Diogene
1081 mots
5 pages
History Clark and al in 1975, in a study concerning 30 patients of more than 65 years hospitalized for a pointed pathology and for an extreme carelessness of themselves, described patients living in conditions of major dirt, accumulating any sorts of useless objects and garbage in their housing environment. They considered this behavioural problem as a syndrome which they baptized: " syndrome of Diogene ". This terminology makes reference to the famous Greek philosopher of the IVth century before J.C, Diogène, leader of the cynics and the follower of Socrates. This last one, dirty with the long and untidy hair, lived in a barrel and disdained the social agreements by expressing its disdain for the humanity. He had for the only things only a coat and a shoulder bag. Such was its choice of life. clinical From the various works, it is possible to define the clinical characteristics of the syndrome of Diogene: A behavior of carelessness of the personal hygiene and the place of life, A denial of the reality and an absence of shame relative to their way of living, A social isolation, A pre-morbid personality: suspicious, cunning, distant, a tendency to deform the reality, A refusal of any lived help as intrusive. Let us note that Clark added to these diagnostic criteria, the absence of cognitive changes. Ethiopathogénie In the literature, we raise various hypotheses concerning the étiopathogénie of this behavioural problem. Consequently, there is no consensus on mechanisms étiopathogéniques. Nevertheless, two currents seem to coexist: the one which connects the syndrome with a psychiatric pathology and the other which evokes the choice of a lifestyle and the expression of the free will, just like Diogène. For Clark, who does not find psychiatric pathology nor cognitive change to half of his patients, the syndrome of Diogène would correspond to a reaction to the specific stress of the old subject, arising on a