabolic origin.

Its presence is announced by various premonitory symptoms, the most significant being sleep disorders: short, restless sleep, appearance of terrifying nightmares.  It may also be preceded by one or more epileptiform crises, which can initiate an epileptic fit.  Preceded by these symptoms or appearing completely unannounced, acute alcoholic delirium occurs suddenly in the overwhelming majority of cases.  The clinical pattern is so typical, that it hardly ever presents any difficulties in diagnosis, and is characterized by somatic and psychic symptoms.  The first somatic symptom to come to attention is the excessive trembling during any movement of the limbs, mainly the hands and tongue.  The second is the profuse sweat running down the face.  The third is persistent insomnia, so the individual can rest neither by day nor by night.  Temperature is an essential indicator.  It reaches 39-40°C in two or three days, jumping around then remaining there for several days.  There is a tendency to believe that there is no such thing as apyretic D.T.  The initial fever of 40-41°C indicates acute hyperazotemic alcoholic delirium.

The psychic symptoms are: hallucinations, balance disorders, professional delusions, receptive functions, mental derangement, emotional and behavioral disturbances.

Hallucinations are the most striking symptom of delirium, consisting mainly of highly varied and haphazard visual and tactile (rarely auditory) hallucinations.  The visions are multiple, kaleidoscopic, scenic and microptic, relating to swarms of animals, talking birds, assassins armed with knives, legions of soldiers or dwarfs.  Those who suffer from haptic hallucinations experience hairy, threadlike sensations, water dripping, they feel animals biting or insects stinging, or their whole body itches.  In auditory hallucinations sounds are manifested, but these are more typically rhythmic noises like monotonous singing. By combining hallucinations from the different senses, the subject can see representations of the most diverse scenes: nocturnal processions of witches and dead people singing funeral songs, sounds of bells, a huge fair with puppet shows and fantastic circuses.  They may also experience kinetic sensations, flying off to a witches’ Sabbath, falling over a waterfall or off a tower, or getting out of bed and rising up into space.

The course, symptomatology and duration of each episode of acute alcoholic delirium cannot be described diagrammatically because of its severity and the variety of forms which it takes.  The length varies from two to eight days; some cases may be fatal, but generally the attack ends with a long dream after an intense display of the above symptoms.  During its course, relapses may occur, or it could go into a sub-acute state, or continue into residual delirium.  Recovery is usually swift, but once the delirium has occurred, a certain predisposition toward recurrence remains.  When the delirium is over, the symptoms of chronic alcoholism continue.