| Catalepsy | |
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| Catalepsy | |
| Specialty | Psychiatry, Neurology |
Catalepsy (from Ancient Greek katálēpsis, κατάληψις, "seizing, grasping") is a neurological condition characterized by muscular rigidity and fixity of posture regardless of external stimuli, as well as decreased sensitivity to pain.
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Symptoms include a rigid body, rigid limbs, limbs staying in same position when moved (waxy flexibility), no response, loss of muscle control, and slowing down of bodily functions, such as breathing.
Catalepsy is a symptom of certain nervous disorders or conditions such as Parkinson's disease and epilepsy. It is also a characteristic symptom of cocaine withdrawal, as well as one of the features of catatonia. It can be caused by schizophrenia treatment with anti-psychotics, such as haloperidol, and by the anesthetic ketamine. Protein kinase A has been suggested as a mediator of cataleptic behavior. Unsuggested waxy catalepsy, sometimes accompanied by spontaneous anesthesia, is seen as an indicator of hypnotic trance. Suggested or induced rigid catalepsy, of extended limbs or even the entire body, sometimes tested with heavy weights, has been a staple of stage hypnosis shows and even academic demonstrations of hypnotism since the late 18th century, as proof of extraordinary physical abilities possible in trance states. Such demonstrations have also been performed by Asian martial artists and attributed to the pneumatic vital energy known as qi.[citation needed]
Armand D'Angour suggests that reports (such as that recounted in Plato's Symposium) of Socrates, in about 429 BC, standing perfectly still for hours on end during the Athenian campaign against Potidaea while seemingly deep in thought, are "too extreme to be considered wholly a matter of rational choice," and that "it is reasonable to suppose that it was the symptom of an underlying physiological or psychological condition", such as catalepsy.
St. Teresa of Avila experienced a prolonged bout of catalepsy that began in 1539. This episode was precipitated by the stress she experienced at the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation. Her legs became rigid, leaving her an invalid for three years. Teresa endured intermittent attacks of catalepsy from then on.
Rufina Cambaceres, an Argentine socialite, is well known in Buenos Aires for her tragic death in 1902. The 19 year-old girl experienced a bout of catalepsy on the day of her birthday, May 31, 1902. The night of her burial in the family mausoleum, the caretaker of La Recoleta Cemetery heard noises coming from her vault. He found the coffin was not in the right position, with scratch marks on the inside of the lid and the girl's face. Rufina had been buried alive. The reason for her bout of catalepsy has never been fully clarified but it was presumed later by doctors that she died of exhaustion or shock after waking up.
In the arts, catalepsy is often used for dramatic effect, sometimes as a plot device.
Friar Laurence
...Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
And this distilléd liquor drink thou off;
When presently through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humour, for no pulse
Shall keep his native progress, but surcease:
No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou livest;
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To paly ashes, thy eyes' windows fall,
Like death, when he shuts up the day of life;
Each part, deprived of supple government,
Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death:
And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt continue two and forty hours,
And then awake as from a pleasant sleep ...
(Account of character Jem Rodney, the molecatcher)
... coming up to him he saw that Marner's eyes were set like a dead man's, and he spoke to him and shook him, and his limbs were stiff, and his hands clutched the bag as if they'd been made of iron. ... No, no; it was no stroke that would let a man stand on his legs, like a horse between the shafts, and then walk off as soon as you can say "Gee!" But there might be such a thing as a man's soul being loose from his body, and going out and in, like a bird out of its nest and back; and that was how folks got over-wise, for they went to school in this shell-less state to those who could teach them more than their neighbours could learn with their five senses and the parson.
(Narrator)
... a peculiar interest had been centred in him ever since he had fallen at a prayer meeting into a mysterious rigidity and suspension of consciousness which, lasting for an hour or more, had been mistaken for death.
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