The British Journal of Psychiatry (2001) 178: 480
© 2001 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Loss of memory and of sense of personal identity
Researched by Henry Rollin, Emeritus Consultant Psychiatrist, Horton
Hospital, Epsom, Surrey
CASES of this sort, though decidedly uncommon in occurrence, are
of considerable medical and legal interest. The record of a specially
interesting case is published in the Philadelphia Medical Journal
(May 19th, 1900) and recalls the occurrence of a similar case recently at
Cambridge where a young undergraduate disappeared from his quarters and was
not heard of for several days till he was discovered staying at an inn in the
country some distance from Cambridge. He seemed to have had no recollection of
leaving his rooms in Cambridge or of any of the incidents subsequent to that
event and until his arrival at the inn, except that he was feeling tired and
fatigued and that his boots and clothes were wayworn and dusty. The
undergraduate was a youth subject occasionally to epileptic fits at infrequent
intervals, and it appears that after such a fit he lost his memory and his
sense of personal identity and wandered about until he came to the inn where,
wearied and worn out, he took lodgings. He had lost all recollection of his
former life and condition and stayed in the inn for some days. Then a second
fit occurred after which the memory of his former self returned and he was
able to realise his position and find his way back to the University. The case
reported in the Philadelphia Medical Journal is that of a law
student, aged 19 years, living in New York, who suddenly lost his memory and
sense of personal identity and found himself wandering in the street of what
he considered a strange city. He was so perplexed that he asked people in the
street if they could tell him who he was and went to the libraries and hotels
to search in the newspapers for stories of missing persons in order that he
might get some clue to his identity. He lived at a hotel and after spending
five days in fruitless wanderings and inquiries he finally entered a police
station and inquired of the sergeant on duty whether he could inform him in
what city he was and requested that search might be made in the record of
missing persons. When this was done it was found that there was a description
closely tallying with his appearance. A detective was sent with the youth to
the address given in the description, where the wanderer was received with
great joy by his mother and sisters. To their great surprise, however, he
thanked them very politely, but assured them that that he did not know them or
the place. The mother told the police that he was a somnambulist and had left
home previously under similar conditions. In the youth's pocket there was
found a diary in which he had entered the details of his daily experience
since the time he left home and forgot who or where he was. "His
physicians state that his attack of amnesia is gradually passing off, and that
while he shows memory of other events in his past life any reference to
himself seems to be the signal for another lapse of his memory." The
import of cases such as the above is evident both from a medical and
medico-legal standpoint, and it is interesting to note their affinities with
such neuropathic conditions as epilepsy and somnambulism.
REFERENCES
Lancet, 9 June 1900,
1670.
