Dutch fugue

From The Great Outdoor Fight

A Dutch fugue is a psychological condition sometimes found within the combatants of the Great Outdoor Fight. It is described as a disconnection from reality, where the horrible and stressful conditions the victim is under causes his mind to sever all aspects of his personality from his actions. Typically, a victim becomes almost an automaton, coldly engaging his enemies -- often with uncommon brutality -- until he is either subdued or until he emerges from the fugue. During the time, his body runs on adrenaline. He feels little or no pain and often commits acts considered heinous even from the point of view of hardened Fight veterans.

The condition is not named after the Netherlands, but instead is named for Dirty Dutch Coldrell, a Dodge City native who was one of the first recorded instances of the condition in the Great Outdoor Fight. Coldrell, a southern Missouri rancher, had been in in fights before but was unprepared for the sheer brutality of the 1877 Great Outdoor Fight. On day one of the Fight, Coldrell ended up going hand to hand with his best friend, Cool Hand McCabe. In the ensuing fight, Coldrell twisted McCabe's skull right off his body (McCabe was officially 2,873rd Left Standing, that year). The ensuing shock put him into a Fugue which lasted almost twenty seven hours. During that time, Coldrell brought down ninety-seven men including eighteen fatalities. He dropped from exhaustion on Day Two and was eliminated soon afterward (984th left standing).

In an interview afterward, Coldrell described his Fugue as, "standin' outside your own body, watchin'. You know you should care... should be down there, but it all seems so terrible... it all seems so wrong... that all you can do is watch from afar while your body takes care a'business. Part of me was horrified that I couldn't seem to control myself. But part a'me wishes I'd never come back, neither."

Fugues are not common, and often as many as ten or twelve years pass before a fugue is reported. The conditions that lead to a fugue follow a common pattern. A fighter -- often an inexperienced fighter, with a seemingly peaceful past -- is put into an intensely stressful situation. Perhaps it is his first one-on-one battle. Perhaps it is something that enrages him in the heat of battle. Perhaps it's simply the chaos of the situation. The fighter often does something he finds hideous -- like Coldrell's decapitation of his best friend. Unable to deal with what he has just done, the fighter disassociates his actions and emotions -- in effect, letting his body become a killing machine while holding his mind clear of the ramifications of his actions. At some point, be it from an adrenaline crash, exhaustion, running out of targets, or simply being pulled down by a horde of enemies, the fuguing fighter crashes. Often, at this point, traumatic amnesia sets in -- blanking the events out. In other cases, the full horrible realization of what he has done crashes in on the fighter. Since 1957, the Fight has had men on hand to act as a Suicide Watch for fighters who come down off a fugue after the dramatic suicide of 1957 Champion Lowell Carmichael, who tore his own head off, and the Great Outdoor Fight has a special arrangement with the Happy Dales Sanitarium for the Criminally Insane to facilitate the committal of post-fugue fighters.

The most famous (or infamous) example of a Dutch fugue comes from the 1984 Champion Fauntleroy Brown. Brown, B.O.C. of Stanley "Grip" Brown entered a Dutch fugue after tearing the heart out of Fast Eddie Brandt. His fugue lasted three days and left 586 men dead or maimed. Brown never truly recovered from the Fugue, and remains in residence at Happy Dales Sanitarium to this day.