The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: "Incontinent Nostalgia"

Here, I found myself thinking of ‘reminiscence' in its strict, Jacksonian sense, as a convulsive upsurge of memories from the remote past.

We have already commented, in this connection, on the exacerbation or recurrence of respiratory crises, oculogyric crises, iterative hyperkineses, and tics.

We have already commented, in this connection, on the exacerbation or recurrence of respiratory crises, oculogyric crises, iterative hyperkineses, and tics.

We have also observed the reactivation of many other ‘dormant', primitive symptoms, such as myoclonus, bulimia, polydipsia, satyriasis, central pain, forced affects, etc.

At still higher levels of function, we have seen the return and reactivation of elaborate, affectively charged moral postures, thought-systems, dreams, and memories—all ‘forgotten', repressed, or otherwise inactivated in the limbo of profoundly akinetic, and sometimes apathetic, postencephalitic illness.

At still higher levels of function, we have seen the return and reactivation of elaborate, affectively charged moral postures, thought-systems, dreams, and memories—all ‘forgotten', repressed, or otherwise inactivated in the limbo of profoundly akinetic, and sometimes apathetic, postencephalitic illness.

A striking example of forced reminiscence induced by L-Dopa was seen in the case of a 63-year-old woman who had had progressive postencephalitic Parkinsonism since the age of 18 and had been institutionalised, in a state of almost continuous oculogyric ‘trance', for 24 years.

This period was marked by nostalgia, joyful identification with a youthful self, and uncontrollable upsurge of remote sexual memories and allusions.

The patient requested a tape-recorder, and in the course of a few days recorded innumerable salacious songs, ‘dirty' jokes and limericks, all derived from party-gossip, ‘smutty' comics, nightclubs, and music-halls of the middle and late 1920s.

These recitals were enlivened by repeated allusions to then-contemporary events, and the use of obsolete colloquialisms, intonations and social mannerisms irresistibly evocative of that bygone flappers' era.

These recitals were enlivened by repeated allusions to then-contemporary events, and the use of obsolete colloquialisms, intonations and social mannerisms irresistibly evocative of that bygone flappers' era.

These recitals were enlivened by repeated allusions to then-contemporary events, and the use of obsolete colloquialisms, intonations and social mannerisms irresistibly evocative of that bygone flappers' era.

Increasing excitement necessitated a reduction of the dosage of L-Dopa, and with this the patient, although remaining quite articulate, instantly ‘forgot' all these early memories and was never again able to recall a single line of the songs she had recorded.

Forced reminiscence—usually associated with a sense of déjà vu, and (in Jackson's term) ‘a doubling of consciousness'—occurs rather commonly in attacks of migraine and epilepsy, in hypnotic and psychotic states, and, less dramatically, in everybody, in response to the powerful mnemonic stimulus of certain words, sounds, scenes, and especially smells.

Penfield and Perot have been able to evoke stereotyped recalls by stimulating epileptogenic points in the cortex, and surmise that naturally occurring or artificially induced seizures, occurring in such patients, activate ‘fossilised memory sequences' in the brain.

Such traces, we conceive—like the subcortical imprints of remote events far below the horizon of mental life—are indelibly etched in the nervous system, and may persist indefinitely in a state of abeyance, due either to lack of excitation or to positive inhibition.

Such traces, we conceive—like the subcortical imprints of remote events far below the horizon of mental life—are indelibly etched in the nervous system, and may persist indefinitely in a state of abeyance, due either to lack of excitation or to positive inhibition.

Such traces, we conceive—like the subcortical imprints of remote events far below the horizon of mental life—are indelibly etched in the nervous system, and may persist indefinitely in a state of abeyance, due either to lack of excitation or to positive inhibition. The effects of their excitation or disinhibition may, of course, be identical and mutually provocative.

The forced reminiscence induced by L-Dopa, cortical probes, migraines, epilepsies, crises, etc. would seem to be, primarily, an excitation; while the incontinently nostalgic reminiscence of old age, and sometimes of drunkenness, seems closer to a disinhibition and uncovering of archaic traces.

The forced reminiscence induced by L-Dopa, cortical probes, migraines, epilepsies, crises, etc. would seem to be, primarily, an excitation; while the incontinently nostalgic reminiscence of old age, and sometimes of drunkenness, seems closer to a disinhibition and uncovering of archaic traces.