HISTORICAL NOTES
A HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE TO THE TERM CATATONIA
EVANGELOS PAPATHOMOPOULOS M.D.1, and
WILLIAM F. KNOFF M.D.2
1 Director of Psychiatric Education, Colorado State Hospital, Pueblo.
2 Associate Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry, State University of New York, Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse.
Kahlbaum's original concept of catatonia as probablè brain disease in part manifested by "overstretching" or "overtensing" of the musculature was reflected in his choice of the term catatonia for the syndrome. Subsequent investigations of the curious muscular phenomena in catatonia have followed physiological and psychological lines. At present, it appears that catatonic muscular symptoms might be primarily viewed as psychological (communicative) in nature.
