Boris Sidis

“ The mental states of secondary dementia are like the ruins of great castles, like fossils of former growth of vegetation of animal life. The active living moments are disintegrated, decomposed and only some of the constituents are left to function. ”

“ Such traces in the organization of the synthetic moment are vestiges of previous useful functions, of a series of adaptive reactions; they are like rudimentary organs in the economy of the organism. Thus a chick may peck repeatedly at his waste products or at a burning match and repeatedly wipe his bill; finally a marked modification is brought about in its sensory responses and reactions. ”

“ The mode of reproduction of the synthetic moment is a series of successive phases of more and more modified reinstatements which can only become intelligible on following up more or less closely to the history of the moment’s development.
The forms of reinstatement characteristic of the synthetic and desultory moments are to be found in higher types of moments. When undergoing the process of dissolution, secondary dementia, the terminus of chronic insanity offers a wealth of facts at our disposal. ”