MARKED disorders of reasoning may be observed in patients who are emotionally very disturbed. Thinking disorders and confusional states are well recognized but have been studied only slightly in cases of manic excitements and depressions. Little mention is made in the literature of marked disorders of reasoning which may occur transiently in anxiety neuroses and in psychoneurotic and psychopathic reactions under the influence of intense emotion. Patients of high intelligence are unable to reason well during these episodes, which may be brief or prolonged.
The present study attempts to clarify the type of thinking disorder which occurs, the psychopathologic setting and the role of specific emotional factors. In the experiments to be described, patients in whom there seemed to be a disturbance of reasoning were studied. Some of these patients were retested after the disorder of reasoning had disappeared. These disorders of reasoning occurred in different psychopathologic settings and in