{"id":9122,"date":"2023-10-21T09:00:40","date_gmt":"2023-10-21T14:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=9122"},"modified":"2023-10-20T20:26:55","modified_gmt":"2023-10-21T01:26:55","slug":"mfdj-10-21-23-sy-kahns-skull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=9122","title":{"rendered":"MFDJ 10\/21\/23: Sy Kahn’s Skull"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s Thought-Provoking Yet Truly Morbid Fact!<\/h3>\n
Most infantrymen in World War II looked with scorn on the ‘rear-echelon glory hunters’ who scavenged souvenirs when they had not seen a day of fighting between them, but teeth, and even skulls, were not simply showpieces\u2014they could also be cause for reflection and helped some men to cope with the extreme environment in which they were trapped. One such man was Sy Kahn, a member of the US Army Transportation Corps who toiled at loading and unloading ships on the coast of New Britain. He was nineteen when he went to war, with several spare pairs of spectacles, and by his own admission he was ‘infinitely more comfortable with a book or a violin in [his] hands than [he] was with a rifle’. He was convinced that he would never return.<\/div>\n
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\nSy Kahn during World War II<\/em><\/div>\n
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In February 1944, a few months into his tour of duty, Kahn ventured into the forest with a friend to explore an abandoned Japanese\u00a0hospital and camp. The forest was thick and swampy and full of insects, and the ground was littered with ammunition, guns, rations and medical equipment. It was a ‘foreboding and mysterious’ place to be. They picked up a few souvenirs \u2014cans with Japanese writing on them and woven baskets \u2014 but on the trek home they stumbled across something far more compelling: human bones. First a leg bone, then two ribs, and then Kahn spotted a skull. He could not be certain that it was Japanese, but he assumed it was from ‘the high position and prominence of the cheek bones’. Part of the skull had been blown away, the lower jaw was missing, and the flesh had all gone. Kahn wrapped the skull in a piece of cloth and took it back to camp, where he washed it clean in the ocean and let it bleach dry in the sun. He and his friend used it as a candleholder. It took pride of place in their newly arranged room, a sanitized little refuge they had created, half underground, lined with sandbags, looking out to sea, and furnished with a desk, a few books, pictures and cigarettes, and the skull. It was ‘a clean and isolated place’ they could enjoy.<\/div>\n
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Kahn found himself meditating on the skull. He could not help it. He wrote about it in his diary. He wondered about the dead Japanese man it had belonged to, about his life and family; he wondered whether the man had been good or evil, and whether he had killed many Americans. In contrast to the soldiers who displayed trophy skulls in public to dehumanize their enemy, Kahn’s skull became the focus of private moments of reflection. It left him seeking a relationship with his nameless, faceless foe, and gave him the space to see this particular ‘Jap’ as an individual. He wondered at the circumstances that brought them together ‘alongside a jungle stream’ on the other side of the world, and in these moments of solidarity, he thought about the arbitrariness of war and death. Why should this particular man’s skull end up as a candleholder on an American soldier’s desk? But Kahn did not feel pity, because he knew it might just as easily be him. After all, as he noted in his journal, men on both sides were being ‘blasted before my eyes.’ The skull was tragic, it was ridiculous, and ultimately it was inconsequential.<\/div>\n
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In Kahn’s hands, the skull was transformed into a memento mori<\/em>. He thought about the irreducible physicality <\/i>of death. The dead soldier was now a ‘bodiless thing’. He felt this physicality with his fingers ‘toying with this recently living-and-thinking head, running my hand around the inside of the smooth, hard shell where once there were brains and living matter, fingering his gaping eye sockets and nose, and pulling at the loose teeth’. Kahn played with death like a toy, trying to come to terms with it, to tame it.<\/div>\n
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Culled from: Severed<\/a><\/div>\n

\nArcane Excerpts!<\/h3>\n

A Compendium of Insanity<\/a> is a book written by John B. Chapin, M.D., LL.D. and published in 1898.\u00a0 Chapin (1829-1918) was an American physician and mental hospital administrator. He was an advocate for the removal of mentally ill patients from the almshouses in New York State to a hospital setting and helped to pass a state law that provided hospital care for the patients.\u00a0 Here is an excerpt from the book which answers the question that I often ponder:\u00a0 am I suffering from Melancholia with Delusions and Agitations?\u00a0 (It turns out, no \u2013 no, I am not!)<\/p>\n

Melancholia with Delusions and Agitations<\/b><\/p>\n

The symptoms which have been described as characterizing simple melancholia, if recovery does not take place, continue in a more intensified form in the further evolution of the disease. The intellectual faculties become involved and clearly-defined delusions are formed. Sense-disturbances, as hallucinations and illusions, appear, of a character to excite apprehension in the mind of the patient. The depression also becomes more profound. Insomnia, restlessness, and motor excitement, amounting to an agitation of the whole system, are all symptoms which may be looked for, resulting mainly from the nature of the delusions, which reach and undermine the very instincts of self-preservation. Throughout the attack there is an active suicidal tendency to contend with, requiring on the part of the physician and nurses the most vigilant and constant watchfulness.\u00a0 It is difficult or impossible to gain or hold the attention of the patient or to engage him in conversation about ordinary affairs. He is engrossed with his delusions. He may charge himself with the commision of great crimes and sins, for which he is to suffer and to be punished here and here-after for endless ages, and he even seems to see his tormentors and their means of torture. He alleges that he has committed the unpardonable sin\u2014sinned against the Holy Ghost\u2014and has other delusions concerning his religious state. He may state that he and his family are bankrupt. While he is suicidal he may also be homicidal, under a conviction that greater suffering is awaiting himself and family, from which death would be a happy release, or under the influence of a delusion he may resort to some form of self-mutilation. A woman attempted to drown her grandchildren and kill her daughter. She announced her intention to kill herself, and declared that they would all go together to heaven. The urine is retained and attempts are made to restrain the action of the bowels. The patient wrings his hands and may moan and groan aloud, imploring mercy. He picks at his face and nails, rubs and scratches his hands, and denudes portions of the scalp by rubbing and pulling out single hairs. He shows an inability to keep quiet, moves about in a rhythmical manner or to and fro, gets into bed and out of it, and stands at night. The patient may throw off his clothing because it is burdensome, or on account of imaginary odors attaching to it, or because of hyperesthesia of the skin. The patient may refuse food because of a belief that he is satiated, that all digestive operations are arrested, or that he has no money with which food may be purchased, or because of hallucinations concerning the food, which to him may look like blood, or have a putrid odor and a loathsome taste. There is in some cases a degree of restlessness amounting to constant, uncontrollable motion or agitation\u2014symptoms that have suggested the terminal affix used in connection with this form of melancholia. So incessant is the motor disturbance, so intense is the mental confusion, and so completely does the self-control seem to be suspended, that the term frenzy <\/i>has been applied to the temporary paroxysms of excitement which sometimes supervene. To that condition of mental agony characterized by moaning and groaning, with or without self-accusations, the term psychalgia, or mind-pain, has been aptly suggested by Clouston. The patient may say, “I am in such dreadful agony it cannot be endured,” yet a careful examination will fail to locate the seat of alleged pain or any possible source of bodily pain. In this condition of mind patients have made, and are in constant danger of, assaults upon themselves.<\/div>\n
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The facial expression is some indication of the controlling thoughts ordinarily, and especially is this true of melancholia. The lines of the face lose their mobility; the eyes betray suspicion, apprehension, and fear; the face has a shrunken expression, and may have a sallow or congested appearance. The extremities\u00a0are cold, the bowels are torpid, and all of the secretions and functions seem to be imperfectly performed. It is common to notice that the patient rubs his head and pushes the hair back from the forehead; that he presses his hands upon the forehead, or rubs his face until it is abraded in spots; and that he pinches the palms of the hands until they have a hard, calloused appearance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It is not to be inferred that all of the symptoms named will appear\u00a0in every case of melancholia. The extraordinary range and character of the delusions and disturbances\u2014always depressing in character\u2014have been mentioned, but a sufficient number of them do appear to determine the form of disease, and occasionally every one of them can be seen in a single case.<\/div>\n
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\nIsn’t the difference obvious?<\/em><\/div>\n

Andersonville Prisoner Diary Entry Du Jour!<\/h3>\n

This is the continuation of the 1864 diary of Andersonville prisoner Private George A. Hitchcock (see the\u00a0archived version<\/a>\u00a0for all entries up until now).<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s today\u2019s entry:<\/p>\n

July 5th. <\/strong>Very hot, but a fine breeze blows up from the swamp. A death from cholera last night is reported. Rumors of the fall of Richmond on the 2d.<\/p>\n

Culled from:\u00a0Andersonville: Giving Up the Ghost<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s Thought-Provoking Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Most infantrymen in World War II looked with scorn on the ‘rear-echelon glory hunters’ who scavenged souvenirs when they had not seen a day of fighting between them, but teeth, and even skulls, were not simply showpieces\u2014they could also be cause for reflection and helped some men to cope […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9129,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9122\/revisions\/9129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}