Silent by The National Library of Medicine

This film depicts patients who have been successfully treated for severe depression and manic states with convulsive shock therapy, showing their behavior prior to and following treatment. Patients range in age from 42 to 58 and are in varying states of depression, some suicidal and some with self-mutilating tendencies. The after-scenes show the patients’ improved moods and well-being. The film also shows the effects of metrazol and electroshock convulsions in curarized patients.

This film records a case of multiple personality. A woman (Mrs. X) regresses to a childhood state (Susie). She also has another, less well-developed secondary personality (Jack). Later, in response to the death of her parish priest, Mrs. X goes into a trance state for 24 hours and emerges as a baby with a mental age of about one year. The patient is seen at a family picnic, and later, as Susie, writing down answers to questions. There appears to be a struggle between Susie and Jack, and when Jack appears, he exhibits male posture and handshake. Mrs.

This film shows the improvement that can result from prefrontal lobotomy in chronic psychotics. Four patients are shown before and after the operation. Patients include one 25-year-old aggressive female, one 22-year-old aggressive male, one female who had been catatonic for five years, and one 26-year-old Ph.D. who has had catatonic lapses in the last three years. All patients appeared calmer and more sociable after surgery. Only the five-year catatonic female had to continue hospitalization after the lobotomy, although she had improved greatly.

This film describes and demonstrates four types of schizophrenia. Filmed at various New York institutions, it shows patients singly and grouped in large, outside recreational areas. Some patients are blindfolded. Symptoms shown include: social apathy, delusions, hallucinations, hebephrenic reactions, cerea flexibilitas, rigidity, motor stereotypes, posturing, and echopraxia. Produced by Pennsylvania State College.

This silent footage shows not only tuberculosis patients but also healthy children being institutionalized to prevent them from contracting tuberculosis and other diseases. The film opens with aerial shots in 1926 of the South Mountain Restoration Center in South Mountain, Pennsylvania, including the tuberculosis hospital, children's hospital, patient huts, open air pavilions for patient sunbathing, staff golf course, and patient burial ground.

This film emphasizes the necessity of the early diagnosis of syphilis, its clinical manifestations, and modes of treatment by reputable sources. It points out the danger of improper treatment by quacks. This film presents methods for prevention of syphilis, blood-testing to determine if infection has occurred, and treatment for a diagnosed infection. It recommends that a blood test for syphilis take place at every routine medical exam, and that pregnant women be tested so that transmission of the disease to the unborn child can be avoided.

This film shows a series of tests which were run on a white male baby at the ages of one, two, three, and six years of age to test the boy's mental, cognitive, and motor skills. When the child was one-year old, blocks were placed in front of him. He pushed and pounded them on the table. He was also given a cup, rattle, and bell which he pushed and pounded on the table. The last test showed the nurse trying unsuccessfully to get the child to stand upright on his own. When the child was two-years-old, blocks were placed in front of him and he threw them into a bowl.

This silent film was shot in Maudsley Hospital, London, and shows children handling various types of objects, placing them in their mouths, and looking around for the objects when they are removed. Apparently in contrast to non-psychotic children, these subjects search for a missing object only in the place where it was located immediately prior to removal--in the child's left hand, for example. Learn more about this film and search its transcript at NLM Digital Collections: http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9616519.

Convulsive shock's usefulness in treating affective disorders is discussed. Metrazol convulsions have been the most popular method, but spinal and extremity fractures made it hazardous until preliminary curare therapy markedly softened the convulsions. A case of manic excitement is shown to illustrate the curare-metrazol therapy. Good results are usually seen after six to eight treatments. A second treatment using quinine methochloride instead of curare is shown. Methoquinine and metrazol may be administered simultaneously. Post-treatment apnea is more prolonged with curare.

This film includes scenes in which a man and woman are carving different facial molds; a woman carves an ear; a man puts on a fake chin; a woman puts touch up paint on the man's fake chin, and finally, a fake nose and eye piece are put on a man who is disfigured.