Enuresis

Zappert, Julius

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-90621-3_3

Cited by 16 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Initially unaware of a number of earlier observations (35), (38), (44), (51), (53), (55) to the same effect (which were apparently also unfamiliar to Freud), the present writers independently discovered before proceeding far with their investigations that enuretic children very often have the most vivid "dreams of convenience" just before or during the act of urinating in bed. Under these circumstances, the sleeping child, instead of awakening to the stimulation produced by a distended bladder, fancies himself in a toilet, swimming in a pool, at the beach, alone in the forest or in some other secluded place where urination, which he now indulges in, would be allowable; in this way the child dismisses the other-(P. '97).…”

Section: I1mentioning

confidence: 77%

Enuresis—A method for its study and treatment.

Mowrer

1938

American Journal of Orthopsychiatry

434

113

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IESPITE unremitting efforts, dating from antiquity,' to develop a specific D form of therapy, nocturnal enuresis continues to be generally regarded as an unsolved problem. A review of the several hundred titles constituting the earlier literature on this topic reveals a remarkable array of proposed curative measures, ranging from patent superstitions and magical nostrums to a wide assortment of allegedly scientific methods. Innumerable drugs and hormones;2 special diets (including fresh fruit, caviar, and colon bacilli); restriction of fluids; voluntary exercises in urinary control; injections of physiological saline, sterile water, paraffin and other inert substances; real and sham operations (passage of a bougie, pubic applications of cantharides plasters, cauterization of the neck of the bladder, spinal punctures, tonsillectomy, circumcision, clitoridotomy, etc.) ; 3 high-frequency mechanical vibration and electrical stimulation of various parts of the body; massage, bladder and rectal irrigations; Roentgen and other forms of irradiation; chemical neutralization of the urine; sealing or constriction of the urinary orifice; hydrotherapy; local "freezing" of the external genitalia with ice or "chloratyl"; elevation of the foot of the patient's bed; sleeping on the back; not sleeping on the back; and the use of a hard mattress: these are some of the methods which were commonly recommended and resorted to. In the hands of a limited number of individuals, virtually every method which was proposed seemed to produce cures; but the inability of other persons to obtain equally good results by what appeared to be precisely the same objective procedures eventually made it clear that the effectiveness of these methods was more a function of subtle psychological influences than of the particular physical praxis involved! Following this realization, hypnotism and other forms of suggestion (including various kinds cf placebos) were widely employed for a time; but the results were neither much better nor worse than those obtained by earlier methods, and the A N D * The writers gratefully acknowledge encouragement and numerous courtesies extended by Professor Raymond Dodge, Professor Walter R. Miles, and Mr. Byron T. Hacker during the course of the investigation here reported.1 Goldman (X, p. 247) says: "The ancients were much concerned about the problem [of enuresis] as attested by Pliny, the famous historian, in his Nuturuf History. H e relates: 'The incontinence of urine in infants is checked by giving boiled mice in their food, in fact, this would appear to be the most common folk remedy for this condition. Other remedies are that the child should wear a clean smock at baptism, that the godparents should keep 'their money in their pockets, and among other remedies is the consumption of wood lice and the urine of spayed swine'.'' a Cf. Zappert (55) and Kanner (36).3 For an especially barbaric form of surgical mutilation, see Davis (14). 4 Cf. Davidson (13).

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Section: I1mentioning

confidence: 77%