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[The acute visual hallucinosis in infancy. Clinical, neurophysiological and psychodevelopmental aspects and
Abstract:
By introducing the definition "hallucinosis" (Wernicke) it has become possible to confine the psychoses of organic origin more closely. Therefore, this term should also be used in pediatry and pedopsychiatry in order to designate cases with corresponding clinical aspects. Thus, accordance to the phenomenological characteristics of such syndromes as described in this paper, it is justified to emphasize that the acute hallucinosis in children is a special type of disease as compared to other psychoses caused by exogenic influences in this age group. The 10 case reports deal with visual hallucinoses which turned out to be characteristically different compared to those in adults. Hallucinating children at the age of 3 to 9 years predominantly visualized animals and legendary beings. Contrary to findings in adults, scenic and systematized visions were scarcely noticed, which psychodevelopmentally may be attributed to the fact that creative power in children is still little pronounced. Etiologically intoxications and infectious diseases were the cause for the visual hallucinations of the 10 children described. In the development of visual hallucinations somatic and psychic factors are significant. They have been discussed on the basis of today's knowledge. As today, however, there exists no satisfactory theory concerning the conditions favoring the development of hallucinations. To explain the somatogenesis of visual hallucinations three theories have been outlined, based on the present neurophysiological findings. It has been worked out that especially in children emotion plays an essential role in the origin of hallucinations. In infancy and early school age, while rational control of reality is still suppressed to a great extent, domination of emotional life goes along with lack of differentiation. At the same time the difference between imagination and perception is still little precise; therefore, phenomena, impressing as hallucinations in the adult, occur with greater facility in children.