IDIOCY, IDIOTS. - Among the more severe or major forms of mental deficiency (v.), together with imbeciles (v.), are the idiots or “cerebro-pathic mental defectives” (S. de Sanctis), whose condition is linked to the incomplete development of the brain, caused by toxic factors (alcoholism), circulatory or mechanical issues, or infections (syphilis or other neurotropic viruses) that affected the brain during its development, whether in the intrauterine period, at birth, or in the early stages of extrauterine life. This results in severe impairments of psychic functions, accompanied by particularly motor neurological symptoms (strabismus, paresis, paralysis, etc.).
Severe forms of idiocy lead to a complete absence of any manifestation of higher psychic life, whether cognitive or affective. The individual, incapable of communicating with others through speech—thereby expressing their own thoughts—and of providing for their own existence, sinks to a level below that of a beast.
In some milder varieties of idiocy, a rudimentary form of understanding and language may develop, capable of expressing the most basic needs and the faintest outline of some twilight state of consciousness, though intelligence remains below that of a six-year-old child. In such cases, the administration of certain Sacraments may be justified. The temperament of idiots, depending on the degree of mental deficiency, ranges from complete insensitivity to the most unusual, aggressive irritability, sometimes leading to suicide or brutal aggression. Puberty is delayed, and while sexual manifestations are usually very weak, in some cases they take on the most shameless and perverted forms due to the complete lack of moral inhibition.
Physical characteristics, linked to abnormal cranial development and neurological lesions, accompany the mental picture (macrocephaly from hydrocephalus, microcephaly, receding forehead, strabismus, prognathism, paralysis, etc.), betraying the subject’s idiocy even in outward appearance.
Idiocy may manifest in different syndromes, depending on the varying neurological symptomatology. From this perspective, within the common framework of psychic disturbances in mental deficiency, the clinical pictures of “infantile cerebral palsy,” “hypertrophic tuberous sclerosis,” “familial amaurotic idiocy,” “sporadic myxedematous cretinism,” etc., take on distinct forms.
Due to the severe anatomical cause—the aftermath of previous brain lesions—idiots are not susceptible to cure or improvement. However, in less severe cases, limited enhancement of whatever faint mental activity may be present can be achieved through institutional care and the work of suitable institutes (v. MINORATI PSICHICI).
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