Providentia

The Woyzeck Case

While cases of religious ecstasy are hardly unusual, there are definitely examples that tend to stand out.

In 1728, in the Parisian cemetery of St. Medard, a phenomenon began that quickly became the talk of France. Following the burial of a pious, Jansenist bishop named Francois de Paris in the cemetery, stories arose of miraculous cures being worked at the bishop's tomb. Pious female parishioners, who later became known as St. Medard's convulsionaries, were described as engaging in "contortions and convulsive movements, attended by cries, shrieks, and groans, all of which were regarded as manifestations of divine power." The adherents would work themselves into states of religious ecstasy and engage in acts of severe torture which they either inflicted on themselves or through the actions of assistants known as Secouristes. They would then reportedly work miracles and cure all forms of the disease.

The massive hysteria that arose led to a crackdown by the police under the King's orders and the eventual closure of the cemetery in 1732. Thousands of convulsionaries were arrested, and the movement went underground. It eventually split into different factions and faded into obscurity (despite briefly reappearing in Paris in 1759). The police action gave rise to a famous epigram: "De par le roi, defense a Dieu De faire miracle en ce lieu. (Louis to God: To keep the peace, here miracles must henceforth cease)." The convulsionaries of St. Medard gained literary immortality through the writings of Voltaire and Diderot.

A less famous but longer-lasting example of religious convulsionaries occurred in the northern Spanish town of Jaca. For centuries, this small town was known for the annual pilgrimage to commemorate its patron saint, Orosia (also spelled Eurosia). Different accounts of Orosia's life exist (and she may have never existed at all), and it remains unclear why she was named the patron saint of the demonically possessed. Still, she became the patron saint of Jaca after her relics were brought there in the eleventh century. From that time until the Church banned the practice in 1947, St. Orosia's convulsionaries took part in a bizarre procession each year on June 25 (the Saint's feast day).

The procession involved the "demonically afflicted" (e.g., epileptics, mentally ill, physically handicapped, and other stricken) and took place in front of the Saint's sarcophagus. The pilgrims would gather to find healing for their various afflictions through participation in the procession and exorcism rituals. In a description of the procession by a medical observer in 1881 (and bear with me here since my Spanish is rusty), the bishop and retinue of friars would start the procession accompanied by music and dancing. "Paralytics, madmen, people with epilepsy, and hysterics would gather during the night before the chest containing the saint's relics. Their infirmity is attributed to possession by a devil, and they seek the devil's elimination. Cramping, muscle contractions, spasmodic grins, and howling are the preamble of the convulsions. They would fall to the ground until they were black and blue, blood spurting from their mouths".

At this point, the exorcism would begin with multiple applications of the rosary and cross, which the convulsionaries would kiss repeatedly. Once the demon was deemed to have fled, the newly healed convulsionaries would jump for joy and scream. It is doubtful whether any actual "cures" occurred (there were certainly no follow-up studies). Still, the sight of the newly-exorcised praising the saint for their healing made for quite a spectacle by all accounts and drew pilgrims from all over the region.

The banning by the Church in 1947 brought an end to St. Orosia's convulsionaries and marked the last example of recurring mass motor hysteria in Europe. Sadly, the use of exorcism in dealing with mental illness continues even today with tragic results. When proper mental health care isn't available, and families seek a cure for their loved ones, what solutions might they turn into desperation?

The Shrinking Penis Panic

In September 2003, news sources documented numerous accounts of mysterious foreigners (origin and description varying with each retelling) in Khartoum, Sudan who were causing penises to disappear by shaking the hands of their victims in public. Details were rarely consistent, but media accounts told of victims who reported that their penises began to "melt into their body" either after shaking hands or using a "penis-melting cyborg comb" that had been given to them by a mysterious stranger.

One Sudan-based columnist went as far as reporting in a foreign-based newspaper that "Even though what I write today will harm 'tourism' in Sudan, I consider it my duty to warn anyone who wants to come to Sudan to refrain from shaking hands with a dark-skinned man. Since most Sudanese are dark-skinned, he had better avoid shaking hands with anyone he doesn't know…". The mysterious hand-shaker (often referred to as `Satan`s Friend`) was said to `drain men`s virility through a handshake and then extort money from victims to regain their lost manhood. The accusations and recriminations were directed against numerous convenient scapegoats, including `Zionist agents` attempting to exterminate the Sudanese by preventing men from procreating. Though medical examinations showed no sexual abnormalities in victims, it took an active intervention on the part of the Sudanese government (including numerous arrests of alleged victims and others accused of practicing `sorcery`) to bring an end to the hysteria.  While it was ultimately deemed a hoax that got out of hand, the furor took a while to subside. 

Despite being the most widely reported outbreak, what happened in Khartoum was only part of an epidemic of genital shrinking hysteria reported in six West African nations between January 1997 and October 2003. There appear to be superficial resemblances to the cultural psychosis known as Koro, but with a significant twist given the nature of the accusations leveled against mysterious `others` who supposedly emasculated African men.   Cases of perceived genital shrinkage have been primarily reported in Southeast Asian males. However, similar cases have been reported in non-Oriental cultures and seem to be associated with a fear of losing sexual potency.

What then are we to make of what happened in Khartoum in 2003?  It seems likely that the epidemic was fuelled by media coverage. Still, the political turmoil resulting from a long and bloody civil war (which has since escalated) probably played a part. There seems to be little available information on psychological or demographic factors that may have made the victims more vulnerable to suggestions.

While `mass hysteria` is a convenient label for outbreaks of unusual symptoms, it seems to mask the very legitimate fears that people in a given time or culture may experience and may emerge in an exaggerated form with the right provocation. For the Sudanese males affected, the fear of ethnic cleansing (including the genuine ethnic cleansing occurring in Darfur) may well have driven the epidemic with various scapegoats (domestic or foreign) being proposed as targets of potential retribution.

While the idea of penis-shrinking hysteria may make for entertaining reading, the paranoia triggered during mass hysteria outbreaks shouldn`t be dismissed so easily.  The violence that can erupt due to mass hysteria has led to some tragic episodes over the years.  Witch-hunts (sometimes literally so) have claimed countless lives through the centuries, and even "civilized" people can form lynch mobs under the right circumstances. 

In other words, don't believe everything you hear (especially if it involves penis-melting combs).   

What Predicts Cyber Dating Abuse?

Cyber Dating Abuse includes perpetration of aggressive and controlling behaviours against an intimate partner via technology. Despite the significant physical and psychological outcomes, there is a paucity in research exploring predictors of Cyber Dating Abuse. A study in the journal Computers in Human Behavior replicates and extend previous research by exploring the utility of jealousy, hostility, narcissism (grandiose and vulnerable), and psychopathy (primary and secondary) as predictors of Cyber Dating Abuse. Participants (N = 817; 78.2% women; Mage = 28.16, SD = 10.49) were recruited via social media and completed an online questionnaire which comprised measures of jealousy, hostility, narcissism, psychopathy, and perpetration of Cyber Dating Abuse behaviours. Results supported the hypotheses that jealousy, vulnerable narcissism, and secondary psychopathy would be significant, positive predictors of Cyber Dating Abuse perpetration. No other predictor reached significance, and gender (control variable) was also a non-significant predictor. Results are discussed through the lens of evolutionary theory and the General Aggression Model and indicate that the perpetration of Cyber Dating Abuse may be better attributed to reactive, emotional aggression, compared to proactive, instrumental aggression. These results have important clinical and practical implications and may inform management and prevention of online intimate partner abuse and violence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract.

Skeptics Warning about New "High Meat" Health Trend

"In the beginning, I was a bit sceptical. But my friend has been doing it for over a year. I thought that since he didn't get sick, there was enough empirical evidence to say that I wouldn't get sick.  Then I tried it, and it actually felt pretty good. The first night I tried it, I had some interesting dreams, more vivid and rather odd," 

In an interview with LadBible, Swedish health enthusiast Daniel Larsen hardly seems like the sort of person to risk his health by eating rotten meat.   Still, the 27-year-old Larsen is only the latest to advocate a bizarre new health trend that has gone viral on social media in the past few weeks.    This new trend involves purchasing meat and setting it, either in a refrigerator or in a plastic container, until it begins to rot and ferment.  The meat is then eaten raw, something that consumers claim produces a feeling of euphoria, thus earning it the nickname of "high meat."   Insisting that he isn't bothered by the smell of rotting meat, Larsen adds that it gives him the same effect as drinking two or three beers.  He also claimed to have talked to his family doctor before starting high meat, though what the doctor had to say was not reported.

Since the high meat craze first broke, social media posts about it have become increasingly common.   One Twitter post by an anonymous fitness enthusiast only known as @BlazenBrady presented a picture of what was claimed to be a workout meal.   The picture showed a plate of raw chicken,  bacon, butter, and raw milk.   He ended the post by adding that “Chicken is not bad at all and tastes fine. This meal is my standard meal I usually eat all the time; I eat mainly more steak over chicken, though usually.”    He responded to skeptics by posting a video of him eating the raw meat while speaking to the camera.

So how dangerous is "high meat?"    That largely depends on how contaminated the meat becomes before being eaten.   While uncooked meat isn't necessarily harmful (think sushi or steak tartare), it is still considered unwise due to the potential presence of harmful bacteria such as salmonella.  When the meat is allowed to rot, consumers risk serious stomach upset and, in some cases, acute food poisoning, which is potentially fatal.    While predatory animals can eat uncooked meat without risk, humans lack the stomach acids that destroy harmful bacteria.   While there have been no cases of fatal food poisoning with high meat consumers yet,  some consumers are already reporting episodes of explosive diarrhea and nausea.   

Though the high meat craze will surely fade as all other crazes do, it's hard to imagine that the potential high people are hoping for can be worth the risk.  For now, at least, enjoy your cooked meat and get your high from sensible eating.

 

 

Who Stalked Jessie White?

It was a completely senseless tragedy.

People likely paid little attention to seeing 19-year-old Jessie White driving her horse and buggy up and down Chicago Street in Joliet, Illinois, on the evening of March 19, 1890.   Until she stopped her buggy opposite the opera house and picked up a pasteboard box, she was carrying with her.   The box contained a revolver which she then placed against her left breast before pulling the trigger.  Witnesses later reported seeing her arms fly up in the air as she fell forward.   The revolver dropped into the street, and an eyewitness, John McGraw, managed to catch Jessie before she fell out of the buggy.  Though she was taken upstairs at a nearby hotel, a quick medical examination determined that she had shot herself through the heart and had likely died instantly.

So who was Jessie White, and why would she commit such a public suicide?  Investigators searching her pocketbook found a suicide note which had been placed inside an envelope bearing the address:  "To My Dearest Ones."   The message she had left behind was succinct enough, stating:  "I am tired of life and deny the letter-writer the pleasure of doing it. Three years is long enough to be tortured by him, and there is no prospect of any peace for us as long as I live, and inasmuch as he has promised to take my life, I really think he means to, but now he never shall. If he found any pleasure in torturing me I hope he will be satisfied now, for he has driven me to destroy my soul. All I have to say now is for you to forget and forgive me for the wicked act I am about to commit. Now, dear folks, I love you all so dearly I could not live if any of you were to be taken from me, so I want you to think it was all for the best I should leave this world."

To help explain the meaning of the letter, I am going to have to provide some history.   Jessie Z. White was the adopted daughter of a respected carpenter, James S. White, and had been living quietly at the family home on Joliet's west side.  By all accounts, she was a popular and vivacious young woman without an enemy in the world.   Or, so everyone thought.   In 1886, shortly after Jessie turned sixteen, she received the first of what would be a stream of anonymous threatening letters, all questioning her morals or otherwise trashing her character.   Along with Jessie herself, virtually every young man she ever met at a party or social gathering would receive a letter as well, all of them denouncing Jessie and insisting that they stay away from her.   The letters, all of which were turned over to Jessie's father and later to the State Attorney, were in the same handwriting and had been obviously written by one person.  

While Jessie and her family assumed that the letters had been written by someone she had rejected, they had no idea how far the letter-writer would go in persecuting her.  Soon after the letters were turned over to the State Attorney, every local newspaper received similar letters, all written in the same hand.   One newspaper even received a postcard announcing Jessie's death.  Stating that Jessie had died of consumption and that the funeral notice would come later,  the postcard was purportedly signed by Jessie's adoptive mother and the newspaper, not realizing that it was a fake, dutifully printed the death announcement.  A local funeral home got a similar message, and many of the same boys who had received letters received notes asking them to be Jessie's pallbearers. 

But things became even worse when the same undertaker received an even more disturbing letter.   This time, the letter read:

"Mr. Chamberlain: I have now laid my plans so that the family will have to grieve the death of their daughter Jessie. It seems as though she wants to live in single blessedness, for no strange man can win a smile from her. She passes us young fellows on the street without even looking at us. She is a little above medium height, has black hair, blue eyes, and a lovely figure; in all, she is a prepossessing young lady, or rather a blushing maiden of “sweet sixteen.” I have persecuted her by sending notes concerning her death to many prominent men in this city, all bearing the signature of her mother; but since that has failed to humble her I will pursue a different course. I always respected her for being shy of the men, but she carries her independence too far. This city is too quiet. It needs something like a murder case to make excitement, and it’s always catching before hanging. Your service will be needed soon, I think, if the execution of my plans are carried out all right. So look out for a tradgide [sic]. I am on the safe side, for my writing and spelling furnishes me a disguise."

Almost immediately afterward, Jessie got a letter which read as follows:

My Precious Doomed Darling: I did not intend to write to you any more persecuting letters, for your time of living is short without anything else to torment you, but I want to warn you again to be on your guard for I am going to shoot you this week. I think it is no more than right that I should let you know what danger you are in every day and night. You are a young and innocent girl, and I know that by shooting you I will be committing the most horrible crime that can’t be forgiven by God or man. I well know that I will be lynched, and I know I will richly deserve to be, but the sooner you and I are out of the world’s way the better it will be for both of us, for I don’t care to die if I had to to-morrow. The papers state that the villain ought to be lynched for what he has already done, but if they catch me it won’t be until I have accomplished my ends. I had a grand chance to pop you over last night when you was in the parlor with your sister but just as I was making aim at your heart you suddenly turned and left the room, but any way I stood where I could not be seen and listened to your sister playing “My Grandfather’s Clock” on the piano. I dropped my note when the front rooms were vacated. Well, this is my last letter to you, my doomed Jessie. You won’t receive letters after this week. Good bye, darling.

This was enough for the town's mayor to order a police detail to keep a constant watch on Jessie and her family.   Though police quickly arrested one of Jessie's cousins, David White, when he came to the family home armed, there was really no evidence against him.   When David's case was heard at the circuit court, many of the letters written to Jessie were read aloud in court while various family members testified that she had no known enemies.   David White was acquitted due to lack of evidence though he was placed under a peace bond.    

The letters kept coming, and Jessie's family finally sent her out East to live, but her tormentor somehow learned her address, and the letters reached her there as well.   Finally, after three more years of letters, Jessie committed suicide.   Along with her suicide note, she also left careful instructions concerning her funeral, including, as it happened, the use of the very funeral home that had received one of the letters.   Six young men, all of whom had received letters, were asked to be pallbearers.   Finally, after a funeral that drew hundreds of well-wishers, Jessie White was buried, and, as her family hoped, no more letters ever came. 

Still, there were some disturbing hints about who wrote the letters courtesy of the very investigators who had been trying to protect Jessie and her family.  First of all, when the mayor delegated police to watch Jessie's family home, he arranged for round-the-clock surveillance that would have seen anyone who approached (which was why David White was arrested).   The mysterious letters kept arriving despite this constant surveillance, all of which suggested that the writer was either Jessie herself or another family member.  Certainly, the way that the letter writer managed to learn of Jessie's address when she was sent East (something that only close family members knew) raised suspicions.   That one of the final newspaper stories describing her death was titled, "Was Miss White Persecuted or Was She of Unsound Mind?" rather suggests that other people were suspicious of her as well.

Could Jessie have written the letters to herself as a way of seeking attention?   And could the suicide have been meant as a way of avoiding public exposure?  There are questions that will likely never be answered since the mystery of who really wrote the letters was never officially solved.   There were certainly no other such letters after Jessie died. Make of that what you will...

Why Is There Such a Stigma About Homelessness?

Though we may never know for certain many homeless people there are at any given time, available estimates suggest there are far more of them than anyone realizes.  According to the 2019 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) released to Congress last year by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), there are around 568000 people currently experiencing homelessness in the United States alone.   But the term "homeless" covers a wide range of different circumstances, including the chronically homeless, i.e., "street people," intermittent homeless, and crisis or transitional homeless (such as women in shelters following domestic abuse).

While research has long demonstrated the medical and psychological consequences of being chronically or temporarily homeless, one problem rarely coming to light is the terrible stigma surrounding homelessness.  Often driven by a "not in my backyard" mentality,  this stigma has inspired numerous anti-homeless laws in many jurisdictions worldwide.   According to statistics compiled by the National Law Center on Homeless and Poverty, around 47 percent of the 197 U.S. cities studied have "anti-homeless" laws on the books, making the homeless prone to arrest for sitting or loitering in a public place for too long.   Not only do such laws help keep homeless people "out of sight,"  but they also deprive them of access to basic medical and social services that might improve their quality of life.  Still, given the popularity of these laws with voters, real change remains unlikely in the foreseeable future.  

But the abuse that homeless people face is hardly limited to municipal bylaws alone.   Along with frequent verbal and/or emotional abuse episodes, many homeless people are also targets of violent acts.  While up-to-date statistics are difficult to compile, a 2010 study by the U.S. Department of Justice indicated that 49 percent of homeless individuals surveyed state being victims of violence (including harassment and violent injury from police), compared to 2% of the general population.  Given their often-marginal status in society and perceived lack of support from the community, homeless people rarely report such episodes to police for fear of being arrested for "complaining."    Instead, such abuse leads to greater social isolation and a worsening of their mental health.

To read more,  check out my new Psychology Today blog post here.

 

 

The First Lone Gunman

Howard Unruh was born in 1921 in Camden, New Jersey, and, by all accounts, lived a quiet life before enlisting to serve his country in World War Two.  His tour of duty as a tank soldier was said to have had a profound effect on him.  He even kept notes on every German soldier that he killed, right down to the condition of their corpses.  After his honourable discharge in 1945 and his triumphant return to his hometown of Camden, things began to spiral out of control for him.  Family members and friends all noted a considerable change in him and remained unemployed despite being a war hero.  He also seemed to have little to do with his time except look at the medals and other war memorabilia decorating his bedroom walls and care for his considerable collection of firearms.   

While the target range that he set up in the basement of the apartment building in which he and his mother lived and his attending daily church services absorbed some of his energies, they didn't prevent him from getting into trouble with his neighbours.  The spectacle of a grown man being financially supported by his mother who worked at a local factory made him the target of considerable teasing as a  "mama's boy."   His growing alienation from the world and the feeling of being persecuted did not sit well with Howard.  In his diaries, he kept careful notes of every personal grievance (real or imagined).  When police later examined the diaries,  they found that he had written the word "retal" (short for retaliate) next to the name of every neighbour whom he had thought deserving of special consideration.

On September 6, 1949, Howard came home from a local movie theatre to find that the new gate built onto the front of the apartment building had been stolen.  As would be established afterward, that was the final trigger for the rampage that followed.  After sleeping in until 8:00 am on the following morning, he got up, dressed in his best suit, and had breakfast with his mother.  Freda Unruh later reported that he seemed like he was "in a trance" and had threatened her with a wrench when she attempted to ask him what was wrong.  She left the house and went to a friend's house to tell them about her son's strange behaviour. 

Howard then left the house himself armed with a German Luger pistol and thirty-three rounds of ammunition and went hunting for those he felt had wronged him.   In the twelve-minute rampage that followed, Howard shot at over twenty-six people, killing thirteen and wounding many others.  Most of the victims were from his list, but many others were apparently just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  He returned to his mother's apartment and prepared to make a final standoff hearing the approaching sirens.  After he was wounded,  police convinced Howard to surrender.  He was eventually charged with thirteen counts of murder and three counts of "atrocious assault and battery."  According to the two psychiatrists who examined him before his trial, Howard stated, "I'm no psycho. I'd have killed a thousand if I had bullets enough". 

Despite efforts to blame Howard's violence on his military experiences, Howard was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was found Not Guilty because of Insanity.  He was sentenced to the New Jersey Hospital for the Insane (now Trenton Psychiatric Hospital), where he lived until he died in 2009.  Even in his final years, he was reportedly a model patient who diligently carried out his mopping duties but preferred to keep to himself.   

While other returning veterans had committed acts of violence following the end of the war, as the first single-episode mass murderer in U.S. history, Howard's case certainly stood out.  It was the beginning of a disturbing new trend:  the spree killer.

Hamilton Man Convicted for Bizarre Kidnap Attempt

A Hamilton, Ontario, has been sentenced to two years probation due to his role in a bizarre kidnapping attempt four years ago.  Forty-year-old Brandon Brown, who now calls himself "Noble: Elija-Muhamad: Megafin-Strong: Bey," was first charged for the events of June 26, 2017, when he led a group to take over Hamilton's Alectra Utilities building and arrest its then-CEO Max Cananzi.   He had initially appeared at the Hamilton police central station. And presented arrest documents to officers at the front desk.  Police then told him that the documents were not legal, that he had no authority to arrest anyone, and would be arrested himself if he tried to act on them.   Despite this warning, he and his accomplices proceeded to the Alectra building stating that they would be taking Cananzi to "Mimico jail."     The men were then asked to leave, and Bey was arrested the following day.

 

Bey told police afterward that he sought “correction of contract” with the utility due to a longstanding billing dispute.  Though he had originally tried writing letters to Alectra, he stated that he was moved to act when they refused to respond.   He had also approached various police and government officials seeking assistance to seize the estate and arrest the CEO with no success.

In interviews with the police and the media, Bey justified his actions due to British imperialism and land theft from its original inhabitants.  Based on his own ancestry -including his Arawak roots - and being the grandson of noted Canadian civil rights leader Bromley Armstrong, he believed himself justified in moving against Alectra and its CEO and that he had full authority to do so.  He also told police that he was permitted to seize the utility’s land and everything on it, including the pants and shoes of the CEO.  Among his other claims, Bay also insisted that he was acting on behalf of the Pope and was not subject to Canada’s laws as he was the “Grand Marshal” of the “Kingdom of Tunis Republic of North America.”

While Bey was initially charged with five offended, he was later found not guilty of obstructing police for failing to identify himself with his legal name. The Crown also dropped a charge of failing to attend court, and the judge also dismissed two counts of criminal harassment due to a legal problem with one of the witnesses.  Bey was also sent for a psychiatric assessment at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. However, Dr. Maaz Usmani determined that he did not meet the criteria to be considered not criminally responsible because of mental illness.  Though the remaining conviction for conspiracy to kidnap might have carried a lengthy jail sentence, this was later reduced to probation.  

Judge Andrew Goodman called the case "bizarre" but also told Bey that “In almost 11 years in this job, without a doubt, you have been probably one of the most respectful accused to come before me.”  He also encouraged Bey to put the incident behind him and use his passion and intelligence for better purposes.    

Alectra refused to comment on the case.

 

 

 

Becoming Someone Else

William Bates was born in 1860 and earned considerable distinction as a medical researcher (he first identified what would be later known as adrenaline) and as a noted ophthalmologist with a fashionable New York practice.  By 1902, he was already well-known in his profession. 

And then he disappeared in 1902...

When last seen, he had just finished a pleasant note to his wife visiting her mother in another town, and he made arrangements to send her some books.  When the janitor in the building where they lived contacted Mrs. Bates and told her that her husband had not returned to their apartment for days, she hurried back to New York to search for her husband.   Many weeks passed, but she eventually tracked him down to a hospital in London, England, where he worked as an assistant.  He had apparently been brought there as an amnesia patient sometime before.  When Mrs. Bates reached London, she found her husband in a nervous, agitated state and still unable to remember recent events.  She took him to the Savoy Hotel, resting for two days before disappearing a second time.  She never saw him again. 

Despite an extensive search, she died before he was rediscovered by accident in 1910.  A colleague apparently found him practicing as an oculist in North Dakota under a different name and convinced him to resume his old life and practice in New York. He later remarried, published his most famous work, Perfect Sight Without Glasses, in 1920, and died in 1931. 

While the formal diagnosis of dissociative fugue was never made in Dr. Bates' lifetime (his obituary listed him as suffering from aphasia),  it seems to fit the known facts of the case.  The DSM IV classifies fugue as a dissociative disorder and lists the diagnostic criteria as:

• sudden, unexpected travel away from home or one's customary place of work, with an inability to recall one's past,
• confusion about personal identity, or the assumption of a new identity, or
• significant distress or impairment.

Differential diagnosis can be critical as other medical conditions such as dementia, or head trauma can mimic certain aspects of fugue.  An estimated 0.2 percent of the population is believed to experience fugue, although traumatic life experiences may increase the likelihood of occurrence.  Most fugues can last for hours or days and often resolve independently or can be successfully treated through psychotherapy.  While treatment can help recover memories predating the fugue episode, what happened during that episode is usually lost.   More extreme cases where the fugue sufferer can live for years under a different identity are considerably rarer. 

It is likely that many fugue episodes go unreported due to feelings of embarrassment or worry about the resulting stigma.  As to whether other famous disappearances can be linked to a dissociative fugue, who can say?   In any event, dissociative fugue provides a graphic example of the fluid nature of memory and how easily something as basic as personal identity can be lost.         

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The Violinist

He may have been one of the most promising musicians of the twentieth century. Fritz Kreisler reportedly said of him that "a fiddler such as [X] is born every one hundred years, one like [Josef] Hassid, every two centuries."

Born in the Polish town of Suwalki in 1923, Josef Hassid's mother died when he was an infant. After studying with a local violin teacher, Josef was taken by his father to Warsaw to extend his musical education. At the age of ten, he studied with Mieczyslaw Mihalowicz at the Chopin School of Music and, after only two years, went on to represent Poland at the 1935 Wieniawski Competition.  A shy, introverted child, Josef's memory failed him during his final performance at the competition, and he failed to make it to the second round (he still managed to receive an honorary diploma for his performance). The memory lapse devastated Josef, who reportedly cried for more than an hour after leaving the concert hall.

In 1937, Josef's father took; his son to Spa, Belgium, to study with the legendary Carl Flesch who quickly recognized Josef's talent and took over his musical education. During his time in Spa, Josef met and fell in love with a local girl, but their parents forcibly terminated the relationship since she wasn't Jewish.  Flesch later arranged for Josef to be brought to London in 1938 for a private recital at the house of Sir Philip Sassoon.; Josef's playing mesmerized his audience. Due to the Nazi invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, and the Jewish persecution that followed, Josef and his father decided to stay in London, where he continued his musical training with Flesch.

On April 4, 1940, Josef Hassid gave his first public performance at London's Wigmore Hall. Billed as the "Polish Boy Violinist," Josef played works by Bach, Schubert, and Paganini. Three weeks later, he premiered at the Queen's Hall in a performance with the London Philharmonic.  His brilliant playing attracted record producer Walter Legge, who arranged for Josef to give his first (and only) recording engagement. Josef recorded four RPM records at the HMV studios on Abbey Road. Those precious albums are the only surviving record of Josef Hassid's brilliant talent (most of his recorded pieces are available on Youtube).

Shortly after his recording session, Josef's father noticed that his son became increasingly withdrawn and moody. While he had always been prone to depression and performance anxiety episodes, Josef became even more erratic over time and often went for weeks without even touching his violin. He lashed out at his father and frequently insisted that he would be giving up his music.  Worried about Josef's mental state, Flesch arranged for Josef to be assessed by Thomas Horder (Winston Churchill's personal physician), who arranged for him to be admitted to his private hospital.   In informing the hospital of Josef's arrival, Horder told them: "I am sending you a genius."   After several hospital stays, Josef Hassid was diagnosed with acute schizophrenia.

As Josef's condition worsened, he renounced music and denied ever having played the violin. Carl Flesch wrote numerous letters pleading for Josef to return to his performing career.  In one letter, he stated that: "I hope you will do everything within your will-power to get well again as soon as possible. A great artist like you owes it to the world to become active again". After a year in hospital, Josef Hassid returned home and tried to return to his music, but he continued to find reasons against giving another performance. As his health worsened, Josef was later diagnosed as having a brain tumour. Following a dangerous and unsuccessful brain operation (not a lobotomy, as some accounts stated), Josef Hassid died in 1950. He was twenty-seven years old.

While child prodigies such as Josef Hassid and Yehudi Menuhin routinely face years of grueling training to develop their talent, we may never know why some musicians can succeed when others fail. Whether or not the pressure to perform played a role in Josef's mental illness, the few available recordings of his playing continue to serve as a testimony to an amazing talent that burned out too soon.