The Grünthal-Störring Case of Amnesic Syndrome

¹ Professor of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge; The Psychological Laboratory, Downing St., Cambridge

An outline is given of the celebrated case of "complete and isolated loss of memory-retention" first reported by Grünthal and Storing in 1930. A summary of the original case reports is given, and some contemporary opinions regarding the case briefly cited. Scheller's re-investigation of the case twenty years later is then described and the ensuing controversy reviewed. Three further re-investigations of the case, instigated by Grünthal and Störring, are considered, together with the critical studies of Lotmar. It is pointed out that whereas all parties to the controversy are now agreed that the disorder of memory has for long been maintained on a psychogenic basis, Grünthal and Störring persist in their belief that at the time of their original investigations it was wholly organic.

In a discussion of the case, it is pointed out that the pattern of memory defect even in the early stages of the patient's illness does not conform in all particulars to the organic type. Attention is drawn to the relatively brief duration of the retrograde amnesia and to the severe restriction of immediate memory span, which is typically intact in organic amnesia. It is further pointed out that the case differs appreciably from certain other cases of severe amnesic syndrome to which reference has been made in the controversy.

In conclusion, it is suggested that the hysterical elaboration of the memory defect may have arisen in the early stages of the illness within the context of an organic confusional state. It is therefore doubtful whether it can properly be regarded as a "psychogenic" amnesia in the conventional sense.