Catalepsy
A neurological condition of rigidity and pain insensitivity.
Catalepsy is a neurological condition marked by muscular rigidity and a fixed posture that persists regardless of external stimuli, along with reduced sensitivity to pain. Its name derives from the Ancient Greek katálēpsis, meaning 'seizing' or 'grasping.' The condition is notable for its appearance in various nervous disorders and its dramatic use in literature and stage hypnosis.
Quick Facts
- Field
- Psychiatry, Neurology
Facts from the source article.
Causes
Catalepsy appears as a symptom of several nervous disorders, including Parkinson's disease and epilepsy. It is also characteristic of cocaine withdrawal and can be a feature of catatonia. Treatment for schizophrenia with anti-psychotics such as haloperidol, as well as the anesthetic ketamine, may induce the condition. Protein kinase A has been suggested as a mediator of cataleptic behavior. Unsuggested waxy catalepsy, sometimes with spontaneous anesthesia, can indicate hypnotic trance, while suggested rigid catalepsy has been demonstrated in stage hypnosis and by Asian martial artists, who attribute it to qi.
Historical cases
Armand D'Angour has suggested that reports of Socrates standing perfectly still for hours during the Athenian campaign against Potidaea around 429 BC, as recounted in Plato's Symposium, may be too extreme for rational choice alone and could indicate an underlying condition such as catalepsy. St. Teresa of Avila experienced a prolonged bout of catalepsy beginning in 1539, precipitated by stress at the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation; her legs became rigid, leaving her an invalid for three years, and she endured intermittent attacks thereafter. Rufina Cambaceres, an Argentine socialite, suffered a bout of catalepsy on her birthday, May 31, 1902. Buried that night, she was later found to have been buried alive, with scratch marks on the coffin lid and her face; doctors presumed she died of exhaustion or shock after waking.
Artistic depictions
In the arts, catalepsy frequently serves as a dramatic plot device. In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Friar Laurence gives Juliet a catalepsy-inducing potion so effective that Romeo believes her trance is death, leading to both their suicides. Alexandre Dumas, père's The Count of Monte Cristo features the Abbé Faria, who has periodic cataleptic fits and eventually dies from one. In Eugène Sue's The Mysteries of Paris, the villain Jacques Ferrand experiences a cataleptic fit during his final confrontation. George Eliot's Silas Marner has cataleptic fits that contribute to his reputation as a wizard. In Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The Adventure of the Resident Patient,' a man feigns catalepsy to gain access to a neurologist. Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier depicts the protagonist Dowell experiencing catalepsy after his wife's death. Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land presents Valentine Michael Smith believed to have catalepsy upon returning to Earth. Edgar Allan Poe used catalepsy repeatedly, including in 'The Premature Burial,' where the narrator fears being buried alive, and in 'The Fall of the House of Usher,' where Madeline Usher is buried alive while cataleptic. Poppy Z. Brite's Exquisite Corpse has a serial killer inducing catalepsy to escape prison. Émile Zola's 'La Mort d'Olivier Becaille' features a protagonist buried alive after a cataleptic state. In Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu novels, Dr. Fu Manchu possesses a serum that induces catalepsy indistinguishable from death.
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