Observations placeholder
Hack Tuke, Daniel – Sickness - Blood circulatory problems induced by powerful emotions – rejection and sexual frustration
Identifier
026124
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
As described in Illustrations Of The Influence Of The Mind Upon The Body In Health And Disease, Designed To Elucidate The Action Of The Imagination - Daniel Hack Tuke, M.D., M.R.C.P.,
PART II. THE EMOTIONS.
CHAPTER IX. INFLUENCE OF THE EMOTIONS UPON THE INVOLUNTARY MUSCLES.
BLOODVESSELS.
Passing from the heart to the muscles by which the supply of blood to the body is regulated, we find them to be strikingly influenced by emotional states.
Fletcher (Sketches from the Case-Book to illustrate the Influence of the Mind on the Body. By R. Fletcher, M.B.C.S. 1833, p. 256) records a case of
" bellows-sound of the arteries from irritable brain," in which, " on the application of an uncommonly severe mental irritant, the stream of blood passed loudly, like a rushing torrent, through the vessels." The sound, however, " floated sometimes softly like a gentle stream, then in bounds or jets synchronous with the action of the pulse, over the cavities of the trunk, from the abdominal aorta to the arch in the chest and both subclavians."
The patient was a lady of forty-six. The ailments of this person — originally a spoiled child — appear to have been misunderstood. She made an unhappy marriage. " Disappointment fell heavily. Every feeling was certainly not now indulged ; perhaps few, or probably she expected too much. Something, too, might be said concerning a certain green-eyed monster and his fatal and malignant sway in married life."
She eventually became insane. Mr. Fletcher refers the sound to a " strictured " condition of the vessels, but it is more likely to have arisen from the state of the blood, or from a relaxed condition of the vessels.