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 7 - > N
 
 A CONDITION OF VOLUNTARY RECEPTIVITY 
 (See page 74)
 
 HANDBOOK 
 
 OF 
 
 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS 
 
 APPLIED HYPNOTISM 
 
 PSYCHIC SCIENCE 
 
 A MANUAL OF PRACTICAL PSYCHOTHERAPl|J4>E$IGNED 
 ESPECIALLY FOR THE GENERAL 
 
 OF MEDICINE ,J<b,SGERY 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY S. MUNRO, M. D. 
 
 OMAHA, NEBRASKA 
 
 THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED 
 
 ST. LOUIS 
 
 C. V. MOSBY COMPANY 
 1912
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY C. V. MOSBY COMPANY. 
 
 Pretfo] 
 
 C. V Mosby Company 
 St. Louis
 
 ' 
 
 \\JM 
 
 TO THE MEMORY OF 
 
 MY MOTHER 
 
 WHOSE BEAUTIFUL EXAMPLE AND MOST FREQUENT 
 SUGGESTION, " BE SURE YOU ARE RIGHT AND THEN 
 GO AHEAD," HAS GIVEN TO MY LIFE WHATEVER 
 DYNAMIC QUALITY CHARACTERIZES THIS BOOK.
 
 PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION. 
 
 The exhaustion of two large editions of this book within less than 
 two years after its appearance attests the success of the humble 
 efforts of the author in laying before the general practitioner 
 an account of the principles of psychotherapy in such manner 
 as to be of practical value as an adjunct to his therapeutic arma- 
 mentarium. 
 
 That psychotherapy has won for itself the highest recognition of 
 its deserved place in therapeutics is no longer questioned by one 
 who has kept his eyes open to the advances of modern medical 
 science. Its unqualified indorsement by the American Therapeutic 
 Society ; the establishment of the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic 
 at Johns Hopkins University under the efficient direction of Adolph 
 Meyer, professor of nervous and mental diseases jn that institution, 
 where the psychoanalytic method of psychotherapy will be intelli- 
 gently employed ; its support by men of such recognized ability as 
 Freud, Jung, Bleuler, Breuer, Prince, Janet, Babinski, Putnam, 
 Sidis, Dubois, Miinsterberg, Jones, Brill, Donley, Waterman, Taylor, 
 and others shows the value of the various psychotherapeutic methods 
 in their numerous applications in the treatment of disease. But 
 some of these men of unquestioned professional ability, able and 
 scholarly are disposed to limit its field to the department of 
 neurology and psychiatry, when its greatest field of usefulness is 
 in the general practice of medicine in all classes of medical and 
 surgical practice. A few of these men are disposed to speak dis- 
 paragingly of many of the simpler psychotherapeutic devices, as- 
 suming a "holier than thou" attitude toward the employment of 
 psychotherapeutic procedures in a class of work not coming within 
 the domain of their own specialty. This attitude is unworthy of 
 scientific men, many of whom apparently write to conceal thought 
 rather than to impart practical knowledge. In their zeal for the 
 limitation of psychotherapeutic principles to the scope of their own 
 individual specialty, they couch their declarations in technical 
 phrases that are beyond the grasp of the general practitioner. 
 
 9
 
 10 PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION. 
 
 To indicate the practical usefulness of psychotherapeutic 
 principles in their application to the work of the general practi- 
 tioner is the object of this book. The author simply states his ex- 
 periences in support of his conviction of the broad scope and use- 
 fulness of psychotherapeutic procedures, and endeavors to show 
 how their application is upheld by the theories advanced by the 
 leaders of the present-day conception of psychotherapeutic prin- 
 ciples, and describes the technic of their application. 
 
 The author hails with delight the fact that one of the greatest 
 triumphs of neurology is its successful employment of measures 
 aimed to modify the mental mechanism underlying the symptomatic 
 manifestations presented in that class of nervous diseases designated 
 as the psychoneuroses, and offers this little volume as proof be- 
 yond contradiction that this triumph does not in the least mitigate 
 the value of the employment of the same therapeutic principle in 
 other departments of medical practice. 
 
 The author mqst heartily agrees with the idea expressed by 
 Adolph Meyer : ' ' Habit training is the backbone of psychotherapy ; 
 suggestion merely a step to the end. Action with flesh and bone is 
 the only safe criterion of efficient mental activity ; and actions and 
 attitude and their adaptation is the issue in psychotherapy. ' ' This 
 idea is in perfect accord with the dynamic psychology which con- 
 stitutes the basis of this thesis. 
 
 The present edition of this book contains eight entirely new 
 chapters, which, together with the enlarged and rewritten chapters 
 of the preceding editions, constitute an embodiment of the recent 
 advances in psychotherapy, though still holding to all of the prac- 
 tical technic of the second edition. 
 
 The newer methods of employing psychotherapeutic procedures, 
 such as are connected with the names of Freud, Breuer, and Jung, 
 are succinctly described to meet the requirements of the general 
 practitioner, in so far as the author conceives them to be of prac- 
 tical value as applied to his work. In deference to the methods of 
 Freud, Breuer, and Jung, the reader must not regard the views 
 herein expressed as being more than a general statement of the 
 fundamental principles upon which the psychoanalytic method of 
 psychotherapy is based, and an explanation of the more easily
 
 PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION. 11 
 
 comprehended technic of employing psychoanalysis for the diagnosis 
 and treatment of the psychoneuroses "by bringing into conscious- 
 ness the hitherto unconscious. ' ' 
 
 It has been particularly gratifying to the author that his most 
 extreme views pertaining to the part played by that portion of our 
 mental lives of which we are consciously unaware, as the result of 
 forgotten experiences, are so overwhelmingly corroborated by the 
 theories of Freud, Jung, Breuer, Bleuler, Prince, Sidis, Miinster- 
 berg, and many other men of note. The theory of dormant re- 
 served subconscious energy, and the practical methods of its utiliza- 
 tion in heightening the resistive powers of the individual in his 
 effort to combat all forms of disease, was taught and demonstrated 
 by the author to physicians as far back as 1899, and the corrobora- 
 tion of this theory by the experience of thousands of American 
 practitioners has fixed the place for psychotherapeutic measures in 
 the armamentarium of the general practitioner for all time. 
 
 HENRY S. MUNRO. 
 
 Omaha, Nebraska.
 
 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 The author is profoundly grateful to the medical profession for 
 the kindly reception accorded the first edition of this book. The 
 exhaustion of a large edition since its appearance nine months ago 
 attests its popularity. 
 
 The practicability and efficacy of psychotherapeutic procedures, 
 as an adjunct in the treatment of disease, is no longer questioned 
 by physicians who have personally tested the methods herein ad- 
 vocated. 
 
 The present edition has a more complete index, and has been 
 brought up to date by the addition of new material on those phases 
 of the subject on which advancement has been made during the 
 past year in so far as such advancement is deemed of practical 
 value to the general practitioner in the present evolution of 
 psychotherapy. 
 
 HENRY S. MUNRO. 
 Omaha, Nebraska. 
 
 12
 
 PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 
 
 I bring to the consideration of the medical profession not merely 
 the facts of personal experience and clinical evidence as proof of 
 the value of suggestive therapeutics in the general practice of 
 medicine, but also a detailed explanation of how to apply sugges- 
 tion efficaciously, both with and without hypnotism, as a thera- 
 peutic adjunct. I give, in explanation of those facts, experience 
 and clinical tests as interpreted in the light of modern scientific 
 knowledge. 
 
 Many volumes have been written on this subject by neurologists, 
 scientists, and psychotherapeutists of note, but in most cases they 
 lack the practicability so essential to its successful employment by 
 the general practitioner. My aim is to emphasize the value of sug- 
 gestive therapeutics, in a field of work that comes within his 
 domain, which has not heretofore been pointed out by the authors 
 of other works of this character. The presentation also embodies 
 what I have assimilated and found practical from a careful study 
 of the investigations of leading authorities on this subject. To 
 make this book practical and easy of assimilation has been my con- 
 stant aim. And here it may fitly be pointed out, with a view to 
 forestalling criticism, that this book is not intended principally 
 for neurologists and psychotherapeutists, to whom the constant 
 repetition of what to them are well-known facts must inevitably 
 prove wearisome. It is intended rather to instill into the vast 
 mass of the profession to whom this entire field is as yet terra 
 incognita those basic principles of physiological psychology upon 
 which the scientific therapeutic application of suggestion in all its 
 forms necessarily depends. With that end in view, principles of 
 all pervading importance are iterated and reiterated as often as 
 their application comes under consideration, in order that they may 
 become so fully absorbed and assimilated as to be almost axiomatic 
 to the reader. 
 
 HENRY S. MUNRO. 
 
 Omaha, Nebraska. 
 
 13
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE AWAKENING INTEREST IN PSYCHOTHERAPY 21 x 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE RELATION OF PSYCHOTHERAPY TO THE GNEBAL PRACTICE OF MEDI- 
 CINE AND SURGERY 32 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY 44 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE GENERAL UTILITY OF SUGGESTION 57 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 HYPNOTISM DEMONSTRATED 69 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 PRACTICAL THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS 87 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 FURTHER CONSIDERATION OF THE PRINCIPLES, PROBLEMS, AND FIELD OF 
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPY 112 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE PSYCHOTHEBAPEUTIC VALUE OF SUGGESTION 130 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 YPNOTISM THERAPEUTICALLY APPLIED 162 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 RATIONAL THERAPEUTICS IN EVERY-DAY PRACTICE 207 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 SOME OTHER PRACTICAL POINTS 221 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SUGGESTION AS AN ADJUNCT IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF ANESTHETICS . 228 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPY IN RELATION TO THE EXPECTANT MOTHER 243 
 
 15
 
 16 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE PSYCHOLOGIC FACTOR IN OBSTETRICS 247 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 THE GUIDANCE OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT 255 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 PSYCHOANALYSIS IN THE TREATMENT OF THE PSYCHONEUROSES . . . 287 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 TRAINING THE SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 318 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 CORRECT DIAGNOSIS A SAFEGUARD AGAINST BLUNDERS 326 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION THEIR RELATION TO HEALTH .... 332 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 CONSERVATION OF ENERGY 340 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 ROUGHING IT AS A MEANS OF HEALTH 347 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 PERSONALITY AS A FACTOR IN THERAPEUTICS 352 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 THE ABUSE OF PERSONALITY 359 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 ENVIRONMENT ITS INFLUENCE IN THERAPEUTICS 364 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 THE BRUTALITY OF FRANKNESS 368 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 PEUTIC POWER 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 MORAL STAMINA A THERAPEUTIC POWER . . . 3 -- 
 
 SUGOESTION IN EDUCATION 
 
 "**-. Oo 1 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 SELF-MASTERY AS A FINE ART 
 
 . . . 388
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It would be superfluous here to do more than briefly allude to 
 the conditions under which this book was written. The problems 
 of psychotherapy are forcing themselves so strongly upon the at- 
 tention of the medical profession that I do not think that any 
 experience that may throw light upon them should be withheld. 
 In 1893, while a general practitioner of medicine, I became im- 
 pressed with the great importance of properly directing the psychic 
 factor in therapeutics, and for several years groped in the dark in 
 search of ideas, with such aids as could be gained from the older 
 writers on hypnotism and allied subjects. 
 
 Quite an impetus to my efforts was received during a three- 
 months' stay in New York in 1895 in the personalities of well-known 
 men in the schools of post-graduate instruction in that city, but the 
 far-reaching influence of suggestion or the personal influence of the 
 physician as a therapeutic aid in the general practice of medicine 
 was not even faintly appreciated by the profession at that time. 
 
 In the latter part of 1899 I became convinced that the general pro- 
 fession should have a better understanding of the theory and efficacy 
 of suggestive therapeutics and a knowledge of the practical methods 
 of its administration; and, being fully satisfied that the methods 
 which I had successfully employed in general practice for several 
 years would be of practical value to all physicians as an addition to 
 their therapeutic armamentarium, and believing also that this knowl- 
 edge would be a means by which they could successfully combat the 
 enormous increase in all the forms of quackery which were at that 
 time springing up as the natural offspring of the rapid evolution in 
 psychological development, I began going from city to city, giving 
 a lecture on suggestive therapeutics, applied hypnotism, and psychic 
 science, limiting my classes exclusively to the medical profession. 
 
 The cordial reception and appreciation accorded me in this self- 
 
 17
 
 18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 chosen field of endeavor by the more representative portion of the 
 medical profession was beyond my most sanguine expectations, and 
 in all places that I visited the physicians taking my lesson insisted 
 that it be put into a permanent form, to be used by them for future 
 reference. 
 
 I was not yet ready to commit myself to writing on this much 
 mooted and misunderstood subject. "Within the last twelve years, 
 however, the attitude taken by the larger part of the medical pro- 
 fession in regard to the influence of the mind over the body has 
 considerably changed. The study of psychology with laboratory in- 
 struments and methods has demonstrated the relation between 
 thought and matter in a most convincing manner. 
 
 Monism, a philosophy which amalgamates or unifies the two en- 
 tities called mind and matter, is becoming more popular. Physi- 
 ology, psychology, and biology are on friendly terms, and harmoni- 
 ously laboring to solve the problems that are being forced upon all 
 thinking people, as well as physicians. 
 
 In contemplating my venture of 1899, I now fully appreciate 
 the trite saying of Pope that "fools rush in where angels fear 
 to tread." Be that as it may, I have been in association with 
 those of the profession who have studied psychotherapeutics in all 
 parts of the world, and they have had no hesitancy in saying that 
 I had boiled down and crystallized the subject into a readily as- 
 similable and excellent form for practical clinical use. So now, 
 after enjoying the confidence and appreciation of the medical pro- 
 fession as a student and teacher of psychotherapy, I should deem 
 myself reprehensible and cowardly did I not give my "mite" to 
 help those who need strengthening on this line of advanced pro- 
 fessional equipment. 
 
 The strong prejudice and open opposition to the free investiga- 
 tion and employment of psychotherapeutics has exerted an over- 
 mastering influence upon the minds of many of the members of the 
 medical profession, and many there are who lack the courage and 
 moral stamina to enter this field and employ its truths for the relief 
 of countless thousands of individuals who do not need medicine or 
 surgery, yet are vainly crying to us for help. While this state of 
 apathy exists in the ranks of the medical profession, the popular
 
 INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 "ists" and "paths" and other disguises are standing with open 
 arms, beckoning these discontented and unfortunate ones to come 
 into their ranks and get their psychotherapy in a placebo capsule of 
 religious dogma or bonepath massage. 
 
 I am also fully aware that it is not good policy for one seeking 
 popularity to speak out frankly and honestly on this subject and 
 tell the truth. Even physicians in many instances, who admit that 
 they have made no effort to comprehend the principles of psycho- 
 therapy and apply them as a therapeutic adjunct, feel that any 
 theory, or conception, or method that does not conform to their pre- 
 conceived ideas, however worn out, moth-eaten, and useless, is an 
 insult to their intelligence. Yet, in spite of my well-grounded and 
 justifiable apprehensions, I now dare to offer this little volume, con- 
 taining ideas, impressions, and opinions, based upon conscientious 
 observation, demonstration, tests, and clinical evidence, on the one 
 hand, and upheld by the more enlightened element of the medical 
 profession in the leading cities that I have visited, on the other, 
 perfectly willing to be ridiculed by those desiring to do so. If I 
 succeed in convincing some part of the profession of the justice of 
 the cause which I defend, and at the same time give others the 
 opportunity of discussing it with a thorough knowledge of the facts 
 upon which it is based, this alone will justify me in having under- 
 taken the preparation of this little handbook. 
 
 It is not my desire to oppose any system of therapeutics, but to 
 emphasize the importance of the mental factor in health and disease, 
 and to point out practical methods that can be applied by the general 
 practitioner as an adjunct to his therapeutic resources. 
 
 I fully realize that the ideas herein expressed will be of value 
 only to those who find in themselves that inexplicable psychic re- 
 sponse, which amounts to a conviction as regards the truth of the 
 principles elucidated, sufficient to dispel the general unconcerned 
 apathy or half-hearted uncertainty toward the practicability of these 
 methods. 
 
 It has been my privilege to get in close touch with my colleagues 
 in towns and cities, in private practice, and in hospitals. Here I 
 have studied their problems and been uplifted and inspired by their 
 courage and devotion to their work, and have learned to honor
 
 20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and reverence character, manifested in the personality of a 
 physician, as second to nothing in life. In their homes, in their con- 
 veyances, in the sick room, and in their private office work, as well 
 as in hospitals and medical societies and colleges, I have been given 
 a cordial welcome, and here I desire to express again my profound 
 gratitude for such attentions by turning this little book over to 
 them as a grateful reminder of bygone pleasant relations.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE AWAKENING INTEREST IN PSYCHOTHERAPY. 
 
 The tool of psychotherapy is suggestion, and all suggestion oper- 
 ates upon the conscious every-day actions and beliefs of the patient, 
 influencing the higher intellectual faculties and motor functions, 
 and the subconscious, involuntary psychophysiological mechanisms 
 comprising the functions of the entire animal physiology. 
 
 As comprehended today, psychotherapy is as much in the do- 
 main of physical and physiological therapeutics as is medicine, 
 electricity, hydrotherapy, massage, surgery, or any other thera- 
 peutic expedient, and its application is just as scientific its in- 
 dications just as clearly defined. The truth of this proposition is 
 not in the least questioned by any one familiar with the principles 
 of modern physiological psychology. 
 
 Psychotherapeutic methods of procedure may practically be re- 
 duced to three measures psychotherapy by hypnotic suggestion, 
 that by suggestion in the waking state, and finally that by per- 
 suasion, reasoning, or re-education. From these various forms of 
 psychotherapy the medical man must choose the method best 
 adapted to the individual case as presented in actual clinical work. 
 
 All psychical treatment direct or indirect, whatever be the 
 form of procedure aims at the persuasion of the patient. It is 
 administered by the employment of suggestion to persuade, in- 
 fluence, or encourage the functions of the nervous system, whether 
 acting on the higher mental levels, to which belong conscious and 
 voluntary actions, or appealing to the lower mental levels, including 
 
 21
 
 22 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 unconscious, automatic, involuntary actions. All methods of pro- 
 cedure make employment of suggestion, and, whatever be the dif- 
 ference in technic of administration, the results are obtained in con- 
 formity to a common law the influence exerted by impressions 
 from without upon the psychophysiological functions. 
 
 Every case requires a special method, and is in a way amenable 
 to procedures of verbal suggestion. Psychotherapy, as a method, 
 can not be brought under a single formula. The intelligent 
 physician must be able to distinguish special indications, and to 
 adapt his treatment to the psychology of each individual patient. 
 The character of the patient, his sensitiveness, social level, and his 
 degree of intelligence are all conditions that require from the 
 physician, if he is to conduct a successful psychical treatment, the 
 most varied modes of administration. 
 
 Rational psychotherapy must embrace physiological and edu- 
 cational therapeutics. The psychotherapeutic influence of die- 
 tetics, hydrotherapy, exercises, and gymnastics, combined with the 
 individual merits of these therapeutic expedients, are so related 
 that the employment of either procedure constitutes in some de- 
 gree the employment of rational psychotherapy. The value of 
 these procedures is not in the least questioned by any one giving 
 adequate consideration to such rational measures in helping the 
 individual, whatever be his ailment or disease, to secure and main- 
 tain a condition of health. 
 
 The intelligence of our age demands that an edequate study 
 of man and the diseases that afflict him take into account the 
 methods of developing and upbuilding the entire man, mental and 
 physical. 
 
 The attention devoted to the study of man's diseases is most 
 praiseworthy, and the efforts of pathology and diagnosis have been 
 crowned with glorious achievements, but we have not devoted 
 enough study to the methods of maintaining and developing the 
 suffering individual. In our effort to make an exact terminolog- 
 ical diagnosis and make a direct attack upon the pathological 
 processes, the sick man himself has been neglected. 
 
 Besides mitigating pathological processes, physicians should be 
 prepared to assist their patients in making use of the normal
 
 THE AWAKENING INTEREST IN PSYCHOTHERAPY. 23 
 
 mechanisms, or potentialities, of the entire organism in order to 
 safeguard them against the recurrence of the outrages of patho- 
 logical processes, or prevent the more serious pathological modi- 
 fications, so far as such assistance is practicable. All sick people 
 need such assistance. They need education, knowledge, and 
 guidance in order that they may secure and maintain a heightened 
 degree of resistive power in the cells of the organism, so as to 
 render them invulnerable to the onslaught of diseased processes. 
 
 We should continue the study of the cause and prevention of 
 disease. An intelligent conception of cause and prevention is 
 an absolute necessity for the stability of medical science, but 
 more study should be devoted to the sick individual demanding 
 restoration to health. We have not given undue attention to the 
 study of diseased processes, but to the living organisms we have 
 devoted not enough. 
 
 As one of America's most eminent therapeutists tersely ex- 
 presses it, "An adequate study of man and the diseases that af- 
 flict him takes into account all his faculties and functions, mental 
 and nervous, as well as physical all his surroundings, the condi- 
 tions of birth, of parentage, and hence of inheritance. Man is 
 a complex being, a conscious spark of divinity embodied in matter, 
 and no part of his nature can be neglected or ignored without 
 affecting the whole man in greater or less degree. '^ 
 
 No one who has given attention to the study of psychology and 
 of sociology can dispute that a very large percentage of our diseases 
 are of mental origin. Of mental origin also are the countless 
 criminals and so-called defectives of society. Mental causation 
 and physical effects are correlated just in the same way as sensory 
 stimuli and cerebral excitations are correlated to physical anatomy. 
 
 Butler truly says, "The power of mind over matter or, more 
 rationally, the relation between mind and matter is everywhere 
 being recognized with its true bearing on life and its various mani- 
 festations, and the uplifting of the human race to higher mental 
 and intellectual planes has already begun. But man is not more 
 all mind than he is all matter, and Christian science, mental heal- 
 ing, and such like cults, having their good and evil side according 
 as their exponents are sincere and intelligent or the reverse, have
 
 24 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 done some good and some harm, and so doubtless will continue to 
 do to the end of the chapter. These cults all present interesting 
 psychological studies, and, if examined fairly and dispassionately, 
 they will prove valuable and instructive." 
 
 It is by reason of the neglect of psychological methods of 
 treatment by the medical profession that many sick people have 
 been forced to ignore scientific medicine in vain effort to obtain 
 relief from their psychophysical ills, and to seek aid from the 
 Christian scientist, the osteopath, the magnetic healer, or any- 
 thing that offered help by means other than persistent drugging 
 and unreasonable surgical procedures. That drugs and surgery 
 are, and have been, two of the greatest blessings to the human race 
 none but a tyro will question in the least, but that they have been, 
 and at present are, greatly abused is one of the most glaring and 
 reprehensible discredits to the medical profession. 
 
 The essential argument of the advocates of this branch of 
 professional equipment is, first, the universality of its applica- 
 tion as an adjunct to all classes of professional work. It is not to 
 be regarded as a specialty. No special type of personality is es- 
 sential to its successful employment any more than is requisite in 
 any other branch of medicine or surgery. Like all other 
 measures, all that is needed is a knowledge of the fundamental 
 principles upon which its application as a therapeutic measure is 
 based and a practical knowledge of the technic of the various 
 methods of its employment. The same is true of the employment 
 of surgery, materia medica agencies, electrotherapeutics, hydro- 
 therapy, dietetics, and any other method of physical or physio- 
 logical therapeutics. 
 
 The second of the arguments in favor of the employment of 
 psychotherapeutic principles is that it is based upon sound, ra- 
 tional, scientific principles. Mental processes, physiological proc- 
 esses, and physical effects are related to each other in such a way 
 that each reinforces the other. 
 
 The impression that some physicians have that psychotherapy 
 directly demands from them that they are to humbug their 
 patients, or throw out suggestions which they themselves do not 
 believe, and thus bring them down to the level of the Christian
 
 THE AWAKENING INTEREST IN PSYCHOTHERAPY. 25 
 
 scientist, the osteopath, or the magnetic healer, is altogether an 
 erroneous one. The tendency of the physician under such im- 
 pressions to steer shy of the measure only shows his conscientious 
 instinct on the one hand, and illustrates his misconception of the 
 subject on the other. 1 
 
 In all branches of medicine and surgery the line of demarca- 
 tion between real science and its counterfeit is a very distinct 
 one. The same is true as regards the employment of psycho- 
 therapeutic principles. A physician making employment of psy- 
 chotherapy can make no greater mistake than to deviate in the 
 least from the path of complete sincerity from his first steps in 
 diagnosis to the employment of treatment for the relief of the 
 condition found to be present. 1 
 
 It is not necessary to make false or unreasonable promises in 
 such cases where we believe that complete cure through the em- 
 ployment of psychotherapeutic principles is impossible. Even 
 where we employ suggestion pure and simple, if we are to expect 
 satisfactory results, they must be suggestions that are true and 
 only the truth, as the experience of the patient and the actual 
 physical and mental effects on the patient will in the due course 
 of time confirm. Like the employment of all other measures, 
 surgical or medicinal, the results largely, if not entirely, "de- 
 pend upon the man behind the gun" upon the personality of the 
 physician making employment of the methods at hand. It is the 
 function of the psychotherapist to so engage the psychophysical 
 organism of his patient as to produce the results desired by the 
 employment of the normal physiological mechanism of the nervous 
 system. 
 
 The induction of anesthesia by suggestion is illustrative of the 
 principle involved. The same principle is employed in securing 
 sleep, or for the relief of pain, or to stimulate the functional 
 activity of the stomach in perverted nutrition. The nervous sys- 
 tem not only acts in the performance of its various functions, 
 but it also reacts to the influence of mental and physical stimuli. 
 In every one there are capabilities which potentially exist only when 
 brought into action by a psychophysiological stimulus. 
 
 1 Hugo Miinsterberg: Psychotherapy.
 
 26 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 The reaction of the nervous system to the stimulus of phycho- 
 therapeutic methods brings about the change from the abnormal 
 to the normal, from the pathological to the physiological, from 
 the unhealthy to the healthy, from a condition of functional 
 inertia to one potentially active. In all diseased conditions, by 
 whatever therapeutic measure we may employ, it is the restora- 
 tion of functional activity that accomplishes the cure. This func- 
 tional re-establishment is the sine qua non to the successful result 
 achieved, by whatever measures we employ, in the treatment of any 
 disease. 
 
 The third of the arguments in favor of the employment of psy- 
 chotherapy is the large scope of its application in the general prac- 
 tice of medicine. In all acute diseases it is, when judiciously and 
 skillfully employed, our most reliable functional stimulant, though 
 generally unrecognized. 
 
 By its employment we quiet nervousness, promote sleep, aid 
 digestion, encourage secretion and excretion, and, through a re- 
 establishment of perverted functions, bring about an increased 
 resistive power of every cell of the elements comprising the com- 
 plex mechanism of the entire animal physiology. With its skill- 
 ful employment the physician himself becomes one of the most 
 potent aids in his therapeutic armamentarium. 
 
 To speak in general terms, he can employ such measures to 
 retard the pulse, to inhibit pain, to lessen temperature, to modify 
 hemorrhage, to stimulate functional activity, and, in consequence 
 of its employment as a physiological stimulant, to make new blood 
 and to increase the resistive power of all normal cellular elements 
 to the onslaught of pathological processes. 
 
 Psychotherapy finds a most valuable field in the correction of 
 vices, the curing of various drug habits, developing latent talents, 
 strengthening the muscles, and in correcting such morbid 
 psychasthenic conditions as the various phobias, obsessions and 
 associated conditions, despondency, and other morbid mental mani- 
 festations. 
 
 Not only are results realized in so-called functional and 
 psychoneurotic conditions such as headaches, neuralgias, rheu- 
 matism, impotency, certain forms of asthma, writer's cramp, con-
 
 THE AWAKENING INTEREST IN PSYCHOTHERAPY. 27 
 
 stipation, nocturnal enuresis, inebriety, drug habit, hysteria, and 
 monomania but excellent results are obtained in various gyne- 
 cological diseases of a functional character, and in perversions 
 and weaknesses of all kinds ; also in pernicious and other forms of 
 anemia, chronic malarial infection, and for the relief of the mor- 
 bid psychic element accompanying organic valvular lesions, and 
 to assist in the functionating of the disabled heart as well. 
 
 Medicine 'has always paid much attention to the psychic side 
 of disease. Though unconsciously and unintentionally, she 
 has been forced to consider the psychic factor not only in com- 
 ing to her diagnosis, but also in planning her treatment. From 
 time immemorial physicians have consciously or unconsciously 
 utilized the minds of their patients, directly or indirectly, to com- 
 bat their ills. What constitutes the more recent development in 
 this field is the more extended and more precise application of 
 psychic methods of diagnosis, and the elaboration and more in- 
 telligent utilization of psychotherapeutic methods. As Professor 
 Lewellys F. Barker remarks, 1 "Modern medicine is striving toward 
 rational psychic diagnosis and rational psychotherapy." 
 
 The inquiry into the psychic state of the patient is often more 
 important than the somatic inquiry, but how seldom does the phy- 
 sician investigate systematically the cause of the mental condition. 
 The technic of eliciting mental symptoms has to be learned and 
 practiced just as one has to learn and practice the technic of phys- 
 ical diagnosis. 
 
 The latest movement in the employment of psychotherapy in 
 the treatment of mental diseases is in connection with the name 
 of Freud, of Vienna, commonly referred to as the psychoanalytic 
 form of psychotherapy, in which he seeks to remove the ultimate 
 mental cause giving rise to certain symptoms resulting from a 
 psychical trauma a disagreeable idea which, inhibited in the mind, 
 becomes the source of mischief and produces phobias, obsessions, 
 and hysterical manifestations. This method of diagnosis and 
 psychotherapeutic treatment, which is entirely in its beginning, 
 promises wide application in a hitherto very intractable class of 
 patients. 
 
 1 Address before Rush College medical students, 1907.
 
 28 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Among others whose contributions to the development of mod- 
 ern psychotherapy stand out conspicuous are the names of such 
 men as Janet, Bernheim, Liebeault, Binet, Dubois, Prince, Put- 
 nam, Boris Sidis, Miinsterberg, Jung, Forel, and many others. 
 
 These writers apparently would limit the field of psychotherapy 
 to neurology and psychiatry when it is equally applicable as a 
 therapeutic adjunct in all classes of professional work. They have 
 conclusively demonstrated that a functional disorder, so-called, is 
 as much a real disease as any other abnormal mental or physical 
 state. The work of the general practitioner is preventive as well 
 as curative, and, if he is well equipped with the theoretical basis of 
 psychotherapy, together with the practical methods of its employ- 
 ment, many patients would be relieved by him before their symp- 
 toms reach such gravity as to seek aid from the neurologist or 
 psychiatrist. Psychotherapy is applicable in all classes of medical 
 practice as an adjunct to other recognized agencies. 
 
 The Journal of Abnormal Psychology, June- July, 1909, con- 
 tains eight interesting and highly instructive papers upon various 
 aspects of psychotherapy which were read before the American 
 Therapeutic Society at the annual meeting in New Haven, Con- 
 necticut, in May, 1909. 
 
 The significance of the awakening interest in this branch of 
 therapeutics on the part of the medical profession is indicated by 
 the fact that the president of the American Therapeutic So- 
 ciety, Frederick H. Gerrish, professor of surgery in Bowdoin 
 Medical College, Brunswick, Maine, in the endeavor to learn what 
 subjects most interested the physicians constituting the member- 
 ship of this society, wrote to almost the entire membership, asking 
 each to suggest topics for three symposia. Many of the corre- 
 spondents proposed psychotherapy, and these suggestions, he said, 
 coincided with his purpose to have, if possible, a discussion on 
 the subject which has not been previously presented, and one of 
 such importance that every medical practitioner, whatever be his 
 favorite line of work, should be well grounded in its principles and 
 familiar with its methods. 
 
 In the introductory address by Professor Gerrish, as president 
 of the American Therapeutic Society, he says: "Indeed, most
 
 THE AWAKENING INTEREST IN PSYCHOTHERAPY. 29 
 
 physicians, and some neurologists, have little appreciation of this 
 branch of the healing art, and treat it cavalierly, if they deign 
 to give it any consideration. The time seemed opportune for a 
 careful, serious, scientific study of the subject by this society, the 
 only national organization in America devoted exclusively to 
 therapeutics. Furthermore, it was plain to me that this associa- 
 tion, whose single purpose is so conspicuously declared by its name, 
 was under a peculiar obligation to the profession in the premises, 
 and ought, as far as possible, to correct the misapprehensions 
 which prevail concerning psychotherapy, and accord the sanction 
 of its interest and influence to this valuable form of treatment. 
 By great good fortune the aid of eight physicians was enlisted in 
 this cause, all of whom are learned in modern psychology, expert 
 in neurology, skillful in psychotherapy, and enthusiastic in ex- 
 pounding their favorite doctrines. They constitute a galaxy which 
 can not be duplicated on this continent. ' ' 
 
 It is particularly pleasing to me to see that all that I have 
 claimed for psychotherapy as an adjunct to the generally recog- 
 nized therapeutic agencies, in the general practice of medicine, 
 still stands unscathed and unreproached by the theories of the 
 eight participants in this symposium, all of whom, in the words of 
 Professor Gerrish, "are learned in modern psychology, expert in 
 neurology, skillful in psychotherapy, constituting a galaxy which 
 can not be duplicated on the continent." 
 
 The theories advanced by these scholarly essayists and that given 
 by me in explanation of the results obtained by the employment 
 of psychotherapeutic principles, or of the personal influence of 
 the physician both with and without the employment of hypnotism, 
 are identical in idea, in fact, and in method, as well as in scope of 
 application, the difference being only one of phraseology of 
 terms used to convey ideas. 
 
 For practical purposes, our knowledge of psychotherapy should 
 consist of an apprehension of facts and a description of those 
 facts in terms that can be comprehended by the intelligence of 
 the average physician, as well as by the well-educated medical 
 student. Our medical education has been so deficient in this branch 
 of study that the average well-educated physician is lost in con-
 
 30 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 fusion of terms used by the majority of psychotherapeutists to 
 elucidate the principles of psychotherapy, and they fall short of 
 an elucidation of the subject that would be of practical value to the 
 general practitioner. 
 
 Our medical schools are responsible for the apparent apathy 
 on the part of many physicians as regards psychotherapeutic treat- 
 ment, as in none of them, except two or three of the larger eastern 
 universities, is the subject taught as a part of the medical curric- 
 ulum. The physicians who have been aroused to a realization of 
 the utility of such measures are, as a rule, those who have had 
 their attention drawn to the subject by experiences in the post- 
 graduate schools of Europe and also, in some measure, in New 
 York and Chicago. 
 
 The spirit of commercialism which actuates the movements of 
 the promoters of our multiplicity of medical colleges is evidently 
 responsible for the neglect of the teaching of such methods as will 
 establish or induce in the individual comparative immunity to 
 infection and other etiological factors of disease. Many physicians 
 are narrow enough to see in such measures as will increase the 
 efficiency of the individual a direct antagonist to all other thera- 
 peutic expedients, instead of regarding them as an efficient thera- 
 peutic adjunct. 
 
 Doctor Jacob Gould Sherman, in his address before the Joint 
 Council on Medical Education and the Committee on Public Leg- 
 islation of the American Medical Association, sounded the keynote 
 to the situation in saying, 1 "And if in this presence I do not say 
 that the medical profession has been commercialized, I do not hes- 
 itate to assert that many medical schools and colleges have been 
 established for the pecuniary benefit of their promoters, with the 
 result that we now have in the United States almost as many of 
 these institutions as all the rest of the civilized world, and our 
 standards of medical education are a disgrace to the nation and 
 an outrage on humanity. . . . Considering the close relation 
 between mind and body and the dependence of some diseases on 
 mental conditions, I ain often amazed that medical men fail so 
 completely to realize the importance of the study of the sciences 
 
 'Journal of the American Medical Association, April 16. 1910.
 
 THE AWAKENING INTEREST IN PSYCHOTHERAPY. 31 
 
 of mind as a part of that curriculum of the preliminary education 
 they lay down for prospective students of medicine." 
 
 Upon this phase of the subject Miinsterberg remarks: "Indeed 
 the time is ripe for a systematic introduction of psychological 
 studies into every regular medical course. It is not a question of 
 mental research in the psychological laboratory where advanced 
 work is carried on, but a solid foundation in empirical psychology 
 can be demanded of every one. He ought to have as much psy- 
 chology as he has physiology." 
 
 Lewellys F. Barker, professor of medicine in Johns Hopkins 
 University, tells us that 1 "America, so far ahead in many subjects 
 of medical instruction, is no less than fifty years behind Europe in 
 this particular. ' ' 
 
 1 Address before Rush College medical students.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE RELATION OF PSYCHOTHERAPY TO THE GENERAL 
 PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 
 
 Whatever may be our favorite line of professional work, we can 
 not overlook the fact that we are, as physicians, a body of organ- 
 ized men laboring for the common good of humanity. The med- 
 ical profession is for mankind, and its greatest problem is to secure 
 honest and faithful performance of professional obligation. 
 
 Important questions in special departments of medicine must 
 constantly claim our attention, and it is therefore easy in the zeal 
 of our specialties to lose sight of the simple requirements of fidelity 
 to the public at large. 
 
 Whatever be the merits of our special departments of professional 
 work, the final test must ever be found in the character and pur- 
 pose of our effort to contribute to the public weal. It should be 
 borne in mind that we are not merely doctors, but something more. 
 We are American citizens, and as such nothing should seduce, or 
 daunt, or affright us, or shake that adherence to the principles of 
 fair dealing and honorable execution of duty which makes every 
 medical practitioner the embodiment of the cause of liberty. 
 
 It is in this altruistic spirit that, as both a physician and an Amer- 
 ican citizen, these remarks are addressed to the profession of medi- 
 cine. My aim is to show that in psychotherapy we have an inval- 
 uable adjunct to all classes of professional work, and that the 
 ultimate end of its more extensive employment would be a great 
 contribution to the common welfare of humanity ; not to disparage 
 other branches of professional work, but to show that in psycho- 
 therapy all branches of medicine have an efficient aid in the treat- 
 ment of sick people and of all others who seek our help. ' ' Its evo- 
 lution, like that of all other modes of treatment, is marked by an 
 ever-increasing precision in method and an ever-deepening eom- 
 
 32
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPY AND GENERAL PRACTICE. 33 
 
 prehension of the conditions to which it is applicable. Progress in 
 these two respects must always go hand in hand, for the moment 
 therapeutics becomes divorced from pathology and diagnosis it 
 leaves its scientific basis and stands in danger of approximating to 
 that medical charlatanry which it is the highest interest of our 
 profession to combat. ' ' x 
 
 Each member of the human race is potentially the result of what 
 he brings into this world as an inheritance, on the one hand, modi- 
 fied by environment, on the other. In the employment of psycho- 
 therapy the physician himself becomes a part of the patient's en- 
 vironment in a truer and deeper sense than is done without an 
 effort to employ psychotherapeutic principles, and through its appli- 
 cation determines a new sequence of ideas. 
 
 All psychotherapeutic measures are educational measures pure 
 and simple. The importance of education in determining what the 
 individual is in mental and physical attributes is not accorded the 
 consideration that it deserves at the present time. It constitutes 
 one of the most potent therapeutic resources at our command, and 
 its value extends not only in the field of preventive medicine, but as 
 a direct therapeutic resource as well. 
 
 In the field of preventive medicine we have accomplished much 
 by the employment of educational procedures. Smallpox, yellow 
 fever, cholera, and many other contagious and infectious diseases 
 have been practically exterminated, but more yet remains to be 
 accomplished. By teaching the people how to avoid the sources of 
 infection from the typhoid fever bacillus, the bacillus of menin- 
 gitis, hookworm, diphtheria, and scarlet fever infections, which has 
 been enforced upon the public by scientific men, thousands of human 
 lives are today saved which in former times were sacrificed to igno- 
 rance. When more is known of the causes of cancer and pellagra, 
 it is strongly probable that these scourges of the human race will 
 be quelled in the same way. 
 
 Shakespeare's expression, "Ignorance is the curse of God; knowl- 
 edge the wings wherewith to fly to Heaven," might well be para- 
 phrased so as to read, "Ignorance is the cause of disease; knowl- 
 
 1 Ernest Jones. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, June-July, 1909.
 
 34 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 edge is the wings wherewith to fly to health." The etiologieal 
 factors of disease are here, and ever will be. 
 
 It is up to the individual to live so as to maintain a degree of 
 resistive power that will render the cells of his organism invulner- 
 able to the outrages of pathological process. That this is the real 
 problem for the individual, and therefore for the medical profes- 
 sion the problem of man for mankind must be plain to every 
 one, but how are we to go about it? The accomplishment of this 
 end is the goal sought by scientific medicine our real problem 
 before which every other problem fades into insignificance. To this 
 end we need the contribution of every department of medical science 
 and of surgery as well. 
 
 But pathology alone will not solve the problem. Finding mi- 
 crobes and abnormal cells, or making blood counts, will not do the 
 work for the individual. Pathological findings help us better to 
 determine what we can do for him and what we can get him to do 
 for himself, and therein is its greatest help. 
 
 Surgery will not solve the problem. We can remove the path- 
 ological processes, cut out or destroy the diseased part, but, if we 
 do that and nothing more, we frequently accomplish very little for 
 the individual. 
 
 Medicine, alone or combined with electrotherapeutics, hydrother- 
 apy, and massage, will not solve the problem. 
 
 After we have all the assistance offered by the combined thera- 
 peutic, mechanical, and surgical devices of medicine, as it is gen- 
 erally taught and practiced today, we have not done enough. We 
 need to do something more. We need to help to equip the individual 
 to help himself. 
 
 To help those individuals who stand in need of such assistance 
 to so make employment of their physiological machinery that the 
 highest possible condition of physical and mental stability may be 
 maintained while making the struggle for existence, is the special 
 function of psychotherapy. 
 
 Let me make a picture. Over on one side we see arrayed two 
 powerful forces of nature. The one is composed of inherited weak- 
 nesses, microbes, and ignorance the etiologieal factors of disease. 
 On the other side are arrayed the accumulated knowledge of all ages,
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPY AND GENERAL PRACTICE. 35 
 
 human intelligence, altruism the real helpers of man. The com- 
 bat between these two forces is both pathetic and interesting, and 
 a recitation of its history marks the footprints of evolution and the 
 development of modern science. But the fight is only half begun. 
 Obsolete therapeutic systems, unreasonable surgical procedures, 
 false theological concepts, and irrational educational methods, 
 which have been hindrances to the welfare of the human race, 
 are being rapidly refuted, and the adherents of scientific knowl- 
 edge, practically applied, are day by day gaining new victories 
 victories for the whole of mankind. 
 
 We are accomplishing much today in a therapeutic way by edu- 
 cational methods pure and simple. The civilized world is witness- 
 ing a movement on the part of the medical profession that is des- 
 tined to equip the people to fortify themselves against the ravages 
 of the malarial and tubercle infections, which have so long been the 
 most formidable of the enemies of the human race, with results that 
 promise the dawn of a new and brighter day to millions of people, 
 as well as the saving to the world annually of thousands of human 
 lives. 
 
 For the protection of the people against the ravages of the 
 malarial infection, they are taught the importance of the isolation 
 of the infected individual by the use of screens to prevent the 
 transmission of the infection by the mosquito, and the employment 
 of quinin taken internally to render them immune to the infec- 
 tion, as well as to cure the disease after the failure to observe the 
 precautions to prevent it. 
 
 But the message that science brings today to those infected 
 with the tubercle bacillus is an index to another important truth 
 that the profession by these psychotherapeutic prophylactic pro- 
 cedures is attempting to drive home to the consciousness of man- 
 kind. Our leading pathologists and clinicians are saying to the 
 individual in the incipient stage of tuberculosis: "Your hope is 
 in the line of self -development ; you must live so as to maintain a 
 degree of resistive power in the cells of. your organism to the 
 extent that they will be invulnerable to the ravages of the tuber- 
 cle bacillus, and this factor will not count so far as you are con- 
 cerned."
 
 36 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 The very beginning of the treatment of tuberculosis is by sug- 
 gestion. It suggests that the individual avail himself of fresh 
 air in abundance, of sunshine, easily assimilated food, sleep, and 
 work. It assures the patient that he can outlive the enemy; and 
 the physician who himself most sincerely believes in the efficacy 
 of the means to secure the desired therapeutic result is always 
 the most successful in the treatment of this disease, because his 
 confidence not only enables the patient to better co-operate in 
 the employment of the regimen outlined, but has a weighty 
 psychophysiologieal significance in the promotion of the welfare 
 of the patient as well. 
 
 His association with his patient results not only in the admin- 
 istration of psychotherapy, strictly speaking, but in the training 
 of the patient into such habits of thought and action that call 
 into play neuron elements, the functionating of which enables the 
 patient to conform to the physiological requirements of health. 
 Such association inspires hope, confidence, and expectancy, and 
 the mental states thus created, or induced, encourage all of the 
 involuntary physiological processes. Such a psychophysiologieal 
 stimulus aids the functionating of the normal nervous mechanisms 
 of the animal physiology to the extent that increased phagocytosis 
 results and a corresponding increase in constructive metabolism, 
 which adds to the dynamic potency of every cell of the human 
 organism. 
 
 By the employment of psychotherapy we assist nature in her 
 efforts to combat morbid processes, and in this way we aid all 
 other therapeutic expedients. By such measures we place the 
 patient under the most favorable circumstances for nature to do 
 her work, and, at critical moments, we stimulate the patient's 
 flagging powers and thus bridge over a yawning gulf. We can 
 palliate many of the distressing symptoms of disease, but we can 
 not atone for all the outrageous infringements of nature's inex- 
 orable laws. Neither can we remedy such matters by dosing with 
 drugs, or by surgical procedures, or by any other therapeutic 
 device; moreover, it is not likely that we ever shall be able to 
 do so. 
 
 Psychotherapy, correctly construed, could very appropriately
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPY AND GENERAL PRACTICE. 37 
 
 be designated as the employment of psychological, physiological, 
 and educational therapeutics. Such must be the conception of 
 "psychotherapy" before it is rational. When the physician fails 
 to employ ideas purely as a physiological or functional stimulant, 
 especially in depressing diseases, he omits the sine qua non to 
 successfully treat disease. When he leaves out of consideration 
 the measures to get his patient to conform to the physiological 
 requirements of health as a means of obtaining the best thera- 
 peutic results, he is neglecting one of the greatest therapeutic 
 adjuncts available. When he fails to educate his patient into 
 such habits of living eating, exercise, sleep, work, rest, fresh air, 
 sunshine, and cheerfulness as well as to arouse in him such men- 
 tal states as are within themselves of direct therapeutic value, he 
 is strongly allied to the charlatan who ignores other well-recog- 
 nized therapeutic agencies. 
 
 But it is particularly in functional and neuropathic disorders 
 that psychotherapy is most successful. When the term "func- 
 tional" is employed in the above statement, we must understand 
 that both mind and body are in disorder that the function of 
 the disturbed brain cells accompanies the ineffective will, and that 
 to reinforce the will means to again bring into equilibrium the 
 disturbed brain cells. There is a strong temptation for the psy- 
 chotherapeutist to give attention only to the mental symptoms of 
 disease, but the more firmly the physician adheres to the stand- 
 point of psychophysiology, the better he will see disorder and 
 cure in the right proportion. 1 
 
 The entire personality, mind and body, should be considered, 
 and the popular separation between organic and functional dis- 
 eases should no longer be tolerated. Every psychical disturbance 
 is organic, inasmuch as it is based on a molecular change which 
 deranges the function. Some of these changes are beyond resti- 
 tution; some can be restored to normal activity by medicinal 
 prescriptions, mechanics, and hydrotherapy, or dietetics; but the 
 vast majority can be repaired only by physiological stimuli which 
 reach directly the higher brain cells through the sense organs, and 
 
 1 Hugo Munsterberg: Psychotherapy.
 
 38 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 which we call psychical under one aspect, but which certainly 
 remain physiological influences from another aspect. 1 
 
 Most of the so-called functional disorders, among which are the 
 neurasthenics and psychasthenics, are maintained in consequence 
 of physiological insufficiency or incompetency. The cells of the 
 entire physiological organism do not properly perform their func- 
 tion. Consequently a lowered degree of resistive power is main- 
 tained, which renders the individual particularly susceptible to 
 the ravages of pathological processes. The timely treatment of 
 such cases by such measures as will restore the disordered func- 
 tion will prevent its resulting in gross pathological changes. ' ' The 
 psychophysiological influence of spoken words, whether employed 
 with or without hypnosis, is as rational and effective as the bath, 
 the electric current, or the opiate. ' ' 1 
 
 The neurasthenic and psychasthenic classes are the too frequent 
 victims of all kinds of quackery and the over-enthusiastic surgeon 
 as well. When surgery is resorted to for the relief of the minor 
 structural abnormality so frequently observed in a patient of 
 an already lowered resistive power, such patient is seldom bene- 
 fited thereby, but in the larger percentage of cases actually made 
 worse. The draught upon the reserved forces by the employment 
 of the anesthetic with a patient of unstable nervous organization, 
 and the amount of reserved energy consumed in the process of 
 repair from the operation, is far in excess of the benefit that 
 accrues in the larger proportion of cases. 
 
 What we see depends not only upon what we are looking for 
 in the consideration of a given case, but upon the way we see it. 
 It largely depends upon the impressions made upon and con- 
 served by our brain cells. 
 
 The psychology of excessive specialization in medicine or 
 surgery is a most interesting one and well worthy of our atten- 
 tion. Contemporary psychologists are fully agreed upon the fact 
 that the nervous system faithfully conserves and reproduces its 
 experiences; that conservation is fundamental for education; that 
 ideas which make up viewpoints, attitudes of mind, beliefs, and 
 
 1 Hugo Miinsterberg: Psychotherapy.
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPY AND GENERAL PRACTICE. 39 
 
 convictions, if once firmly formed and organized, whatever or how- 
 ever be the experience forming them, remain as a part of our 
 personality, to functionate again and again in the life of the indi- 
 vidual. This theory or hypothesis is as true regarding viewpoints 
 concerning methods of treating the neurasthenic and psychas- 
 thenic classes by surgical procedures, or by educational methods, 
 as in other departments of experience. All of our experiences 
 anything that we have thought, seen, heard, or felt tend to be 
 conserved by the neuron elements in such a way that they can be 
 reproduced in a form approaching the original experience. 
 
 We could never remember anything unless our experiences were 
 conserved in a way that they could be reproduced in our con- 
 sciousness by some arrangement of the neuron elements for pre- 
 serving them. The importance of this well-established fact of 
 physiological psychology for the scientific application of psycho- 
 therapy can not be overestimated. Moreover, it gives a scientific 
 explanation for the tendency of some departments of medicine and 
 surgery to overestimate the importance of their special methods, 
 and this is particularly true regarding the employment of surgery 
 for the relief of the minor structural abnormality that can almost 
 universally be found in the neurasthenic and psychasthenic. 
 
 Operations for "reflex irritations," so-called, are no longer 
 justifiable. It is the general condition of physiological insuffi- 
 ciency or incompetency which needs to be treated. In many such 
 cases a cure can be effected only by stimulating and encouraging 
 the patient's subconscious or involuntary physiological processes 
 until he or she can, by such aid, secure that degree of physical and 
 mental stability sufficient for them, unaided and alone, to possess 
 the capacity to execute your advice concerning methods of living 
 so as to maintain a degree of physical well-being commensurate 
 with a useful and happy life. 
 
 Buchanan, professor of surgery in Glasgow University, in 
 speaking of psychological methods of treatment, is quoted from 
 an editorial in the London Lancet as saying: 1 ' ' Pathologists will 
 limit the area of the process to the province of functional diseases, 
 
 1 Edmund J. A. Rogers: Medical Psychology. Journal of the American Medical 
 Association, June 12. 1909.
 
 40 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 but we are not sure that we are justified by scientific facts in mak- 
 ing this limitation. It is a fact in pathology that if the functions 
 of an organ be maintained or restored, much of the destructive 
 metamorphosis may be arrested, and to some extent repaired. 
 The vis medicatrix nalurw is a very potent factor in the ameliora- 
 tion of disease if it will be allowed to have fair play." 
 
 The late Professor William James, in his masterly address to the 
 American Philosophical Association on the ''Energies of Men," a 
 man who stands as an intellectual giant above prejudice and pre- 
 conceived notion, weighing each new fact as it is presented, calls 
 attention to the fact that in every one there are latent powers 
 which, when aroused under extraordinary stimuli, enable one to do 
 what would have been thought beyond all possibility. 1 
 
 In speaking of methods of arousing dormant, subconscious 
 energy in this article, Professor James says : * " Suggestion, espe- 
 cially under hypnosis, is now universally recognized as a means, 
 especially successful in certain persons, of concentrating conscious- 
 ness, and in others of influencing their body states. It throws into 
 gear energies of imagination, of will, and of mental influence over 
 physiological processes that usually lie dormant." 
 
 Professor Edmund J. Rodgers, a well-known surgeon, says: l "As 
 the disturbance of physiological function is the important element 
 in the causation of disease, the restoration of function may often 
 restore health; indeed, as resistance to infection, immunity, etc., 
 are produced by the functional secretions of certain cells, we real- 
 ize at once the importance of this question of the control of cell 
 function. ' ' 
 
 The success of psychotherapy in the general treatment of dis- 
 ease is due to the fact that we can influence the functional activity 
 of every cell in the human body, and that such can be done the 
 author has demonstrated to the satisfaction of five thousand well- 
 known American physicians. 
 
 According to Hammond, of New York, 75 percent of the patients 
 that consult the nerve specialists are neurasthenics. A well-known 
 western pathologist remarked in the presence of the writer that 75 
 
 1 Edmund J. A. Rogers: Medical Psychology. Journal of the American Medical 
 Association. June 12, 1899.
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPY AND GENERAL PRACTICE. 41 
 
 percent of all neurasthenics had sufficient degenerative changes in 
 the structural elements of the appendix to justify operation, and 
 he further remarked that fully 75 percent of the American people 
 are neurasthenics. If he had let his estimate include also the 
 psychasthenics and other persons living minus that degree of re- 
 sistive power in the cells of their organism commensurate with 
 a normal healthful state of mind and body, it is quite likely that 
 his estimate is not too high. It is from the neurasthenic and 
 psychasthenic class that the great army of tuberculous victims are 
 being recruited; they furnish the great majority of patients in 
 our surgical wards; from them pneumonia reaps its greatest 
 harvest; it is from this class that the stomach specialist, the gyne- 
 cologist, and even the general practitioner have their greatest fol- 
 lowing. What these people need is not medicine or surgery, only 
 in exceptional cases, but education, knowledge, and guidance 
 psychotherapy pure and simple. 
 
 Inherent within the protoplasmic elements of the human organ- 
 ism is latent unrecognized, available energy, that, by the judicious 
 employment of psychotherapeutic methods, can be turned into self- 
 control, both consciously and subconsciously, and by its guidance 
 and direction the individual can achieve a quality of physical re- 
 sistance commensurate with a condition of mental and physical 
 well-being a condition of perfect health. We thus develop the 
 fighting capacity of the cells of the organism, and fortify the 
 individual against the invasion of pathogenic germs and other 
 etiological factors of disease. 
 
 As our comprehension of the scope and usefulness of psycho- 
 therapy becomes broader, the more do we appreciate its applica- 
 tion as an adjunct to all branches of professional work. 
 
 The surgeon finds in psychotherapy a most efficient ally. By 
 its employment the dangers of ether and chloroform anesthesia are 
 minimized, and the possibilities of better results from surgical 
 work enhanced to a marked degree, due to the wonderful conserva- 
 tion of the patient's reserved energy by the employment of the 
 minimum amount of the anesthetic. 
 
 The general practitioner finds in psychotherapy an effectual 
 method of relieving the nervousness and insomnia accompanying
 
 42 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 any disease, acute or chronic, organic or psychoneurotic, and an 
 effectual method of increasing his patient's resistive powers by the 
 effect produced upon the patient's involuntary physiological 
 processes as well. 
 
 Psychotherapy does not seek to supplant the employment of 
 quinin in the treatment of malaria, of mercury in syphilis, of anti- 
 toxin in diphtheria, or of iron and arsenic in anemic conditions; 
 neither does it seek to replace antiseptics, eliminants, and those 
 materia medica agencies which act by chemically antagonizing the 
 effects of morbid conditions, but it does enable the general practi- 
 tioner to dispense with narcotics, analgesics, and anodynes to a 
 wonderful extent, and saves the patient from the necessity of tak- 
 ing such remedies that depress and retard functional activity and 
 lessen the resistive power of the organism to diseased processes. 
 In other words, by its employment we not only quiet nervousness, 
 relieve pain, and induce sleep, but bring about a re-establishment 
 of perverted function, and in this way increase the fighting 
 capacity of every cell in the human organism. We help the patient 
 to secure and maintain a condition of health. 
 
 We have, as a profession, too long neglected the higher evolu- 
 tionary factors of human personality. Man is a being with in- 
 telligence, desires, aspirations, memory, will, reason, perception, 
 and judgment; these psychic qualities can not be found with the 
 microscope, or the test tube, or the dissecting knife, but they func- 
 tionate in perfect correlation with the brain cell elements, consti- 
 tuting the dynamics of the human organism, and their employment 
 in therapeutics constitutes the most potent curative agent at our 
 command. 
 
 In all classes of disease, psychotherapy finds an important field 
 of application as a therapeutic adjunct, for all sick people need 
 to be taught how to exercise their capacity, physical and mental, 
 conscious and subconscious, voluntary and involuntary, in lines of 
 healthful thought and action, so as to maintain a degree of re- 
 sistive power in the cells of the physical organism commensurate 
 with a condition of health. 
 
 While we shall unceasingly fight the bacterial origin of disease 
 with every available resource, we can employ psychotherapy to make
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPY AND GENERAL PRACTICE. 43 
 
 a direct impression upon the brain, the organ which concentrates 
 and distributes our energies, and, in response to well-accepted laws 
 of physiological psychology, increase the functional activity of 
 every cell contained in the human body, and thus render it less 
 vulnerable to the ravages of pathogenic germs and other etiological 
 factors of disease. 
 
 Then the question which very naturally suggests itself in rela- 
 tion to so potent a curative agent is, Why is it not employed more 
 generally by the medical profession? The answer is they don't 
 know how to employ it. The method must of necessity appeal most 
 strongly to the highly educated classes of people, and, since the 
 medical schools have, except in the instance of a few of our leading 
 universities, regarded the psychotherapeutic branch of medicine 
 almost with absolute indifference, the people are seeking aid from 
 all kinds of modern healing faddists, who most crudely and un- 
 scientifically make employment of psychic methods of treatment and 
 who also ignore other rational therapeutic expedients. The med- 
 ical profession is being awakened from its long sleep over its rights, 
 the people are demanding something more substantial than the 
 usually recognized therapeutic methods, and the day is not far dis- 
 tant when a chair of psychotherapy will be in all first-class medical 
 colleges.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY. 
 
 Psychotherapy exercises its potentiality as a therapeutic re- 
 source by its influence upon human experience. It is the con- 
 clusion of monism that processes of experience and brain proc- 
 esses belong to the same thing, as different aspects of its one and 
 the same action, and that this thing is neither brain nor mind, but 
 reality the organism in function. A different brain change oc- 
 curs for every difference of experience. 
 
 In the study of the nervous system we find for every dif- 
 ference of experience whether of quality, intensity, or structure 
 a corresponding physical change. The end sought in psychothera- 
 peutic treatment is to bring the patient under the influence of 
 such experiences as will produce such brain changes that will 
 promote the normal functionating of the organism on the one hand, 
 and that will serve to adapt the individual to his environment on 
 the other. 
 
 Every process of experience, state of consciousness, or condi- 
 tion of mind is associated with corresponding organized physio- 
 logical processes or physical changes, which are the results of 
 such experiences upon the neuron .elements. Psychic traits, dis- 
 positions, or qualities of personality or mentality are acquired 
 by experiences coming at some time within the life of the in- 
 dividual, and they do not exist apart from the functions of the 
 nerve and brain cell. To think of a quality of personality as 
 existing apart from the functions of the nerve and brain cell 
 is folly. The neuron and its activities constitute the basis of 
 all psychic action. Neurosis and psychosis go hand in hand. 
 No neurosis, no psychosis; no psychosis, no neurosis. That every 
 psychical phenomenon has its physical concomitant is the well- 
 established basis of physiological psychology. 
 
 44
 
 SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY. 45 
 
 We account for the results of psychotherapeutic treatment as 
 we account for other processes of experience. Every process of 
 experience implies two sets of conditions the occasion or the 
 .stimulus on one hand, the reacting structure on the other. The 
 occasion or stimulus may be mental or physical, and we are about 
 to see how a physical stimulus can be understood to act upon the 
 mind and experience, and how these can be understood to act upon 
 the body. The reacting structure is the mind, and, in assuming 
 that it has its physical correlate in the structure of the nervous 
 system, there accordingly it is open to description and explana- 
 tion like other physical structures. 
 
 Our entire experience, and that of the lower forms of life as 
 well, presents a growing complexity of structure and a deepening 
 psychophysical unity. Of the mind, as of other things, there is 
 no saying what it is by itself apart from all its connections. So 
 long as we regard it in connection with the functions of the 
 neuron, we are on a scientific basis. 
 
 We know the mind, as we know other things, by what it does, 
 and we are thus enabled to reason from cause to effect. What it 
 does is to always experience to both act and react under the in- 
 fluence of innumerable internal and external stimuli; and what- 
 ever it does, consciously or unconsciously, designedly or uninten- 
 tionally, must be revealed in experience, just as the most invisible 
 works in nature are revealed in sensation. 
 
 The nervous system faithfully conserves and reproduces its 
 experiences, and all experiences, however and whenever formed, 
 if conserved, are a part of ourselves and belong to us as an es- 
 sential part of our personality. Try as we will, we can not get 
 away from the influence of past experiences in the determination 
 of what we are today. We can modify, change, or neutralize the 
 effect of our experiences to a considerable extent, but we can not 
 destroy them. Every experience retains the right to express its 
 influence in our later life. Conserved as they are by the nervous 
 system, they represent in reality living, active forces operating for 
 the good or harm of the individual. 
 
 The experience of our forgotten childhood and youth, even 
 those of infancy, lives actively in our adult years, and contributes
 
 46 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 to the formation of that variously named portion of our mental 
 lives of which we are not consciously aware. The study of this 
 portion of our mental lives repressed, yet active constitutes one 
 of the most interesting phases of psychotherapeutic treatment, the 
 importance of which is not justly appreciated at the present time. 
 
 While inheritance plays an important part, and varies within 
 wide limits, in making us what we are in mind and body, the 
 most important factors are the influences to which we are subjected 
 afterbirth. This is not to depreciate the importance of what we 
 bring into the world as a hereditary endowment, but to emphasize 
 the importance of education and training after we are born. 
 
 If we would change the mental and physical constitutions of 
 an individual, bring him under the influence of such experiences 
 as will bring about such modifications or changes as are 
 desired. All experience, however and whenever acquired, is edu- 
 cation, and, whether its influence is for good or ill, it should be 
 given a broader meaning than is usually accorded it. While the 
 influence of all experiences of the past are ever active in the 
 various functions of the psychophysical organism of man, it is 
 never too late to bring him under such experiences as will modify, 
 influence, change, inhibit, or encourage the functions of the nerv- 
 ous system set into operation by previous experiences. To bring 
 about such changes as will result in the upbuilding of the 
 physiological and mental constitutions of our patients, where such 
 help is needed, is the function of psychotherapy. 
 
 Miinsterberg remarks: "Theoretically, the field in which psy- 
 chotherapy may work on both mental manifestations and bodily 
 functions is a large and interesting one, but it is still open to 
 little real understanding. The explanation has essentially to rest 
 on the acceptance of a given physiological apparatus. A certain 
 psychophysical excitement produces by existing nerve connections 
 a certain effect, for instance, on the blood vessels or on the glands 
 of a certain region, or on a certain lower nervous center. That 
 such an apparatus exists, the physiological experiment with the 
 employment of suggestion with persons in the normal waking state 
 or in hypnosis can easily demonstrate." 
 
 By the employment of psychotherapy we simply make use of
 
 SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY. 47 
 
 the normal mechanisms of the physiological organism; we can do 
 nothing more, we should do nothing less. "That ideas work on 
 the lower centers of our central nervous system, and bring into re- 
 newed activity centers which regulate the actions of our muscles, 
 blood vessels, and glands, must be accepted as the machinery of 
 our physiological theory. ' ' x The connection of such theories with 
 purely physical facts is given by our every-day processes of ex- 
 perience, and is evident to the most casual observer. 
 
 In his elucidation of the psychological principles and field of 
 psychotherapy, presented before the American Therapeutic 
 Society at the annual meeting in New Haven, Professor Morton 
 Prince tells us : 2 
 
 "It is a law that associated ideas, feelings, emotions, sensa- 
 tions, movements, and visceral functions of whatever kind tend, 
 after constant repetition or when accompanied by strong emotion 
 of feeling tones, and under other conditions, to become linked 
 together into a system or group in such fashion that the stimula- 
 tion of one element of the group stimulates the activity of the 
 rest of the group. Such a group is conveniently called a 'com- 
 plex,' and I shall hereafter refer to it as such. This tendency to 
 the linking of functions obtains, whether the mental and physio- 
 logical processes when linked form a complex which subserves the 
 well-being of the organism and adapts the individual to his en- 
 vironment, or whether they form one which does not subserve the 
 well-being of the individual, but misadapts him to his environ- 
 ment. In the former case the complex is called normal; in the 
 latter, abnormal. This is only another aspect of the well-accepted 
 principle that pathological processes are normal processes func- 
 tionating under altered conditions. Both are the expression of one 
 and the same mechanism. ' ' 
 
 Professor Prince further says: 
 
 "The linking of function may be almost entirely of ideas, as 
 is expressed by the well-known psychological law of association 
 of ideas. Its pathological manifestations we see in so-called fixed 
 ideas or obsessions. We see it also exemplified within normal 
 
 1 Hugo Miinsterberg. 
 
 2 Journal of Abnormal Psychology, June-July, 1909.
 
 48 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 limits in so-called moods, when certain large systems of ideas, 
 accompanied by strong emotion tones, occupy the mental field 
 to the exclusion of other systems which find it difficult to take 
 the possession of the field of consciousness. When such moods 
 are developed and intensified to an extreme degree, we have veri- 
 table pathological alterations of personality, and even, it may 
 be, multiple personality. But in moods besides association we 
 meet with another principle in an exaggerated form namely, dis- 
 sociation. 
 
 "The linking, again, may be of physiological processes, as ex- 
 emplified by synergesis of muscular movements. This is seen in 
 the linked combination of muscles used in writing, piano playing, 
 and skilled use of tools and implements of games. 
 
 ".Unless nervous processes could be artificially linked into 
 coaptive synergistic systems adapted to a purpose, education in 
 any field would be impossible. Intellectual acquisitions, from the 
 repetition of the alphabet to a complete knowledge of a language 
 or a science, and physiological acquisitions, from the use of a tool 
 to the mastery of the piano or the vocal apparatus, would be not 
 only unknown, but would be unthinkable. The education of the 
 mind and body depends upon the artificial synthesizing of func- 
 tions into a complex adapted to an end or useful purpose. By the 
 same principle functions may be synthesized by education into a 
 complex which does not serve a useful purpose, but rather is harm- 
 ful to the individual. When this is the case, we call it abnormal 
 or a psychoneurosis. " 
 
 It is important to remember that psychic elements are cor- 
 related to the physiology of the brain just as physical processes 
 are correlated to cerebral excitations. Physiological psychology 
 deals with those psychical phenomena to which concomitant physio- 
 logical processes of the brain correspond. Psychotherapy is but 
 the application of well-demonstrated principles of physiological 
 psychology for therapeutic purposes. It is not necessary for us 
 to deduce from the conception of psychical life the possibility of 
 applying mathematical computations to that field of science. 
 Physiological psychology has, however, established important propo- 
 sitions capable of mathematical statement. We have become ac-
 
 SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY. 49 
 
 quainted with a series of psychophysical laws; psychophysics has 
 therefore become a component part of the science of psycho- 
 therapy. As physicians, we are interested only with that branch 
 of empirical psychology designated as physiological psychology, 
 which embraces the conception of psychical processes with con- 
 comitant cerebral processes. 
 
 We are at times confronted with the question, How do we 
 recognize phenomena which we designate as psychical? All and 
 only the phenomena which are imparted to our consciousness are 
 psychical. That which is without us in space and time, which we 
 assign as the cause of our sensations, is material. The object 
 whose existence we accept as external to us when we have the 
 visual sensation of the thing seen by the eyes is material. The 
 sensation of sight itself is psychical in so far as it concerns our 
 consciousness. Apparently "psychical" and "conscious" are 
 wholly identical, for we can form no idea at all of what an un- 
 conscious sensation may be; but upon closer investigation we 
 shall find that every conscious sensation has, at least to all but 
 a few of us, an unconscious effect. Concomitant physical proc- 
 esses corresponding to the psychical processes, the process of ex- 
 perience, are conserved by neuron elements and become in the 
 future a part of our personality. The more intense the psychical 
 process, the more active is the functionating of the nervous mechan- 
 ism conserving the experience. Concomitant psychical processes 
 appear and reappear, strengthened or weakened by similar expe- 
 riences, in response to material excitations of the nervous mechan- 
 isms conserving such experiences. 1 
 
 Most certainly "psychical" and "conscious" are primarily 
 identical, but the changes wrought upon the neuron elements as 
 the result of all experience may functionate again and again, though 
 the individual may be consciously unaware of such effects, and 
 these are very aptly designated as "subconscious psychical proc- 
 esses." They are the physiological residue of passing mental 
 states that are retained by the neuron elements, and functionate 
 as often in the life of the individual as they are aroused by sim- 
 
 1 Theodor Ziehen: Physiological Psychology.
 
 50 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 ilar experiences. They are brought to life, as it were, through 
 the association of ideas. 
 
 All of our experiences everything that we have thought, seen, 
 heard, or felt are conserved in such a way that they can be 
 reproduced in a form approaching that of the original experience. 
 Memory is but the impress conserved by our brain cells and 
 reproduced by ideas suggesting the original experience. 
 
 "Through the sensory nerves the brain receives, through the 
 motor nerves the brain directs, and this whole arch from the 
 sense organs through the sensory nerves, through the brain, 
 through the motor nerves and finally to the muscles, is one uni- 
 fied apparatus of which no part can be left out. The necessary 
 relation between the sensory and motor parts should ever be kept 
 in mind, for there can be no sensory process which does not go 
 over into motor response. The whole mental life thus becomes the 
 accompaniment of a steady process of transmitting impressions 
 and memories into reactions. ' ' x Miinsterberg has well said that 
 suggestions which are not suggestions of actions are, without ex- 
 ception, suggestions of belief. Actions and beliefs are the only 
 possible material of any suggestion the tool of psychotherapy. 
 Psychotherapy simply makes employment of the normal mechan- 
 ism of the mind and body of the physiological machinery al- 
 ready provided. By the employment of suggestion we bring about 
 a restitution of the disordered functions. Suggestion can act 
 only as a therapeutic agent by stimulating the physiological 
 mechanism; it can not create anything new, or do anything that 
 is not in accord with the laws of the nervous system. 
 
 The first beginnings of a nervous process are to be found 
 where animal anatomy first meets with a nervous apparatus in 
 the ascending scale of animal life. A certain capacity for nerv- 
 ous processes are recognizable in the motor activity of even the 
 simplest ameba. We can imagine a monad to be placed before us 
 and a grain of sand to be brought in contact with it. Proto- 
 plasmic masses, the so-called pseudopodia, stretch themselves out, 
 envelop the grain, and incorporate it within the body of the main 
 mass. In this process there are exhibited those features which we 
 
 1 Hugo Munsterberg.
 
 SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY. 51 
 
 recognize as the essentials of nervous function viz., (1) a sensible 
 stimulation, and (2) a reaction; in fact, a motor effect that is 
 by no means explicable to merely physical laws. Hence, wherever 
 we find contractile substance, the conditions of nerve life are al- 
 ready present. 1 . 
 
 This is true though only one cell be the seat of the reception of 
 the stimulus and the motor reaction. In this way the development 
 of the nervous system begins, the gradual accomplishment of which 
 in the jellyfish, for instance might be conceived as follows: 
 Here is an animal composed of many cells, and any given stimulus 
 with which it is brought in contact is constantly transmitted as 
 an excitation within the animal along the path offering the least 
 resistance. Thus the excitations will come to be transmitted only 
 along fixed paths, the so-called paths of conduction. According to 
 a fundamental law of biology, the constant execution of definite 
 functions also gradually effects certain structural modifications. 
 Accordingly these paths of conduction become anatomically differ- 
 entiated from their surroundings, and the nerves develop into in- 
 dependent anatomical tissues. Next is developed the so-called 
 ganglion cell, a mediating organ between the sensory conductor 
 receiving the stimulation and the motor conductor imparting con- 
 traction. When the stimulus acting upon the nerve end reaches 
 a ganglion cell, and is transmitted by the latter along a new nerve 
 path to contractile masses, so as to impart motion, the entire process 
 is designated as reflex action. Reflex action is the simplest nervous 
 process of which we have any knowledge. By reflex action in 
 higher animals we understand a motion imparted by a stimulus 
 upon a sensitive periphery. A prick of the sole of the foot is an- 
 swered by a withdrawal of the foot by flexion and, to some extent, 
 by contraction of the toes. In this case the essential anatomical 
 elements of the process are thoroughly known. In the sole of the 
 foot are the terminations of sensory nerves. These are irritated, 
 and conduct the stimulus, or excitation, to a sensory ganglion cell in 
 the spinal cord. This cell sends the excitation received along to 
 the motor ganglion cells, which in turn transmit the impulse again 
 toward the periphery and generate muscular activity. 
 
 1 Theodor Ziehcn : Introduction to the Study of Physiological Psychology, page 6.
 
 52 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Whether a concomitant psychical process corresponds to the 
 nervous process concerned in reflex acts, our consciousness alone 
 is able to decide. However this may be, the biological elements 
 concerned in the process possess and exercise their own psychic 
 potentialities, whether recognized by our consciousness or not, and 
 those psychical processes which correspond to physiological func- 
 tions of which we are consciously unaware may very appropriately 
 be designated as subconscious psychical or mental processes, which 
 have their own physical correlative. Hence, the employment of 
 the terms "conscious" and "subconscious" as applying to the or- 
 ganized physiological processes of the higher and lower neuron 
 systems respectively, whether accompanied by consciousness or un- 
 consciousness, or controlled by volition or automatic function. 
 
 Every process of experience involves millions of such elements. 
 The effort to explain the results of psychotherapeutic measures in- 
 volves a complex mechanism, which belongs to a system of reactions 
 of which all parts of the body are in steady correlation. The influ- 
 ence exerted by the stimuli of ideas upon the physiological processes 
 of the body, and the practical application of this influence as a 
 therapeutic agent, is one of the most interesting developments of 
 modern medicine. 
 
 But it should be definitely understood that "ideas" given as a 
 therapeutic measure must be practical, and not given merely to 
 influence morbid psychic and nervous conditions. Such measures 
 are being recognized by able physicians throughout the entire 
 world. Crothers tells us : "If the physician had been a consultant 
 on all matters of mind and body, there would have been no Chris- 
 tian science and Emanuel movement. There would be no proprie- 
 tary medicines bought and sold for every imaginary condition. 
 Epidemics and endemics would have been checked at the beginning, 
 and the great questions of health would have been settled in the 
 home by the family physician before they attained prominence that 
 required public recognition. The trained physician who becomes 
 an adviser to every man and woman is the ideal to which practical 
 medicine is rapidly moving. ' ' l 
 
 the Future.-New York
 
 SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY. 53 
 
 Howard A. Kelly remarks : l " During convalescence the physi- 
 cian must avail himself of various methods of psychic stimulation 
 and re-education, and here his knowledge of the world and of the 
 men and women in it, their hopes, their desires, and their failings, 
 will be most helpful to him. _He must consider how long to keep 
 the attention of his patient focused upon her cure, and how to 
 prevent her from giving herself unhealthy suggestions. In other 
 words, he must teach her so to train her attention that the action 
 of the mind becomes healthy, and that it ceases to dwell upon the 
 abnormal. He must excite in his patient the desire to get well, and 
 must convince her as the treatment progresses that she is in reality 
 getting well. He must teach her the importance of overcoming 
 little difficulties, assuring her that, as she does one thing after an- 
 other to which she may be disinclined, she will acquire an ever- 
 increasing power of self-control, and that sooner or later her self- 
 mastery will be regained// 
 
 "On the emotional side, a prolonged training is often necessary 
 in order to get rid of abnormal fears, anxiety, and apprehension. 
 The patient should be taught to cultivate the useful and invigorat- 
 ing emotions ; she should be taught the dangers of excessive emotion 
 of any kind, and the great harm of indulging in such passions as 
 anger, hate, and fear. The positive rather than the negative side 
 should be followed. Faith, hope, and love should be encouraged, 
 and then worry, fear, and despair will disappear of themselves. 
 Finally, work, physical and mental, must be undertaken, for in a 
 properly directed occupation-therapy lies the greatest hope for 
 making the cure permanent. These nervous women have to be 
 educated gradually how to take up their work, and the physician's 
 ingenuity will be greatly taxed in order to decide as to the partic- 
 ular physical and mental occupations suited to the individual cases 
 coming under his care ; one patient will be benefited by gardening, 
 another by some active mental pursuit. In all cases the program 
 of the day should be carefully arranged, and the patient should 
 be encouraged to follow it closely. The work should be chosen in 
 accordance with the ability and previous training and occupation 
 of the patient. It should be interesting to her and should be such 
 as to be capable of giving expression to her better self." 
 
 1 Medical Gyuecology, pages 224, 560.
 
 54 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Kelly further says : 
 
 ' ' Our best neurologists today are making large use of hypnotism 
 and suggestion in inducing sleep. To effect anything by this 
 means, the physician must know his patient well enough to inspire 
 confidence and must engage her aid in a common cause, operating 
 against a common enemy insomnia. The attitude of expectation 
 thus created must be enhanced by the external conditions of the 
 moment, such as retiring at a fixed hour, quieting the mind, and 
 composedly awaiting the advent of the expected guest sleep." 
 
 In referring to the treatment of chronic Bright 's disease, Dr. 
 Kobert Ortner, of the University of Vienna, says : 1 
 
 "Especially in the interstitial variety, so much of success of 
 whatever hygienic, climatic, dietetic, and medicinal therapy is insti- 
 tuted depends upon the establishment and maintenance of a nor- 
 mal psychic and nervous condition with a cheerful, hopeful frame 
 of mind, that we as physicians must not fail to do our part in this 
 most important branch. I encourage them by citing other cases that 
 are living, working, and happy." 
 
 Psychotherapy has a definite field of its own, as well as being an 
 adjunct in all classes of professional work, and it should never be 
 considered as antagonistic to other therapeutic expedients. When 
 it is skillfully and judiciously employed, it is unquestionably one 
 of the most important therapeutic resources at our command, the 
 value of which we are appreciating more and more as our experience 
 with its employment becomes broader. 
 
 Donley has well said : 2 " When we have apprehended that psy- 
 chotherapy means nothing but methods whereby we may bring 
 about a cure of the mind, or by or through the mind, we not un- 
 naturally inquire what is the ultimate purpose that these methods 
 subserve. This purpose may be stated in one word re-education. 
 To mediate between theory and life is the highest privilege, as well 
 as the most difficult and perplexing task, of the psychotherapist. 
 Whatever the proximate object of his endeavor, the fundamental 
 aim of his labor is, and must always continue to be, to make the 
 theories of science bear fruit in life and conduct. Every psycho- 
 
 1 Potter: Ortner's Treatment of Internal Diseases. 
 
 - John E. Donlev. M.D. : Psychotherapy and Re-Education. Journal of Abnormal 
 Psychology, April-May, 1911.
 
 SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY. 55 
 
 therapeutic procedure, of whatever sort, has in view this definite 
 end to bring about a readjustment, some sought-for and desir- 
 able reorganization of the individual in respect of his inner and 
 outer experience; to assist him, as well as may be, in his efforts, 
 hitherto frustrated, toward the consummation of a more harmonious 
 adaptation to his social and physical environment; in a word, to 
 place at his disposal those principles of modern psychology which, 
 rightly used, will not improbably facilitate and further his psychic 
 re-education. The situation is in nowise different from that which 
 confronts the teacher of normal minds, except in this, that the 
 psychotherapist is, as a rule, engaged upon problems whose solutions 
 are freighted with an immediate and greater moiety of happiness 
 and misery." 
 
 By the employment of psychotherapeutic principles the great ma- 
 jority of chronic invalids can be trained up to a state of healthy 
 mental and physical vigor, and by this achieve a self-reliance that 
 can come to a patient only where such measures are employed. 
 The patient is taught how to use his capacity of both mind and 
 body, conscious and subconscious and to acquire a degree of self- 
 reliance that proves a valuable asset through life. 
 
 What are possibilities with any therapeutic resource are, of 
 course, not actualities in all patients alike, dependent upon an 
 inherited quality of nerve and brain plasm, modified by education 
 and environment. We must take our patients as they are, and 
 make the best of each according to his or her individual limita- 
 tions or possibilities. 
 
 Psychotherapy has found a response with the more enlightened 
 spirit of our age, and by its employment we not only treat the 
 patient, but by the very application of these methods instill into 
 him or her facts and principles that serve to qualify them to be- 
 come master of their own potentialities, be they much or little, 
 weak or strong. 
 
 Miinsterberg remarks: "In recent decades the thorough work 
 of scientific physicians has developed a psychotherapy of con- 
 siderable extent and of indubitable usefulness, far removed from 
 the simultaneous efforts of the churches and the popular mental 
 healing cures. A number of eminent men in all countries have
 
 56 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 tested the methods and have published results. But the curious 
 side of it is that all this is essentially a movement of leaders, 
 while the masses of the profession hesitate to follow. ... It 
 is as if the prescription of the modern chemical drugs were con- 
 fined to some leading scholars of the country, while thousands 
 abstained from it in their office work and their family practice. 
 In reality, psychotherapy ought to be used by every physician, 
 as it fits perfectly the needs of the whole suffering community. 
 Its almost exceptional use in the hands of a few scholarly leaders 
 deprives it of its true importance. It is the village doctor who 
 needs psychotherapy much more than he needs the knife and the 
 electric current."
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE GENERAL UTILITY OF SUGGESTION. 
 
 This is an age of dynamics. It is a day when all minds are 
 turned in search of the laws that govern hidden forces. The in- 
 telligent comprehension and utilization of nature's forces, through 
 compliance with the laws that govern them, has revolutionized the 
 external world of travel, manufacture, and communication. Step 
 by step humanity is entering upon the field of finer forces. 
 Electricity, a force unseen, through intelligent compliance with the 
 laws that govern it, is utilized as never before for the comfort 
 and happiness of man. Man's progress in the scale of evolution 
 has been just in that degree that he has utilized forces governed 
 by laws not previously understood and has appropriated them for 
 his happiness and welfare. 
 
 We are in the world for growth, and to help to raise humanity 
 in the scale of evolution is the only worthy purpose of all human 
 endeavor and achievement. Each individual represents just so 
 much energy, and by his use or abuse of this inherent life force 
 is he a factor for good or evil. 
 
 As physicians, we are on the threshold of a great awakening 
 to a conscious realization of a higher conception of our duty 
 toward our patients, and of the potency of our influence upon 
 determining their present and future health and happiness. By 
 degrees, step by step slowly, but surely are we getting away 
 from the superstition that has so long darkened our conception of 
 life. From the time that the little ameba began to develop by 
 sucking into its jelly-self nutriment from the water around it; 
 from the time that its little jelly cousin, the moneron, put out 
 his first pseudopodium, there began the journey toward and the 
 feeling out after a higher conception of life. Long and tedious 
 has been the way slow and painful has been the ascent 
 from darkness to light. The law of evolution in even the lower 
 
 57
 
 58 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 realm or sphere of life has never mocked an ameba or 
 a moneron. The faculties back of the ameba and moneron realm, 
 whereby they found what they reached out after, were no 
 more natural than those that move us to seek a higher con- 
 ception of life. The infant reached out hand and mouth for 
 food; it was there. So, the real man, the higher self, which is 
 here in a material nursery, is in the infant stage of existence 
 it seems to manifest itself in a truer sense. If the little ameba 
 was not mocked, shall he be? 
 
 In the light of present-day knowledge we are warranted in 
 having a high degree of optimism in regard to the laws of heredity 
 and training. The time was when there was an overpowering 
 sense of the absolute dependence of phenomena of all sorts, in- 
 cluding the supreme one of will, upon visible, tangible, material 
 elements in the physical body and its activities, but now there is 
 a growing consciousness of self-activity and freedom. Pessimism 
 as a philosophy has not the sway that it had yesterday, and we 
 are dwelling more and more upon the importance of education 
 and training as a basis of character and health. We now realize 
 that the mind, as the result of education and training, contributes 
 to the development of the body as much as the body contributes 
 to the growth and development of the mind; that mind and body 
 are inseparable, both constituting a manifestation of the real self 
 in action, and that in every human being there exists an inherent 
 quality of psychophysical force, capable of a high degree of de- 
 velopment, which he must use for his welfare and happiness. 
 
 A better understanding of the laws governing the development 
 of the power that we are all using, either ignorantly or intelli- 
 gently, should be the means of helping each individual to better 
 use his life forces for the advancement of self and for the good 
 of others, aiding them in the struggle for the achievement of hap- 
 piness and health the greatest incentives to the activities of the 
 human race. 
 
 It is now clearly established by the advanced thinkers, who 
 have gotten over the stunned and stunning stages of the light that 
 evolution has shed upon us, that some individuals of all races 
 have not reached the point of development where the self-con-
 
 GENERAL UTILITY OF SUGGESTION. 59 
 
 scious ego is capable of taking their lives into their own hands. 
 Their heredity, environment, and education have not been such 
 as to produce normally developed personalities, and it is not any 
 fault of their own that such is the case. Such people will be the 
 helpless dependents upon others to think and do for them as 
 long as they live. These children of fate are everywhere in 
 evidence. They feel the need of something, and, like helpless 
 worms, are driven in the direction of least resistance. There can 
 be no higher function of a physician than that of getting such 
 patients who come to us for aid to act upon an idea or a series 
 of ideas and execute them consciously or subconsciously, in order 
 that their lives may be brought under its influence, and the in- 
 dividual be so adapted to his environment that he is not only 
 qualified to meet the exigencies incident to the struggle for ex- 
 istence, but that also health and happiness be maintained. 
 
 The universe was made for man, and all of nature's forces are 
 beneficent and are placed here for his utilization. By intelligent 
 conformity to nature's laws, health and happiness may be main- 
 tained; but for violation of or opposition to nature's laws, disease, 
 impotency, or premature death are the penalty. 
 
 In the study of the laws governing the formation of viewpoints, 
 beliefs, convictions, psychic traits, dispositions, and mental habits, 
 suggestion, or an idea aroused in the mind of the individual by 
 impressions from without, or conveyed by spoken words from one 
 mind to another, is found to be the dominant factor. Moreover, 
 we find that suggestion is a powerful factor in developing the mind 
 and in determining the functions of the physical organism, as is 
 illustrated by its employment on persons in the state of normal 
 waking consciousness or in the hypnotic state. 
 
 Perhaps no one subject has been so much abused as the subject 
 of suggestion, employed with or without the induction of the 
 hypnotic state, by the very class of people who use this all-potent 
 factor, which they either ignorantly or maliciously deny, as the 
 force by which most of their results as curative measures are 
 obtained. I refer to Christian scientists, osteopaths, Weltmerites, 
 faith healers, and such like. To point out the danger which at- 
 tends the ignorant use of suggestion, both with and without the
 
 60 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 aid of hypnotism, as well as the possibility of benefit that may 
 accrue from its intelligent use as an adjunct in the practice of 
 medicine, is my purpose. 
 
 '""ThlTuse of suggestion is but the art of employing spoken words 
 for the purpose of persuading an individual to act upon or exe- 
 cute an idea or a series of ideas, either consciously or subcon- 
 sciously. A suggestion is an impression conveyed by any means 
 whatsoever from one mind to another, or the impress received by 
 th^Jwiman brain by impressions from without. 
 
 When we remember that the nervous system faithfully con- 
 serves and reproduces its impressions or experiences, then only 
 do we realize the significance and importance of a clear compre- 
 hension of the term "suggestion" in the study of psychotherapy; 
 for the tool of psychotherapy is suggestion, and all of the sug- 
 gestions received by the individual in any manner whatever are 
 the factors determining his actions and beliefs. 
 
 There is nothing new in the conception of the term "sug- 
 gestion." What constitutes a decided advance is the more 
 thorough comprehension of its potency as a therapeutic agent and 
 its influence upon the development of human character, and also of 
 its influence in encouraging the normal functions of the nervous 
 system. It has been used by every human being, profession, sect, 
 school of learning, "ist" or "ism" that ever existed. All edu- 
 cation is the result of repeated and accumulated suggestion of 
 the impress conserved by the brain cell elements resulting from 
 past experiences. All theological sermonizing, dogmas, and re- 
 ligions make employment of suggestion upon the mind, and the 
 impressions made by these various experiences are conserved by 
 the neuron elements in such a way that the ideas instilled into 
 the individual become for all future time, unless altered by other 
 processes of experience, a part of his or her personality. Our 
 beliefs upon any subject are the result of dominant suggestions, 
 the impress being retained as physiological residue of past expe- 
 riences which have been conserved by the neuron elements. 
 
 By our use or abuse of our powers of suggestion do we be- 
 come a force for good or evil. So receptive is the human being 
 to suggestion that we become a part of all with which we have
 
 GENERAL UTILITY OF SUGGESTION. 61 
 
 associated during our existence. Our beliefs or convictions upon 
 any subject are the sum of suggestions that we have received, 
 either consciously or unconsciously, and which have been con- 
 served by our brain cells. These impressions are conserved as 
 psychophysiological centers for all future time, unless altered or 
 modified by other processes of experience, and all experience of 
 whatever sort signifies brain cell alteration, change, growth, or 
 development. 
 
 By suggestion, then, we are enabled to implant ideals, con- 
 cepts, viewpoints, convictions, and beliefs by which individual 
 life and conduct is guided. In this way character is developed. 
 In this manner also are ideas instilled into the mind of the in- 
 dividual for the correction of vice, the cure of evil habits, and for 
 the prevention and cure of certain forms of insanity. Intellectual 
 acquisitions, of whatever sort, are obtained by the individual as 
 the result of the influence of suggestion. The experiences by 
 which such impressions are made upon the neuron elements leave 
 permanent structural modifications by which such knowledge is 
 conserved, which forever afterward becomes a part of the in- 
 dividual's personality. By the employment of suggestions in such 
 manner as to be effective, the will power is strengthened, latent 
 talents are developed, and inherent capabilities of mind and body 
 brought into activity. Virtue can be instilled and vice eradicated ; 
 purity or impurity, confidence or fear, love or hate, joy or grief, 
 can be made the dominant quality of the mind. 
 
 It is through the employment of suggestion that personal in- 
 fluence, of whatever sort, is exerted by which human activities are 
 stirred, and by which we express our power for good or evil. 
 By suggestion every center of activity in the brain can be 
 strengthened, and every organic function in the body increased or 
 encouraged to new activity. Indeed, new physiological centers 
 can be established, resulting from the employment of suggestion, 
 the process of experience being conserved as physiological residue 
 of the passing mental states induced and retained by the neuron 
 elements. War and bloodshed, theft, and wreck and ruin of man- 
 hood and character, are the result of evil suggestions that have 
 been allowed to dominate the mind of an individual or a nation.
 
 62 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 The most sacred shrine of the soul itself may be invaded, 
 dominated, and profaned by suggestions from malicious and de- 
 signing creatures intruded upon the mind of the unfortunate in 
 whom the ideal ego, for the lack of the right heredity, educa- 
 tion, and environment, has not been awakened and evolved. 
 Evil suggestions on the part of low and degraded persons, opera- 
 ting upon the mind of the imperfectly developed or mentally in- 
 competent individual, is accompanied by effects that are as sure 
 and unfailing as the law of gravitation itself, and domestic unhap- 
 piness, divorce, suicide, murder, or death are not infrequent re- 
 sults. Such suggestions, when accompanied by deep-feeling tones, 
 operating upon an unstable nervous organization, convert its vic- 
 tim into a mere automaton. Suggestion upon the normal in- 
 dividual is often malicious, but, cloaked in the garb of truth, is 
 the dominant force that rules the life of every human being, of 
 every nation, of the very world itself. 
 
 By the use of suggestion in disguise on the part of the ' ' mother 
 of Christian science," thousands of innocent, but conscientious, 
 followers are being robbed of their individuality and selfhood. 
 By its use on the part of dishonest and designing men, the markets 
 are flooded with spurious wares of all kinds, and honest money 
 is paid for worthless trash. Here is the stronghold of the 
 patent medicine vender, the health food manufacturer, and ad- 
 vertising medical quack, as they play upon the ignorant credulity 
 of those whose inexperience has not developed the intelligent use 
 of their own thought powers. 
 
 The abuse of suggestion extends also into the medical pro- 
 fession. Through its use many people are made to submit, on the 
 one hand, to useless surgical operations, which often aggravate the 
 functional disturbance which they were intended to relieve, and, 
 on the other hand, they are caused to refuse the help of honest 
 surgery for the relief of pathological conditions beyond the reach 
 of any other treatment. 
 
 There is absolutely no difference between hypnotic suggestion 
 and suggestion employed without hypnotism. It produces the same 
 influence or effect in kind, the difference being only one of degree 
 as regards its effectiveness upon the psychophysical organism.
 
 GENERAL UTILITY OP SUGGESTION. 63 
 
 In reference to the observed tendency of the nervous system to 
 conserve and reproduce its experience, or to conserve by some 
 physical mechanism the systems of ideas that have been formed 
 by the various psychotherapeutic methods of treatment, whether 
 in hypnosis or in the normal waking state, Professor Morton 
 Prince says : 
 
 "It makes no difference in what state a complex is formed 
 whether in every-day life, in sleep, trance, dissociated personality, 
 subconscious states, or hypnosis they are or may be equally firmly 
 organized and conserved, and they are conserved, whether we can 
 voluntarily recall the experiences or not. Whether they are to be- 
 come organized depends upon the mode and conditions under which 
 the impression is made upon the mind or nervous system, but, once 
 organized, they are conserved and become a part of our personality. ' ' 
 
 Suggestion without hypnotism, even when used unconsciously, 
 may stealthily and subtly dominate the mind or nervous system 
 of the individual without his consent; while hypnotic suggestion, 
 intelligently applied for the relief of functional ills of the physical 
 organism, is always employed with the individual's consent. 
 
 One can not be hypnotized without the consent of the indi- 
 vidual. The hypnotic state is induced only by the co-operation of 
 the true ego, the real man, which is the sum total of the psychic 
 and physical potentialities of the individual self-consciousness. 
 When this ideal self is fully developed, or an ideal self is awak- 
 ened and evolved as the result of the influence of heredity and 
 experience, then the mind and body are its obedient servants. It 
 is beyond the vision of the microscope or the range of the dissecting 
 knife, and just in proportion as it is developed will it control th( 
 mind, and through the mind produce harmonious and healthfu) 
 results in the body. 
 
 I have no wish to be visionary. Life is too short for imprac- 
 tical theories and suggestions, but, to speak plainly, some of us 
 have been half-doctors long enough. We have been dealing too 
 much with effects, and have failed to consider an important 
 etiological factor of disease. Man is both a mental and physical 
 being, and can not be treated simply as if we were conducting 
 experiments in a chemical laboratory. Heretofore most of the
 
 64 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 advance made in the progress of medical science has been on a 
 physical plane, and the achievements made in the branches of 
 surgery, bacteriology, pathology, and hygiene challenge the ad- 
 miration and applause of modern civilization. But while bacte- 
 riology and pathology can detect, and surgery remove and destroy, 
 the diseased part, and hygiene lessen the conditions that occasion 
 the infection of the organism with pathogenic germs, the causes 
 of many so-called functional diseases among them neurasthenia 
 and certain forms of insanity have remained obscure. 
 
 The number of inmates of the insane asylum in every state is 
 yearly increasing far beyond the ratio of increase of population. 
 Why so many diseased bodies and imperfect nervous organiza- 
 tions? These bear a strong evidence of the tendency for the 
 species to degenerate rather than to grow healthier and stronger. 
 These are burning and pertinent facts that are beginning to dawn 
 upon the thinking portion of our craft. 
 
 Nor are the people satisfied. All over the world is the spirit 
 of unrest and dissatisfaction being made manifest, as is indicated 
 by the different "mind cure" schools and cults which attempt to 
 carry their claims into extravagant absurdities. The doctors them- 
 selves realize this, and just in proportion as they are honest and 
 educated men are they deeply troubled at their own deficiencies. 
 
 With a large acquaintance of professional men, I am prepared 
 to say that physicians study hard and work unceasingly, and their 
 brain and muscles, and their very heart's blood itself, are at the 
 disposal of their patients; but still something more is needed. 
 Either our remedies are. insufficient, or we fail to understand the 
 great human machine upon which we are experimenting. 
 
 While we do much good, and earn sufficient gratitude to enable 
 us to strive on, and while we can maintain enough courage to look 
 our patient squarely in the face, the suffering which we have not 
 been able to relieve, and the relief and cures which we have not 
 effected, and the universal prevalence of diseases that have not 
 been eradicated, have become such prominent factors in the history 
 of our profession as to seriously humble our pride. 
 
 The time has come when psychology should be brought to the 
 front. I would that a chair of physiological psychology were es-
 
 GENERAL UTILITY OP SUGGESTION. 65 
 
 tablished in all our medical schools. I should like to see every 
 boy and girl in our common schools, old enough to understand it, 
 made to realize that a power resides in the mind, and how they 
 can use it to maintain a healthy body, and how, by an abuse of 
 this force, they increase their susceptibility to disease, from what- 
 ever cause. 
 
 To say the least of it, the medical profession should better ac- 
 quaint itself with the importance of psychic influences as etio- 
 logical factors, as well as equip itself to make use of this thera- 
 peutic power in the cure of disease. When the members of the 
 medical profession become leaders and teachers in this important 
 branch, the practice of medicine will be elevated to a higher plane. 
 Then will the breach between that portion of intelligent laymen 
 who feel that physicians are not doing their duty be bridged over. 
 
 It may be that the light upon the landscape of the future is but 
 a reflection from the luminous regions of my own hopes, but, if 
 we take into consideration the broader and higher course of human 
 events such as the work done by the medical profession in prob- 
 lems of social vice, intemperance, hygiene, dietetics, preventive 
 medicine, sanitation, pure food, etc. we can but feel that we are 
 at last coming to a conscious realization of a lofty ideal of the 
 brotherhood of man, and that the day is not remote when the 
 physicians will be found doing all within their power to help 
 their patients to help themselves. 
 
 The indifference of science has always been the mainstay of 
 charlatanism. When the intelligent scientific application of any 
 therapeutic measure is adopted by the medical profession, charla- 
 tanism is robbed of its use. That these people effect cures of cer- 
 tain forms of functional ills right before our eyes, ills that had 
 not been amenable to cure by our ordinary methods of treatment, 
 is self-evident. In every city, town, and hamlet the followers of 
 the different cults and "isms" are gaining in number, and thou- 
 sands of dollars are reaped by them that should go into the pockets 
 of the medical profession, while, on the other hand, thousands of 
 innocent lives are sacrificed on account of the neglect of scientific 
 medical treatment. 
 
 With the intelligent recognition and application of suggestion
 
 66 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 in therapeutics as an aid in the practice of medicine, conditions 
 and symptoms can be relieved that can not be reached by any other 
 remedy, and it is cases of this very class that are going from 
 physicians and seeking aid from other sources. 
 
 The effect of the mind upon metabolism is now well established. 
 Emotional conditions of a hopeful, optimistic, and cheerful kind 
 encourage anabolism, or constructive metamorphosis. On the other 
 hand, depressing emotional conditions that conduce to fear and 
 despondency, and the like, encourage catabolism, or destructive 
 metamorphosis. By suggestion we can produce such mental im- 
 pressions as will increase the potential energy inherent in the cells 
 of the organism, and thus render them less vulnerable to patho- 
 genic germs and other etiological factors of disease. This is an 
 effectual means of conserving energy and increasing the resistive 
 powers of the individual, and lessening his susceptibility to dis- 
 ease. 
 
 Since the observation of Beaumont upon Alexander St. Martin, 
 the Canadian who had a fistulous opening in the stomach suffi- 
 ciently large for him to watch the physiological processes of di- 
 gestion, the effect of certain emotions upon this function has been 
 clearly recognized. Beaumont observed that mental conditions 
 such as worry, fear, and anger diminished and sometimes en- 
 tirely suppressed the secretion of gastric juice by the stomach. 
 At times, under these conditions, the mucous membrane became 
 red and dry, and at others it was pale and moist, showing the 
 effect of mental impressions upon the vasomotor neuro regulation 
 of the blood supply to the stomach through the involuntary nervous 
 system. Under the conditions mentioned fluids were immediately 
 absorbed, but food remained undigested for from twenty-four to 
 forty-eight hours. 
 
 More recent discoveries by contemporary psychologists have 
 shown that bad and unpleasant feelings create harmful chemical 
 products in the body called catabolins, which are physically in- 
 jurious. On the other hand, good, pleasant, benevolent, and 
 cheerful feelings create chemical products called anabolins, which 
 are physically helpful. 
 
 Quite frequently neurasthenic patients maintain a condition of
 
 GENERAL UTILITY OP SUGGESTION. 67 
 
 autotoxemia on account of morbid emotional conditions that dom- 
 inate their minds, giving rise to headaches, preventing sleep, con- 
 ducing to insanity, and proving destructive to all physiological 
 processes. In this class of cases, suggestion, both with or without 
 hypnotism, is our most reliable therapeutic aid. 
 
 From the earliest periods in the history of mankind down to 
 the present time there is abundant and sufficient proof, undoubted 
 and acknowledged, going to show that in innumerable instances 
 cures of manifold diseases and ills of the physical organism have 
 been wrought by influences brought to bear upon the mind of the 
 person afflicted. Physicians are too familiar with the history of 
 these cases for me to make further mention of them here. One well- 
 demonstrated fact, the result of honest investigation, is worth a 
 thousand opinions prompted by prejudice. Having witnessed the 
 efficacious application of suggestion in therapeutics, both with 
 and without hypnotism, in thousands of instances, I should still 
 feel confident of the inestimable value of this important thera- 
 peutic adjunct if every other physician in the world doubted its 
 efficacy. 
 
 We must face the facts as they are exact science has proved 
 to us the correctness of the claim of the efficacy of this method 
 of treatment as a therapeutic agent. The people who make use 
 of it in disguised form are here, and the proposition that con- 
 fronts us is, Shall we appropriate the laws that govern the influ- 
 ence of the mind to the intelligent and scientific treatment of 
 disease and make use of them as therapeutic measures, or shall 
 we leave these laws to them ? 
 
 My observation is that the members of the medical profession 
 are ever ready and anxious to avail themselves of any therapeutic 
 resource that will help to alleviate human suffering. All that is 
 needed is a more thorough understanding on the part of the gen- 
 eral profession of the theory and efficacy of suggestive therapeutics, 
 and a better understanding of the technic and practical methods 
 of its application. 
 
 The idea has been emphasized that only functional and neuro- 
 pathic conditions are benefited by this treatment. But be it re- 
 membered that a functional disturbance or disease, so-called, if
 
 68 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 neglected, may result in an organic condition, and that the timely 
 administration of suggestive therapeutics to correct or cure the 
 functional disorder may prevent its resulting in an organic lesion. 
 
 Furthermore, suggestive therapeutics should be applied with 
 an understanding and comprehension of the anatomical and physi- 
 ological relations of the organism, as well as of the pathological 
 conditions to be alleviated. It is not to be used to the exclusion 
 of other therapeutic resources, but can always be used with them, 
 for it is not antagonistic to or incompatible with any remedy 
 which helps to cure disease. 
 
 It is evident that some physicians are afraid that if they should 
 adopt this method of therapeutics, they would be counted as allies 
 of the quacks and charlatans who misuse these methods. It is 
 the duty of every medical man who is true to his Hippocratic 
 oath to adopt and use every measure that will help to alleviate 
 human suffering. This science, in the hands of a conscientious 
 physician, is capable of curing diseases and reaching conditions 
 that no other remedy can reach.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 HYPNOTISM DEMONSTRATED. 
 
 Hypnotism furnishes us with a practical demonstration, or 
 proof, of the efficacy of suggestion. It shows us the conditions 
 under which suggestion can be successfully employed, and a better 
 understanding of the theoretical basis and of the technic of em- 
 ploying hypnotic suggestion better enables the physician to suc- 
 cessfully employ suggestion without the aid of hypnotism, which 
 is unquestionably the finer art in employing the principles of 
 psychotherapy. While hypnotic suggestion is more efficacious in 
 the vast majority of conditions to which psychotherapeutic prin- 
 ciples are applicable, and while the method is attended with much 
 quicker results, and while it is effective in such a large number of 
 conditions that can not be treated successfully by other methods 
 of employing psychotherapeutic principles, its employment is very 
 frequently handicapped by the popular prejudice which at the 
 present time is prevalent concerning the measure. This prejudice 
 is the fruit of the erroneous ideas that those who have made no 
 personal investigation of the utility, practicability, and ration- 
 ality of the method at the present time entertain. 
 
 The majority of people, and physicians as well, have either had 
 no instruction in reference to the utility, sanity, and efficacy of 
 hypnotic suggestion as a therapeutic resource, or they have been 
 wrongly taught. The eight years spent by the author in giving 
 practical instructions in psychotherapy to the physicians of a con- 
 siderable portion of our country has given him excellent oppor- 
 tunities to know the "ins and outs" and "pros and cons" of all 
 varieties of medical practice, and he makes no hesitation in saying 
 that the prevalent ignorance in reference to all varieties of psycho- 
 therapeutic treatment, and especially in reference to the employ- 
 ment of hypnotic suggestion, on the part of the medical profession 
 at the present time is appalling. Moreover, during the time de- 
 
 69
 
 70 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 voted to the work of instructing physicians in the practical meth- 
 ods of employing psychotherapeutic principles I did not, I desire 
 it to be clearly understood, deal with the vast majority of the 
 physicians constituting the rank and file of our profession, but, on 
 the other hand, I conducted my work in such manner as to appeal 
 to the intelligence of the leaders of the medical profession, and 
 that these men indorsed, approved, and recommended the measures 
 advocated, illustrated, and taught by me, hundreds and hundreds 
 of letters now in my possession abundantly attest. 
 
 It is not my desire to be arrogant far from it. But, in view 
 of the fact that the number of physicians whom I have instructed 
 in the technic of applying suggestive measures, both with and 
 without the employment of hypnotism, is greater than that of any 
 other physician in the entire world, I feel that I am at least justi- 
 fied, if not qualified, in relating my experience in reference to the 
 employment of this valuable form of treatment. 
 
 Among those physicians who were pleased to honor me with 
 their presence at my lecture engagements were many who had 
 studied the subject of psychotherapy, in all the varieties of its 
 employment, in all the leading medical centers of this country 
 and Europe, and many there were who were free to say that they 
 had received more benefit from my explanation and demonstra- 
 tion of the subject than by the combined experience of reading 
 many books and witnessing numerous clinics in which the meas- 
 ures were illustrated and explained. 
 
 What I have been able to accomplish by the employment of 
 hypnotic suggestion, so far as its influence upon the physical or- 
 ganism of individuals taken at random would illustrate, can be 
 estimated by the statement that I have instructed approximately 
 five thousand American physicians to do likewise. Each one of 
 these men demonstrated to his own satisfaction that there was 
 nothing in my personality that enabled me to get results which 
 he also did not possess. Whether such physicians were enabled to 
 accomplish the same results afterward is another matter. I may 
 say for the satisfaction of the reader that some were able to get 
 the same results as were accomplished in my presence and others 
 were not. It all depended upon the personality of the individual.
 
 HYPNOTISM DEMONSTRATED. 71 
 
 Some physicians can witness a surgical operation where a special 
 technic is employed and immediately go away and do the operation 
 with equal dexterity. Others could never employ the same technic 
 successfully if they witnessed the procedure a hundred times. The 
 same is true in any other department of human knowledge. 
 There is something in the individual which either enables him to 
 exercise the capacity to appropriate what he experiences and make 
 it a part of his own personality, or he is not enabled to grasp and 
 utilize it. The fault in such cases is in the capacity of the indi- 
 vidual and not in the method illustrated. One thing is sure a 
 given amount of training is an essential in the employment of all 
 therapeutic procedures, and at the present time our medical col- 
 leges are not giving the prospective physicians sufficient training 
 in the art or technic of employing psychotherapeutic principles. 
 
 That some critics are not enabled to appreciate or assimilate the 
 ideas here presented for the above mentioned reasons, the reader 
 is now enabled to clearly comprehend. That the vast majority 
 are more en rapport with the writer, I also fully appreciate. 
 
 The method here described is the one which I used in connec- 
 tion with my class work with physicians on approximately five 
 thousand subjects, employed by the suggestions given by as many 
 different physicians, with the result that practically every indi- 
 vidual who gave his consent and co-operation was hypnotized, or 
 placed in a condition of suggestibility sufficiently for anesthesia 
 to be induced by suggestion, without a failure, I am sure, in one 
 percent of the cases. If the reader wishes to know why these re- 
 sults are so much more successful than those reported by some 
 authorities on this subject, I can only answer that I am stating 
 the facts as they were. In all cases I exercised all the suggestive 
 ability within my power upon the physicians themselves, posi- 
 tively assuring them that they could accomplish results. In other 
 words, I made them believe that they could succeed and taught 
 them how. This, I believe, is the secret of the success of the meth- 
 ods here described. One must believe in his ability to succeed and 
 must understand the technic of employing suggestion. After each 
 physician had obtained results by the employment of his own 
 verbal suggestions, and had witnessed the successful application of
 
 72 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 the method in the hands of others present, the experience had 
 produced such a psychological effect upon him as to enable him 
 to exercise the skill of the expert. Some of our psychothera- 
 peutists would say that the experience which I had put all such 
 physicians through had served to form a complex which func- 
 tion^d as a part of their own personality. It is quite likely that 
 this is true. 
 
 I may say, in passing, that the methods which are here described 
 are not those that I am at present employing in my practice, for 
 in no case now do I use the least bit of deception. This, however, 
 was a necessity in making demonstrations for the physicians, and 
 the method served a useful purpose in the work that I was doing 
 at the time, as it gave a practical demonstration of the efficacy of 
 suggestion, and illustrated how easily suggestion can be employed 
 in conjunction with the administration of medicine especially 
 employed in the general practice of medicine. The principle is 
 the same when employed for therapeutic purposes, and the dem- 
 onstrations here described, witnessed by so many American phy- 
 sicians who can vouch for the correctness of the experiences 
 described, should prove of great value to the student of psycho- 
 therapy. Regarding the method employed by me in actual prac- 
 tice upon cases referred to me by my colleagues, or those whose 
 acquaintance with me has been the result of my writings, all of 
 whom know that I make free use of psychotherapeutic principles, 
 these will be made known to the reader by a careful study of this 
 book. It should ever be borne in mind that psychotherapy can not 
 be brought under a single formula, but must always be adapted to 
 the psychology of the individual patient. Hypnotic suggestion, 
 however, in well-selected cases is one of the most important of all 
 the various psychotherapeutic methods. 
 
 Instead of appearing to use hypnotism in the presence of the 
 physicians on the individuals brought in for demonstrations, I 
 use a medicine in a bottle, one of the local antiseptic solutions, 
 and call this medicine " somno-analgesic compound." I ascribe 
 to this medicine whatever value or therapeutic property I desire 
 it to possess, and picture on the mind of the individual what 
 effect it will have, and, getting his consent for me to use the med-
 
 HYPNOTISM DEMONSTRATED. 73 
 
 icine, I secure all the co-operation necessary on the part of the 
 subject to put him into that suggestible condition which is pro- 
 duced by suggestion and known as the hypnotic state. 
 
 If you were to ask me how to make a suggestion, I would say, 
 "In a perfectly natural way of talking, with the least affectation 
 possible." If you in the least doubt your ability to use the 
 method which will be explained to you here, be actor enough to 
 speak and act as if you had not the slightest doubt about the 
 results to be obtained. Talk as if you meant it talk calmly, 
 earnestly, and kindly. Use a monotone voice. Look at your pa- 
 tient while you are talking to him. Look right into his eyes and 
 get him to look at you. 
 
 The following demonstrations and explanations were steno- 
 graphically reported, showing in detail my method of demonstra- 
 ting hypnotism in my class work among the physicians. There 
 were present several well-known physicians who took part in the 
 demonstration described, who will vouch for the correctness of the 
 incidents here reported. 
 
 The method here described demonstrates a simple, practical, 
 efficacious method of inducing the hypnotic state to the extent that 
 anesthesia can be produced, and each one of the several physicians 
 present demonstrated his own ability to do so, using an entirely 
 new subject, brought in from the street, whom we had never seen 
 before. 
 
 When I was ready for material for the demonstrations of hyp- 
 notism, two of the physicians present were requested to go out on 
 the street and bring in two or three men who were absolute stran- 
 gers to us all. One of them was brought into the room at a time 
 to be hypnotized, and as he walked in at the door I addressed him 
 as follows : 1 
 
 A Pre-Hypnotic Suggestion Given. "Take this chair, please. 
 Now, I will explain to you what I am doing and what I wanted 
 with you. Do you see this little bottle of medicine? This is a 
 sample of a preparation that I am introducing to the physicians, 
 known as "somno-analgesic compound." "Somno" means sleep- 
 
 1 Take note that the medicine used upon this occasion was only a small vial of 
 
 water.
 
 74 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 producing, and "analgesic" means pain-relieving; so, then, this 
 is sleep-producing and pain-relieving medicine. It is used by rub- 
 bing it on the forehead just as you see me rub it on mine. You 
 notice it does not harm me, and it will not harm you. Now, I have 
 explained to the physicians here that, in order for this remedy 
 to have its effect, it must be applied in a certain way, and that it is 
 the way that we get our patient to do and be while the medicine is 
 applied that determines its effect. I want you to take a seat in 
 this chair, lean your head back against the chair, relax every mus- 
 cle, close your eyes lightly, and breathe through your mouth, just 
 as if you were going to sleep. Then, as I apply the remedy, you 
 will soon get quiet all over, then get drowsy and sleepy, and go to 
 sleep, and awake feeling better. Now, see here, my man, don't 
 resist the effect of the medicine; just sit here and let it have its 
 effect." 
 
 Suggestions to Induce Hypnosis. Before beginning sugges- 
 tions to induce hypnosis, after giving pre-hypnotic suggestions, have 
 your patient relax every muscle, close his eyes lightly, and breathe 
 through his mouth, as illustrated in the frontispiece. (See frontis- 
 piece.) Then speak about as follows: "All right, take this seat. 
 Lean your head back against the chair. Close your eyes lightly 
 and breathe through your mouth, and think of going to sleep. 
 Now, as I apply this remedy you will soon become quiet all over, 
 and get drowsy and sleepy, and go to sleep and awake feeling 
 better. 
 
 "I will talk to you to help you to concentrate your mind. 
 Now, as I apply this remedy you will get sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, 
 so-o-o-o sleepy. Now, go to sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep. 
 
 "Now, you feel quiet all over. Your muscles are relaxed. 
 Everything is dark to you. You do not hear anything but my 
 voice. You are drowsy and sleepy, so-o-o-o sleepy. You feel the 
 sleep coming over you. You are going to sleep. Sleep, sleep, 
 sleep. 
 
 "By the time I count ten you will be fast asleep. One, two, 
 three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and you are asleep, 
 fast asleep, sound asleep. 
 
 "By the time I count five more you will be sound and dead
 
 HYPNOTISM DEMONSTRATED. 75 
 
 asleep, just as you are in the dead of night when sleeping soundly 
 in your own bed. One, two, three, four, five, and you are asleep, 
 fast asleep, sound asleep, dead asleep. Don't awake, now, until I 
 tell you. 
 
 "Every second your sleep will become sounder and sounder, 
 and deeper and deeper. Sleep on quietly until I awake you: 
 
 "Now, you will not feel anything, or hear anything, or know 
 anything except what I tell you. Sleep on quietly until I 
 awake you." 
 
 "Now, gentlemen, this subject is in a suggestible condition, 
 which I will proceed to demonstrate. I raise his arm." 
 
 Suggestions to the Subject Hypnotized. "Sleep on quietly. 
 When I count three this arm will be stiff so stiff that you can't 
 take it down. One, two, three; your arm is stiff, and you can't 
 take it down until I tell you. Now, when I rub this medicine on 
 your arm three times it will be dead and have no feeling in it. 
 Now, I pinch this arm" (thrusting a pin through a fold of the 
 skin ) , " but you do not feel it ; there is no feeling here at all ; this 
 arm is perfectly dead." 
 
 "Gentlemen, no one minds being pinched, at least with your 
 finger nails, so I give the easiest suggestion to accept to accomplish 
 an end. For the same reason I say to a patient, 'I will examine 
 this tooth,' while in reality I apply the forceps and extract it. 
 This makes it easier for the patient to accept the suggestion. ' ' 
 
 "Now, sleep on, and when I count three, stand up. Put your 
 heels together, and when I say 'stiff,' be as stiff as iron so stiff 
 I can lay you across two chairs and you will not bend. One, two, 
 three. Now, stand up. Get stiff stiff as iron." 
 
 "Place his heels in the other chair, please, doctor." (The man 
 is placed with his head on one chair and his heels on another.) 
 "Now, hold strong, be stiff." (Standing upon his body.) He 
 sustains my weight of two hundred pounds easily. "Now, relax, 
 limber, sit down, and sleep on." 
 
 "Now, my man, when I count three you will open your eyes 
 and be wide awake. You will be feeling good all over. You will 
 remember nothing that has been said or done, and will find that you
 
 76 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 never felt better in your life, and will always be glad that you came 
 up here. One, two, three, and you are awake." 
 
 "Have a good nap?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "What do you remember since coming into this room?" 
 
 "Nothing at all but sitting in that chair and going to sleep." 
 
 ' ' You are sure that nothing has hurt you since sitting there ? ' ' 
 
 ' ' No, sir ; nothing has hurt me. ' ' 
 
 Now, the talk that I gave that man about my selling the med- 
 icine, and how it was used, and what it was used for, etc., was the 
 pre-hypnotic suggestion. In that way I got his voluntary consent 
 to sit in this chair and let the medicine have its effect. In doing 
 that he was letting me put him in that suggestive, condition un- 
 fortunately named the hypnotic state. Notice, again, I had that 
 man relax every muscle, close his eyes lightly, and breathe through 
 his mouth. He was then in a condition of voluntary receptivity. 
 The very fact that he agrees to relax, close his eyes, and breathe 
 through his mouth indicates that he is a hypnotic subject, because 
 it signifies his willingness. 
 
 As to who is a hypnotic subject, it is the individual who does 
 not know that he is to be hypnotized, whose confidence I can se- 
 cure sufficiently to get him to conform to the conditions, just as 
 we have demonstrated. ., I always secure the voluntary co-operation 
 of the individual, and .get that supreme factor in human conscious- 
 ness the will to assist me in accomplishing the result. I get the 
 co-operation of the voluntary waking consciousness to act upon 
 or execute an idea or series of ideas, either consciously or sub- 
 consciously. In getting an individual to go into that sleep-like 
 condition known as the hypnotic state, I am simply getting the 
 real ego to act upon or execute an idea through intelligent co- 
 operation. That is the way by which that subconscious condition 
 known as the hypnotic state is produced. Then, after the subject 
 is hypnotized, I get him to act upon or execute an idea subcon- 
 sciously. 
 
 In approximately five thousand instances in which I have used 
 men of all nationalities for demonstration in my class work, I have 
 yet to see the first unpleasant result. In all cases pins were stuck
 
 HYPNOTISM DEMONSTRATED. 77 
 
 through their faces or arms, and their bodies put across chairs 
 and one or more men stood upon them. I have used lawyers, 
 preachers, doctors, dentists, merchants, mechanics, and people 
 of all trades and classes. As regards nationalities, Germans, 
 Frenchmen, Englishmen, Italians, Chinamen, Japanese, Indians, 
 and negroes have been my subjects. They have all proved about 
 equally susceptible as regards race. 
 
 The more intelligent individuals of all races made the best sub- 
 jects. Every one who left the room went out with a pleasant smile 
 on his face, and most of them thanked me for the experience. I 
 treated them all kindly, and acted in a way to secure the co-opera- 
 tion of a high element of human consciousness. 
 
 People have faith in medicine, and when we proceed as if using 
 a medicine we utilize the faith or confidence that is reposed in this 
 material agency, inert though it is as to physiological effect, which 
 proves a most powerful factor in producing that condition known 
 as the hypnotic state on the one hand, and getting results by sug- 
 gestion applied as a therapeutic measure on the other. 
 
 Our therapeutic measures must be adapted to the individuality 
 of the patient with whom we are dealing. 
 
 Demonstration No. 2. "Now, Doctor Blank, I want you to 
 hypnotize the next man. I want you to convince yourself that your 
 suggestions are just as efficacious as mine. 
 
 "See, I have tacked these printed suggestions upon the wall, 
 over the chair that the man will occupy here. I will give him the 
 pre-hypnotic suggestion for you. By this I convert him into a 
 hypnotic subject. I talk him into willingness to sit in that chair 
 and let the medicine have its effect, while you carry him, by read- 
 ing those suggestions on that wall, into a deeper state of sug- 
 gestibility. Bring in another man, please." (Another subject is 
 brought in.) 
 
 A Pre-Hypnotic Suggestion Given. "Take that seat, and I 
 will explain to you what I am doing and what I want with you. 
 Do you see this little bottle of medicine ? I am introducing to the 
 physicians here a remedy to cure headache, quiet nervousness, re- 
 lieve pain, etc. . It is applied by rubbing it on the forehead just 
 as you see me do here. It iiiust.be applied in a certain way to get
 
 78 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 results. The physician here knows how to apply it. I have 
 explained to him that it is important to get his patient to conform 
 to certain conditions in order that the medicine will produce re- 
 sults that are expected. That is what I will show you. I want 
 you to sit in this chair, and let the doctor apply this to you just 
 as if you had a headache and he were going to relieve it for you. 
 Now look at me. I want you to sit in this chair as you see me, 
 relax every muscle, close your eyes lightly, and breathe through 
 your mouth. Then when the physician here applies this remedy, 
 you will soon get quiet all over, and get drowsy and sleepy, and 
 go to sleep, and awake feeling better. Now, I want to ask you, 
 don't resist it just sit here and allow the medicine to have its 
 effect. Take this seat. " 
 
 "Proceed to apply the medicine, Doctor." (Rubbing "the med- 
 icine" on his head on either side, the physician read the following 
 suggestions in a conversational tone, with a low monotone, affirma- 
 tive voice) : 
 
 Suggestions to Induce Hypnosis. "You close your eyes lightly. 
 Breathe through your mouth. Think of going to sleep. As I 
 apply this remedy you will soon get quiet all over, and get drowsy 
 and sleepy, and go to sleep, and awake feeling better. 
 
 "I will talk to you to help you concentrate your mind. 
 
 "Now, as I rub this on your head you will get sleepy, sleepy, 
 sleepy, so-o-o-o sleepy. Now, go to sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep. Now, 
 you feel quiet all over. Your muscles are relaxed. Everything is 
 dark to you. You do not hear anything but my voice. You are 
 feeling quiet from your head clear down to your feet. You feel a 
 torpor all over your body. Your arms and limbs are so-o-o-o 
 heavy. You are drowsy and sleepy, so-o-o-o sleepy. You feel the 
 sleep coming over you ; you are going to sleep. Sleep, sleep, sleep, 
 sleep. 
 
 "By the time I count ten you will be fast asleep. One, two, 
 three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten and you are asleep, 
 fast asleep, sound asleep. 
 
 "By the time I count five more you will be sound asleep and 
 dead asleep, just as you are in the dead of night when you are at 
 home in your bed. One, two, three, four, five, and you are asleep.
 
 HYPNOTISM DEMONSTRATED. 79 
 
 fast asleep, sound asleep, dead asleep. Don't awake, now, until I 
 tell you. 
 
 "Every second your sleep will become sounder and sounder, 
 and deeper and deeper. You now see what a quiet, sweet expe- 
 rience you are having. You are having a quiet, refreshing sleep. 
 Sleep perfectly quiet until I awake you. 
 
 "Now, you will not feel anything, or hear anything, or know 
 anything, except what I tell you. Sleep, sleep, sleep quiet, re- 
 freshing sleep. Sleep perfectly quiet until I awake you. Every 
 second your sleep will become sounder and sounder, deeper and 
 deeper. Sleep on quietly until I awake you." 
 
 I then proceeded: "Now, Doctor, hold up this man's arm and 
 suggest to him that when you count three it will be stiff so stiff 
 that he can not take it down." (The arm staying there as sug- 
 gested indicated that the individual was in a suggestible condi- 
 tion.) "Now, take hold of his wrist, Doctor, and say to him, 
 'Your arm will come down now.' 
 
 "You notice that arm came down with a wax-like resistance 
 no volition exercised by him at all. When I feel that wax-like 
 resistance as I make the 'arm-test,' I am quite sure that I can pro- 
 duce anesthesia by suggestion. 
 
 ' ' Doctor, suggest to him that his arm will be dead when you rub 
 the medicine on it three times that it will be perfectly dead and 
 have no feeling in it at all. You see, gentlemen, after that sugges- 
 tion I am able to thrust a pin through his arm without the slightest 
 evidence of pain." 
 
 (Doctor Blank asks if any other part of the body can be rendered 
 anesthetic by suggestion, and if it is not a fact that the back of the 
 arm is neither very sensitive nor vascular.) "All right, rub some 
 of this medicine on his lower lip and suggest that when you rub it 
 three times it w r ill be dead and have no feeling in it. Notice this, 
 please, gentlemen." (Thrusting a pin through his lower lip from 
 outside to inside an inch through the lip.) "You see it does not 
 bleed, even on the inner surface of his lip." 
 
 No place, except the eye, is more sensitive than the lip, and no 
 place in the body is more vascular. As to why this does not 
 bleed, I will refer later on in my lecture. It is supposed to be
 
 80 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 the influence exerted by suggestion upon the coaptation of the 
 neurons. 
 
 Upon one occasion, in the presence of the faculty of the medical 
 department of one of our state universities, and of at least one 
 hundred physicians and three hundred medical students, I thrust a 
 steel hat pin through the cheeks of three hypnotized subjects. Then 
 I requested a noted surgeon present to name one man's face that 
 should bleed, and bleed more than just a few drops, and that I 
 would remove the pin from the faces of the other two men without 
 bleeding, while this man's face would bleed. The experiment was 
 a perfect success. I made the same experiment again, in the pres- 
 ence of a local medical society. 
 
 The method of getting the part to bleed is to suggest pain in the 
 part, and the control over the blood supply to the part through the 
 influence of the higher centers over the vasomotor neuro regulation 
 of the blood supply is augmented. To keep it from bleeding, sug- 
 gest that the part is dead, perfectly dead, and has no feeling in it. 
 Then the higher centers seem to exert an inhibitory influence over 
 the flow of blood in the part with which, in suggestive anesthesia, 
 the face pierced by a steel hat pin does not bleed at least in nine- 
 tenths of the cases. 
 
 "Your subject seems to be comfortable, Doctor. Now, suggest to 
 him that when you count three he will stand up, and when you say 
 'stiff' that he will be as stiff as iron from head to foot. I will lay 
 him across the chairs for you, as there is a knack that I have 
 acquired of lifting a man in that position that makes it easy for me. 
 
 "Put your foot there, Doctor, and we will both stand upon him. 
 Give me your hand. Tell him to be stiff to hold strong. Now 
 come up gradually. 
 
 "You see he easily sustains our combined weight of over four 
 hundred pounds in a line in the center of his body. 
 
 "Tell him to relax, sit down, sleep on. Doctor, suggest to your 
 subject that when you rub this medicine on his arm three times it 
 will be dead and have no feeling in it as long as he is in this room. 
 Tell him that when he is awake you can thrust a pin in the skin of 
 that arm while he is looking at it and he will have no feeling in it 
 that his arm will be perfectly dead as long as he is in this room.
 
 HYPNOTISM DEMONSTRATED. 81 
 
 "Now suggest to him that when you count three he will be wide 
 awake, that lie will feel good all over, that he will not remember 
 anything that has been said or done while in the room, that nothing 
 has hurt him, and that he will never have felt better in his life, that 
 he will be glad he came up here, and will always feel better. Now 
 count three and tell him to awake." 
 
 "All right, my man ; how do you feel ? ' ' 
 
 "All right, sir." 
 
 ' ' Has anything hurt you since you came into this room ? ' ' 
 
 "No, sir; not in the least." 
 
 ' ' Do you see this pin ? ' ' The doctor put some medicine on your 
 arm here and it has no feeling in it. I am going to stick it with 
 this pin. If you feel it in the least, let me know. Now, look at 
 it here it goes; do you feel that?" 
 
 "Not a bit." 
 
 ' ' That will never hurt you or never get sore in the least. ' ' 
 
 (The doctor asks if I ever have any trouble in waking a sub- 
 ject?) "Not in the slightest. He is in a condition of increased 
 suggestibility, and to awake him is only to get him to act upon 
 an idea or suggestion, and this he will do easier now than ever 
 before, provided you make the suggestion properly. 
 
 "Occasionally it is necessary to repeat again, 'Wake up.' 
 Rarely have I found it necessary to thump him on the face or 
 slap him lightly, and speak more emphatically, ' Wake up ! ' Be 
 calm, well poised, and self-possessed. Should you ever find a sub- 
 ject that any one else had hypnotized and found difficulty in 
 awakening, either turn an interrupted current of electricity upon 
 him or administer one-tenth of a grain of apomorphin hypodermat- 
 ically, and see what he will do. I have never found this neces- 
 sary." 
 
 What effect does hypnotism have on the subject, is asked. 
 "Whatever effect you suggest. The effect is determined alto- 
 gether by your suggestions. Hypnotism is but the induction of a 
 mental condition in which your suggestions will be more effective 
 and lasting. I will cover that question in detail in my analysis 
 of the subject later on. 
 
 "Gentlemen, you notice those men go out of this room with
 
 82 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 smiles on their faces. They seem to appreciate and enjoy the 
 experience. 
 
 "As these experiments are conducted here I regard our demon- 
 strations as splendid mental gymnastics. Those men are sent out 
 of here with a new element of selfhood having been aroused 
 within them. The real man, the ideal ego, is more self-conscious 
 of his mastery and control of mind and body, his servants, than 
 when he came into this room. I never hypnotized an individual 
 in my life who was not my friend after that, all because I dealt 
 with him kindly and he appreciated it. The man himself, the 
 real self, is not weakened and dethroned by the methods that we 
 employ, as some would have you believe. 
 
 "When you rightly appeal to the individual, you can take his 
 body, and stick it, stand upon it, cut it, etc., and it is all right 
 with him, because every step you are taking is through the power 
 possessed within him. 
 
 "How frequent it is that the operator becomes hypnotized in- 
 stead of his subject, thinking that it was some power that he w r as 
 exerting over the hypnotized individual, rather than the use of an 
 inherent quality of force within the individual himself. 
 
 "It is largely a matter of confidence in human beings. Faith 
 in your fellowman, confidence in his ability to exercise inherent 
 potentialities that are written in his blood and chiseled in his 
 cerebral cells, is the secret of success in this line of work, as well 
 as an important essential in rendering genuine service to your 
 fellowman in every department of life." 
 
 (Demonstrations Nos. 3, 4, and 5 were about like those just 
 described, and a further report of these cases is therefore un- 
 necessary.) 
 
 "Gentlemen, with the next subject waiting on the outside I 
 will demonstrate another method of inducing the hypnotic condi- 
 tion by having him fix his eyes upon some bright object, so as to 
 get his attention while making suggestions. 
 
 "Take this seat, my man. These are physicians, and I desire 
 to show them how I can get a man to look at this bright collar 
 button until his eyes become tired and how he will go to sleep
 
 HYPNOTISM DEMONSTRATED. 83 
 
 in a few minutes. I will put you to sleep, and you will sleep not 
 over five minutes and awake feeling better." 
 
 "But I do not care to go to sleep, Doctor," says the patient. 
 
 "All right, then; we will excuse you." 
 
 A physician: "Doctor Munro, I should like to see you put 
 that man to sleep and put him through the same test as you 
 did the others." 
 
 "I should be glad to do so, Doctor, but this man says he does 
 not care to go to sleep, and that is the end of it so far as our 
 efforts to hypnotize him are concerned. No one can be hypnotized 
 against his will. Consent and co-operation are absolutely neces- 
 sary, except where autosuggestion on the part of the patient can 
 be brought into play through credulity or fear conditions which 
 would remove the experiment altogether from the realm of the 
 justifiable." 
 
 The point that I have attempted to drive home upon your 
 consciousness here is that more people will consent for the med- 
 icine to put them to sleep than will give their consent to be 
 hypnotized; so by the use of the medicine you can accomplish 
 results that can not be secured otherwise. It is a means to secure 
 an end. There is no deception in it, for I tell the individual 
 what I expect him to do, what will be the result, and what I 
 want him to do in order that the result may be obtained. The 
 medicine actually is the material means through which the effect 
 is induced. It does it by the impression it makes upon the mind 
 the sensory nerves, if you please and this impression reaches 
 and influences the higher cerebral centers. It accomplishes its 
 work in accordance with the normal physiological processes. 
 
 It may seem queer to you at first glance that we can influence 
 the physiological processes by psychological methods. But all med- 
 icines produce their results by their influence upon function, even 
 when taken into the stomach or applied hypodermatically. Med- 
 icine used locally as a means of suggestion is a powerful functional 
 stimulant. By it we can inhibit certain brain centers and call 
 into play an increased activity of others. We quiet nervousness, 
 we relieve pain, we restore sleep, and we encourage secretion, nu- 
 trition, and excretion.
 
 84 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 All therapeutic measures can accomplish their results only by 
 acting in conjunction with those inherent properties and forces 
 within the biological element of the organism. Our internal med- 
 ication acts only upon function. Medicine used internally or 
 externally, whether for its physiological or psychic effect, can, 
 through the suggestion giving it its psychological potency, stimu- 
 late the function of every organ in the body. 
 
 Every center of activity in the brain can be influenced by sug- 
 gestion. Every organ in the body and all bodily functions are 
 under the control of the nervous centers. Every element of the 
 organism has its center of activity in the brain. All these we can 
 influence by suggestion, and we can use medicine and surgery, 
 and all other therapeutic measures, not only for the effects pro- 
 duced by their own physical influence upon the organism, but also 
 as a means of successfully combating the disturbing psychic factor 
 through the influence of those measures upon the mind. Every 
 physician uses these measures, consciously or unconsciously, every 
 day of his life. 
 
 Do not understand by the ground that I have taken that I am 
 a therapeutic nihilist. I am, first and last, a regular physician, 
 anxious for any therapeutic aid by any means whatsoever that will 
 help to alleviate human suffering and cure disease. We can dem- 
 onstrate the physiological action of our medicinal agents upon the 
 physical organism, even in unconscious persons and animals, as 
 impressively and conclusively as by a slap or a kick we can dem- 
 onstrate to the person who denies it our ability to use our hands 
 and feet. But, understand, I am talking to you about the psychic 
 factor in therapeutics, pointing out its value as an important 
 therapeutic adjunct, to be used in conjunction with any measure 
 medicinal, surgical, or otherwise that will help to alleviate suf- 
 fering and cure disease, or that will put the individual in such 
 condition that a cure may take place. 
 
 This science, as applied in the practice of medicine, is based 
 upon these premises : there is inherent in mankind a psychic power 
 or mental force presiding over the functions, conditions, and sen- 
 sations of his body, and this inherent potentiality, which is a 
 property of the cells that compose the complex mechanism of the
 
 HYPNOTISM DEMONSTRATED. 85 
 
 animal physiology, can, under proper conditions, be evoked and 
 controlled at will and applied to the alleviation of human suffering. 
 
 What that inherent quality of force represented by each indi- 
 vidual cell in the human body is has in ages past been called by 
 many names. It has been designated by such expressions as the 
 "vis medicatrix naturae," "the resident energy within," "neuric 
 energy," and, in the terms of psychology, "the subconscious 
 mind," "the subjective mind," "the subliminal consciousness," etc. 
 
 Tennyson referred to the same incomprehensible life principle 
 when he pulled a little flower from a crannied wall and said : 
 
 Little flower but if I could understand 
 What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
 I should know what God and man is. 
 
 The tendency of modern science is toward the possibility of 
 reducing all phenomena, physical as well as psychical, to a common 
 cause. 
 
 Verworn remarks that "the attempt to explain the mystery that 
 surrounds living substances the substance that nourishes itself, 
 breathes, moves, grows, reproduces, and develops has exerted 
 from the earliest times a peculiar stimulus upon the mind of in- 
 quiring thinkers." 
 
 But while we do not know what that inherent quality or force, 
 as represented by the individual cell, is, neither do we know what 
 electricity is, nor what matter is, in any form in its ultimate 
 analysis, but we do know something, not all, of the laws that 
 govern these of nature's forces, and by conforming to these laws 
 we are better enabled to make our struggle for existence. 
 
 By conforming to this psychological law we can get results in 
 the alleviation of human suffering, and as broadminded men we 
 want to make use of anything that will help us to grapple with 
 the problems of health and disease. 
 
 Just as steam and electricity were governed by nature's laws 
 that existed forever, and required only science to make use of them, 
 so has psychic law existed forever, and a better understanding of, 
 conformity to, and appropriation of this law are destined to make 
 the same revolution in the practice of medicine as have been
 
 86 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 effected by steam and electricity in methods of travel, manufacture, 
 and communication. 
 
 The intelligence of our age demands that the higher evolutionary 
 factors of human personality, call them by whatever name you will, 
 be recognized, and their truths be appropriated for the welfare, 
 health, and happiness of our patients.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 PRACTICAL THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 For our present discussion, let us regard man as being a living, 
 thinking entity a functionating organism that nourishes himself, 
 breathes, moves, grows, and reproduces, adapting himself to his 
 environment, both acting and reacting under the influence of in- 
 numerable internal and external stimuli. 
 
 His body, with its structures, organs, and parts, is composed 
 of millions on millions of cells, each one of which, however much 
 it may differ in structure and function from those belonging to 
 other organs and tissues than its own, is a lineal descendant from 
 a single primordial cell. Just how the mind of man is related to 
 the brain and nervous system is as yet far from being clear, but 
 we do know that as the brain is, so is the mind, and that a healthy, 
 well-developed mind corresponds to a healthy, well-trained, well- 
 developed, and well-nourished nervous system. 
 
 In the use of such expressions as "soul" and "spirit" in this 
 discussion, it is with the same meaning as the word "mind," and 
 to suggest that the individual has emotion, feeling, and will as well 
 as intellect. 
 
 Emotion and will are frequently regarded as spiritual, intellect 
 as mental, and sensation as physical, but they are all qualities of 
 the same individual body, mind, soul, or spirit. So, in the sense 
 that I use the term "mind," let it be held to embrace or include the 
 whole of man's psychic or mental activities, conscious and sub- 
 conscious, voluntary and involuntary. 
 
 Let us think of the human mind as being manifested by or 
 through the sum total of the functions of every cell in the body, 
 expressed in thought, feeling, volition, action, motion, perception, 
 conception, memory, etc. 
 
 When I say action and motion, think not only of objective, 
 conscious, external action and motion such as feeling, seeing, 
 
 87
 
 88 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 hearing, reading, talking, walking, or other conscious sensations 
 and acts but also of subjective, unconscious, internal action and 
 motion, including even the action of the lowest cell in the body in 
 its ability to take in new matter, fix it, change it, and throw it off. 
 
 In one sense, each cell seems to have a mind of its own, for it 
 goes on performing its special functions, be it brain cell, gland, 
 muscle, bone, or skin cell. Yet no one of these microscopic organ- 
 isms is capable of independent existence. Each has its duty to 
 perform, but each in turn is dependent, at least in a very large 
 degree, for its own existence upon the activity of other cells of the 
 body, the functionating of which constitutes the complex mechanism 
 of the animal physiology. 
 
 Conscious Mind. Man, as an entity, has conscious psychic or 
 mental activities, which correspond to the functions of the motor 
 area of the brain the gray matter, the higher centers, the volun- 
 tary processes. The functionating of these we designate as the con- 
 scious mind. These centers respond to stimuli that reach them 
 through the five special senses sight, hearing, feeling, taste, and 
 smell and through these all the bodily functions can be reached 
 and influenced. Here is the seat of all voluntary action, the home 
 of reason and the higher intellectual faculties. 
 
 So far as we know, our higher mental functions seem to have 
 their immediate seats in the cortex of the brain, and of these 
 mental functions the anterior frontal lobes appear to have the 
 power of inhibition. This is as near as we can come to absolute 
 localization of the mental faculties. 
 
 Articulation is a motor act, and, in common with other motor 
 functions, is governed by groups of cells in Broca's convolutions; 
 but the mind, which is symbolized by language, giving expression 
 to our thoughts, desires, ideas, aspirations and volitions, is a 
 psychic phenomenon dependent upon the entire brain and nervous 
 system. All forms of life that have ideas, however crude they 
 may be, have the power of symbolizing them. Language is but 
 the symbolization of ideas, and even the lower forms of life have 
 a language of their own, however elementary and primitive they 
 may be. 
 
 The failure of memory, as we know, is dependent upon the dis-
 
 PRACTICAL THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 89 
 
 solution of the entire nervous system. The latest acquired, and 
 consequently the least organized, mental attributes disappearing 
 first indicates that the mind, as exhibited by speech through the 
 combined effort of feeling, memory, desire, and will, is an acquire- 
 ment dependent upon environment, and quality and mode of 
 neuron organization. 
 
 Our conscious mind, then, seems to be an outgrowth of educa- 
 tion and experience, resulting from the conditions that environ 
 us during our struggle for existence from the cradle to the grave. 
 This is the mind that we use in our normal, waking consciousness, 
 as we go in the smooth, even tenor of our ways, attending to our 
 respective vocations in life, not dominated by fear, or anger, or 
 emotion, but controlled by reason and will. This, I say, is the 
 conscious mind and represents the higher brain centers in action. 
 
 Hypnotism is the process or method of using suggestion to in- 
 fluence the action of the conscious mind, /fey suggestion the func- 
 tions of the motor area of the brain can be soothed, quieted, made 
 still, passive, inactive, at rest, or placed in abeyance. As an in- 
 dividual the subject ceases to use these brain centers and consents 
 to allow you to use them for him, and through them to reach and 
 influence the lower nervous system, which presides over the in- 
 voluntary physiological processes of the body. 
 
 Hypnotism, in one sense, is induced sleep. The only difference 
 between induced sleep and natural sleep is that in natural sleep 
 you are completely oblivious to the outside world, while in induced, 
 or hypnotic, sleep the subject is, as it were, asleep to every one 
 except the person who induced the sleep. He is en rapport with 
 the operator in relation with him. He hears and acts upon the 
 operator's suggestions, but appears to pay no attention to any one 
 else than the person who induced the condition referred to as 
 the hypnotic state. 
 
 When the conscious mind is rendered passive, as when an in- 
 dividual is hypnotized, or in a condition of increased susceptibility 
 to suggestion, we can better reach and influence all those psychic 
 activities which lie below the threshold of consciousness, the study 
 of which throws much light upon the subject at hand.
 
 90 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Subconscious Mind. All those psychic activities which are 
 found below the threshold of consciousness correspond to the func- 
 tions of all the involuntary physiological processes the functions 
 of the lower neuron systems, the functions of the ganglionic and 
 sympathetic nervous systems, and the functions of the lowest cell 
 in the body as-it plays its part in the game of the life of the entire 
 physical organism. These functions we designate the subconscious 
 mind. 
 
 Moreover, the subconscious mind, which corresponds to the func- 
 tions of the vegetative brain and nervous system, perceives by 
 intuition; it is the storehouse of subjective memory, and is greatly 
 influenced by the emotions. It presides over the functions, con- 
 ditions, and sensations of the body; over all the vegetative or 
 nutritive processes over digestion, secretion, excretion, nutrition, 
 waste, respiration, calorification ; in short, over all cell life function 
 and development. 
 
 When the conscious mind is inhibited or soothed into passivity, 
 as in the hypnotic state, this subconscious mind is amenable to 
 influence by suggestion. It can be influenced by suggestion with- 
 out hypnotism, but in the hypnotic state there is an increased 
 amenability or susceptibility of the subconscious mind to sugges- 
 tion, and also an increase in its power to execute an idea or 
 suggestion through its control over the physiological processes of 
 the body. 
 
 In the hypnotic state we can influence and make such impres- 
 sions upon the subconscious mind as will be fully carried out in 
 its influence over the physical organism, and the fact that the sub- 
 conscious mind does preside over the functions, conditions, and 
 sensations of the body, and is more amenable to suggestion when 
 the conscious mind is inhibited, gives us in a nutshell the reason 
 why the results are obtained from hypnotic suggestion or sug- 
 gestion in the hypnotic state. 
 
 How do we prove that the subconscious mind is amenable to 
 suggestion ? For upon the truthfulness of this proposition is based 
 the entire structure of the science of suggestive 'therapeutics. 
 
 First, we use suggestion upon the conscious mind. This we do 
 when we hypnotize a man, as was demonstrated in a previous
 
 PRACTICAL THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 91 
 
 chapter. Then, by suggestion in the hypnotic state, we can better 
 reach and influence the deeper thresholds of consciousness. 
 
 After an individual is hypnotized, you will remember that we 
 held up his arm and suggested to him that when we counted three 
 that arm would be stiff and that he could not take it down. We 
 challenged him, "You can't take it down." The arm remained 
 stiff, showing that voluntary function was here influenced or in- 
 hibited by suggestion ; that the conscious mind which presided over 
 this motor function was amenable to our suggestion. 
 
 Then it was suggested that after the medicine had been applied 
 to his arm it would be dead and would have no feeling in it; and 
 a pin was thrust into his arm without the slightest evidence of 
 pain, showing that the subconscious mind, which presides over the 
 sensations of the body, was also amenable to suggestion. 
 
 Then, that both the conscious and subconscious minds were 
 amenable to suggestion was proved by suggesting to him that when 
 he stood up and we counted three he would be stiff so stiff that 
 we could lay him across two chairs and he would not bend. We 
 then caused him to sustain the weight of from two to four hundred 
 pounds without the slightest inconvenience. 
 
 A further demonstration that the subconscious mind presides 
 over sensation and is amenable to suggestion was given when we 
 suggested to the individual that his lip was dead and had no feel- 
 ing in it, and a pin was thrust through his lip, not only without 
 the slightest evidence of pain, but without producing bleeding. 
 
 So we see that the mind v of man, both conscious and subconscious, 
 both voluntary and involuntary, is amenable to suggestion, and 
 that suggestion to the voluntary waking consciousness is as much 
 hypnotism as is suggestion in that increased condition of sug- 
 gestibility usually referred to as the hypnotic state; that any 
 influence brought to bear upon the mind of any individual by any 
 means whatsoever is hypnotism; that the individual is hypnotized 
 by suggestion, and that an individual with his eyes wide open, 
 thinking he is in possession of all his conscious faculties, is fre- 
 quently as much amenable to suggestion as is the subject in that 
 sleeplike condition usually referred to as the hypnotic state. 
 
 The conscious mind presides over the voluntary functions: it
 
 92 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 corresponds to the functions of the gray matter, the motor area of. 
 the brain, the higher intellectual faculties; but in the presence 
 of a stronger personality, be it an attorney at law, a minister, a 
 teacher, a salesman, or a physician, it is amenable to influence and 
 is controlled by suggestion. 
 
 The hypnotic state, when induced by the method that we em- 
 ploy with the medicine, is always induced with the consent of the 
 voluntary waking consciousness. We always get the consent and 
 co-operation of the will of the individual to be hypnotized; but 
 by suggestion without a sleeplike condition, as is used by all classes 
 of individuals, the conscious mind may be stealthily and subtly 
 dominated. Hypnotic suggestion, however employed by the medi- 
 cine method which we have demonstrated and described, is always 
 used with the individual's consent. 
 
 The subconscious mind presides not only over the involuntary 
 functions, but over all cell life function and development. I have 
 frequently produced copious emesis by suggesting to an individual 
 that he had taken ipecac, thus showing the effect of suggestion 
 upon the involuntary physiological processes. In a number of 
 instances I have had physicians accomplish this result in my class 
 work by suggestions made by them to the subject that they had 
 hypnotized. 
 
 I say by suggestion we can influence cell life. In not less than 
 one hundred instances have I taken a hat pin from a lady's hat 
 and without sterilization thrust it through a large fold of the cheek 
 of a person without the slightest ill results following. In several 
 hundred instances have I thrust a smaller pin without sterilization 
 through the face or an arm of an individual without the least 
 untoward results. 
 
 We certainly can not influence the bacteria upon the pin; then 
 we must increase the resistive power of the cells in the face in 
 some way. Whether it is done by encouraging leucocytosis or the 
 migration of phagocytes, or whether we increase the resistive power 
 of protoplasm direct, has never been explained. Theorize upon 
 that proposition as you will; its meaning has a far deeper import 
 than appears at first upon the surface. To me it indicates that 
 we can increase the resistive power life, strength, and energy
 
 PRACTICAL THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 93 
 
 of every cell in the body by suggestion, both with and without 
 hypnotism; so that in the fight between the etiological factors of 
 disease, which is ever being made by the cells of the body, we can 
 help these cells in their struggle against pathogenic germs or other 
 etiological factors of disease. 
 
 Physiologists have ever endowed the brain centers with a pecul- 
 iar form of energy of their own, indefinitely referred to by such 
 expressions as neuric energy, nerve force, and the like. These 
 higher centers occupy a relation to the general cells comprising 
 the physical body similar to that occupied by a dynamo to a piece 
 of machinery. By suggestion we can convert potential energy 
 into dynamic energy, latent energy into moving energy, and in this 
 way increase the resistive power of every cell in the body. 
 
 I am aware that some physicians will shrug their shoulders and 
 raise their hands to heaven in protest against the foregoing state- 
 ment. It goes against the grain to present an idea so completely 
 at variance with their preconceived opinions. But if they will 
 reflect and verify, they will be forced to bow down before the 
 evidence of facts. 
 
 I do not mean to say that an instrument previously infected 
 with a culture of anthrax bacilli can be thrust with impunity into 
 the flesh of a hypnotized subject, neither do I mean to give license 
 for any failure to observe the strictest rules of asepsis, which has 
 been the means of the brilliant achievements that have crowned 
 the efforts of modern surgery; but let the facts in the case speak 
 for themselves. Let us hew close to the line of truth, let the chips 
 fall where they may. 
 
 I have in at least five hundred instances taken a pin that has 
 not been previously sterilized and thrust it through a fold of the 
 skin in the face or arm, and with but one single exception have 
 never observed the least unpleasant results. Even the exception 
 in this case only goes to prove the efficacy and power of suggestion 
 in the accomplishment or support of the position that I have taken. 
 
 In one instance I used a small blade of my pocket knife and 
 jabbed it under a fold of the skin for an inch without soreness re- 
 sulting. The antiseptic property of the blood is not to be discredited 
 in making allowance for the result, nor elimination by bleeding.
 
 94 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 but in this case the arm bled only a few drops. On an average, 
 where a pin was used the arm did not bleed one time in fifty. 
 Nor do I forget the natural resistive power of the cells themselves 
 in a healthy individual, and this, in my opinion, can by suggestion 
 be strengthened to a wonderful extent. 
 
 The one exception where the arm became sore was in the case 
 of a physician for whom I gave a treatment by hypnotic suggestion 
 and relieved him of a tinnitus aurium of twelve years' standing. 
 He was an extremely neurotic individual, and when I awakened 
 him after the treatment for his tinnitus and asked if anything had 
 hurt him in the least, he replied, "No." 
 
 "Did you know that I had thrust a pin into the flesh of your 
 arm?" 
 
 " No ; you did not or I should have felt it, ' ' said he. 
 
 "Do you feel it now?" I asked. "No, not in the least,'" said 
 he. ' ' You did not stick me really, did you ? ' ' 
 
 "Yes," I replied, "and here it is now," and I pushed back his 
 cuff and let him see the pin yet through the fold of the skin. 
 
 ' ' Take that out, ' ' said he, in a most excited manner. 
 
 His tinnitus was relieved, and after one year, when I last heard 
 from him, had not returned. Yet he seemed offended because I, 
 a physician, should have taken such a risk as to thrust an unclean 
 instrument into his flesh. 
 
 In the afternoon he had a red, painful arm, with a general 
 temperature of 103 F., and he asked that I hypnotize him again 
 and get rid of that condition. I hypnotized him and gave him 
 appropriate suggestions to relieve his pain, quiet his nervousness, 
 and give him a good night's sleep. After awakening him I assured 
 him that his temperature was due to malaria. He took twenty- 
 five grains of quinin that evening and was all right the next morn- 
 ing. 
 
 This, I say, was the only case in my extensive experience where 
 there was the slightest unpleasant symptom after sticking a pin 
 without sterilization into the flesh, and I am quite sure that I have 
 made that experiment not less than five hundred times. 
 
 It has been reported that a physician jabbed a dull lead pencil 
 into the flesh of a hypnotized subject and produced an infection.
 
 PRACTICAL THEORETICAL, CONSIDERATIONS. - 95 
 
 Such a procedure would destroy the cells in that part, and is not 
 at all a parallel case to where a sharp instrument is used and proper 
 suggestions given to influence the result. 
 
 These facts have led me to conclude that, through the influences 
 exerted by the higher centers of the brain over the vasomotor 
 neuro regulation of the blood supply to the part, increased leuco- 
 cytosis results, and that the theory of phagocytic resistance, as 
 advanced by Metschnikoff, is an important and constant factor in 
 natural immunity. According to this author, leucocytes, having 
 arrived at the spot where the intruders are found, seize them after 
 the manner of the ameba and with their bodies subject them to 
 intracellular digestion. 
 
 The facts mentioned in regard to the case of the physician whose 
 autosuggestions were adverse and most unfavorable, as against at 
 least five hundred cases where suggestions were given in the hyp- 
 notic state that would possibly favor this natural physiological 
 process of immunity, lead me to conclude that cell activity is in- 
 creased or retarded in even a local area by suggestion. We know 
 that every cell in the body, through the complex mechanism of 
 animal physiology, is influenced by centers of activity in the brain. 
 These centers can be stimulated and encouraged into action by 
 suggestion. We can convert potential energy into dynamic energy, 
 latent energy into moving energy, and in this way all the physio- 
 logical processes can be increased or encouraged, and by suggestion, 
 both with and without hypnotism, we can aid the cells of the body 
 in the fight against the etiological factors of disease, whether due 
 to pathogenic germs or other causes. 
 
 The physician, then, in the light of such indisputable facts, is 
 a factor either for good or harm in the sick-room. How often 
 is it the case that his training in the pathological laboratory so 
 fills him subconsciously with fear of pathogenic germs that it com- 
 pletely offsets his confidence in the natural resistive powers of 
 his patient; like a dog frightened and cowed, he goes into the 
 fight with a drooped head and his tail tucked in, exercising a most 
 depressing influence upon his patient, rather than with a sufficient 
 faith in the potentialities inherent in the living cells that comprise 
 the physical organism to encourage them into action.
 
 96 SUGGESTIVE 'THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Has it not often been your experience to see a patient Very sick, 
 so that, from the pathological condition there existing, reason 
 would cause you to doubt the possibility of his recovery? But he 
 had faith in you, expected to get well, was hopeful and optimistic, 
 and that encouraged you both to encourage him and to do your 
 best for him. Later on, when he was safely on the road to re- 
 covery, when he was thanking you for what you had done for him, 
 you gratefully reminded him that he was getting well on account 
 of his courage and bravery, and that had it not been for his 
 will power and determination he never would have recovered. 
 You really felt that your services played a small part in his 
 recovery. 
 
 On the other hand, you have had patients who were not at all 
 seriously sick, so far as their apparent pathological conditions 
 would indicate, yet from the very first visit you realized that you 
 had failed to get en rapport with them. You realized that you 
 "did not make good," and upon your return the next morning 
 you found that he was nervous and had not slept well that night; 
 there was an increase in pulse rate, his respirations were quick- 
 ened, and he was overanxious about himself, and from this con- 
 dition he continued to go on from bad to worse until, finally, upon 
 your last visit, when you realized that he would not recover 
 chagrined, humiliated, and mortified you could not but feel that 
 he had failed to recover on account of the morbid mental attitude 
 taken toward his condition in its incipiency. He died for the lack 
 of the will to get well. 
 
 The experience of hundreds and hundreds of physicians co- 
 incides with the cases just cited. Why is it that the mental atti- 
 tude of an individual plays such an important part either toward 
 recovery or nonrecovery? For this reason: everybody's subcon- 
 scious mind is constantly amenable to the influence, suggestion, 
 and control of his conscious mind, and, when you fully comprehend 
 this proposition, you see very plainly that every one is treating 
 himself by selfsuggestion all the time, whether he realizes it or not. 
 Your own thoughts, your own beliefs, your own predominating 
 mental characteristics, whether you will it or not, whether you 
 believe it or not, whether you know it or not, are the suggestions
 
 PRACTICAL THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 97 
 
 that are ever influencing your subconscious mind either for good 
 or harm. 
 
 So much so is that true, that you can put it down as a safe 
 proposition that the individual who is hopeful, optimistic, and 
 cheerful, constantly looking on the bright side of life, carrying 
 sunshine and cheer into the lives of others that such an individual, 
 by his mental attitude, conduces to the health and strength and 
 well-being of his own physical organism as well. 
 
 On the other hand, the individual who is pessimistic, despond- 
 ent, and blue, having morbid fears about his own physical condi- 
 tion, worrying over the affairs of life, unduly emotional, pining 
 and complaining such an individual, by his mental attitude, has 
 a wrecking, weakening, ruinous effect, not only upon his own 
 physical organization, but upon that of others. 
 
 As we pointed out in a previous chapter, emotional conditions 
 of a hopeful, optimistic, and cheerful kind encourage anabolism, 
 or constructive metamorphosis, a building up of the cells of the 
 body; while depressing emotional conditions worry, fear, envy, 
 anger, jealousy, and such like encourage catabolism, or destruc- 
 tive metamorphosis, a tearing down of the cells of the body. 
 
 In the study of the etiology of neurasthenia and allied condi- 
 tions, including all functional disturbances and their name is 
 legion selfsuggestion enters into these cases as a causative factor 
 that is of a far deeper import than is generally recognized ; and in 
 treating this class of cases, as well as for the nervous element of 
 any disease, acute or chronic, surgical or otherwise, it is our duty 
 as physicians to make such impressions upon the conscious minds 
 of our patients in our daily association with them as would indi- 
 rectly influence the subconscious mind through autosuggestion. At 
 least we must make the patient feel that we understand his case; 
 that we are especially interested in him; that we are giving him 
 due consideration, and as far as possible we should hold out a 
 strong belief or expectancy that he will get well. Just in propor- 
 tion as we keep him cheerful, hopeful, and optimistic, just so far 
 shall we help him on the road to recovery. 
 
 Think of these two minds as two sets of men upon a war vessel. 
 The men upon the upper deck give their attention to the fleet over
 
 98 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 yonder. They give their attention to the objective world. These 
 are performing the function of the conscious mind. The men be- 
 low deck give their attention to the internal machinery of the ship, 
 paying no attention whatever to the outside world. They repre- 
 sent the subconscious mind. Their respective duties are entirely 
 separate and independent, yet the men below stand ever ready to 
 obey the dictates, or orders, or signals from the men above. 
 
 Every human being is giving orders that will encourage the 
 performance of every organic function every minute and hour of 
 his life, or he is giving orders that will inhibit, retard, and weaken 
 the involuntary psychic activities or nervous functions. So you 
 see that suggestion is used both with and without hypnotism, and 
 that any influence brought to bear upon the conscious mind of 
 your patient indirectly reaches his subconscious mind. We are 
 using it every day of our lives for the good or harm of ourselves 
 and for the good or harm of our patients. 
 
 To show you the influence of the mind upon the bodily func- 
 tions, I will cite one illustration. I was once talking to a physician 
 about hypnotism or suggestion when a band stopped in front of 
 his office and began to play. In a jocular way he remarked, "I 
 should like to see you hypnotize that band and stop it from play- 
 ing." "All right," said I, "come and watch the procedure." I 
 procured three lemons, and gave a half of each to as many little 
 boys on the street, instructing them to walk round and round the 
 band, sucking the lemons and making faces at the musicians. The 
 result was such an increase in the secretion of their salivary glands 
 that the men were compelled to stop and swallow or empty their 
 instruments of saliva. They were unable to continue their music 
 and the little boys were put to flight. 
 
 An individual with a large "bay window" is usually a man 
 who gives full appreciation to the thought of the dinner hour, the 
 breakfast hour, the lunch hour. This pleasurable anticipation of 
 the approaching meal time encourages the free flow of blood to 
 his gastric mucous membrane, with a result that he has a plentiful 
 supply of gastric juice, a good appetite, a good digestion, and a 
 healthy physique. 
 
 On the other hand, our cadaverous-looking brother usually ap-
 
 PRACTICAL THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 99 
 
 preaches his meal hours with pessimistic forebodings, and goes to 
 his home at meal time more as a matter of duty than otherwise; 
 thus he unfortunately fails to encourage this passive organ suffi- 
 ciently to enable it to secrete sufficient gastric juice to give him an 
 appetite or to secure a perfectly digested meal. 
 
 By suggestion we can influence man 's conscious and subconscious 
 psychic activities, and thus every organ and every cell in the body 
 can be stimulated. The daily visit of the physician to his patient 
 is one of the most important therapeutic factors at his command 
 through the very influence of his own personality. 
 
 Before going into the practical application of the theories of 
 hypnotic or therapeutic suggestion, I desire to briefly call your 
 attention to other phases of this subject, which, though they may 
 not appear to you perfectly scientific, have a bearing upon the 
 subject at hand of such importance that it can not be ignored. 
 
 We remarked in the outset that the subconscious mind per- 
 ceived by intuition that it was the storehouse of memory, the seat 
 of the emotions, and presided over the functions, conditions, and 
 sensations of the body. So far we have been elaborating the in- 
 fluence of the subconscious mind over the functions, conditions, 
 and sensations of the body, having made it clear that when the 
 conscious mind was inhibited the subconscious mind was more 
 amenable or susceptible to suggestion, and that suggestions given 
 in the hypnotic state were more effective and lasting in certain 
 selected cases than suggestions without hypnotism. We also made 
 it plain that the conscious mind of every individual was amenable 
 to influence by suggestion, and that any influence brought to bear 
 upon the mind of an individual by any means whatever came under 
 the broad domain of suggestive therapeutics. 
 
 The Subconscious Mind Perceives by Intuition. It is now 
 considered that thought transference, or telepathy, is rendered 
 possible on account of the ability of the subconscious mind of one 
 individual to be impressed or influenced by another mind by some 
 means apart from the generally recognized modes of communica- 
 tion. It may be that this is based on sympathy existing between 
 two persons concerned, and deals with something in which they 
 are mutually interested. Be that as it may, that there should be
 
 100 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 such a relation between two individuals of congenial habits of 
 thought and action seems to me to be no more unreasonable than 
 that two mechanical instruments delicately and harmoniously at- 
 tuned, the one to the other, should receive electrical vibrations 
 through air, and earth, and water thousands of miles apart, by 
 which our wonderful system of wireless telegraphy has been per- 
 fected. 
 
 In connection with this phase of the subject I am at present 
 an agnostic, but I am ever ready- to stand by facts as I find them, 
 hoping that some day, perhaps not far distant, some of the prob- 
 lems that have so perplexed honest investigators on this line will 
 be explained by the discovery and control of a natural law that 
 has been in operation forever, and, like all other natural laws, only 
 required the intelligence of man to appropriate and use it for his 
 welfare and happiness. 
 
 I have had some demonstrations and observations of certain 
 phases of this subject presented to me which have led me to certain 
 conclusions that I desire to bring to your attention, without which 
 it would be impossible to intelligently practice suggestive thera- 
 peutics. 
 
 I once took a young man whom I had frequently hypnotized, 
 and, while in the hypnotic state, blindfolded him. I wrote upon 
 a piece of paper the following suggestion: "Go to the mantel- 
 piece and get the baby's photograph, and bring it to me." A wit- 
 ness who was present at the time read the suggestion. Not a word 
 was spoken more than to tell him that, when I counted three, I 
 wanted him to go and do what was written upon the piece of paper ; 
 that I would not indicate what I wished him to do by look, or 
 gesture, or word, but would constantly think of it. 
 
 I then removed the blindfold, told him to open his eyes and 
 do what was ordered on the piece of paper. He at once went to 
 the mantelpiece, put his hand upon the first photograph nearest 
 to him, which was the wrong one, but put that down; then to 
 another, which he also put down ; and lastly he took the baby's pho- 
 tograph indicated, held it in his hand and, turning around with a 
 blank expression on his face, handed it to me. "Good," said I. 
 "Be seated and sleep on."
 
 PRACTICAL, THEORETICAL, CONSIDERATIONS. 101 
 
 At this juncture a winter coat was thrown over his face, and 
 I wrote on another piece of paper that he would go to a washstand, 
 thrust his hand in the water pitcher, and wash his hands, which 
 he did. I again wrote on another piece of paper that he would take 
 a stool upon the floor and turn it bottom side upward, and take 
 a seat in the bottom. This being done, I wrote that he would go 
 to a lounge in the room, lie flat down upon his face, cover his head 
 up with a pillow, and go to sleep. 
 
 Take notice that all these suggestions were written not one 
 word being spoken. Each suggestion was carried out precisely as 
 written upon the piece of paper. When I awakened him and asked 
 what he had been doing, he replied, ' ' Nothing. ' ' When I told him 
 what he had done, he denied it. When I presented the written 
 suggestions and assured him positively that he had carried out 
 every suggestion given in writing, and that not a word had been 
 spoken to indicate what we wanted him to do, he laughed aloud and 
 said that we had played a great joke on him. 
 
 Since that one demonstration I have never doubted that man 
 has a means of conveying an idea or impression to another indi- 
 vidual which lies outside the domain of the five special senses. It 
 is by this that thought transference, or telepathy, is made possible. 
 As to whether the reader believes in thought transference, or 
 telepathy, is a matter for him to decide. It is recognized as a 
 fact by some of our ablest scientists and psychologists of the pres- 
 ent day. It affords an explanation of a great mass of unex- 
 plained phenomena that have been hitherto relegated to the 
 realm of mysticism. If there be any truth in it, it has its prac- 
 tical bearing upon our subject at hand in this way: the more 
 faith one has in his ability to hypnotize a subject or to use sug- 
 gestion, both with and without hypnotism, the greater will be his 
 success; the more faith we have in any therapeutic measure, the 
 better will be the results from its administration; the more faith 
 we have in that inherent quality of resistive power within our 
 patient, call it by whatever name we please, the better are the 
 chances of our patient to recover. 
 
 The physicians who have the most confidence in suggestive 
 therapeutics always secure the best results in its application. A
 
 102 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 doubtful mental suggestion may outweigh a positive oral sugges- 
 tion, if it be possible to give a positive suggestion orally when one 
 is in doubt, and a physician may fail to get results for the lack of 
 confidence in the procedure. 
 
 Furthermore, we, as physicians, should cultivate a spirit of 
 optimism and self-confidence in our demeanor with our patients. 
 The physician who goes into the sick-room with an air of self- 
 sufficiency, which is based upon professional qualifications and an 
 understanding of human nature, will always inspire his patients 
 with confidence and secure that mental attitude on the part of 
 the patient that is desirable. Such a man usually possesses tact 
 sufficient, not only to influence the mental attitude of his patient 
 in regard to his own condition, but to drop a suggestion here and 
 there upon the minds of those around him which will secure the 
 proper psychological environment under which the best results 
 may be obtained. 
 
 Many men succeed in the practice of medicine far beyond their 
 professional qualifications because they possess tact and self-con- 
 fidence sufficient to properly impress and inspire confidence in 
 those with whom they associate. 
 
 On the other hand, we often see a well-qualified physician fail 
 to succeed on account of his lack of ability to carry that sug- 
 gestive influence which is so essential to the personality of the 
 successful physician. A lack of faith in self, however much one 
 may try to conceal the fact from observation, repels that confidence 
 that others would have in one. 
 
 I am frequently asked how to acquire confidence in our ability 
 to succeed in accomplishing what we have undertaken in life, and 
 I usually answer: "By going the route by making the fight, by 
 hard work, concentration, and study, and the acquirement of self- 
 confidence, which can come only through knowledge and experi- 
 ence." That indefinable quality of personality called "personal 
 magnetism" is comprehended here. The man who goes down the 
 stream of life day after day self-reliant, optimistic, and cheerful, 
 with a pleasant greeting for his friends, glad that everything is 
 as well with him today as it is, glad of the privilege to work, and 
 to study, and to learn, and to be of use in the world, is always
 
 PRACTICAL THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 103 
 
 the one that is looking out for a better tomorrow, and uncon- 
 sciously attracts to him the elements that go to make up success 
 in life. 
 
 With the physician this is indicated by his library, his post- 
 graduate diplomas, his office equipment, and the interest that he 
 takes, not only in his profession, but in all questions that con- 
 tribute to the welfare, happiness, and onward development of the 
 human race. The world has no use for human inertness. We 
 must keep in line with the progress of our age, or step aside. 
 
 The individual who is pessimistic, despondent, and gloomy, and 
 so morbidly self-conscious of his own life's battles that he has no 
 time to speak to his friends, who is continually speaking dispara- 
 gingly of life and its opportunities, brooding over his own troubles, 
 whining and complaining, will drive away those elements that go 
 to make life worth while. 
 
 This intuitive faculty of the subconscious mind often forces itself 
 upon the recognition of the physician in his routine work. You 
 have frequently been called to see a patient who was not properly 
 within your clientele. You perhaps wondered why you received 
 this call. On returning the next day to make your second visit, 
 the minute you entered the sick-room you could tell whether your 
 patient was better or worse, and who among the environment was 
 for you or against you, and you have at times observed that the 
 patient would be progressing very satisfactorily but for the an- 
 tagonistic suggestive influence of some influential member of the 
 family or friend who favored the patronage of another physician. 
 
 To get properly en rapport with all those who collectively go 
 to make up the environing influence brought to bear upon your 
 patient constitutes tact, and is one of the greatest elements of 
 success in the practice of medicine. 
 
 The Subconscious Mind is the Storehouse of Memory. 
 Memory seems but to be the impress made by previous experiences 
 in life upon the entire brain and nervous system. Aside from con- 
 scious objective memory, every experience in your life has left its 
 indelible impress upon your subconscious mind. This is what 
 gives rise to a great many subjective impressions and sensations 
 which haunt the lives of neurotic individuals.
 
 104 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 All education and instruction, and experience of any kind, are 
 retained by the subconscious mind. These ideas or impressions 
 here lie dormant until ready to be brought out by the association 
 of ideas. You would say that some of your best prescriptions 
 have been extemporaneously devised upon the spur of the moment ; 
 but the skilled surgeon finds every previous experience in the dis- 
 secting and operating room and pathological laboratory instinc- . 
 tively forcing itself upon the domain of consciousness as an im- 
 pelling guidance or impulse to every step of the procedure. 
 
 By suggestion, both with and without the aid of hypnotism, we 
 can modify the effect of old impressions and memories which are 
 the result of unpleasant experiences in life, and plant new im- 
 pressions and ideas that will influence the future life and conduct 
 of an individual both consciously and unconsciously. 
 
 The physician who has the happy faculty of getting the con- 
 fidence of his patients and keeping them feeling good is always 
 a successful therapist. At every visit he lifts his patient out of- 
 a morbid self-consciousness of despondency and gloom, and, pre- 
 senting a roseate hue of life, inspires him with hope and confidence. 
 
 That the subconscious mind is the storehouse of memory ex- 
 plains why you can give a patient a suggestion in the hypnotic 
 state at nine o'clock this morning that will give him a good night's 
 sleep, beginning at a specified time, the following evening, and 
 every night afterward. This is the application of post-hypnotic 
 suggestion. I have frequently broken up nervous, wakeful habits 
 of neurotic individuals in a single treatment by suggestion in the 
 hypnotic state, to affect them post-hypnotically. 
 
 The nervous element of an acute disease may be aggravated, 
 or a neurasthenic, psychasthenic, or hysterical condition main- 
 tained, on account of some morbid emotional condition resulting 
 from an unpleasant experience in the previous life of the indi- 
 vidual, rendering the patient nervous, preventing sleep, and prov- 
 ing destructive to all physiological processes. Freud's work in 
 this field is most instructive. 
 
 By the use of hypnotic suggestion we can modify the sense im- 
 pressions causing these depressing emotional disturbances. Give 
 such people more plentiful and refreshing sleep, and plant upon
 
 PRACTICAL, THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 105 
 
 the subconscious mind such impressions as will make them more 
 hopeful, more optimistic, more cheerful, and happier in many ways, 
 resulting in a good appetite, good digestion, improved nutrition, 
 and a complete restoration to health. By suggestions properly 
 given in the hypnotic state we can change the individual's point 
 of view in regard to experiences which upset the mental and nerv- 
 ous equilibrium. I cite one case for example : 
 
 I once had a patient, a lady, who had a son accidentally killed. 
 She was of an emotional nature, neurasthenic, and rather inclined 
 to be on the hysterical order. Three hours after the accident 
 which caused her son's death I was called. The large bed-room 
 was full of friends who had come to express their sympathy. 
 These people had unconsciously used suggestion to make her feel 
 worse. Her minister had been on the scene to express his sym- 
 pathy, and unconsciously used suggestion to make her more self- 
 conscious of her bereavement. 
 
 As I walked in the door I began to ask each of those present 
 to leave me alone with my patient. By the time I had reached 
 the bed the room was cleared of all present, except her husband. 
 I attempted bravely to talk her into being quiet, but my very 
 presence seemed to have been a signal for an outburst of this 
 emotional condition. At every attempt to reason with her or to 
 soothe and console her, she would cry vehemently and answer, 
 "Oh, you don't know, you don't know." 
 
 Seeing that I was making no headway, I prescribed chloral- 
 hydrate 15 grains and potassium bromide 30 grains to each dose, 
 four doses, repeated every two hours. I directed that no com- 
 pany be allowed to come into the room, and instructed her husband 
 to sit by her bedside and place a cold towel upon her forehead, 
 changing it every ten minutes. This was in August and the 
 weather was extremely warm. 
 
 After the fourth dose of the prescription just mentioned had 
 been taken I prescribed 15 grains of trional to the dose, four doses, 
 to be given every two hours. Three hours after the last dose of 
 this was taken I administered a hypodermic injection of morphin 
 sulphate % grain, with hyoscyn hydrobromid Moo grain. 
 
 Three hours afterward she had still been unable to sleep, was
 
 106 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 very nervous, had a terrific headache, and I felt that it would be 
 unsafe to administer more medicine. At that juncture I hypno- 
 tized her. The medicine previously given apparently had a cumu- 
 lative effect, as she was very easily hypnotized. 
 
 I then suggested that she would sleep soundly all night; that 
 her sleep would be quiet and refreshing; that while she slept a 
 perfect spirit of resignation would come over her, and she would 
 wake in the morning feeling perfectly resigned to the accident and 
 bereavement; that she would sleep soundly until eight o'clock the 
 next morning, at which time her husband should awaken her by 
 placing his hand upon her forehead and commanding her to wake 
 up; that she would be feeling perfectly resigned to the accident, 
 and would eat her breakfast, and give her attention to her do- 
 mestic relations, and feel proud that she had ever been permitted 
 to be the mother of so worthy a son. 
 
 On my return the next morning I found that she had slept 
 soundly all night, and she at once began to tell me what she had 
 decided giving me the very ideas that I had suggested to her the 
 night previous. 
 
 I feel quite sure that a greater change in her mental and nerv- 
 ous condition had taken place during this one night's sleep, to- 
 gether with the influence of the suggestions given, than would 
 have resulted under normal conditions after a period of several 
 months had elapsed. 
 
 My experience with this patient fully corroborates the con- 
 clusions of Morton Prince when he says: "When the hysterical 
 manifestations are due to the functionating of dissociated sub- 
 conscious ideas, it is not always necessary, as some writers insist, 
 to recall those ideas to the personal waking consciousness. It 
 is enough to break up the subconscious complex, or to suggest 
 antagonistic ideas, or to resynthesize the ideas into a healthy com- 
 plex, which gives true appreciation of the facts which they 
 represent. This can be done in hypnosis. After waking, though 
 amnesia for the previous subconscious ideas may persist, the symp- 
 toms disappear, for those harmful subconscious ideas which caused 
 the trouble have ceased to exist." 
 
 I am furthermore convinced that there is much insanity, the
 
 PRACTICAL THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 107 
 
 etiology of which is obscure, where, in many cases, if the timely 
 administration of hypnotic suggestion had been used to give those 
 people good, sound sleep, to change their mental attitude toward 
 the conditions that were worrying them, to make new impressions 
 upon their cerebral cells, and substitute more wholesome mental 
 states, a large proportion of these cases could have been prevented, 
 upon the principle that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound 
 of cure. 
 
 The proof that all insanity is dependent upon diseased states 
 of the brain has never yet been rendered in its entirety. Organic 
 pathological changes are found in paresis, senile dementia, alco- 
 holism, and probably in epilepsy, dementia praecox, and climacteric 
 insanity, and this leaves out of consideration the condition of a 
 large proportion of those adjudged as insane. The correlation 
 between mental symptoms and pathological anatomy is as yet 
 largely to be determined, at least in a considerable part of the 
 acknowledged field of insanity. 
 
 Many people are incapable of thinking and reasoning for them- 
 selves as the result of false training, education, and environment. 
 You can give them advice and make all the appeal to reason within 
 your power, and yet they seem unable to execute your ideas. The 
 physician who has that spirit of altruism sufficient to enable him 
 to appropriate these methods can here apply hypnotic suggestion 
 and obtain results that can not be obtained in any other way. 
 
 There are others upon whom the cares of life have borne heavily, 
 whose involuntary nervous system has received many a hard blow; 
 it has been shocked and wrought upon by cruel impressions or 
 experiences which take possession of a patient and torment his 
 life. These are found among all classes, from the highest bred col- 
 lege graduate to the most ignorant working class. 
 
 Many nervous and mental symptoms are what are designated 
 by Boris Sidis as recurrent mental and psychomotor states that 
 is, according to Morton Prince, dissociations of the personality 
 and the reproduction of systems of ideas which were originally an 
 emotional mental accident that the patient once upon a time ex- 
 perienced. These experiences have been conserved as brain resi-
 
 108 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 due, or complexes, which functionate again from time to time as 
 psychoneurotic symptoms. 
 
 When they are sick, there is no time for re-educating and re- 
 training them. Like miners buried in a deep, dark hole in the 
 earth, where huge piles of shale and debris have caved in upon 
 them, they need help. Like a man in jail, they want to get out. 
 They expect you to do something for them. To give them nar- 
 cotics and sedatives but temporarily benumbs their psychic activi- 
 ties, interferes with all functional processes, weakens their powers 
 of resistance, interferes with elimination, and is actually destruc- 
 tive and weakening to both mind and body. The judicious, intel- 
 ligent application of suggestion, both with and without hypnotism, 
 in this class of cases is a boon to these unfortunate sufferers who 
 rely upon us for help. A rearrangement of these conserved ex- 
 periences by the neuron elements can be brought about, and the 
 distressing nervous and mental symptoms relieved in perfect ac- 
 cord with the physiological mechanisms of the nervous system. 
 
 The Subconscious Mind is the Seat of the Emotions. What- 
 ever impulse dominates the individual whether fear, worry, 
 anxiety, envy, anger, jealousy, love, or the purely animal passions 
 makes its appeal to and impress on the subconscious mind,, which 
 corresponds to the functions of the involuntary nervous system. 
 
 We all have noticed that the functions of the different organs 
 of the body are greatly disturbed through emotional influences; 
 sorrow brings tears to .the eyes ; prolonged grief interferes with 
 the secretion of gastric juice by the stomach. Of all emotional 
 conditions which are most detrimental, however, fear, which is the 
 opposite emotion to self-reliance and self-confidence, is the worst. 
 Fear is the natural accompaniment of weakness, ignorance, and 
 disease. Fear has a wonderful inhibitory influence upon both the 
 motor and voluntary, as well as the involuntary, functions of the 
 body. Fear of sickness, fear of death, fear of failure fear of 
 anything of any kind, of any nature is detrimental to aJl physio- 
 logical processes. We invite what we fear. Fear weakens our 
 resistive powers to disease. It is the frequent experience of phy- 
 sicians to have pneumonia and enteric fever patients who die of 
 fear and not on account of the pathological condition existing.
 
 PRACTICAL THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 109 
 
 At the very onset of illness, quite frequently, the patient be- 
 comes afraid, gets nervous, does not sleep, and manifests a lack 
 of confidence in the ability of his physician and doubts his own 
 ability to recover. He thus has a psychoneurotic condition com- 
 plicating his disease. His resistive powers are thus lessened, all 
 physiological processes are disturbed, and death results from fear 
 and not on account of the pathological condition, which would run 
 its course and go on to recovery but for the psychoneurotic element. 
 We should distinguish here between conscious and subconscious 
 fear. Tuberculous patients are noted for their apparent optimism, 
 hopefulness, and cheerfulness, which are frequently only on the 
 surface; yet as a result of this very optimism, as has been ob- 
 served by all physicians, even in the presence of such a gross 
 pathological condition, the resistive powers of many tuberculous 
 patients are augmented to an astonishing degree. We frequently 
 see others, however, who are so subconsciously dominated by fear 
 that all involuntary nervous functions are disturbed on account 
 of impressions gathered from experiences which have come to them 
 through their own observation of the disastrous consequences of 
 this disease. In this class of cases suggestion, both with and with- 
 out hypnotism, is particularly beneficial. We quiet an irritable, 
 involuntary nervous system; we get them to breathe deeper; we 
 give them suggestions which produce more plentiful and refresh- 
 ing sleep, and plant subconscious impressions, which result in the 
 re-establishment of the normal functions of every healthy cell in 
 the body as far as this is possible. The result is an increase in 
 the patient's resistive powers, a conservation of his protoplasmic 
 energy, and he is in condition to more successfully combat the 
 pathogenic germs which are making their ravages upon him. The 
 etiological factors of disease, whether due to pathogenic germs or 
 other causes, are powerless in the presence of cells of an organism 
 with a degree of resistive power sufficient to render them invul- 
 nerable. 
 
 All that contributes to the health of an individual in the way 
 of nourishment, medicine, climatic conditions, exercise, etc., should, 
 of course, be appropriated. 
 
 The etiological factors of disease are here, and they are here to
 
 HO SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 stay, in spite of our modern methods of disinfection and improved 
 sanitary conditions, which have practically abolished yellow fever, 
 smallpox, cholera, and other diseases regarded as inevitable curses 
 of the human race, and more attention should be given to increas- 
 ing the resistive powers of the individual to the ravages of patho- 
 genic processes. 
 
 We, as physicians, have studied the dead body too much and the 
 living organism not enough. We have underrated the self-healing 
 processes of nature and the physical effects of psychologic influ- 
 ences. This has frequently given charlatans, who make use of 
 these methods in disguised form, an opportunity to give us a black 
 eye. We are now, however, giving more attention than ever before 
 to social, and mental, and hygienic causes of health and disease, 
 and are placing the practice of medicine upon a more rational 
 basis. We are giving more attention to the prevention of disease 
 and to methods of maintaining the health of the individual. 
 
 Suggestion is used both upon the conscious and subconscious 
 mind, and whatever we do in the way of teaching our patients how 
 to keep well by conforming to the conditions under which health 
 can be maintained re-educating them comes within the broad 
 domain of suggestive therapeutics. It is the purpose of suggestive 
 therapeutics to help our patients to help themselves by better con- 
 trol and by direction of their conscious and subconscious psychic 
 activities. 
 
 It is important to remember that the subconscious mind of every 
 individual is amenable to the influence, control, or suggestion of 
 his own conscious mind. His own thoughts, his beliefs, his pre- 
 dominating mental characteristics, as the result of education and 
 environment, are the suggestions by which he is continually in- 
 fluencing his subconscious mind. 
 
 So much so is this true that we judge character by the expres- 
 sion of the faces of people that we see every day. The strong face 
 and the weak face, the honest face and the villainous face, the 
 face which indicates a high order of individuality and self-reliance 
 or a low element of selfishness or servitude, all are in evidence. 
 The fact is, the body is a perfectly negative element, existing ac- 
 cording to the laws of heredity, environment, and education.
 
 PRACTICAL THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS. Ill 
 
 Thought is a great factor of change and growth, and thought 
 means that brain cells are functionating in response to internal and 
 external stimuli. The will power is a positive part which can guide 
 and regulate our thinking, provided it has once been evolved suf- 
 ficiently to set up a new line of mental reaction, through memory 
 and experience. We are all, then, using our thought forces or self- 
 suggestions as either creative or destructive agencies, in accordance 
 with this natural psychophysiological law. 
 
 In order to think for one's self, however, the individual must be 
 equipped. He must have a well-trained and well-developed mind 
 and nervous system, which can come only by conforming to the 
 laws of health and by familiarity with the facts that are demon- 
 strated by science, and not through the influence of the modern 
 metaphysical theories of the present time, which act as temporary 
 narcotics, lulling the intellectual faculties into passivity. Yet, to 
 cultivate habits of cheerfulness, optimism, and self-reliance con- 
 duces to health and strength of the physical organism on account 
 of the influences of such mental states upon the involuntary physio- 
 logical processes. Such states of consciousness as give rise to 
 pessimism, despondency, jealousy, anger, worry, envy, and dis- 
 content exert a wrecking, weakening, ruinous effect upon all the 
 involuntary functions. The system becomes loaded with metabolic 
 toxins, which in turn render the individual more miserable and 
 morbidly self-conscious. 
 
 People frequently say they are miserable on account of their 
 physical condition, and they are, but they are often reaping in 
 full measure the conclusion of their own mental action. The con- 
 dition of the body is largely the result of what an individual has 
 thought and believed, and thought and belief are determined by 
 his education and other experiences in life, which have left their 
 impress upon the neuron elements. The influence of education 
 upon the expression of the face and physique has been observed 
 by us all, and furnishes a fitting illustration of the influence of the 
 mind over the body.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FURTHER CONSIDERATION OF THE PRINCIPLES, 
 PROBLEMS, AND FIELD OF PSYCHOTHERAPY. 
 
 The tendency of the logical mind of today is toward the ac- 
 ceptance of a philosophy that seeks for unity of body, mind, and 
 spirit. These are qualities of the individual, but, scientifically 
 speaking, they are one and the same thing. Thus, monistic phi- 
 losophy, or monism, recognizes that mind, spirit, and matter, soul 
 and body, God and the world, are abstractions and not things in 
 themselves, but are incomprehensibly bound together in their in- 
 separable oneness. Call this philosophy " monism" or "monothe- 
 ism," to suit yourself, but you can not get away from the 
 stupendous fact, even though our half-trained understandings and 
 narrow experiences are unprepared to comprehend it, that the 
 whole universe is animated by a single principle of life and mode 
 of energy, and that such expressions as body, mind, and spirit are 
 qualities of this one principle, thing, or substance. But since it 
 is impossible to think of any quality or thing except by comparison 
 with something else, each one of these qualities should be held in 
 equal appreciation. 
 
 Knowledge is but an apprehension of facts based on a represen- 
 tation or description of those facts in terms that can be compre- 
 hended by human intelligence. 
 
 So, then, in our analysis of the qualities of personality we can 
 with consistency, in the light of these premises, say that each 
 individual becomes self-conscious of his existence upon one of three 
 planes respectively physical, mental or intellectual, and moral or 
 spiritual, all qualities of the same individual. 
 
 For instance, the atom of hydrogen gas, considered for so long 
 a time to be the smallest subdivision of material substance, is now 
 known to be itself composed of from twelve hundred to three 
 thousand "ions," or charges of electricity, or elemental units of 
 
 112
 
 FURTHER CONSIDERATION OP PSYCHOTHERAPY. 113 
 
 force; and it is now recognized that there is in the universe but 
 this one element. Every other element or combination of elements 
 is composed of this one elementary substance coming together in 
 different degrees of density, so that the space a thousand feet 
 above our heads is composed of precisely the same elementary sub- 
 stance as is the earth beneath our feet. 
 
 Furthermore, the cosmos, with its countless planetary systems 
 and planets, some of which are millions of times larger than this 
 little earth upon which we live, together with the spaces between 
 them, is all composed of this one elementary substance call it 
 physical, mental, or spiritual, as you please. 
 
 The only logical conclusion, then, is* that the entire cosmos is 
 an organism pulsating, throbbing, vibrating, living in which we 
 live, and move, and have our existence. 
 
 And as is the cosmos, so is man. He is an organism pulsating, 
 vibrating, living. And as is man, so is each individual cell in his 
 body, with inherent potentialities and powers that are constantly 
 being manifested, functionating in its own way, as it plays its 
 part in the game of life according to heredity and environment. 
 
 Yet life is a fact, and all forms of life, from the first unicel- 
 lular moneron down through the millions and millions of years 
 in which the evolutionary development of man has passed, are all 
 sharers of that one ever-present life, with numberless varieties of 
 expression, infinite and limitless. 
 
 In the evolutionary development of the human race and of the 
 human intellect and character, each individual seems to become 
 self-conscious of life upon one or the other of these three re- 
 spective planes before mentioned physical, intellectual, and moral 
 or spiritual each of which is the result of training, education, and 
 environment, so far as their manifestations in his life are concerned. 
 
 A great many people are conscious of life only upon the phys- 
 ical plane. They have scarcely any higher conception of ex- 
 istence and its meaning than what appeals to the appetites eating, 
 drinking, and sensual indulgences. Like two-legged animals, they 
 live, in many instances, upon a plane even lower than the brute, 
 as is indicated by expression of face, physique, character of speech, 
 habits, and conduct.
 
 114 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Others there are who in self-consciousness reach the next higher 
 plane and seem to go no farther. There are people that we all 
 know, concerning whom, though they may have an intellectuality 
 so cold and pulseless that it glitters as the stars, and be strong 
 enough mentally to make wonderful achievements in the fields of 
 politics and commerce, it is nevertheless easy to discover that there 
 is an element lacking in their personality. It is lacking in expres- 
 sion of face, in hand shake, in tone and quality of voice and speech, 
 and especially in their conduct and demeanor with their fellow- 
 man. In the presence of such an individual one feels more as 
 if one were face to face with a stone or an iceberg, rather than in 
 the presence of a human being. 
 
 As to what conscious existence upon the higher plane of self- 
 hood indicated implies, it is hard to define, yet it consists in the 
 evolving and developing of those higher elements of human char- 
 acter regarded as the ethical, and esthetic, and moral sense. We 
 see it manifested in its influence upon human life in magnanimity, 
 generosity, altruism, kindness, bravery, and all other distinctly 
 human faculties. It is the higher functionating of the true ego ; the 
 real man call it body, mind, spirit, life, or soul. It is manifested 
 in man or woman by the exhibition of those inner qualities of 
 moral and spiritual dignity, in the determination to do only that 
 which is conceived to be good and right; not in the outer esteem 
 of their fellows or in the worthless praise of. a conventional society, 
 but in their own inner consciousness. "Unfortunately," says 
 Ernst Hackel, "we have to admit that in this respect we are still 
 largely ruled by the foolish views of a lower civilization, if not of 
 crude barbarians." 
 
 This animating life principle that functionates in human beings 
 defies analysis, evades our comprehension, and transports our 
 thoughts beyond what is finite and terrestrial. But it is in man 
 because man is, and, if it were not, he would not be. Hackel says, 
 "Why trouble about this enigmatical 'thing in itself when we 
 have no means of investigating it ? " 
 
 This unexplained, undefined, and incomprehensible element in 
 man, which is the sum total of all of man's psychophysical po- 
 tentialities, is the real ego. It is the power that manifests itself
 
 FURTHER CONSIDERATION OP PSYCHOTHERAPY. 115 
 
 on the physical, mental, or spiritual plane in its voluntary human 
 expression according to knowledge, education, and environment. 
 It is the intelligent life entity which, when fully awakened and 
 evolved in the consciousness of the individual, makes him strong, 
 independent, capable, and free. 
 
 It is the privilege and duty of every individual to manifest the 
 highest expression and meaning of life upon each of these planes 
 physical, mental, and moral ; to develop harmoniously as an athlete 
 in body, mind, and character. 
 
 When this highest element of selfhood is evolved, then do mind 
 and body become man's obedient servants then do we discover 
 the meaning of Emerson's expression that "every man is a divinity 
 in disguise, a God acting a fool." 
 
 Strange talk, this may appear, to be giving to medical men, but 
 it is the most essential truth in connection with our subject. 
 
 In the application of suggestive therapeutics we must regard 
 man as a thing of life, of force, of intelligence, of will, and of 
 reason, that emanates from and is a part of the central source 
 of all life, with millions and millions of cells in his organism that 
 are ready to respond to stimuli in the form of human personality, 
 therapeutically the personality of the physician. 
 
 In all events, in the light of this monistic philosophy that is 
 accepted by every prominent man of science at the present time, 
 let us as physicians recognize that this inherent potentiality, or 
 quality, or element is latent in every human being, whether recog- 
 nized by him or not, and let us make use of this animating life 
 principle in therapeutics, using it as one of nature's forces by 
 conforming to the law that governs it. 
 
 The intimate relation between neuron structure and mental ac- 
 tivity is now fully appreciated by both physiologists and psycholo- 
 gists. We are taught that the morphological structure of nerve 
 elements bears a most important and intimate relation to mental 
 activity that the mode of neuron structure is regarded as mirror- 
 ing the mode of organization of the psychic life. 
 
 But it must also be remembered that every psychical phenome- 
 non has its physical concomitant, which is but to say that every 
 mental state has its influence upon the body. The changes which
 
 116 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 appear in neuron structure are, then, the result of education and 
 experience, which promote its growth and development. Faculty 
 precedes function. Inherent in every human organism are latent 
 faculties or potentialities which can be developed through the in- 
 fluence of environment and education other names for suggestion. 
 
 Step by step it is dawning upon us that humanity is an organ- 
 ism, and that "the satisfaction, requirement, and functionating 
 life activity are impossible without social co-operation, and it is 
 only then that the individual becomes freed from the bonds of 
 blood relationship." "In other words," say Sidis and Goodhart, 
 "with the growth and development of social organization, organic 
 bondage is replaced by functional relationship. ' ' 
 
 The lives of human beings are thus so interrelated that per- 
 sonality is but the outgrowth of experience. The life of each in- 
 dividual is constantly influencing the growth and development of 
 the brain, and mind, and character of other individuals, by whom 
 he is also influenced. 
 
 Morality, the functionating of the highest element or quality of 
 selfhood, conforms to the law of evolution, and, like organic evo- 
 lution, this psychic evolution is but the adaptation of individuals 
 to conditions of existence. The law of psychic evolution, as of 
 evolution in general, is from structure to function, from bondage 
 to freedom of the individual elements. 
 
 In the light of the foregoing pages, then, you are a being body, 
 mind, or spirit animated by the one principle of life from which 
 you come, in common with all human beings and all forms of life. 
 You have a mind and a body such as you have made it for your- 
 self, modified, of course, by the laws of heredity and environment. 
 You physically are the obedient servant, or should be, to the 
 controlling force or life entity within. Your face and physique 
 have been formed, shaped, and molded by your use or abuse of 
 this inherent life force within you. 
 
 This inherent life force, question of all questions, what is that? 
 Who are you? In the light of modern knowledge of the cosmic 
 process of evolution, we are constrained to answer that you are 
 a part of the universal source of all life, which you see manifested 
 wherever you see anything, from the dead earth upon which you
 
 FURTHER CONSIDERATION OP PSYCHOTHERAPY. 117 
 
 walk to the eyes of those whom you love, to flowers, trees, clouds, 
 moon, sun, and stars, even the stars so far away that a ray of light, 
 going at the rate of one hundred and ninety-five thousand miles 
 per second, beginning at the time when, it was formerly believed, 
 the world was thrown out into space by special creation, could not 
 have yet reached this planet infinite and limitless. It is re- 
 ferred to by scientists as "force;" Herbert Spencer says, "the 
 eternal energy behind and within all things;" the idealists or 
 religionists say, "the God in whom we live, move, and have our 
 being. ' ' 
 
 Think of this power of which you are a part; how it converts 
 bread and meat, fruit and vegetables into bone and muscle, brain 
 and blood, and how you are endowed with, or have evolved, will 
 and reason, and other faculties of mind and character, and then 
 dare to exercise these inherent potentialities as a co worker with 
 infinity. Divine molecules are we, with the privilege to think, 
 reason, will, and do for ourselves. 
 
 It is utterly impossible to hypnotize any one without getting 
 the consent and co-operation of the self-conscious ego unless it 
 be accomplished by playing upon his ignorant credulity, which is 
 never justifiable. See how we get the consent and co-operation of 
 this, the real man, when an individual consents to relax, close his 
 eyes, with lips slightly apart, to secure thorough relaxation, as if 
 to say, "All right, Doctor, mind and body submit I unto you; I 
 step aside, the door is open." 
 
 At this juncture and while your patient is in this condition, by 
 your better educated and better equipped personality, jou pour 
 some of your own psychic life in the form of suggestion into his. 
 This statement, in the light of the modern teaching of physio- 
 logical psychologists, is scientifically accurate. According to 
 Prince, you substitute healthy complexes for those organized sys- 
 tems of associated ideas which have become conserved as residue 
 in the unconscious and which reproduce themselves as automatisms 
 over and over again ; for, when once organized, they are conserved 
 and become a part of our personality. The nervous system faith- 
 fully conserves and reproduces its experiences. The procedure, 
 whether suggestion is employed with or without hypnotism, means
 
 118 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 education, or, if you please, re-education. Even where hypnotism 
 is employed, the consciousness induced remains a part of one's self 
 as a psychophysiological complex, however absolutely the patient 
 may have lost realization of the suggestions given in the sub- 
 conscious state. The aim of psychotherapeutic treatment is the 
 formation of healthy complexes of ideas which will not stimulate 
 the undesired complexes, but by their automatic activity will con- 
 tribute to the well-being of the individual and adapt him to his 
 environment. 
 
 It is estimated that the normal individual has from eight hun- 
 dred million to thirteen hundred million cells of gray matter in 
 his brain, and that the average individual uses but about one-tenth 
 of this entire number. By the influence of personality upon per- 
 sonality, then, we convert latent energy into moving energy, po- 
 tential energy into dynamic energy, and thus stimulate and 
 encourage the functions of every cell in the human body. 
 
 Every time you come into the presence of a patient it is your 
 privilege and duty to get the consent and co-operation of the ego, 
 that highest element of the self-conscious individual, and appeal 
 to this higher psychic quality the man himself the organized, 
 intelligent life entity, that has simply thrown this physical cloak 
 around him, and encourage it to vitalize and energize all life proc- 
 esses upon the physical plane. We thus assist the patient in mak- 
 ing use of the normal mechanism of mind and body, of the physio- 
 logical machinery already provided, to bring about restitution of 
 the diseased organism and restore the individual to health. 
 
 We, as physicians, have studied dead eyes that do not see, dead 
 tongues that do not talk, dead ears that do not hear. We all 
 know that the mind, soul, spirit, or intellect, name it as you choose, 
 is the real man, which functionates in correlation with the neuron 
 elements, and yet this ever-present entity has been an unconsid- 
 ered element in our consideration of human beings. 
 
 Most sick people need education, knowledge, and guidance to 
 enable them to make use of the physiological machinery provided 
 by nature for the purpose of acquiring and maintaining health, 
 happiness, and success in life. 
 
 The great majority of mankind is practically untouched by the
 
 FURTHER CONSIDERATION OP PSYCHOTHERAPY. 119 
 
 progress of present-day knowledge. The tremendous task of teach- 
 ing men and women to think for themselves and learn the great 
 lesson of self-reliance has scarcely begun. All but our most in- 
 telligent people are creatures of a school of thought, or belong 
 to some intellectual herd. Never was there a time that so de- 
 manded fearless, independent, tolerant, logical thinking. 
 
 Reason is mankind's greatest, highest, and noblest faculty, and 
 as such should be the supreme court of the mind; all other im- 
 pulses that flitter, and dance, and play in the stream of human 
 consciousness, either intellectual or emotional in character, should 
 be subject to its rulings. 
 
 Will, the executor of reason and judgment, should be loyal 
 enough to follow their dictates. It is upon this condition only 
 that sanity is maintained. Will and reason, however, are, in 
 keeping with the law of evolution, psychic qualities that are de- 
 veloped by education, knowledge, and experience. 
 
 Consciousness, the most fundamental faculty of the human soul, 
 is a stream of endless psychic states, resulting from previous ex- 
 periences, incessantly changing as the restless, whitecapped tides 
 of ocean, that can exist only by virtue of its endless, unceasing 
 motion ; and this continuous change is what makes conscious life. 
 
 Conscious life itself, then, is a stream of varying psychical states, 
 which quickly follow one another in perpetual motion, rolling, ris- 
 ing and sinking, ebbing and flowing, with never an instant of rest. 
 The elementary psychic states which lie below consciousness con- 
 stitute the subconscious realm. Here is a great ocean of mem- 
 ories, sensations, imaginations, emotions and impulses, desires and 
 aspirations, hopes and ambitions, fears and disappointments, suc- 
 cesses and failures, which are past impressions or memory pictures 
 that linger in the human brain. These rise to the realm of con- 
 sciousness, and are interpreted in thoughts and feelings from which 
 there is no escaping, and these thoughts or feelings in turn con- 
 stitute mental states which exert an influence upon all involuntary 
 physiological processes. 
 
 The power of attention fixes the mind on such ideas and sen- 
 sations or memory pictures as are most worth while to the indi- 
 vidual, and by constant assertion and iteration, reasoning and
 
 120 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 persuasion, suggesting and impressing, we substitute such impres- 
 sions as will bring the individual under their influence, both con- 
 sciously and subconsciously. 
 
 By suggestion we can drive back these subconscious impressions 
 or memory pictures, and, if we but have personality and selfhood 
 to dare to make an appeal to the highest element of character 
 within those of our patients who need thus arousing, we have 
 rendered the greatest service that one human being can possibly 
 render a fellowman. Arouse the higher intellectual faculties, 
 the higher brain centers, and the highest moral ideal into action, 
 and you truly put life into your patient. 
 
 In every great battle that has been fought in both ancient and 
 modern times, brave leadership by a strong appeal made through 
 patriotism and pride has so aroused the psychic element in soldiers 
 in battle that men have been frequently known to stand and fight 
 through heat and cold, day and night, with hunger and thirst, 
 for days and days at a time, and conquer by unwavering will and 
 determination. They have thus exhibited a degree of resistive 
 power in many notable instances that has been beyond human 
 conception. In all instances in battle the soldiers on the vic- 
 torious side easily recover from serious wounds and mutilations, 
 while, on the other hand, those upon the side that is defeated 
 die of mere trivial inflictions. 
 
 In all heroic achievements of men, reserve, subconscious power 
 has been brought into action, stimulated or evoked by the con- 
 ditions of the moment, that enables individuals to accomplish that 
 which seemed absolutely impossible in proportion to their recog- 
 nized capacity. 
 
 These are facts that every observing individual has frequently 
 recognized and that are acknowledged by us all. If human beings 
 have within them that psychic element which can be evoked under 
 extraordinary conditions to so increase the normal resistive powers 
 and capabilities of both mind and body, why should we as phy- 
 sicians not, in a sense, be generals or leaders in our association 
 with our patients, and in our daily relations with them evoke 
 latent energy and heighten their normal resistive powers to the 
 ravages of any disease, acute or chronic, organic or psychoneurotic ?
 
 FURTHER CONSIDERATION OF PSYCHOTHERAPY. 121 
 
 What are we, as the medical profession, doing as leaders for 
 the people? As guardians of the public health, are we doing all 
 within our power in the way of teaching people how to keep well, 
 and healthy, and strong, without relying upon us to administer 
 to their physical necessities, or upon priest or clergy to control 
 their psychic activities ? 
 
 In directing an individual how to control his or her psychic 
 activities and steer them into channels of useful thought and con- 
 duct, the entire man, physical and psychical, body and mind 
 or soul and spirit, if you choose must be taken into consideration. 
 Body, mind, and spirit must be considered as qualities of the 
 individual, one and inseparable ; their interdependence must be 
 recognized. 
 
 At this time, when those possessing abnormal powers of imag- 
 ination, with unlimited emotion and little reasoning, are being 
 led by every absurd theory and metaphysical dogma that is pre- 
 sented under the pretense of an especially commissioned divine 
 guidance, we should be prepared to rise to the occasion and acquit 
 ourselves as men in the highest sense. The great need of the world 
 today is education, knowledge, and guidance other names for hon- 
 est, conscientious, truthful suggestion. 
 
 The problems of health are the problems of life, problems of 
 education and economic considerations, which involve the questions 
 of work, food, clothing, homes, and all other essentials that make 
 for human happiness. Manhood is only in the making. We are 
 yet evolving, growing, and developing. The process of evolution 
 is as active today as it was a million years ago, and it points to 
 the evolution of the mind as well as the body, of the God in man, 
 and not the triumphant brute. All those who in any way by ideas, 
 provision of means, or achievement contribute to the evolution of 
 the human race are the world's true benefactors. 
 
 The self-conscious ego can and does functionate on the physical 
 plane, making a tyrant or a beast of man; or on the mental or 
 intellectual plane, making him capable of reasoning and thinking 
 for himself ; or on the ethical or moral plane, making him a reason- 
 able, useful human being, dependent on education and environ- 
 ment. The optimism of scientific minds consists in the belief that
 
 122 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 upon these three planes of life mankind must be strong, capable, 
 and free, and that we shall not dwindle into physical weaklings, 
 intellectual nonentities, or spiritual slaves or fanatics. 
 
 The fight made by the medical profession against parasitic germs 
 in the fields of pathology, surgery, medicine, and hygiene has been 
 crowded with glorious achievement, but a greater work is still 
 before us. Our battle is only half begun. 
 
 Since the days of Vesalius, Harvey, and Jenner, down to the 
 present time, every step of advance made by medical science has 
 been boldly contested and fought by ignorance, fanaticism, and 
 misdirected zeal. The warfare of science must go on forever. 
 Nature has surrendered to science her most valued treasures. We 
 have subdued steam and electricity, harnessed the waterfalls, tun- 
 neled the mountains, rendered the bosom of the ocean amenable 
 to the great service of mankind, and demanded from the bowels 
 of the earth her most sacred treasures. 
 
 Those who regard humanity as a finished product, now standing 
 at the mercy of an anthropomorphic deity, are in the truest sense 
 retarding the evolution, growth, and development of the highest 
 psychic qualities of manhood and womanhood. 
 
 Science has no fight to make against true religion; its struggle 
 is with ignorance and intolerant dogmatism. She demands a re- 
 ligion that appeals to the intellect as well as to the emotions, to 
 reason and not to ignorance one that will develop the entire 
 individual to the fullness of perfect manhood and womanhood. 
 Life is a struggle. Every idea that seeks to be embodied demands 
 a conflict. In order to live, we must dare to be to declare our 
 own individuality. 
 
 Physicians have done much for the protection of the human 
 body, but what are they doing to prevent the parasitic infection 
 of absurd beliefs, and dogmas, and theories that at the present 
 time infect the human mind with their blighting, weakening in- 
 fluence upon the development of body, mind, and character? 
 
 Science and every-day experience agree that nature cares noth- 
 ing for individuals. What the people of our time need is plain 
 living, clear thinking, and right action to develop potentialities of 
 both mind and body.
 
 FURTHER CONSIDERATION OF PSYCHOTHERAPY. 123 
 
 The psychical 'correlation of religious emotion and the sexual 
 instincts is such that any sect that starts with extravagant senti- 
 ments of love to all men will fascinate and take hold of an easily 
 impressible type of unscientific and unthinking people. Yet minds 
 that have been stored with nothing more substantial than historical 
 fiction, and agitated so long by unreasonable dogmas of a capricious 
 deity from which they naturally shrink, are easily captured and 
 held in subjection by any mind-soothing theory under the guise of 
 religion that has a romantic or mystical flavor. A lack of contact 
 with the world and an unfamiliarity with the facts of science have 
 left these credulous people with no more powers of reflection than 
 a child, and they naturally have, in consequence, abnormally de- 
 veloped imaginations and emotions, and are easily captured by 
 absurd and illogical metaphysical vagaries. 
 
 I have talked with many men of scientific attainments, and in 
 the ranks of both the clergy and the medical profession they de- 
 plore the fact that theologians of the present day have been so 
 slow to accept and utilize the message of science, and that so many 
 have lacked the moral stamina to shake off the worn-out and use- 
 less doctrines of an ignorant and superstitious age; yet among the 
 clergy are many who teach and preach better than their creed. 
 They have no fight to make against science, but look upon science 
 as the handmaiden of true religion. The majority, however, has 
 been held in the coils of creed and fettered by dogma, and thus 
 coerced into a beaten path at the sacrifice of reason and judgment. 
 The more enlightened clergymen realize this, and just in propor- 
 tion as they are educated and scientific men are they boldly get- 
 ting away from the absurd dogmas, and shaking off useless external 
 formalities that have fettered the aspiring spirit, progress, and 
 growth of humanity so long. 
 
 In their slowness to interpret life and its meaning in the light 
 of present-day knowledge, no wonder that we see an article in 
 one of our leading periodicals headed, "Is the Pulpit a Coward's 
 Castle ? ' ' And yet there was never in the world's history a greater 
 need for strong, fearless, unblemished, and unfettered men willing 
 to devote their lives to the help of their fellowmen. 
 
 Do von ask what this discussion has to do with suggestive thera-
 
 124 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 peutics? It has at the present day a most important bearing. 
 The present status of this subject is so related to those influences 
 of an educational nature that furnish food stuffs to the minds of 
 the people, that I should feel that I had dodged the issue, the most 
 important issue, did I not boldly face these problems, which I 
 know are agitating the minds of scientific medical men everywhere, 
 and give them the consideration that they so pre-eminently deserve. 
 
 Religious beliefs, and health, and disease stand in precisely the 
 same relation as do mind and body. It is simply a question of 
 those influences that dominate and control an individual's psychic 
 life. It is a question of the factors that are obscuring and ob- 
 structing the path of social and intellectual progress in opposition 
 to those influences that elevate thought and action among living 
 men and women. 
 
 No intelligent physician would think of overlooking the ques- 
 tion of dietetics in the treatment of a case of chronic indigestion, 
 especially when unwholesome food was largely responsible for this 
 physical malady. It is of equal importance, if not more important, 
 to take into consideration those elements that are harmful or health- 
 ful in the growth, and development, and stability, and maintenance 
 of mind and character. The physician who ignores the psychic 
 element in the consideration of sickness and disease is as one- 
 sided as the Christian scientists who refuse to recognize the needs 
 of the body. The consideration of the maintenance of the health 
 of an individual involves those factors that maintain and sustain 
 health and strength of both mind and body. 
 
 How many thousands of people have died before men found out 
 which were poisons and which were foods? To teach by killing, 
 that others may learn to use their faculties, has been the method 
 of the cosmic process in the evolution and development of the 
 human being. Even today the greater part of sickness and dis- 
 ease is but nature's protest against human beings for violating 
 her laws physical, hygienic, dietetic, psychical, etc. In the con- 
 sideration of those factors that contribute to human health and 
 happiness, all these elements must be considered. 
 
 Every step taken by the scientific men of the medical profession 
 to abolish cholera, smallpox, and yellow fever has been opposed
 
 FURTHER CONSIDERATION OF PSYCHOTHERAPY. 125 
 
 by mystics and sentimentalists. Although thousands of lives have 
 been saved by improved sanitation, hygiene, dietetics, disinfection, 
 and asepsis in the physical realm, there is a field of no less im- 
 portance in the psychological realm that needs to be fumigated, 
 disinfected, drained, and cleared of parasites that live and thrive 
 upon the ignorance and superstition of weakness and innocence. 
 Modern science is turning the great searchlight of truth into every 
 dark corner where these poisonous microbes may be found lurking. 
 
 The universal acceptance of the doctrine of evolution by all 
 the important nonsectarian universities in our country and by 
 the more enlightened theological schools has sounded the death 
 knell of the old formulated creeds and dogmas based upon the 
 ideas of special creation that has fettered the aspiring spirit of 
 humanity so long. To say that you believe in the doctrine of 
 evolution is but to say that you believe in nature's way of doing 
 things, and of all classes of people who ought to be ready to accept 
 this important truth, and give the people the benefit of the light 
 it sheds upon human life and conduct, the men of the learned pro- 
 fessions should be the first. 
 
 _Fear, an emotion which is the result of art analysis of conse- 
 quences, has been instilled in the human mind by the teachers and 
 preachers of anthropomorphic theism until the great masses of 
 people who are not sufficiently educated to think for themselves 
 have been unconsciously dominated, and development of body, 
 mind, and character suppressed. 
 
 The revelations made by scientific investigators do not take God 
 out of the world, but render us more intimately self-conscious of 
 his all-pervading presence. Moreover, they only add new luster 
 to the matchless character whose simple teaching of faith, hope, 
 and love has for two thousand years stirred the noblest impulses 
 of the human soul, and proved to be the greatest factor in the 
 evolution of the ethical and moral element of the human race, in 
 spite of the war, and bloodshed, and destruction of human lives 
 that have been perpetrated by religious sects pretending to be his 
 followers. 
 
 The great need of the world today is men to interpret life in 
 the light of present-day knowledge, and to tell the people the truth
 
 126 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 as the more enlightened individuals see it, and who will not falter 
 and be cowardly on account of the ignorance and superstition 
 of ages past and gone that are still exercising their demoralizing 
 influence upon our present civilization. All the modern creeds and 
 cults, "ists" and "isms" of the present day, are but an evidence 
 of the recoil of the people from the dogmatism and intolerance of 
 medicine and theology. 
 
 With the present conception and theory of the origin and destiny 
 of man, the individual has made a wonderful discovery. He has 
 learned that he is no longer a serf, but that he, too, has creative 
 power, and he dares to give it manifest expression in his life and 
 conduct. With this changed mental attitude toward the universe 
 and its process of development, he has been made self-conscious 
 of the God in his own soul, and life has a zest and meaning which 
 is equivalent to having put him into a new world. It has altered 
 his conception of himself and his relation to all forms of life, 
 and he realizes as never before his intimate relation, and responsi- 
 bility, and duty to his fellowman. He no longer considers him- 
 self a stranger and an exile in a foreign country, but here and 
 now he is at home, securely abiding in the great, living, throbbing, 
 pulsating heart of nature. Side by side with his fellowman is he 
 permitted to work, and in his own way to contribute his best efforts 
 to the furtherance of human happiness. 
 
 No class of human beings has done so much for its brethren as 
 the members of the medical profession. In dens of poverty, fields 
 of pestilence, or amid the heat of shot and shell in war, they are 
 ever conspicuous for their presence. Day and night, through heat 
 and cold, sunshine or rain, they are found anywhere, from the 
 lowest brothels to gilded palaces, in laboratories and hospitals, amid 
 contagious diseases or with the insane, laboring to promote the 
 comfort, health, and happiness of their fellows. 
 
 Ignorant mankind has been so long preached the worm of the 
 dust theory, and been taught to call himself weak, humble, power- 
 less, and worthless, until many have become so on account of their 
 own thinking. Let them once get a glimpse of their divine origin, 
 in the light of modern evolutionary knowledge, and dare to ex- 
 ercise their faculties and inherent capabilities of body and mind
 
 FURTHER CONSIDERATION OP PSYCHOTHERAPY. 127 
 
 on lines of useful endeavor, and seek health by conforming to 
 the conditions of health, and dare to claim and exercise the ability 
 to think, will, reason, and do for themselves, and many there are 
 in this world who, like Pygmalion's statue Galatea, will be trans- 
 formed into beings of life. 
 
 We are beginning to look at ourselves with new eyes. The 
 old religions, which condemn the body as vile and sinful, and ad- 
 vocate a locality of everlasting punishment, are passing away. 
 We now realize that the mind helps the body as much as the 
 body helps the mind; that mind, body, and spirit are qualities of 
 the one individual, and that within every human being lies the 
 power, through intelligent living, acting, and thinking, to develop 
 both mind and body into a high degree of perfection. 
 
 The human will, guided by reason, is the positive part of our 
 mental equipment and the body is the negative, responsive to its 
 rulings and dictates. Intelligent, logical thinking as the result of 
 education and experience, effort and determination, are the great 
 factors of growth and the most powerful forces in the universe. 
 It is force itself in its voluntary human expression. By these all 
 other forces of nature are controlled and utilized for the happiness 
 of man. 
 
 We have nothing to fear from the modern unlicensed systems 
 of healing which have arisen out of the development of a better 
 appreciation of the psychic qualities of man within the past twenty 
 years. The fittest will survive. As among Ruskin 's lilies, the sun- 
 flowers and weeds shoot up their heads in gorgeous array, and 
 they are only giving expression to a single phase of truth. The 
 universe is big enough to furnish a stage of action for us all; 
 so let them do their little stunts in peace. 
 
 The coming physician, however, must of necessity be a broad- 
 gauged and well-educated man. His therapeutic armamentarium 
 and mental equipment will be such as to enable him to avail him- 
 self of all methods of treatment physical, mental, social, moral, 
 ethical that make for the health and happiness of his patient, 
 
 A large percentage of the people who are sick, ailing, or com- 
 plaining do not need medicine or surgery. What many of them 
 really need, though they may not be cognizant of their need, is
 
 128 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 direction and advice, knowledge and guidance, all suggestive meas- 
 ures that enable them to conform to the conditions by which the 
 wonderful recuperative powers inherent in the biological elements 
 of the organism can have a chance to re-establish health. Human 
 beings are so constituted that they can not, in this infantile stage 
 of their development, stand alone. The great organism of hu- 
 manity must have men strong, capable, self-reliant, and well- 
 educated to direct and influence the functions of the great mass 
 of the people, just as the higher centers of the brain influence 
 all the lower bodily functions. 
 
 The hunger of the body for bread and fruit, meat and vege- 
 tables, is no more real than the hunger of the human intellect for 
 facts and principles by which life and conduct may be guided. 
 
 The charlatanism of the past twenty years has an important 
 message for the medical profession, as it has also for theologians. 
 In hundreds and thousands of instances have they demonstrated 
 to us that there are mental and physical causes of diseases, on 
 the one hand, and that diseases of the physical organism, not too 
 far advanced, can be benefited, ameliorated, and oftentimes cured 
 by correcting these perverted mental conditions, on the other. 
 
 Science has pointed out and discovered the mental toxemia that 
 has been disseminated and scattered broadcast unconsciously and 
 unintentionally by the halting, time-worn, moth-eaten, and useless 
 systems of education and ecclesiasticism, and there are thousands 
 and thousands of individuals who need help in the way of aid to 
 enable them to do rational, intelligent thinking and living. 
 
 What is disease? I believe that even Virchow would agree that 
 it is a condition wherein the cells of the part affected do not 
 properly perform their functions. At first it begins as a mere 
 so-called functional disturbance, which, though the aid of the 
 microscope be required to detect it, always implies a physical 
 change ; at least there is a lessened degree of resistive power in the 
 cells of the organism. In this weakened condition the individual 
 cells are more vulnerable and are unqualified to put up a strong 
 fight against their enemies. Now an exciting cause of disease 
 comes along in the form of a pathogenic germ or other etiologinal 
 factor. In the case of the bacteriological infection a fight ensues.
 
 FURTHER CONSIDERATION OP PSYCHOTHERAPY. 129 
 
 Brave and altruistic little men as they are, the phagocytes throw 
 their bodies into the combat to destroy the pathogenic enemy by 
 intracellular digestion, or if, forsooth, they fail in this, they pile 
 up their bodies by the thousands and millions, to build, as it were, 
 an impenetrable breastwork for the protection of the remaining 
 cells of the organism, each one anxious and willing to sacrifice 
 his own life that his fellows may be protected. Thus an organic 
 or structural change takes place, and this may then be beyond 
 the pale of psychological methods of treatment. 
 
 But, in conjunction with surgical, medicinal, and other thera- 
 peutic measures, we can, by psychological methods, aid in the 
 re-establishment of every other bodily function which may have 
 been disturbed on account of this local, organic, or pathological 
 condition; and so we not only help the individual in a general 
 way, but we indirectly aid in the healing processes of surgical 
 procedures, and supplement medicinal and other therapeutic de- 
 vices. We quiet nervousness, relieve pain, and promote sleep. 
 The result is better appetite, increased digestion and assimilation, 
 improved nutrition, and a consequent conservation of energy 
 throughout the entire physical organism. 
 
 So, then, it must appear to the logical mind that there is no 
 class of cases, acute or chronic, surgical or otherwise, in which the 
 psychological factor does not play an important part in conjunc- 
 tion with all other methods of therapeutics.
 
 CHAPTER VHI. 
 THE PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC VALUE OF SUGGESTION. 
 
 Observation has convinced me that comparatively few people 
 at the present time fully realize the potency of the imagination 
 of an idea pure and simple as a factor in the cause and cure of 
 disease. Suggestion, applied either with or without hypnotism, is 
 but the employment of man's imagining power, his perceptive 
 faculties, as a means of stimulating the normal physiological mech- 
 anisms of the human organization for therapeutic purposes. All 
 suggestions are composed of ideas which influence the actions, or 
 motions, and beliefs of human beings endowed with normal mental 
 faculties and bodily functions. Observation and experiment has 
 clearly demonstrated that the representation of an action or move- 
 ment is an action or movement begun, an action or movement in 
 the nascent state. These representations, or suggestions, or mental 
 images influence one's motor and voluntary actions and move- 
 ments, and the involuntary physiological actions and movements 
 of the human organization as well. 
 
 Every representation or perception is a suggestion which pre- 
 supposes actions and movements to some extent, and these repre- 
 sentations or perceptions are the remnants of some past perception, 
 the physiological residue of some past mental concept that has 
 been retained by the neuron elements. These physiological proc- 
 esses or complexes, conserved as the result of some previous ex- 
 perience, can be called into functional activity by mere mental 
 representations or suggestions, and in this way employed for thera- 
 peutic purposes. I hold before you a lemon cut in half. I say 
 to you I am going to suck the juice of this lemon in your presence, 
 and by giving attention to the procedure your salivary glands will 
 begin to functionate. You readily see the effect of the suggestion 
 as a physiological stimulant. 
 
 I have before me a number of physicians. A man is brought 
 
 130
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC VALUE OF SUGGESTION. 131 
 
 into our presence who was a stranger to us all. I hold before 
 him a vial of an inert liquid, .and tell him that it is my desire to 
 demonstrate its effect upon him before the physicians present. By 
 representation, mental image, or suggestion an effect is produced 
 that is questioned by none present. 
 
 When a lad I took some clay pills to Sarah, the cook, who was 
 sick in a hut in the rear of the premises. They had been made 
 of soft clay and rolled in wheat flower, and resembled a pill com- 
 posed of calomel, aloes, and rhubarb, which was employed by my 
 father as a domestic remedy. Sarah supposed that the pills had 
 been sent by him, as was his custom, and swallowed them without 
 question, and on the next morning reported for duty, feeling much 
 better because her bowel movements had been so satisfactory as the 
 result of the inert clay. 
 
 We understand that both glandular action and visceral func- 
 tions, having once been called into increased activity by the taste 
 of a lemon, or the physiological action of a purgative pill, have 
 been accompanied by definite brain changes as the result of the 
 psychophysiological action that these experiences had left upon the 
 neuron elements, and these conserved physiological complexes are 
 stimulated by the psychic influence of the mention of a lemon, or 
 the presence of an inert clay pill which resembled the medicine 
 producing the original experience, and the same physiological ac- 
 tion is reproduced, in conformance to the laws governing the nor- 
 mal functions of the nervous system. This is a simple demon- 
 stration of the well-accepted fact of physiological psychology, so 
 often repeated, that the nervous system faithfully conserves and 
 reproduces its experiences. 
 
 The principle above illustrated we see applied in a most crude 
 and unscientific manner by all forms of present-day quackery. 
 The nervous system responds to the physiological stimulus of spoken 
 words; or to the various methods of treatment which make em- 
 ployment of tactile sensations massage as a means of rein- 
 forcing the sense impressions ; or to oral suggestion, used consciously 
 or unconsciously, by the treatment administered. 
 
 In a town of five thousand visited by the writer there was a 
 physician engaged in the practice of medicine who was an unquali-
 
 132 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 fied ignoramus, but the results obtained through the employment 
 of psychotherapeutic principles, used in disguise, enabled him to 
 do more work and to practice with better success than the several 
 well-educated physicians who were his competitors. 
 
 He enjoyed the reputation of knowing exactly what his medicine 
 would do, owing to his methods of impressing his suggestions upon 
 the consciousness of his patients. One of his methods was to give 
 a dose of medicine after each meal and then instruct his patient 
 to lie down for twenty minutes, "to let his stomach take up"- 
 giving him the positive assurance that he would digest that meal 
 perfectly, and that by the time the bottle of medicine was taken 
 he could eat what he pleased and never know that he possessed a 
 stomach. 
 
 Another one of his methods was to give seven drops of medicine 
 every seven minutes for seven doses, beginning to give the first 
 dose at seven minutes past seven o'clock, as a sure remedy for 
 insomnia. "When you take the seventh dose, turn out the lights 
 and shut your eyes, and you will never know when eight o'clock 
 comes, and you will sleep soundly all night. ' ' 
 
 He had pretended specifics for any and every condition, and 
 in all cases charged a stiff price, paid in advance. Too ignorant 
 to be aware of his limitations, this untrained egotist had uncon- 
 sciously stumbled upon a method of dealing with his patients that 
 evoked the psychologic factor, while he, and his patients as well, 
 were deluded into believing that his medicines actually accom- 
 plished the therapeutic results represented. He did obtain the 
 results that he represented as the result of his suggestions, in 
 perfect conformity to psychophysiological law, by employing the 
 normal mechanisms of the physiological machinery to accomplish 
 the results, supposed to be due to his medicines. The other phy- 
 sicians of this town were puzzled to know what remedies he used 
 that were proving so trustworthy. 
 
 In one of our cosmopolitan cities an ignorant Italian was treat- 
 ing in his office on an average sixty patients per day by laying 
 his hands on them, and he had kept up this practice for three 
 years at the time that he came to my notice. He stated that upon 
 one occasion he went to see a "divine healer," who at once as-
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC VALUE OF SUGGESTION. IM 
 
 serted, "You have too much power for me to treat you; you are 
 a healer yourself." When he returned home he related his ex- 
 perience to his mother, who was suffering with a severe headache, 
 and for three years had what her physician had diagnosed as 
 diabetes. Her headache was dispersed as soon as he put his hands 
 upon her, and in a short period all her diabetic symptoms had 
 been relieved. On the strength of this result his neighbors began 
 to call to see him for treatment, and when asked what he could 
 do for them respectively he invariably answered, "I can only tell 
 what I have done for others," and, with his hands placed on them, 
 he began to relate his experiences with the wonderful cures he had 
 made. 
 
 In one corner of his office was a pile of mechanical appliances 
 that had been discarded by his patients as the result of his treat- 
 ment. He believed that his ability to benefit people by placing 
 his hands upon them was "a gift from God," and he could talk 
 of nothing else, being a miserable psychoneurotic himself. His 
 manifestations of irritability and weakness he regarded as being 
 due to giving so much of his own strength to his patients. A 
 well-known physician of that city, who had been impressed by the 
 remarkable results of his work, both palliative and curative, in- 
 sisted that I should interview him as a psychotherapeutic curiosity, 
 and it was through his interest in his work that I obtained the 
 facts that are here related. 
 
 In another place visited by the writer the monthly receipts of 
 an old lady who employed "absent treatment" as a therapeutic 
 means amounted to between eight and ten thousand dollars. She 
 conversed intelligently about the value of suggestion as a thera- 
 peutic agent, and admitted frankly that her results were obtained 
 by the combined employment of suggestion and deception. She 
 had numerous letters from apparently intelligent people declaring 
 their gratitude for the relief that they had received through her 
 treatment, and she was undoubtedly bringing relief to hundreds 
 and thousands of psychoneurotics when the United States govern- 
 ment interfered with her game. 
 
 If people were credulous enough to pay her the price in advance, 
 they were sufficiently amenable to her suggestions through letter
 
 134 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 to be benefited by her. Hers was one method of employing the 
 normal potentialities of the physiological machinery of the human 
 organization as a therapeutic resource. 
 
 In another city visited by the writer a physician was employing 
 a small electric light to look down his patient's esophagus to diag- 
 nose stomach diseases. He ostensibly described all sorts of morbid 
 conditions, frightened his patients into paying a good fee in 
 advance, and then proceeded to produce a remedy that was sup- 
 posed to give infallible results. A former classmate called his 
 attention to the absurdity of his methods, and asked if he did not 
 know that such procedures could appeal only to unintelligent 
 people. He, in turn, asked what percentage of that city's popu- 
 lation was intelligent people. 
 
 ' ' About five percent, ' ' was the reply. 
 
 "Then you go on and practice for that five percent," said he, 
 "I shall continue to work for the remaining ninety-five per- 
 cent." 
 
 This physician's answer, "I shall continue to work for the 
 remaining ninety-five percent," indicates the proportion of the 
 human race that is highly suggestible. In fact, all people are in- 
 fluenced by some method of suggestion. Some are amenable to 
 reason, and others respond through credulity. 
 
 Such procedures are not limited alone to those supposed to be 
 flagrant charlatans. If the employment of suggestion in disguise 
 is an indication of quackery, it causes one to seriously consider 
 the question, Where is an honest man to be found? 
 
 Consciously or unconsciously, all physicians make employment 
 of suggestion in conjunction with the special therapeutic, sur- 
 gical, and mechanical devices employed in the treatment of disease, 
 and very frequently the benefit that resulted from some special 
 method of treatment or surgical operation was due to the psycho- 
 therapeutic effect of the procedure as a psychophysiological stimu- 
 lant, just as were the results obtained by the physician pretending 
 to use the electric light as a diagnostic means. 
 
 Physicians in general have had but little or no training in 
 psychotherapeutic principles, and consequently they are unpre- 
 pared to appreciate the importance of such measures as an adjunct
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC VALUE OP SUGGESTION. 135 
 
 to the resources of the general practitioner. They do not mean 
 to overestimate the importance of surgery, medicine, electricity, 
 and other therapeutic devices. They are putting into application 
 what they have been taught, for upon this branch of therapeutics 
 they have had no training. 
 
 Here is a surgeon doing several operations upon a neurotic 
 woman, consisting of a ventral fixation, an appendectomy, an ovari- 
 otomy, a curettage, and a perineorrhaphy. She was sufficiently 
 amenable to suggestion to submit to his procedures just as were 
 the patients of the physician who employed the innocent electric 
 light. 
 
 Because psychic treatment is abused by the quack, the charlatan, 
 and even by some physicians, many pseudo-conservative physicians 
 are disposed to turn a cold shoulder to it, as if the neglect of a 
 potent and legitimate therapeutic resource was more disgraceful 
 and distasteful than its abuse. The announcement that Temple 
 University, of Philadelphia, has completed arrangements for the 
 establishment of a department for teaching methods of healing 
 without drugs is significant. This department of "nonpharma- 
 ceutic therapeutics," which will include radiotherapy, electro- 
 therapy, massage, suggestion, baths, etc., is but the employment of 
 suggestive measures in disguise, which are already employed by 
 physicians and surgeons in general, under the pretense of some- 
 thing tangible. This form of suggestion to the student of psycho- 
 therapy is everywhere in evidence in the practice of medicine and 
 surgery, though often used unconsciously by those applying it. 
 
 That medicine, surgery, hydrotherapy, radiotherapy, massage, 
 dietetics, gymnastics, exercise, etc., have a definite field of their 
 own, in well-selected cases, none but a tyro would dispute, but that 
 the results that accrue by their employment are more frequently 
 due to the psychic influence of these measures than to their own 
 therapeutic potency is beyond question. It is time we should face 
 this question squarely, and appropriate all measures that are of 
 therapeutic value, whether employed singly or combined. 
 
 When it is considered that two million Christian scientists follow 
 their leader on account of the psychotherapeutic value of her 
 dogma of negation and affirmation, and that this form of disguised
 
 136 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 suggestion has been responsible for thousands of cures of real dis- 
 eases, the facts are indisputable by a fair-minded observer. 
 
 That osteopaths, Weltmerites, Emanuelists, and others, who most 
 crudely and unscientifically employ psychotherapeutic measures, 
 obtain results by the employment of their special methods of treat- 
 ment is conceded by thousands of physicians in all parts of the 
 United States. Moreover, they bear testimony to the fact that the 
 results have frequently been obtained in a class of cases which were 
 not amenable to treatment by the methods generally employed by 
 physicians. Why refuse, under the right name, the employment of 
 the tools used by all forms of quackery, and by honest physicians 
 and surgeons who use the same methods, in some degree, in dis- 
 guise? Why continue the abuse of medicine and surgery in so 
 many instances when intelligent people are demanding honest, ra- 
 tional treatment? Many methods of treatment are employed by 
 physicians at the present time which are tolerated by the laity 
 solely on account of their ignorance of more rational and effective 
 measures. Is it right to impose upon innocence and ignorance 
 simply because our medical schools have not equipped physicians 
 in general to make employment of psychotherapeutic principles ? 
 
 When we fail to employ rational psychic measures as an adjunct 
 to all other forms of treatment, can we blame the people for seek- 
 ing aid from sources where such treatment is employed, however 
 injudiciously and unscientifically? That all but a few of the 
 teachers of medicine occupying professorships in our medical col- 
 leges are mere babes in the art of making employment of psycho- 
 therapeutic methods, I know from actual experience in my associ- 
 ation with those constituting the faculties of not less than thirty- 
 five medical schools and universities. In my association with such 
 men in the capacity of teacher of methods of employing suggestion, 
 with and without hypnotism, they were eager to learn and were 
 thoroughly convinced of the efficacy and practicability of such 
 measures, but were often free to say that it was much easier to 
 employ medicine and surgery, and they preferred to continue the 
 old regimen. 
 
 Most certainly it is easier to remove the appendix of a neuras- 
 thenic, and collect a good fee for this simple operation, and leave
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC VALUE OP SUGGESTION. 137 
 
 all psychotherapeutic treatment to the unconscious employment of 
 such measures by the environing factors of his treatment during 
 recuperation for two or more weeks in a hospital. People are 
 driven by fear into the submission to all kinds of irrational meas- 
 ures that promise health in the place of disease. Surgery for the 
 relief of gross pathological changes is indispensable, but most of 
 the surgery done at the present time is for some minor structural 
 change, attributed to some special organ, when the cells of the 
 entire organism share in the degeneracy, the remedy for which is 
 the general physical and mental reconstruction which follows a 
 course of sane treatment by suggestion, dietetics, exercise, and 
 gymnastics. 
 
 But suggestion is applicable also as an adjunct in the treatment 
 of the acute, febrile, and infectious diseases found in the routine 
 work of the general practitioner, as well as in functional nervous 
 diseases. 
 
 Gowers tells us that our therapeutics were much more successful, 
 in certain nervous diseases, before so much of its pathology was 
 definitely understood. It is not enough to be able to tell a patient 
 that a certain pathological process is present in the liver, kidney, 
 stomach, lungs, nervous system, or other bodily organ. We should 
 be prepared to teach him to so conform to the physiological require- 
 ments of health that such processes will be arrested, their function 
 restored, and the health of the individual secured and maintained. 
 
 Here is a man with all the clinical symptoms of gastric ulcer. 
 His physician, in accordance with the advice of our best medical 
 authorities, is satisfied to prescribe bismuth subnitrate or mag- 
 nesium carbonate, to be taken an hour before meals, when he should 
 have explained to him the necessity of a complete rest to his stom- 
 ach in the incipiency of his trouble, being given such rest for from 
 five to ten days by a complete fast, and advised the necessity of 
 keeping his stomach cleansed by drinking frequent draughts of hot 
 water, and water at a normal bodily temperature every hour, with 
 an enema every night, to give his nervous system an opportunity 
 to be qualified to perform the function of digesting his food; and 
 he should afterward have outlined a rational dietetic regimen, to 
 conform to the requirements of his individual case.
 
 138 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Here is another physician who strives to maintain the nitrog- 
 enous and carbon equilibrium of certain patients by an exam- 
 ination of the stools, as if the calculation of the nitrogen and carbon 
 in a food signified its value to the human body unless it could at 
 the same time be demonstrated that it is assimilable. By psycho- 
 therapeutic measures we enable the patient to digest and assimilate 
 a quantity of normal food products in such quantities as to pro- 
 mote the healthy nutrition of the body quantities far beyond 
 the ability of the patient without the employment of such meas- 
 ures. 
 
 The value of this therapeutic resource in the maintenance of a 
 heightened degree of resistive power of the organism, and of as- 
 sisting nature in combating morbid processes, is beyond question, 
 as is demonstrated in the every-day routine of those who make em- 
 ployment of psychotherapeutic principles. 
 
 Contemporary psychologists have firmly established the fact that 
 suggestion used to unduly exaggerate the gravity of the symptoms 
 of a given case proves to be a powerful psychophysiological de- 
 pressant, that the representation of a movement arrested is the 
 beginning of the stoppage of that movement, and that it may even 
 end in the complete stoppage of that function. "Paralysis by 
 ideas" is not infrequent in the every-day practice of the physician 
 whose gloomy prognosis is insinuated upon the consciousness of his 
 patient and those in attendance upon him. This condition was 
 referred to by Charcot under the name of "psychic paralysis." 
 The conviction on the part of the patient that he can not move a 
 limb renders him powerless for any movement, and he recovers his 
 motor power only when the morbid representation has disappeared. 
 
 Upon one occasion I suggested to a young man that his knee was 
 stiff, and he could not bend it until I gave him permission. I 
 handed him one dollar, and told him that if he could bend his 
 knee he could keep the money. I left him, and the next day he 
 came to me and handed me the money, saying that he was a mes- 
 senger boy and could not ride his wheel with a stiff limb. As he 
 handed me the money I asserted that he could now use his limb 
 better than ever before in his life, and he went away happy. 
 
 This influence of suggestion is not limited to the voluntary and
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC VALUE OP SUGGESTION. 139 
 
 motor functions, but to the involuntary physiological processes as 
 well. All sick people are more or less the victims of their fears. 
 The very conviction of being sick and incompetent, which impels 
 them to seek a physician, is a vivid representation or autosugges- 
 tion, which inhibits functional activity. 
 
 Very frequently a physician describes the pathological process, 
 makes a vivid representation of the diseased condition, and leaves 
 his patient in a more complete state of psychic paralysis than be- 
 fore coming into his presence. What appears as the result of these 
 representations or suggestions is perhaps entirely new. They may 
 be without precedent in the life of the individual, but the phe- 
 nomena are present nevertheless. 
 
 It matters not what be the diseased process, make your patient 
 feel that you understand the nature of his disease; that you are 
 master of the situation; leave nothing undone to strongly implant 
 the conviction of recovery, and that it will begin from the very 
 moment that he begins to make employment of the measures pre- 
 scribed for his relief. To this end all possible available thera- 
 peutic expedients are serviceable, not only for the direct influence 
 which their own potency may exert upon the diseased process, but 
 as a direct psychophysiological stimulant as well. 
 
 The syphilologist, doing the largest specialty practice of any 
 physician in the United States, is a strong advocate of the employ- 
 ment of suggestion as a psychophysiological stimulant in conjunc- 
 tion with the administration of mercury. Suggestion employed in 
 this disease as an adjuvant to the specific medication heightens the 
 resistive power of every cell in the human organization and won- 
 derfully augments the patient's recovery. 
 
 In the treatment of typhoid and other fevers I have boldly as- 
 serted to a patient that a glass of buttermilk taken every three 
 hours would enable him to make a sure and rapid recovery, and in 
 such cases I never let the patient get away from this conviction, 
 while at the same time making use of such other therapeutic ex- 
 pedients as deemed advisable. 
 
 Psychotherapy is applied by the employment of suggestion, both 
 with and without hypnotism, and it finds its application to all 
 forms of medical practice as an adjunct to the recognized thera-
 
 140 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 peutic agencies, whether the condition be acute or chronic, gyneco- 
 logic or otherwise. 
 
 Unquestionably the general practice of medicine is the field 
 wherein its employment is attended with the most gratifying re- 
 sults. Without an intelligent conception of psychotherapy, so many 
 of the cases of the general practitioner that are within his legiti- 
 mate domain are likely to fall into the hands of the specialists, who 
 are so rapidly crowding him out of work. His work is preventive 
 as well as curative, and many of the more serious pathological 
 lesions begin as functional disturbances, the neglect of which results 
 in gross pathologic changes. It is in functional disorders that 
 psychotherapy is pre-eminently applicable, and, if taken in their 
 incipiency, as when discovered by the general practitioner, they 
 could be easily relieved from the consequences which must be the 
 inevitable result if neglected. 
 
 But psychotherapy finds a most important field of application in 
 the treatment of the acute diseases as well. The writer attended a 
 meeting of a medical society where the employment of morphin 
 hypodermatically was freely advocated for the relief of the pain 
 that accompanies acute pneumonia. It was no surprise to me that 
 the physician advocating its employment stated that fifty percent 
 of his cases of pneumonia terminated fatally. 
 
 Another physician present referred to the hypodermatic em- 
 ployment of morphin as ' ' a sheet-anchor for the relief of pain that 
 accompanies acute lobar pneumonia," and he also stated that at 
 least twenty-five percent of his pneumonia cases terminated fatally. 
 
 My own convictions in regard to the dangerous consequences 
 of the employment of morphin in the treatment of pneumonia 
 were such that I felt impelled to preface my remarks in opposition 
 to the treatment advised by the statement that in ten years of 
 general practice I had treated but one single case of pneumonia 
 that terminated fatally in a person above two years of age, and 
 that was in the case of an elderly person, complicated with pleu- 
 ritis attended with an enormous effusion. The employment of 
 morphin in the treatment of pneumonia, I said, I regarded as 
 criminal, as helping the disease to kill the patient, nor did I 
 hesitate to state that patients who recovered under such treatment
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC VALUE OF SUGGESTION. 141 
 
 did so in spite of the disease and the treatment. Quinin I used 
 in moderate quantities, 20 to 40 grains per day, but the pain and 
 other nervous manifestations I controlled by the alternate appli- 
 cation of hot and cold poultices, or hot poultices only, together 
 with the free and intelligent employment of suggestion. Of 
 course other remedial agencies were also employed, if indicated, 
 but I am now speaking only of general treatment. 
 
 There is no better method of gaining the confidence of some 
 patients than by giving a drug that will produce specific results, 
 and given with the assurance that a specified result can be ex- 
 pected. Here we get not only the physiological action of the 
 drug employed, but also find the drug producing a result that can 
 be specified a most powerful means of suggestion. 
 
 There are in the experience of every general practitioner, in 
 certain individual cases, crises where the psychic factor has decided 
 the recovery or nonrecovery of his patient. The author has had in 
 his own experience several incidents where he has been called into 
 consultation to see individuals who were seriously ill, where the 
 entire family had confidence in his judgment, which also made the 
 patient more amenable to his suggestions, and where the attending 
 physician had practically read the patient's death warrant by giv- 
 ing an unfavorable prognosis in no uncertain terms; and, after 
 making an examination, he has begun psychic treatment by the 
 positive statement to the patient, "You are going to get well all 
 right." 
 
 In one such case that happened to be turned over to me after 
 a brief absence, where the physician in temporary charge had given 
 a positive, unfavorable prognosis, I assured the patient in the 
 presence of the physician at my first visit that he was going to 
 get well, that the treatment that he was on was precisely the right 
 one, that a decided change for the better would take place that 
 very night. The physician, a very dear friend of mine, followed 
 me out of the room, and in a subdued tone, addressing me by name, 
 said, "I hate to see you fall so hard. There is no more possibility 
 of that patient getting well than there is of your taking wings and 
 flying." 
 
 The case in question was that of an old man seventy-eight years
 
 142 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 of age, who had been sick for ten days with grippe, and who now 
 had an acute lobar pneumonia. The prognosis given by the phy- 
 sician in this case was just such as ninety-nine physicians out of a 
 hundred, who did not fully recognize the value of the psychic 
 factor in therapeutics, would have given in such a case. 
 
 ''Why do you say that he will not get well?" I asked. 
 
 "It is my opinion, based upon the pathological conditions, to- 
 gether with his age and continued illness, ' ' was his reply. 
 
 "But my opinion is that he will get well," said I. 
 
 "Yes, but you are not doing right to make him believe that he 
 is going to get well when he is so sick, ' ' said he most kindly. 
 
 "But, Doctor, that is just what is going to make him get well; 
 because I can make him believe it will strengthen the bridge that 
 is to tide him over to recovery. ' ' 
 
 After that I assumed control of the situation, and allowed no 
 one to enter that room who did not believe that the patient was 
 going to recover on account of confidence sufficient in me to rely 
 upon my judgment. Even the physician agreed to co-operate with 
 my plan out of respect for my wishes in that particular case. 
 
 When he returned the next day he said to me in the consulting 
 room, with his face lighted with a smile, "He is really better; 
 your presence has greatly benefited him." It was eleven days 
 before that lung cleared up ; his temperature went down, and heart 
 beats became strong and natural for his condition, but he recovered. 
 
 The point that I wished to bring out has been illustrated in this 
 case. The physician who does not fully appreciate the psycho- 
 logical factor in therapeutics is far more likely to give an unfavor- 
 able prognosis, and in many instances he might as well knock his 
 patient on the head with a sledge hammer as use psychic influences, 
 unconsciously though it be, to retard rather than promote recovery. 
 
 It is frequently the case that the physician comes into the pres- 
 ence of a serious pathological condition so depressed himself by 
 his knowledge of pathology that he forgets to put confidence in 
 the recuperative powers of his patient, which can be encouraged 
 and stimulated to increase all physiological processes. This un- 
 conscious suggestive influence may so plant fear in the patient, 
 accumulating with double force on account of the depressing
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC VALUE OF SUGGESTION. 143 
 
 environing psychologic influence which follows as a logical sequence, 
 that it can be stated as a scientific truth that the prognosis fre- 
 quently kills the patient. 
 
 People die frequently under such conditions of purely nervous 
 shock. Shock may be defined as being a complete suspension of 
 some and partial suspension of others of the functions of the nerv- 
 ous system. 
 
 Fear alone, an emotion which is the result of the analysis of 
 consequences, exercises an inhibitory influence over all the nervous 
 functions, both voluntary and involuntary. Every idea that 
 originates in the conscious mind as the result of self-analysis of 
 subjective sensations, symptoms, and conditions reproduces itself 
 in the body. 
 
 Physiologists have always endowed the nerve and brain centers 
 with a peculiar energy of their own, indefinitely expressed under 
 such terms as neuric energy, nerve force, vis medicatrix naturae, 
 etc. At any rate, these higher centers stand in a similar relation 
 to the body as a dynamo stands to a great building full of intricate 
 and complex machinery. When properly manipulated, the influx 
 of energy goes to every organ, cell, and function of the body, giv- 
 ing stored up energy to the special functions as occasion requires. 
 
 The mental attitude of the patient to his own condition is the 
 determining factor in the utilization of stored up reserve psychic 
 power. The very belief on the part of the patient in the possible 
 serious outcome of his illness even when he is, as far as it is pos- 
 sible for a human being to be, apparently devoid of fear disturbs 
 and depresses him, and weakens all power of resistance. 
 
 An illustration of the influence of the conscious mind upon 
 voluntary functions is well demonstrated by concentrating the 
 mind upon the arm held at right angles to the body and constantly 
 iterating the suggestion that ''the arm is getting stronger and 
 stronger. ' ' 
 
 It is usually supposed that a man can not hold up his arm for 
 more than five or ten minutes at a time. I once took a class of 
 ten young ladies between, twenty-two and thirty years of age, and 
 by suggestion each one was enabled to hold her arm at right angles 
 to her body for one hour. During this experiment I held my own
 
 144 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 arm at right angles, and, standing in front of a circle that had 
 been formed, I requested that each one of the young ladies look 
 at the bridge of my nose glasses, and positively assured them that 
 as long as their eyes did not lose sight of this object their arms 
 would remain strong. 
 
 "Mine is tired, and I can not hold out much longer," said one 
 after about fifteen minutes. 
 
 "Then let me touch the point of your elbow, and it will be 
 strong again," I quickly replied. Then going from one to the 
 other who requested it, I kept up that sort of thing until the hour 
 was up. 
 
 Each one of the young ladies thought that I had given them the 
 strength to hold their arms out so long. In a sense I had done 
 so, by suggestions to their subconscious selves, though they were 
 wide awake and in no sense hypnotized, as the term is ordinarily 
 employed; yet in reality there was as much hypnotism exerted as 
 if they had been in a state of active somnambulism. 
 
 I have frequently taken a group of children, who have always 
 been favorite associates of mine, and begun with them in what 
 I was pleased to call "exercises." I would begin by having all 
 hold out one arm in a prize contest, which they enjoyed immensely. 
 For four out of six to hold out an arm at right angles to the 
 body for an hour and a half after the third or fourth day's exer- 
 cises was nothing unusual. They could also stand on one foot for 
 more than an hour still at times and hopping about at other 
 times, with the other foot in hand, either in front of or behind 
 them. At any rate, I held their attention and constantly kept up 
 a suggestive influence by addressing my suggestion to one and then 
 another, expressing my confidence in his or her ability to hold up 
 an arm or stand on one foot all day long. 
 
 In my demonstrations and lectures given to physicians I always 
 have had one or more physicians present take a suggestion, with- 
 out the slightest attempt to induce sleep, by agreeing to co-operate 
 with me, so that I could show him how he could convey a sug- 
 gestion to his own subconscious mind and get results that would 
 surprise him. In over five hundred instances have I placed phy- 
 sicians submitting to this experiment across two chairs and jumped
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC VALUE OF SUGGESTION. 145 
 
 upon their bodies with my entire weight of two hundred pounds, 
 and in nine-tenths of the instances they would say that I had ap- 
 parently placed no more than three or four pounds upon them. 
 They were astonished and frequently incredulous when I informed 
 them that they had sustained my weight. 
 
 Any one who believes that he can do so, can easily lie with head 
 in one chair and heels in another, and hold up one hundred and 
 fifty or two hundred pounds. On the other hand, I have frequently 
 witnessed a physician attempt this where he did not believe it 
 possible for a man to sustain even his own weight, and he always 
 proved that what he believed about it was correct. It is simply a 
 question of mental attitude. 
 
 For a suggestion to be assimilated as a self-suggestion, there must 
 be confidence that amounts to a conviction before it will reach and 
 influence the subconscious realm. The great realm of subconscious- 
 ness, which corresponds to the functionating of at least nine-tenths 
 of an individual's psychic powers, is amenable to the suggestion of 
 the conscious beliefs of the individual. His mental attitude, if it 
 amounts to a conviction, evokes or calls forth latent powers or in- 
 herent psychic activities, and renders the reserve energy available 
 or useless as he has confidence or lack of confidence. 
 
 But suggestion without hypnotism is effective in its influence 
 not only upon the voluntary nervous functions, but the involun- 
 tary functions as well. Through the influence of suggestion upon 
 the physiological processes of the body, even gross structural 
 changes can result. 
 
 I walked up to a physician upon one occasion who was holding 
 the hand of a little boy in both of his own, gently manipulating 
 his hand. He was assuring the little fellow that those warts would 
 go away, that they would go away when he did not know anything 
 about it, and in two months would be gone, etc. 
 
 The physician had attended my lecture and demonstration the 
 previous evening, and when I discovered what he was doing I ex- 
 claimed, "Using suggestion so early, Doctor?" 
 
 "Oh, this is my own method of curing warts," he replied. "I 
 enjoy the enviable reputation here among the little boys as being 
 the wart cure doctor, and I have in numerous cases dispersed them 
 by suggestion."
 
 146 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 A well-known physician related to me an experience of his in 
 the case of a uterine fibroid yes, a fibroid tumor of the uterus. 
 Upon his last examination before an intended surgical operation 
 he found that there was much adhesion, and, rather than jeopardize 
 the life of his patient, he decided upon a plan which he executed 
 as follows : 
 
 ''Mrs. Blank," he said, "if you will co-operate with me for one 
 year, I feel quite certain that you can get well without the opera- 
 tion I intended. It will all depend upon your intelligent, per- 
 sistent co-operation and effort. I wish to see you once a week to 
 apply a medicine to the inside of your womb for the influence 
 that it will exert upon lessening the circulation in that tumor, 
 and also to apply a tampon to hold up the heavy organ so that 
 you will suffer no more pain. Now, what I want you to do, in 
 dead earnest, is this : whenever you think of your condition at all, 
 say to yourself, ' The blood vessels that go to this tumor are drying 
 up, shrinking up, getting smaller and smaller, my womb is getting 
 lighter and lighter, and this tumor is going away. Every day and 
 night it is going away. ' ' 
 
 "Doctor Blank," exclaimed she, "are you a Christian scientist? 
 Do you mean to tell me that any such mental attitude on my part 
 could exert an influence upon a large, hard substance like the 
 things you showed me in those jars?" 
 
 "No, madam, I am not a Christian scientist," said he, "but I 
 do know that persistent, intelligent use of the higher brain centers 
 exerts a wonderful influence over the vasomotor neuro regulation 
 of the blood supply to any part of the body upon which attention 
 is centered, and I tell you frankly that if you will do as I advise 
 you, I expect to avoid the necessity of this operation." 
 
 "Doctor Blank," replied his patient, earnestly, "I will per- 
 sistently and constantly do some of the finest thinking that any 
 person ever did, all the time while I am awake and when I retire 
 at night. I will affirm and iterate that this tumor is drying up 
 and shrinking up, that the blood vessels are getting smaller and 
 smaller, and that the tumor is getting lighter and lighter, and is 
 rapidly going away day and night it is going away. ' ' 
 
 This physician saw that patient once a week and made a simple
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC VALUE OP SUGGESTION. 147 
 
 application to her womb, but each time assured her that the con- 
 gestion was being relieved, that the blood vessels were getting 
 smaller, that her womb was getting lighter, and that she was 
 progressing nicely in every way. 
 
 He said that at the end of one year that woman's tumor was 
 less than one-fourth of the original size. His patient at that time 
 said, "Oh, Doctor, it is such a responsibility to have to keep 
 forcing that suggestion upon the involuntary physiological proc- 
 esses all the time." 
 
 "Then dismiss it, madam, just as I am going to dismiss you. 
 I am positive that you will experience no more trouble and you 
 may think of yourself as being a well woman. ' ' 
 
 It was two years since he dismissed that patient and she had 
 experienced no more trouble. 
 
 While upon this phase of the subject, let me state here that 
 the sexual instinct and its development is a far more potent factor 
 in the production of neurotic symptoms than is commonly supposed. 
 Nothing so disturbs the tranquillity of the average mind as the 
 belief in his or her own sexual weakness, though it is purely imag- 
 inary. 
 
 That one individual, however, has a nose that is conspicuous 
 for its enormous convexity and another for its concavity does not 
 prevent this organ from performing its function. So, in the case 
 of the female uterus which is probably the organ that varies more 
 than any other in position and size the fact that in one case the 
 fundus points to an angle of forty-five degrees forward when the 
 individual is in the erect position, or forty-five degrees backward 
 in another individual, is no ground to give rise to a diagnosis of 
 abnormality or disease. 
 
 This organ is also, from its very nature, subject to a great 
 variety of vascular changes, and when a patient is morbid in the 
 belief that she has some serious uterine affection, with all the 
 perverted mental states that accompany such a self-consciousness, 
 there is no other field of work in which suggestion, in conjunction 
 with some simple application or device, brings such fruitful results. 
 
 Get the confidence of your patient; let her know that you are 
 considering her case from every point of view; find out what she
 
 148 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 believes about her case, obtaining the information tactfully, and 
 then give her a scientific analysis of her case in your own language 
 that will harmonize with her own convictions and her symptoms; 
 and, in making a mental picture to her as to what will be the out- 
 come of the treatment, be sure to cover every symptom. 
 
 In other words, in conjunction with your local treatment be 
 sure to give a suggestion to meet every indication, letting your 
 patient feel that the treatment will bring such results. While 
 using suggestion in conjunction with your treatment, do all you 
 can to secure the intelligent co-operation of your patient. 
 
 In all gynecological cases there is more or less functional and 
 neuropathic disturbance such as insomnia, nervousness, indiges- 
 tion, constipation, despondency, etc. which can be successfully 
 combated by simple suggestion given at the time the local treat- 
 ment is applied. Above all, send your patients away less self- 
 conscious of the seriousness of their illness and more confident of 
 a complete recovery. 
 
 A casual remark, while holding the attention of your patient, 
 that she will be easy after this, will sleep soundly at night, have 
 a better appetite and feel better in every way, is food stuff for 
 the subconscious mind that furnishes memory pictures or ideas 
 that will be reproduced in the body. 
 
 A patient of mine upon one occasion had worked very hard 
 taking stock in a dry goods store and became fatigued. He had 
 not slept the two nights previous, though he had taken fifteen 
 or twenty grains of sulphonal. He said when he came into my 
 presence that he just must have a good night's sleep or he could not 
 undertake the heavy task before him the next day. After pa- 
 tiently going into his case, asking him in regard to appetite, elim- 
 ination, digestion, amount of water taken during the twenty-four 
 hours, etc., I remarked, "Well, you will sleep if you take a dose 
 of this prescription at bedtime and follow other directions." 
 
 I advised him to at once drink two glasses of water, and repeat 
 this in two hours and again at bedtime, and also insisted that 
 he take a long walk before going to his home, all of which I ex- 
 plained was necessary both to encourage elimination and to drive 
 the blood away from an overworked brain.
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC VALUE OF SUGGESTION. 149 
 
 I then gave the following directions: "Now, take notice, Mr. 
 Blank, if you are not willing to go to sleep tonight, don't take 
 this medicine, for if you take it you are going to sleep. Be sure 
 to explain to your wife that you are taking something to give 
 you a good night's rest and that your bedroom must be kept as 
 quiet as possible. 
 
 "After preparing for bed, shake the bottle thoroughly and take 
 a tablespoonful of the medicine. Then put out your light, get in 
 bed, and turn yourself loose" (showing him how to relax). "By 
 slightly breathing through your mouth you will take into your 
 lungs more oxygen, which greatly facilitates the action of this 
 medicine. In less than a minute after you relax and breathe 
 deeply you will feel your arms and lower limbs getting heavy, 
 and experience a sensation as if you are sinking down in your 
 bed. This is the effect of the medicine don't resist it; and in 
 less than three more minutes you will be sound asleep, and sleep 
 soundly all night and awake in the morning feeling much re- 
 freshed. ' ' 
 
 I then arose and turned to the door in a way that suggested to 
 him to depart. 
 
 "See here, Doctor," said he, "there is no danger in this medi- 
 cine?" 
 
 "It will put you to sleep, Mr. Blank; but if you had a weak 
 heart, it would strengthen it and all bodily functions will be 
 encouraged, and you will have the best night's rest you ever had 
 in your life. Be sure to remember to relax when you get in bed 
 and breathe slightly through your mouth. Come tomorrow and 
 tell me how well you slept. ' ' 
 
 I had prescribed 15 grains of trional in thirty-two doses of 
 carbonated water, less than y z grain of the medicine to the dose, 
 when he had taken 15 or 20 grains of sulphonal at each dose the 
 two nights previous and had but little sleep. 
 
 The next day he returned and asked if there was any danger 
 of getting in the habit of taking that medicine, reporting that 
 he had slept soundly all night long, and stating that his wife had 
 said he had not slept so soundly before in thirty years. 
 
 "Some people are very susceptible to that dose, Mr. Blank, and
 
 150 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 I see you are one of them. Don't you notice what a sedative 
 effect it has had upon you?" 
 
 "Yes," he replied, "I feel a little lazy." 
 
 "That is simply the result of a good night's sleep and the re- 
 lief that the medicine has given to the nervous element in your 
 case. You will not need another dose of that prescription oftener 
 than once a week. You will be thirsty and drink plenty of water 
 after this, and that encourages all functional activity. You will 
 eat more, digest your food, and improve in health in every way, 
 but you must relax at night when you retire and breathe through 
 your mouth, for the increased amount of oxygen taken into your 
 lungs which is secured in that way is very essential to the success 
 of this treatment." 
 
 The fact that he did relax and breathe slightly through his 
 mouth, with the idea having been strongly put to him that he 
 would go to sleep, virtually amounted to getting him to hypnotize 
 himself, or take a suggestion both consciously and subconsciously. 
 In five weeks he reported that he had taken five doses of the 
 placebo prescription, had slept well all the while, and had gained 
 six pounds in weight. 
 
 Two years later he reminded me of the marked benefit of that 
 prescription. "You know how I had for several years suffered 
 with indigestion," said he; "now I can eat boiled ham, hard 
 boiled eggs, and cheese for supper, and sleep well all night. I 
 have gained thirty pounds, and am in better health than I have 
 been in over thirty years. ' ' 
 
 I am personally acquainted with two physicians who have for 
 some time been engaged in sanitorium work. One of these phy- 
 sicians secures a good night's rest for his patient by directing 
 the nurse very seriously in the presence of his patient to give a 
 "sleeping capsule" (a placebo) at nine o'clock, and, if his patient 
 is not sleeping soundly by ten, to give another. "But in no 
 event to give more than two ; she will sleep soundly all night. ' ' 
 
 "In fifteen years," said he, "I do not remember that this has 
 failed to secure a good night's rest in more than a half dozen 
 instances. ' ' 
 
 The other physician instructs his nurse to prepare his patients
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC VALUE OF SUGGESTION. 151 
 
 for sleep by looking after all possible requirements, making the 
 patient conscious that he is being prepared to get a dose of medi- 
 cine that will make him sleep soundly all night, and then directs 
 her to administer one drop of a solution of potassium bromide, 
 instructing the patient that he will be asleep in five minutes and 
 will sleep soundly all night. 
 
 Said he, "That is the last I ever hear from them. They sleep 
 all night." 
 
 Hundreds and hundreds of physicians have reported to me 
 that they secured a good night's sleep for their patients by giving 
 a hypodermic injection of pure water. 
 
 A few days ago I came into the presence of a gentleman suf- 
 fering with an acute pleuritis, with a rising temperature and a 
 severe pain. He was walking the floor, holding a hot water bag 
 to his painful side, and stated that he had been unable to lie 
 down on account of the severe pain. I advised that he lie down, 
 relax every muscle, breathe slightly through his lips, and stated 
 that he would at once get ease and go to sleep. 
 
 He was left alone and conformed to the conditions, and did get 
 ease and went to sleep promptly. I assured him before trying 
 the method that the thorough relaxation would allow the blood 
 to circulate evenly throughout his entire body, thus relieving the 
 congestion in and about the inflamed area, and that he would get 
 ease and go to sleep. He intelligently and consciously acted upon 
 the suggestion and got good results. 
 
 Upon one occasion I was called hurriedly to see a patient after 
 several attempts had been made to secure my services. She was 
 a neurotic woman who was reported seriously ill. I had seen that 
 patient before, however, and picked up a bottle of avena sativa, 
 a sample that had been left in my office, and carried it along 
 with me. My patient was extremely hysterical, almost opistho- 
 tonic, and shaking convulsively ; hands cold, feet cold, pulse rapid, 
 and around her was a badly frightened family and friends. As 
 I came into her presence I expressed a regret that I had been so 
 long delayed, and, taking her hand sympathetically, expressed the 
 hope that she had not suffered on account of my delay, whereupon 
 she displayed all of her symptoms with exaggerated emphasis.
 
 152 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Her husband and the chief attendant had their say in describ- 
 ing the severity of the attack, and related the special incidents 
 that had transpired during the past hour or so, and at the proper 
 psychological moment I said to her strongly, "Now, be patient, 
 and let me find out just what is the trouble." 
 
 I had seen that patient before, and my familiarity with her case 
 did not require any further light to correctly interpret her symp- 
 toms. However, a physician must sometimes pursue the course 
 that will best secure the accord of the patient in order to get best 
 results. I took her temperature, counted her pulse, percussed her 
 chest, listened to her respiration, examined her lips and the lobes 
 of her ears, etc. I then said to her, at a moment when I had her 
 attention, "Be patient, madam, I have just what I need to relieve 
 you in a few minutes," holding the sample of avena sativa in my 
 hand before her. 
 
 Turning to her husband, I requested him to bring me a glass 
 of water, an empty glass, and a spoon. While waiting for this I 
 said to her kindly, "Be patient, you will soon feel all right after 
 you take a dose of medicine." I poured one spoonful of the 
 medicine into the glass, followed by six spoonfuls of water, and 
 stirred it briskly for at least nine seconds. Then taking a spoon- 
 ful of the mixture, I put it to her lips and told her to swallow it. 
 
 Handing her husband the glass, I placed one hand over her 
 eyes, closing them gently, and requested her to breathe through 
 her mouth. "Now, breathe deeply; once again; now again, away 
 down deep;" thus getting three full respirations. "There, now, 
 you are relaxed perfectly all over. Now lie still and let the medi- 
 cine have its effect, and in ten minutes you will feel all right, and 
 be quiet and easy from head to foot." 
 
 She lay perfectly still, and her husband, with eyes as wide open 
 as full moons, exclaimed, "See here, Doctor, that seems to be a 
 very powerful medicine you are using. Is there no danger in 
 that dose?" 
 
 "Just what she needs," I replied. "If her heart were weak, 
 that medicine would strengthen it; her nerves will become steady, 
 and quiet, and strong. Her muscles will completely relax, her
 
 PSYCHO-THERAPEUTIC VALUE OF SUGGESTION. 153 
 
 hands and feet get warm and her head get easy, and her nervous 
 equilibrium will be completely re-established." 
 
 I walked out of the room, and requested that he follow me and 
 leave her quiet for ten minutes, stating that she would be com- 
 pletely relieved at the end of that time, and that then we would 
 give her another dose and she would go to sleep and sleep soundly 
 all night. 
 
 At the end of ten minutes we returned to her bedside. She lay 
 as passive and still as a lake without a ripple. Taking her wrist, 
 I found her pulse about seventy instead of one hundred and 
 twenty, as it was upon my arrival. "Open your eyes, Mrs. Blank; 
 you feel good, don 't you ? ' ' 
 
 "Oh, Doctor, I could feel the effects of that medicine coming 
 over me just as you said it would. I never had anything make 
 me feel so pleasant in all my life." 
 
 "It has had a delightful effect, but I never gave you a dose of 
 medicine that did not have a good effect on you. You are one 
 patient in whose case I know that every dose will produce the de- 
 sired result." 
 
 "Because you understand my case so well, Doctor," was her 
 suave reply. 
 
 That was all right. Throw bouquets at your patients, and they 
 will throw them back at you. Blame them and find fault with 
 them, and they will blame you and find fault with you. 
 
 In the case of the patient just described I advised that another 
 dose of the medicine be administered, and for everything to be 
 arranged to let her go to sleep, casually remarking that she would 
 sleep soundly all night and be feeling all right in the morning. 
 My patient remarked that she came near going to sleep anyway 
 from that one dose, and that if she had not been afraid that I 
 would have left her, she would have gone sound to sleep. I left 
 instructions that she come to my office the next day, and gave her 
 a prescription with several names that amounted to nothing on 
 account of the smallness of the dose of each, instructing her to 
 take a spoonful in water before meals and at bedtime, suggesting 
 to her that this would keep her nervous system functionating prop-
 
 154 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 erly; that it would make her sleep soundly at night and prevent 
 another one of those attacks. 
 
 At least three-fourths of the adult population of the world are 
 relying upon some therapeutic system or method. They are fol- 
 lowers of some herd, school, or system that offers health in the 
 place of disease. The self-conscious intellectual ego has not been 
 sufficiently evolved within them to enable them to rely upon them- 
 selves. What these people really need is education, knowledge, 
 and guidance other names for suggestion to give them the will 
 to dare to do as well as they know how. 
 
 A large percentage of these functional and neuropathic condi- 
 tions would get well of their own accord if the people were only 
 level-headed enough to do as the dog does, who lies down and 
 gives nature a chance to recuperate an outraged physical consti- 
 tution. 
 
 Rest in a comfortable bed, deep inspiration of pure air, light, 
 wholesome diet, copious draughts of water to encourage elimina- 
 tion, with unyielding faith in the powers inherent within the 
 biological elements, would result in a cure of a large proportion 
 of the usual ills of human beings without a drop of medicine. 
 
 Yet, suggestion begets faith, confidence, and belief, and is at 
 the bottom of Christian science, osteopathy, patent medicine cures, 
 electrotherapeutic quackery, magnetic healing, divine healing, 
 mental science, metaphysical healing, faith cures, and such like. 
 These people are here, and their methods are applicable to a large 
 class of functional and neuropathic conditions. They are alert 
 and active, and here to stay as long as time lasts, under some name 
 or guise, to make use of this psychological method of treatment. 
 
 We, as a profession, should not lay aside one single therapeutic 
 measure or device, but, in addition to our ordinary therapeutic 
 measures in all classes of diseases and conditions, we have an op- 
 portunity to give our patients the benefit of this most powerful 
 therapeutic adjunct. Honestly and earnestly convince thinking 
 people of the utility of any good thing, and they will indorse it 
 and give you their hearty co-operation, it matters not how strong 
 their prejudices may have been. 
 
 Physicians frequently make a serious mistake by discouraging
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC VALUE OF SUGGESTION. 155 
 
 their patients with an unfavorable prognosis instead of relying 
 with more confidence upon the psychic element, which would 
 furnish them a rational basis for a more hopeful result. 
 
 There are many fatalities occurring daily all over our country 
 for the lack of men with faith in this psychological law, and with 
 courage and moral stamina to stand out against the popular preju- 
 dice to it, and apply it as a therapeutic aid. 
 
 A number of times in my life has it been my unpleasant duty, 
 yet high privilege, to have an opportunity to stand by a patient, 
 in the face of a positively unfavorable prognosis made by those 
 who did not appreciate the great power of suggestion upon the 
 subconscious, and tell him, "You are going to get well." I have 
 had such patients squeeze my hand as I held theirs and say, "If 
 you stand by me, Doctor, I will get well." 
 
 All classes of illness, sickness, or disease, in conjunction with 
 other methods of treatment, need moral or psychological support. 
 They need leadership. We need men in the profession to do as 
 Napoleon did when his men were dying by hundreds each day on 
 his march in the East. He visited the camp, and took each one 
 by the hand and assured him strongly and positively that, if he 
 would be brave, he would get well. Just as this one visit of his 
 to the sick and discouraged soldiers put an end to an epidemic 
 where several hundred men were dying each day, so would many 
 human lives be saved by this simple suggestion, given with confi- 
 dence and with conviction in conjunction with other therapeutic 
 measures. 
 
 The medical profession has been looking too long at the surface 
 of things. We have dealt too much with externals, with effects, 
 and have neglected causes. 
 
 There are three-fourths of the human race who need arousing 
 and being shocked into a self -consciousness of strength and ability, 
 confidence and determination; not only in facing the questions of 
 health and disease, but in all other problems of life. The man 
 who gives such patients some of his own optimistic personality is 
 giving them strength and life itself. They convert countless mil- 
 lions and millions of brain centers, lying dormant and unused, into 
 action to encourage every bodily cell to increased function.
 
 156 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 The trouble is that the majority of people have not sufficient 
 confidence within themselves. They do not recognize their power, 
 and have no confidence in the latent potentialities dormant and 
 unused within them, that can be called into action only through 
 faith and confidence. A new self-consciousness needs to be awak- 
 ened within them. The great majority of people are incapable of 
 thinking and reasoning for themselves. Their minds, through 
 education and experience, have not had the foodstuffs to enable 
 them to exercise reason. They are governed by fear and ruled 
 by emotion. Others go through life in a listless, dreamlike mental 
 condition, referred to by Jastrow as mental loafing. 
 
 The will is capable of reproducing those impressions made upon 
 the brain only through experience and education. Whatever idea 
 is uppermost in their minds, whatever impression is the strongest, 
 is the one that most influences them. 
 
 The physician who is so engrossed in the pathology of the case 
 that at each visit he recites it over and over again to his patient, 
 assists in encouraging not the patient, but the disease. He fastens 
 the morbid psychoneurotic element of the patient stronger upon 
 him, and thus intensifies his disease by lessening his resisting 
 powers. 
 
 People are hypnotized by their beliefs. Belief in an idea or 
 a theory, or a creed or a drug, or a man or a woman, is the place 
 where the individual relinquishes self-responsibility, takes mental 
 refuge, and agrees to act upon the idea or series of ideas that are 
 presented to him either consciously or subconsciously. It is all 
 a matter of getting the confidence of people and making suggestions. 
 
 "Keep off the grass, keep off the grass," is a sign that one sees 
 everywhere in the study and application of this subject. It is 
 before the door of the prevailing educational systems. Political 
 and economic problems, religious and therapeutic creeds, orthodox 
 and heterodox alike, all mold and shape the actions of men by 
 the use of suggestion in disguised form. How sensitive people 
 are when we tell them the truth. 
 
 Three years ago, in one of our northern cities, a gentleman in- 
 vited me to attend what he called a remarkable hypnotic exhibi- 
 tion. It was the last service of a ten-day religious revival meeting
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC VALUE OP SUGGESTION. 157 
 
 in a tent with a capacity for fully five thousand people. The last 
 song had been sung and the last prayer offered before the speaker 
 appeared upon the platform. He walked up and down before his 
 audience as if heaven and hell, life and death, time and eternity 
 were all on his shoulders. He then struck a pose, by the side of 
 his little stand, that itself filled his audience, who were already 
 under the influence of his suggestions, with expectant awe and 
 fear. With all the intensity of a tragedian he then began: 
 "There are people under the sound of my voice here tonight that 
 before this hour is over will have made a record for hell or 
 heaven! There are people under the sound of my voice that 
 before another year has rolled around will have approached the 
 judgment bar of God!" One strong expression after another of 
 this kind followed, and in less than three minutes a little woman 
 with an unstable, nervous organization near me dropped upon her 
 knees with the cry, ' ' Lord, help ; Lord, save the people ! ' ' etc. 
 
 On and on went the suggester, the pulpit orator, the speaker, 
 the hypnotist, and one after another followed the example of the 
 little woman until within twenty minutes pandemonium reigned. 
 The whole tent reverberated the echoes of crying, shouting, and 
 praying. 
 
 I walked up close to the leader and noted that he went from 
 one to another and suggested what the Lord would do and what 
 the penitent must do. To one he suggested, "Just get up and 
 say, 'Glory, hallelujah; it's all right.' ' For at least forty times 
 the poor fellow jumped up, and clapped his hands and exclaimed, 
 "Glory, hallelujah; it's all right!" Dozens of others were play- 
 ing their stunts in different ways. 
 
 This was in one of the most enlightened and cultured states in 
 our great union, and this was a tame affair compared with some 
 experiences of the writer in his own former southern state, both 
 among whites and negroes. 
 
 Any method of getting an individual to act upon an idea or 
 a series of ideas, be they true or false, either consciously or sub- 
 consciously, is hypnotism or suggestion. Suggestion, then, is a 
 basis of all religions, creeds, dogmas, nonmedical and nonsurgical 
 therapeutic systems, and all methods of education.
 
 158 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Suggestion is used tfoth for the good and for the harm of hu- 
 man beings. It is used by everybody, and the really dangerous 
 man or woman is the individual who is unconscious of its potency 
 as a factor in both sanity and insanity, happiness or unhappiness, 
 education or ignorance, truth or falsehood, health or disease, char- 
 acter building or moral perversion. 
 
 We frequently see fanatics upon various lines swaying and 
 leading men and women into all kinds of incongruous paths and 
 actions by their fanatical zeal, enthusiasm, and absurd devotion 
 to some false theory or concept. The only protection for the in- 
 dividual is knowledge and experience, education and light, and 
 the ability to think for and protect himself. 
 
 No special tact is required by a physician to use suggestion to 
 fix the attention of his patient on such ideas as are desirable 
 to influence his life and conduct for therapeutic purposes. The 
 great thing to be desired is to have more regard for the welfare 
 of your patient than for the remuneration for your services. 
 
 We find everywhere pseudo-conscientious men in the medical 
 profession who "have too high a regard for the truth" to use 
 suggestion in a legitimate therapeutic manner for the helpful- 
 ness of their patients. Such men usually fasten a trivial functional 
 disorder by the injudicious use of suggestion upon the conscious- 
 ness of a patient, and make it a serious psychoneurotic condition 
 by giving his disease a name and pointing out its serious pathol- 
 ogy and consequences, simply giving a prescription to relieve a 
 condition which he has made in reality ten times worse. 
 
 A North Carolina physician had a patient who was morbidly 
 self-conscious of some functional disturbance, and, after going to 
 leading men in several of the larger southern cities, he finally 
 landed in Baltimore, where he secured an audience with one of 
 the most widely known physicians in the history of the medical 
 profession. The patient related his difficulty in getting relief, 
 and told how he had gone from place to place, and how the phy- 
 sicians did not agree, and how some called his disease one thing 
 and some another. The physician stripped him, gave him a care- 
 ful examination for two or three minutes, and said, ' ' All right, sir ; 
 put on your clothes."
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC VALUE OP SUGGESTION. 159 
 
 He seated himself to write a letter, and by the time his patient 
 was dressed he said, "Give me twenty dollars, please," which 
 was promptly handed over to him. Then, with one hand on his 
 doorknob and the other on the patient's shoulder, he looked him 
 squarely in the face and said to him, "My friend, go home and 
 read only the book of St. James, call yourself a - - fool, and let 
 doctors alone." 
 
 The door was opened, and the man was out of the physician's 
 office before he realized jt, another patient having gone into the 
 consulting room. The gentleman reminded the office attendant 
 that the doctor had forgotten to give him a prescription, and he 
 was informed that he must now wait until all present had gone 
 in before he could have another audience. 
 
 Over and over did he revolve that advice, "My friend, go home 
 and read only the book of St. James, call yourself a - - fool, and 
 let doctors alone." The gentleman grew too nervous to sit still, 
 and decided to take a walk and return an hour later, but, while 
 walking alone on the streets of Baltimore, blind and deaf to every- 
 thing that he saw and heard, the meaning of that advice at last 
 dawned upon his consciousness and he began to laugh. 
 
 He then decided it would not be necessary to return to the 
 physician's office, and he took the next train for his home, all the 
 while remembering that his family physician had told him that 
 his disease was more "in his head" than otherwise. The mean- 
 ing of the advice given by his family physician was now clear 
 to him, and he realized for the first time that he did not have a 
 brain disease, and that what the eminent physician really meant 
 was that his condition was the result of an unbridled imagination, 
 or, to speak in modern psychological phraseology, due to a morbid 
 self-consciousness. 
 
 He reached his home with his head up, wearing a smile like a 
 headlight on a steam engine, and, though three years had elapsed, 
 the gentleman yet laughed at how easily he had been cured by 
 finding a man with courage and honesty sufficient to tell him that 
 he had been acting a - - fool and should let doctors alone. No 
 doubt he was also instructed to quit reading patent medicine ad- 
 vertisements and modern mind cure theories.
 
 160 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Now, that is just the point. People so often need advice, assur- 
 ance, ideas, persuasion, or shocking other names for suggestion 
 and not medicine or instruction in the pathology of their dis- 
 ease. The fact that a patient comes to you is ordinarily an ac- 
 knowledgment that he is willing to take your advice, that he has 
 confidence in you, and is willing to rely on your judgment. 
 
 Here I would add a word of caution. It is a great mistake to 
 tell a patient that you can find nothing the matter with him 
 almost as bad as to exaggerate the seriousness of his symptoms. 
 An individual with a functional disorder may not necessarily be 
 suffering with insomnia, or have sustained a loss in weight, and 
 yet be in the incipiency of a disease which, if not properly treated, 
 may result in serious disorders of metabolism. He conies to you 
 with subjective sensations, feelings, and impressions which annoy 
 and depress him. He feels incapacitated for his work. Every 
 problem of life is colored by the hue of his morbid subjective 
 state, and when you tell him that you can find no cause for his 
 trouble you only add to his morbidness and aggravate what may 
 be the incipiency of a grave disorder. A good proportion of the 
 more serious nervous and mental diseases begins in functional dis- 
 turbances. The disorders of metabolism resulting in metabolic 
 toxemia may begin in this way. These patients should be made 
 to feel that they have your confidence and sympathy, as well as 
 the benefit of your knowledge and skill as a physician. Then you 
 are in position to tactfully govern their habits of thought and 
 conduct, and to help them to execute a plan of treatment that will 
 bring about recovery. 
 
 Elimination is usually deficient, and the treatment needed in 
 such cases tests the complete resources of the physician and em- 
 bodies all therapeutic measures medicinal, dietetic, physiological, 
 and mechanical as well as psychotherapeutic. 
 
 Frequently, work under the proper conditions is the only means 
 of cure, and the far-reaching influence of the physician to secure 
 the conditions necessary for the recovery of his patient is not out 
 of place. 
 
 The proper treatment of disease is as varied in its application 
 as are the wants and necessities of mankind.
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC VALUE OF SUGGESTION. 161 
 
 Illustration. A physician of my acquaintance was called to see 
 a frail little woman who was the only support of her two father- 
 less children. Day and night she labored with needle and thread, 
 vainly striving to buy food and clothing, pay rent, and provide 
 for other life essentials. Deprived of fresh air and sunshine, and 
 under constant mental and physical strain, she finally succumbed, 
 with all bodily functions disturbed, and discouraged and depressed 
 in the extreme. 
 
 The representative of a local church organization stated to the 
 physician that they had provided a nurse, arranged for her medi- 
 cine, and would send her nicely prepared meals and visit her often. 
 
 "All that will only add to the severity of her psychoneurotic 
 condition," said he; "go and get her twenty-five dollars to pay 
 her house rent, fill her pantry with substantial food to meet present 
 demands, but, above all, secure her a position where she can work 
 and get exercise, and sunshine and fresh air, and have time to sleep 
 at night, and she will need no medicine, no nursing, or visitors." 
 
 The representative of the charitable organization left, saying 
 that she would have the society consider the matter at their next 
 meeting a week hence. 
 
 There was present at that interview between the physician and 
 the representative of the local organization a stenographer who 
 was the widow of a poor young physician who had died, leaving 
 her with no means of support, but before her marriage she had 
 learned to "do things with her hands," and she was independent 
 and happy. She requested the physician to meet her on the out- 
 side of the sick lady's room at seven o'clock that evening, at which 
 time she delivered to him the amount of cash requested, and had 
 unloaded the substantiate for a well-filled pantry, and announced 
 that she had secured a position for the sick lady in question, all 
 of which she had done quietly and unostentatiously during the day, 
 requesting that the part which she had played in the matter never 
 be disclosed to the patient. 
 
 Within a few days that frail little woman was at her post of 
 duty, and up to four years afterward she was at work, much im- 
 proved in health and strength, contented and happy.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUTICALLY APPLIED. 
 
 In the consideration of any therapeutic measure, the first 
 thought that conies to the mind of the wide-awake physician is, 
 what is its advantage over any other method of treatment? 
 
 The answer to that question is easy: its addition to other thera- 
 peutic measures enables the physician to get results in a very large 
 proportion of cases that come under our observation that can not 
 be secured through any other agency. The value of any thera- 
 peutic adjunct is in direct ratio to the successful results that 
 accrue from its administration. Yet, it must be remembered that 
 what are possibilities with any method or kind of treatment 
 medicinal, surgical, suggestive, or otherwise are not always ac- 
 tualities in the hands of all men alike, and it depends upon the 
 individual, and upon him alone rests the responsibility for what 
 he is not able to accomplish when he is really put to the test at 
 the bedside, and this often seriously disturbs our conscience and 
 humbles our pride. 
 
 Any physician who expects to use suggestive therapeutics suc- 
 cessfully must by practice acquire that confidence in his own 
 ability to succeed with it by familiarizing himself with all the 
 facts, and theories, and details of his subject. Yet, I have often 
 noticed an individual who possessed that inexplicable quality of 
 personality to get others to do anything he wanted them to do, 
 who had never read a line in psychology or suggestion, and was 
 absolutely unfamiliar with the principles of medical science. 
 
 Hypnotism is a self-induced psychological condition. You do 
 not hypnotize an individual you simply get him to do it himself ; 
 but to get any one to act upon an idea or a series of ideas, either 
 consciously or subconsciously, one must be in dead earnest, exer- 
 cise a little enthusiasm about the undertaking, and go at it with 
 the will to succeed. 
 
 162
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUTIC ALLY APPLIED. 163 
 
 The greatest essential to the application of suggestive thera- 
 peutics is a conviction on the part of the operator of the value of 
 the treatment as applied to the case at hand and a desire to- bring 
 about the recovery of the patient. In fact, this is the important 
 essential which is the sine qua non to the success of any kind of 
 treatment. Yet, if suggestion be of value at all, it is of use just in 
 proportion that the individual accepts and carries out the sug- 
 gestion, both consciously and subconsciously. Hypnotism is but 
 the art, or technic, or method of instructing an individual to act 
 upon a suggestion or a series of suggestions. There must always 
 be a conscious acquiescence, consent, or co-operation on the part of 
 the individual, not necessarily to be hypnotized, but to take the 
 suggestion, which is the same thing. Then, by suggestion there is 
 induced in the patient a new consciousness whereby he is led to 
 do that which he had previously been unable to do for himself 
 both consciously and subconsciously. 
 
 In a preceding chapter I spoke of using suggestion to inhibit 
 the conscious mind, as was hypothetically supposed to be accom- 
 plished in the hypnotic state. It would have been more correct 
 to state that we simply get the patient to be passive and allow the 
 operator to induce a new consciousness, and then to direct the 
 stream of consciousness which produces mental states that react 
 upon every bodily function. ) 
 
 We get our patient to let us direct and control his psychic ac- 
 tivities, and teach and illustrate for him how he can direct and 
 control them for himself. We put our patient better in control 
 of himself, all dependent upon the suggestions or sense impressions 
 that are transmitted to his brain cells through the senses while 
 in this passive or suggestible condition. 
 
 Sense impression is the starting point for every psychic action. 
 Every sense impression that is produced by suggestion or other- 
 wise has a determined localization in the brain cortex. 
 
 It is assumed by psychologists that every sense impressiqn, ac- 
 cording to its degree of strength, produces a molecular change in 
 the nerve cells influenced, which gives rise to the possibility of a 
 reproduction of these ideas or sense impressions by an internal 
 process.
 
 164 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Memory is the result of sense impressions that previous experi- 
 ences in life have left upon the brain cells. The very ideas or 
 products of thought which are impressed upon the brain cells by 
 suggestion in the hypnotic state, as well as by suggestion without 
 hypnotism, have the power of being reproduced in mental states, 
 which gives rise to a new consciousness in the individual. 
 
 By suggestion in the hypnotic state we are better enabled to 
 plant sense impressions, ideas, thoughts, and feelings, which re- 
 produce themselves in the consciousness of the individual and 
 furnish a foundation for his intellectual activities. 
 
 In this suggestible condition we are enabled to drive back cer- 
 tain sense impressions that create unpleasant mental states, ob- 
 literate them and wipe them out, and, by holding the subject's 
 attention to certain ideas presented to him, we create a new con- 
 sciousness or alter his frame of mind. We render the individual 
 more self-conscious of potentialities, dormant and unused within 
 him, which he can call into operation through the combined effort 
 of memory and will, in contrast to previous conceptions of his 
 own personality. This new conception of himself and his rela- 
 tion to the outer world contributes to strengthen and develop the 
 self-conscious ego. It is in reality the development of the ego. 
 
 By suggestion in the hypnotic state we give impulse to repro- 
 duce previous sense impressions. Call it strengthening memory, 
 or will, or character, or ego, as you choose, and the mental process 
 which brings about the logical connection of sense perceptions or 
 ideas reproduced in this way is what is called thinking. 
 
 So, then, by suggestion in the hypnotic state we create new 
 thought habits, mental states, or streams of consciousness, which 
 react upon every bodily function. We alter the individual's 
 thinking. 
 
 The following cases will illustrate the position taken by the 
 author as to the value of suggestion in that condition of induced 
 passivity or receptivity to suggestion commonly referred to as the 
 hypnotic state. Whether the individual is asleep or not does not 
 concern us here. It suffices if we have the confidence and co- 
 operation of the patient. 
 
 The results obtained by hypnotic suggestion in the following
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUTICALLY APPLIED. 165 
 
 cases speak for themselves. I shall cite only enough cases to 
 illustrate the position taken by the author in the preceding pages. 
 
 INSOMNIA. 
 
 Loss of Sleep. This is a condition that leads to general physical 
 disease. It has innumerable causes, all of which should be con- 
 sidered and treated according to indications, which calls into ex- 
 ercise the complete resources of the physician. It more or less 
 accompanies all diseased conditions, acute or chronic, functional 
 or organic, surgical and otherwise. 
 
 It is useless to attempt to break up the habits of a nervous, 
 wakeful person by suggestion when the individual lives in open 
 violation of all the known laws of health, or where the system is 
 overloaded with toxic products due to indigestion, caused by over- 
 eating, with fermentation, deficient elimination, etc. 
 
 Meet every indication in the individual case at hand, and, in 
 conjunction with other sane, sensible, rational advice or sugges- 
 tion, hypnotic suggestion will prove indispensable in many cases. 
 
 Make it a rule to regulate your patient's diet, his drinking, and 
 his habits as well as his thinking. The question of food and drink 
 habits, etc., will be briefly considered in a separate chapter. 
 
 There are, however, numerous individuals among all classes upon 
 whom the cares of life have borne heavily, who, try as they will, 
 with their imperfect knowledge of self-control and lack of self- 
 reliance, can not keep back subjective impressions which crowd 
 themselves upon their consciousness when they retire for sleep, 
 and the darkness renders them more conscious of their trials. 
 
 Many there are who are still waiting for special divine inter- 
 vention to satisfy them that their souls are saved. Doubt hovers 
 over them and disturbs their peace of mind. Others have not 
 learned the beauty, and glory, and salutary effects of work and 
 useful employment as a means of strengthening and developing 
 both mind and body. 
 
 An unoccupied, idle brain is the reflector of a morbid imagi- 
 nation, upon which flit and dance all kinds of annoying mental
 
 166 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 pictures, to the discomfort of the individual who fain would find 
 relief in sleep. 
 
 In rare instances an overexpenditure of nerve energy, through 
 work, or worry, or dissipation, prevents the individual from pos- 
 sessing that inherent quality of nerve force sufficient to exercise 
 self-control. Uncontrolled emotions, in the form of sentiments 
 both selfish and altruistic, also contribute their influence to keep 
 awake the restless neurotic. 
 
 An irritable nervous system, either hereditary or acquired, is 
 transmitting constantly afferent and efferent impulses to and from 
 the brain, and throughout the entire human frame subjective sense 
 perceptions are interpreted by the individual as nervousness, sick- 
 ness, pain, disease, etc. 
 
 Nutrition is disturbed, and toxins of metabolism or, more 
 properly, catabolism are being manufactured to interfere with all 
 bodily functions and render the sufferer miserable. 
 
 TREATMENT. 
 
 In conjunction with dietetic, medicinal, and hygienic treatment, 
 suggestion in the hypnotic state should be used if necessary. 
 
 Get your patient to relax every muscle, and breathe deeply and 
 rhythmically for several times in succession, and then with one 
 or two drops of chloroform or any other placebo or without them, 
 as you choose tell him that you are "going to put him to sleep; 
 that, as you apply this remedy, he will get quiet all over, get 
 drowsy and sleepy, and go to sleep, and awake feeling better. ' ' 
 
 Then, to hypnotize him, make suggestions as advised in the 
 chapter on the technic of inducing the hypnotic state. After he 
 is hypnotized, while you sit beside the unfortunate whose nervous 
 system you have soothed into quietude and passivity, talk to him, 
 using suggestions somewhat like these : 
 
 "You are resting quietly, sleeping soundly, breathing deeply, 
 perfectly relaxed and passive all over. Now, as you lie in this 
 passive state, with all tension relieved, while I am talking to you, 
 you feel your nerves getting steady, and quiet, and strong. All 
 nervousness is going away, and by the time I count ten your nerves
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUTICALLY APPLIED. 167 
 
 will be quiet, and steady, and strong all over; your nervous equi- 
 librium will be completely re-established from head to foot. One, 
 two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten; your nerves are 
 steady, and quiet, and strong all over. 
 
 "Now, after this treatment, whenever you think of yourself, 
 you will find that your nerves are steady, and quiet, and strong. 
 
 "At bedtime you will relax, close your eyes, and think only of 
 sleep. You will go to sleep, and sleep soundly all night long 
 You will awake in the morning feeling refreshed and rested. 
 
 "After this you will be thirsty, and drink more water than ever 
 before in your life. Every two hours from morning until you 
 retire at night you will drink a glass of water. The increased 
 amount of fluid will cause an increased action of all your bodily 
 functions. Your skin and kidneys, liver and bowels, will elimi- 
 nate more freely. 
 
 "You will be easy and comfortable all over. You will enjoy 
 eating, and work, and exercise, and gain in weight, and be happier, 
 feel* stronger, and be glad that you are living." 
 
 I then awake the patient, and give him conscious advice how 
 to eat, how to drink, how to exercise, and how to relax so that he 
 can go to sleep. I give him a reason for all the advice that I have 
 given, as well as a reason for the suggestion given him in that 
 induced condition of passivity. 
 
 I am often asked, "Do you mean to say that the suggestions 
 will be effective just because they are made to the patient who 
 is hypnotized?" I say we make sense impressions on the brain 
 cortex while the patient is in the hypnotic condition, that are 
 reproduced in the individual's thought habits. The reproductions 
 of these ideas are autosuggestions. When you substitute helpful 
 autosuggestions for adverse and harmful autosuggestions, you have 
 been of the greatest help that one human being can be to another. 
 You have put your patient in control of himself. You have 
 changed his habits of thinking, and by this means new habits of 
 thought and action in every-day life are formed. You have put 
 your patient better in possession of himself, and better enabled 
 him to meet the exigencies of every-day life.
 
 168 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 1, 
 
 Syphiliphobia, Insomnia, Neurasthenia, Etc. Mr. Blank, a 
 farmer, who had led an honorable, upright life, had by his indis- 
 cretion contracted a gonorrhea and a chancroid. The chancroid 
 readily healed, but the gonorrhea persisted for several weeks. He 
 believed that he had syphilis, was tortured by a hypersensitive 
 conscience, and for several months had been confined to his room. 
 His physician had reassured him, reasoned with him, and done all 
 in his power to argue out of his consciousness the delusion that he 
 had syphilis. 
 
 He had recovered from both these diseases, but there was a 
 psychoneurotic element in his case which was day by day growing 
 more serious. He did not sleep at night, and was frequently heard 
 crying and praying when everything was quiet and all were sup- 
 posed to be asleep. Anorexia, indigestion, malnutrition, and a 
 loss in weight of thirty-five pounds in five months had caused his 
 physician to feel apprehensive of his soon being a fit subject for 
 the insane asylum. In fact, he was so already. 
 
 Here were insomnia, hysteria, syphiliphobia, neurasthenia, de- 
 lusions, etc., all in one case. I explained to him the value of a 
 new and powerful sleep-producing remedy (a placebo) that I was 
 "introducing to the profession," and impressed upon him con- 
 sciously that there was a nervous element in his case that this 
 remedy would relieve. 
 
 I let him know that it was expected to put him to sleep, and 
 that the result of this sleep would be to relieve the nervous element 
 in his case. He readily consented for the treatment to be used, and 
 went into a profound state of suggestibility. 
 
 In the hypnotic state I addressed him about as follows: "Now, 
 Mr. Blank, you are sound and dead asleep, perfectly relaxed and 
 passive from head to foot, breathing deeply; your nerves steady, 
 and quiet, and strong. As you lie here, while I apply this remedy, 
 your nerves are growing steadier, and quieter, and stronger, and 
 by the time I count ten your nerves will be steady, and quiet, and 
 strong all over. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 
 ten, and your nerves are steady, quiet, and strong all over. Now,
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUTICALLY APPLIED. 169 
 
 you will not be nervous any more. After this, whenever you think 
 of yourself, you will find that your nerves are steady, and quiet, 
 and strong, and you will realize that you have not had syphilis; 
 that Doctor Blank was right, that he knew his business, and that 
 you are now well and all right. 
 
 "You Avill drink water every two hours, enjoy your meals, sleep 
 soundly at night, and attend to your duties just as you did months 
 ago when you were well. 
 
 "When you go to bed at night, you will relax just as you are 
 here now, close your eyes and think only of sleep; then you will 
 go sound asleep, and sleep soundly all night long. If you awake 
 at all in the night, it will be to think of yourself as resting and 
 sleeping quietly, feeling contented, satisfied, and happy. You will 
 enjoy your meals, and take the old-time interest in your farm work, 
 your stock, and business generally. You will go to town as you 
 once did, and every day feel thankful for the improved condition 
 of your health. ' ' 
 
 I allowed him to sleep for thirty minutes longer and then awak- 
 ened him. I told him that this treatment had done him good, that 
 he was going to feel better after this, that he would enjoy his meals, 
 would sleep well at night, and would attend to his business as in 
 former times. I assured him that he was in sound health, had been 
 well all the time, and after this would feel differently in regard to 
 his own condition. 
 
 He came to see his physician five days after that, and, while 
 lank and lean as a pine fence rail, he was his old self, his rational 
 normal self, as he once was before his misfortunes. Five weeks 
 afterward he had gained twelve pounds in weight and was rapidly 
 on the road to recovery. 
 
 By suggestion in the hypnotic state, new ideas, new sense im- 
 pressions had been substituted, new thoughts planted in the place 
 of the old ones that were torturing his conscience, preventing his 
 sleep and damning his life. A new consciousness now possessed 
 him and he was practically a healthy man.
 
 170 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 2. 
 
 Psycholepsy, Chlorosis, Anemia, Etc. This patient, a girl aged 
 16, had been treated by five leading physicians of her city for 
 several years without benefit. Her case had been diagnosed as 
 true epilepsy, but I had reason to believe that this was a mistake. 
 
 She had seizures resembling those of epilepsy from once to sev- 
 eral times a week, was anemic and chlorotic, her menses were scanty 
 and irregular, she had poor appetite and was badly nourished; 
 slept soundly at night, but her sleep was not refreshing. Awoke 
 in the morning tired, and she took but little interest in anything. 
 
 Hypnosis was induced, and suggestions were given her while in 
 the hypnotic state, to get her to breathe deeper, and it was also 
 suggested that she would always breathe deeper, day and night, 
 asleep or awake ; that she would always breathe deeper. 
 
 It was also suggested that she would be thirsty after this and 
 enjoy drinking water, that she would always drink more water, 
 that she would take a glass of water every two hours from morn- 
 ing to night. It was further suggested that she would take ex- 
 ercise freely every day, that her bowels would move regularly 
 every morning, that she would go to the toilet at least twice a day, 
 and that her bowels would functionate properly, move freely every 
 morning, etc. 
 
 In a case like this, suggestion must be given to influence the 
 individual's conscious and unconscious psychic or mental activi- 
 ties. Waking conduct must be guided as well as subjective im- 
 pressions made to influence the involuntary functions. 
 
 My lecture to this girl would probably be about as follows, with 
 my hand upon her forehead or gently stroking her forehead from 
 side to side, made in a monotone, positive, earnest manner, pre- 
 sented in a way that would transmit words into feeling: "Now, 
 my dear little girl, you are sound asleep, and while you lie here 
 your nerves are getting quiet, and steady, and strong; quiet, and 
 steady, and strong; and by the time I count ten your nerves will 
 be quiet, and steady, and strong all over. One, two, three, four, 
 five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten your nerves are quiet, and steady, 
 and strong from head to foot.
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUTICALLY APPLIED. 171 
 
 "Now, as I talk to you and place my hand upon your chest, 
 you feel your ability to breathe deeper, getting stronger and 
 stronger, and by the time I count five I want you to breathe deeply, 
 filling your lungs as deep and full as is possible. One, two, three, 
 four, five now breathe deeply, deeper yet (she took the sugges- 
 tion well). There, now, rest and breathe naturally. 
 
 "Now, after this you will always breathe deeper, the blood will 
 circulate more freely in your stomach and will better nourish your 
 gastric mucous membrane, so that you will have a better appetite 
 and a better digestion. Under my hand here, now, you feel the 
 blood circulating more freely in your stomach, and by the time I 
 count five the blood will be coming freely to your stomach. One, 
 two, three, four, five. 
 
 ' ' After this you will be thirsty and drink water every two hours, 
 and you will be hungry and enjoy your meals. You will chew 
 your food well, and especially enjoy eating fruit and vegetables. 
 You will sleep well at night. When you go to bed you will go 
 sound asleep and sleep soundly all night. You will never again 
 be nervous or have another one of those nervous attacks. You will 
 enjoy breathing, drinking water, and eating, working, exercising, 
 and sleeping you will enjoy life. 
 
 ' ' As you eat more and digest your food better, you will be better 
 nourished, get stronger, gain in weight, and have perfect health." 
 
 About six weeks after this treatment by suggestion, which was 
 followed by three others given by her physician, I learned that she 
 had experienced no more trouble and was a great deal better. 
 
 Five years after that her physician, who assisted in the treat- 
 ment, informed me that she had never had any further trouble, 
 that she at once began to sleep, eat, drink, exercise, gain in weight, 
 etc. "She went from one hundred and ten to one hundred and 
 forty-five pounds in weight," said he, "and is now married and 
 the happy mother of a fine baby." 
 
 In the therapeutic application of suggestion in hysteria, neuras- 
 thenia, melancholia, indigestion, morbid fears, nervousness, etc., 
 we make use of the same principles as were employed in the above 
 mentioned cases. Your suggestions must be made to meet the in- 
 dividual needs of the patient at hand. Burn into his consciousness
 
 172 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 or subconsciousness the ideas that you wish to influence both his 
 voluntary waking consciousness and all his or her involuntary 
 physiological processes. 
 
 As a rule, suggest away whatever subjective impressions, sensa- 
 tions, feelings, thought habits, and bodily symptoms are objection- 
 able, and in their place suggest what you desire to influence your 
 patient or become a part of his life. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 3. 
 
 . Acute Migraine, Neurasthenia, Etc. Telephone girl with acute 
 migraine, but was of neurasthenic and highly nervous tempera- 
 ment at best. Her physician usually began with a hypodermic 
 of morphin sulphate % grain and atropin sulphate % 50 grain, 
 and, in addition to this, prescribed a brisk purgative of calomel, 
 aloes, podophyllin, cascara, etc. ; also hot foot baths and hot fo- 
 mentations. If constipated, he directed an enema to be given at 
 once. 
 
 The girl reached her home at six o'clock in the evening in one 
 of her most severe attacks. At least two days were usually re- 
 quired for her to get over one of these severe headaches, usually 
 associated with indigestion, and during this time from two to three 
 hypodermics of morphin were required in addition to a dozen 
 doses of coal tar preparations, bromids, etc. 
 
 She was a young woman twenty years of age, with an unstable, 
 nervous system, and the cares of life were bearing heavily upon 
 her. Her responsibilities were heavy and her work arduous. Her 
 headaches and general collapse were nature's rebellion against the 
 outrage being daily committed against her weak physical organ- 
 ization. But her suffering was great and she needed help. 
 
 Her physician had already recognized the harmful effect of the 
 narcotics, sedatives, purgatives, etc., which were being demanded 
 more frequently, and were used each time with less efficacy. 
 
 At half-past six o'clock I went with her physician to see the girl, 
 suffering with an intense headache, nervous, etc. I told her I 
 could rub her head with a medicine that I had and relieve her 
 headache, and that she would go to sleep.
 
 HYPNOTISM THEBAPEUTICALLY APPLIED. 173 
 
 She readily went under the influence of my suggestions, was 
 easily hypnotized, and I suggested that her head was getting easy 
 and her nerves getting steady, and quiet, and strong, and repeated 
 this suggestion a half dozen or more times, ending by saying that 
 by the time I counted ten she would be perfectly easy from head 
 to foot that her nervous equilibrium would be completely re- 
 established. 
 
 We allowed her to sleep until after my lecture, and returned 
 at half-past ten o'clock to find her asleep. She awoke at my sug- 
 gestion perfectly easy, thoroughly relaxed, in a copious perspira- 
 tion. I directed that she be rubbed off gently with a dry towel, 
 drink a glass of malted milk with two eggs in it, and drink all the 
 water she wanted. She drank two large glassfuls, and then I 
 directed that she shut her eyes and go to sleep, and sleep soundly 
 all night. No, I did not hypnotize her again, for I had suggested 
 in the hypnotic state that she could go to sleep after I awakened 
 her, and every night after that whenever she decided to do so. 
 
 Her physician telephoned me that he called on her at seven 
 o'clock the next morning to inquire about her condition, but she 
 had gone to her post at the telephone office. I answered him that 
 was cruelty to animals, for she should have rested that day. What 
 she really needed was shorter working hours, better pay, and more 
 time to devote to outdoor exercise, reading, recreation, etc. But 
 she was in the "mill," to have her life ground out of her to en- 
 large the dividends of an enormous corporation to be used like 
 corn that is ground to be made into bread. 
 
 If the medical profession expects to be held in the esteem of 
 the public which it so eminently deserves, the physician as an 
 individual should speak out upon these questions that concern the 
 welfare of our fellowman, not alone in hygiene, dietetics, sanita- 
 tion, etc., but upon any and all problems that influence the health 
 and happiness of the individual. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 4. 
 
 Psychoneurotic Paralysis. Mr. F. E. H., by occupation cotton 
 buyer, aged f>8. His history was that ten years before he was
 
 174 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 taken with an apoplectic seizure and was supposed to have a throm- 
 bus, as he was unconscious for several weeks, and his arm and leg 
 on the affected side were more or less completely paralyzed. 
 
 He was sustained by rectal alimentation for several weeks, but 
 could swallow liquid food after six weeks or two months ; after six 
 months gradually began to regain the use of his arm on the affected 
 side, and after one year began to hobble with crutches, dragging 
 the affected leg. 
 
 He was then taken with acute sciatica and confined to his bed 
 for one year longer. At the time I saw him he had been dragging 
 his foot on the affected side for eight and a half years, but was 
 able to get about with the aid of crutches. 
 
 During this time he had tried every available method of treat- 
 ment offered in hospitals, sanitariums, health resorts, etc., as well 
 as some of the modern cults that use suggestion without hypnotism 
 in disguised forms. 
 
 Hypnosis was induced and suggestions made with a view to im- 
 planting sense impressions, impulses, or to inducing a self-con- 
 sciousness of ability to use his leg. When I held the leg up while 
 he was hypnotized and suggested that he would allow it to remain, 
 he held it up without trouble. He then acted upon a suggestion 
 to lift it up, to bend it, and finally I had him walk around in the 
 room while yet in the hypnotic state. It was then suggested that 
 he would wake up and would find that he could walk as well as 
 he ever did in his life. It was really amusing to see him find 
 himself using the leg which for ten years he had been unable to 
 lift from the ground. 
 
 I have treated over a dozen similar cases in patients who have 
 put aside their crutches and walked with perfect ease. The sug- 
 gestion given is that the limb is getting stronger and stronger, 
 that the normal control and use of it is returning, etc. Repetition 
 and iteration, iteration and repetition, are very necessary in some 
 cases to make a suggestion or suggestions effective. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 5. 
 
 Persistent Vomiting. A gentleman, aged 58 or 60, had typhoid 
 fever for three weeks. He had vomited all food taken for forty-
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUTICALLY APPLIED. 175 
 
 eight hours, and was nervous and weak, and his physician had 
 used every available means to relieve his uncontrollable emesis. 
 In the hypnotic state I suggested that his nerves were getting quiet, 
 and steady, and strong, and repeated this suggestion several times ; 
 that all nervousness or weakness was going away ; that his stomach 
 was getting stronger and stronger, easier and easier, and that by 
 the time I counted ten all sickness, or nausea, or irritability, or 
 weakness about his stomach would be gone, and he could retain 
 milk, liquid nourishment, and water, and would enjoy them. 
 
 I also gave him suggestions to give him a good night's sleep, 
 etc. We allowed him to sleep about twenty minutes, and upon 
 awakening him allowed him to drink a glass of fresh buttermilk, 
 which he retained and seemed to enjoy, remarking that seemed 
 to be the only thing that had tasted right to him since he had been 
 sick. He continued to take milk or some form of liquid nourish- 
 ment, and was not troubled further with sick stomach. He slept 
 well at night and made a safe recovery. 1 
 
 I recall several cases in which well-known physicians have re- 
 lieved persistent, uncontrollable vomiting by hypnotic suggestion. 
 There is more or less neurotic, or hysterical, or neurasthenic ele- 
 ment in all acute diseases, which can and should be controlled by 
 suggestion, with or without hypnotism, whichever seems indicated. 
 In pneumonia, typhoid, and malarial fevers, the acute infectious 
 diseases, etc. in fact, in any case that comes into the hands of 
 the physician or surgeon the psychic factor should never be over- 
 looked. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 6. 
 
 Psychoneurotic Indigestion. Indigestion is always accompanied 
 by a neurotic element, with insomnia, nervousness, etc. In 
 numerous instances I have relieved these cases of all distressing 
 symptoms by a single treatment. In general, suggestions should 
 be given to quiet off the nervous element in the case, to give more 
 plentiful and refreshing sleep, to get the individual to eat, drink, 
 breathe, and exercise properly, as well as to encourage function. 
 
 1 This book is written with n handsome fountain pen presented by that gentleman's 
 son. a prominent jeweler of his city, who said, "When you use it. remember we feel 
 grateful and consider that you saved father's life."
 
 176 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 As seeing some one sucking a juicy lemon will increase the salivary 
 secretion, so will sense impressions increase the functions of the 
 stomach or any other involuntary function. 
 
 A young man, aged 24, had a "stricture of the esophagus" for 
 over two years. He had lived all the while on milk, soup, etc., 
 taking no solid food during this time. He had an enormously 
 dilated stomach, due to the large quantities of milk he had ingested. 
 He had been treated as an invalid during the entire two years or 
 more, and this itself was a constant suggestive influence to keep 
 up his peculiar psychic condition. 
 
 The day I treated this young man his physician, a most capable 
 and excellent gentleman, had invited two consultants with the 
 view of deciding the advisability of making an exploratory in- 
 cision to find out the cause of the supposed esophageal stricture. I 
 happened to be honored by an invitation to express an opinion in 
 the case, and in a few minutes after I had the liberty of dealing 
 with the young man I had him eating bananas and drinking water 
 as rapidly as any one. A few minutes devoted to hypnotic sug- 
 gestion was all that was necessary. After awakening him I advised 
 a diet of eggs, bread and butter, and vegetables, with meat once 
 a day, and suggested that the young man be put to work. "When 
 heard from two weeks later he was hard at work and eating any- 
 thing, except milk and soup, upon which he had been nourished 
 for the past two years. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 7. 
 
 Another Psychoneurotic Condition. A lady, aged about 42, had 
 been in the Johns Hopkins Hospital for several months, and had 
 also been treated in southern sanitariums. Several operations, 
 mostly of a gynecological character, had been performed. The 
 nervous element in her case, for which she had been operated upon, 
 was only aggravated after her return home, and for over two 
 years she had occasional paroxysms of headache, indigestion, hys- 
 teria, insomnia, etc. Her physician explained that it usually took 
 about two days for him to get her relieved, and then two days 
 longer to get her over the effects of the therapeutic remedies he had 
 used to relieve her terrible seizures.
 
 HYPNOTISM THBBAPEUTICALLY APPLIED. 177 
 
 She was hypnotized and allowed to sleep two hours, and sug- 
 gestions were given to relieve the nervous element in her case, to 
 give her more plentiful and refreshing sleep, to relieve her head- 
 aches, to get her to breathe deeper, drink water freely, and aid 
 her digestion. It was also suggested that her nerves would always 
 be quiet, and steady, and strong, and that she would never have 
 another attack. She awoke from the two hours' sleep completely 
 relieved. Five years later she had experienced no more trouble. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 8. 
 
 Obstetric Anesthesia. N. E., aged 22, primipara. Called at 
 nine o'clock in the morning and found patient with light pains and 
 os open the size of a twenty-five-cent piece. Hypnotic state in- 
 duced, and suggestion given that when I came to see her again 
 when labor was well established that she would close her eyes and 
 go to sleep, and feel no pain. At ten o'clock in the evening I 
 was called, and when I told her to close her eyes and go to sleep, 
 and made other suggestions to get her into a deep state of sug- 
 gestibility, she easily w r ent into the hypnotic state and was com- 
 pletely amenable to suggestion. 
 
 She would extend her hands to receive help from an assistant 
 and bore down with every contraction, but her expression showed 
 no evidence of pain. She did not get nervous, and did not know 
 when the child emerged until I told her to wake up and look at 
 her baby. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 9. 
 
 Nocturnal Enuresis. A little factory girl, aged 16, arose at five 
 o'clock in the morning and returned home at seven o'clock in the 
 evening. She was about the size of an average child of 11, had 
 been to school but two or three months in her life, and the enu- 
 resis had been constant for over two years, but she found no 
 trouble in holding her urine in daytime when awake. 
 
 I had a talk face to face with her father and mother, in which 
 I made every effort to burn into their consciousness the enormity 
 of the crime that thev were committing in selling their child's
 
 178 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 brain, and blood, and muscles for a price. Then I explained kindly 
 to them the importance of air, and sunshine, and outdoor exercise, 
 and wholesome food. I should like to have had the owners of 
 that factory take their part of the medicine, and the state authori- 
 ties also, for permitting such a crime to be inflicted upon children. 
 After this private lecture to the child's parents I induced hyp- 
 nosis in the child, and suggested that she would take exercise night 
 and morning, and breathe deeply ; that she could never urinate 
 lying down again, that the urine just would not come, and that 
 her bladder would not let it pass until she got up to use the vessel. 
 I also gave suggestion to relieve the nervous element in her case. 
 
 Quite frequently I have had one single treatment relieve a case 
 of bedwetting by suggestion in the hypnotic state. This little girl 
 was heard from several days afterward, and had had no further 
 trouble. 
 
 In a number of instances I have instructed the parents to rock 
 their children from two to six years old to sleep, and to suggest 
 to them, while going into a natural sleep, that they would wake 
 up and call them when they desired to urinate, that they posi- 
 tively could not wet the bed any more, that without thinking about 
 it they would call their parents or get out of bed on their own 
 accord and use a vessel. In a number of cases the result of this 
 treatment has been highly satisfactory. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 10. 
 
 A Retroverted Uterus and its Accompanying Neuroses. 1 "Good 
 morning; what seems to be the trouble," said I to a negro girl, 
 aged about 30. 
 
 "Got de fallin' of the womb, Doctor." 
 
 ' ' How do you know that is your trouble ? ' ' 
 
 "Doctor Blank said that was what was the matter with me." 
 
 "I see ;. how long has Doctor Blank been treating you ? ' ' 
 
 "Off and on for five months, Doctor." 
 
 "And what has he done to relieve your womb trouble?" 
 
 "Put some medicine in my womb on an instrument with some 
 
 1 I was at the time living in the South.
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUTICALLY APPLIED. 179 
 
 cotton on it, and put some cotton rolls to hold my womb up, and 
 gave me medicine to take every three hours." 
 
 "Do you ever use a hot douche use hot water, with a syringe?" 
 
 "Yes, sir; I use that lay in' on my back for fifteen minutes 
 twice a week." 
 
 On examination I found a decidedly retroflexed and retroverted 
 uterus, bound down by adhesions, with heat, pain, and tenderness, 
 and her general temperature was 100.5 F. 
 
 "Have you been able to work any at all for the past several 
 months?" 
 
 "Powerful little, Doctor. I tries to do the cookin' for a small 
 family and only cooks two meals a day, but I gets awful tremily 
 and weak, and I don't sleep at night." 
 
 This woman was neurasthenic, suffering with insomnia, but little 
 appetite and poor digestion, anemic and improperly nourished. 
 
 She needed her time to make a living; to give her scientific 
 gynecological and surgical treatment was out of the question, for 
 the facilities were not at hand in that locality to care for such 
 patients. I attempted to lift the uterus from out of its impacted 
 position, having put the patient in the knee-chest position, and 
 applied a Hodge-Smith pessary to hold it. Yes, I displayed bad 
 judgment by attempting to use a pessary in that case, but the 
 woman needed help, and this was a step toward giving her a little 
 more permanent relief than the continued use of the tampon. My 
 effort to correct the displacement and introduce a pessary gave her 
 much pain, and caused her to be extremely nervous, whereupon I 
 hypnotized her and she went into a profound state of suggestibility. 
 
 Here was an ignorant colored woman, and my suggestions to 
 her were about as follows : 
 
 "Now, Mary, you are sound asleep. Sleep on quietly and get 
 the benefit of this treatment. As you lie here (stroking her fore- 
 head) your nerves are getting steady, and quiet, and strong all 
 over. All nervousness and weakness is going away, and your 
 nerves are getting steady, and quiet, and strong all over. By 
 the time I count ten your nerves will be steady, and quiet, and 
 strong from your head clear down to your feet. One, two, three, 
 four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and your nerves are steady,
 
 180 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 and quiet, and strong. You are perfectly easy and comfortable 
 all over. 
 
 "Now, as you lie here and as I stroke your abdomen you feel 
 all pain, or soreness, or tenderness, or congestion about your womb 
 and ovaries going away. The blood vessels that carry blood to 
 your womb are shrinking and drying up, getting smaller and 
 smaller. After this, every minute, and every hour, and every day 
 you will become stronger and stronger, the blood will circulate 
 freely in your stomach, and you will be hungry and enjoy eating, 
 and your food will be digested, and you will get stronger and 
 stronger every day. You will drink water freely, a glassful at 
 least every two hours. Your kidneys, and liver, and bowels will 
 act freely. Your bowels will move every morning after breakfast. 
 Whether you feel like it or not, you will go to the toilet after 
 breakfast and your bowels will move freely. 
 
 ' ' You will have no more pain ; be easy, sleep well, enjoy eating, 
 and improve in health every day. Whenever you think of your- 
 self, you will find that you are getting better, growing stronger, 
 that you are perfectly easy, and you will not be troubled any 
 more. ' ' 
 
 Do you ask me if I had confidence in those suggestions to believe 
 that they would be effective? I answer that question by saying 
 that I had sufficient desire to benefit that poverty-stricken un- 
 fortunate outcast for me to exercise the will to give the sugges- 
 tions that I wanted to be effective. The confidence was all on her 
 part. She had had faith enough in me to save the whole of the 
 previous week's hard-earned money and send it to me, with a re- 
 quest that I come to see her, ' ' please. ' ' 
 
 I easily awakened her from the treatment, with the parting sug- 
 gestion, "you will get better every day now, Mary." 
 
 I fully intended calling to see her again after two or three days, 
 but the pressure of my professional engagements for the following 
 week caused me to forget her until about ten days afterward. Then 
 I thought to myself that I had treated her kindly, and, if she 
 wanted me, I should have been notified. 
 
 Eleven and a half months after that visit I received a call to 
 another house in another portion of my town, and found a colored
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUTICALLY APPLIED. . 181 
 
 girl suffering with malarial fever. As I removed the thermometer 
 from her mouth I remarked, ' ' I have seen you before. Where did 
 I see you and what was your trouble then ? ' ' 
 
 "You done forgot me, Doctor? Nobody ever did do as much 
 good for any one as you did for me with that one visit you made 
 me most a year ago. ' ' 
 
 Further questioning recalled to my memory that this was the 
 girl whom I had hypnotized nearly a year before. I had often 
 reproached myself for the unscientific procedure in attempting to 
 use a pessary under such conditions and of my neglect of the case 
 afterward. I had supposed that she or some physician had re- 
 moved the hard rubber pessary and that was the end of it so far 
 as I was concerned. 
 
 "Why, girl, have you worn that instrument all the while and 
 did not consult me about it? Don't you know that is liable to do 
 you great injury?" 
 
 "Fo* God, Doctor, I ain't had a speck of pain since you walked 
 out of that house, and I been doin' my work regular up to yester- 
 day." 
 
 On examination I found that the pessary was transversely across 
 the vagina, with the uterus sharply retroflexed over it, acting only 
 as a foreign body, but that all congestion, soreness, tenderness, 
 hyperplastic condition, etc., were gone. A very careful examina- 
 tion proved that there was no erosion or ulceration caused to the 
 parts by the instrument, which had served to keep up a most un- 
 sanitary condition. Sexual intercourse, she informed me, had not 
 been painful in the least, but, on the other hand, was attended 
 with normal gratification, whereas the act had been intolerable 
 prior to my first visit. 
 
 I removed the pessary and gave her another treatment by hyp- 
 notic suggestion, suggesting to her that she would never have the 
 slightest pain or inconvenience from her womb after that, since 
 the instrument was removed. Her malarial fever rapidly yielded 
 to treatment by calomel and quinin, and when this woman was 
 last seen, about two months afterward, she had experienced no 
 more inconvenience. 
 
 After that experience, ten or twelve years ago, it fell to my lot
 
 182 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 to treat a great many gynecological cases, the majority of which, 
 on account of poverty and lack of necessary facilities for radical 
 surgical intervention, were treated conservatively. 
 
 I recall a number of cases among both whites and colored where 
 I have relieved by hypnotic suggestions all the painful and nerv- 
 ous symptoms accompanying a retrodisplaced uterus. 
 
 These poor unfortunate women, who did not have money to 
 afford radical, scientific surgical and gynecological assistance, w r ere 
 enabled to meet all the exigencies of life and be comfortable and 
 happy, carrying a dislocated organ whose reproductive function 
 was not a necessity to their happiness. 
 
 As showing the far-reaching effect of hypnotic suggestion in a 
 class of cases usually not considered amenable to benefit by psycho- 
 logical methods of treatment, I report the following three cases : 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 11. 
 
 Urethritis with Bloody Micturition, Insomnia, and Pain. 
 
 Lillie H., aged 19, married four months, last menstruation six 
 weeks ago. Suffered with painful urethritis, causing her to cry 
 out when she voided her urine; passed blood from urethra or 
 bladder when she urinated, which appeared in small clots and 
 shreds in the vessel; suffered constant pain, for which she had 
 had a daily hypodermic of morphin for a period of one month. 
 During this month she had taken the usual sedative diuretic reme- 
 dies, and the pain had constantly grown worse, and the blood in 
 the urine had gradually increased in amount. The patient wore 
 a distressed countenance, had but little sleep, and when seen was 
 seated on the bed crying and writhing her body from one side to 
 the other, and was a picture of perfect misery and distress. Ex- 
 amination of the womb found it in normal position a little en- 
 larged, as would have been expected. Diagnosis congestive ure- 
 thritis due to reflex disturbance caused by impregnated uterus. 
 
 The hypnotic state was induced, and proper suggestions were 
 made for relief of pain and cure of all congestion in or about 
 genito-urinary organs. (Note that this was my first visit after 
 this condition had lasted one month, and she had constantly had
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUTICALLY APPLIED. 183 
 
 the hypodermic of morphin all the while, thus complicating her 
 case by making her a morphin habitue.) 
 
 Second visit, eight hours later on the same day, found patient 
 easy, but still discharging blood. Would not permit treatment by 
 suggestion, as she begged for morphin. Did not sleep that night, 
 as she had no suggestion to that effect and morphin had suddenly 
 been withdrawn. 
 
 Next day she was placed in a deep hypnotic state, appropriate 
 suggestions were given, and she was allowed to sleep four hours; 
 awoke free from pain, and nerves quiet. Treatment by sugges- 
 tion on same afternoon. Slept well that night, and after that she 
 suffered no more inconvenience from either nervousness or pain. 
 At the end of one more day all pain and bloody discharges were 
 gone, the patient was happy, strong, and with good appetite. Two 
 days later the same, and four weeks later the same. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 12. 
 
 Menorrhagia and Anemia Accompanying Large Fibroid Tumor 
 of Uterus. 1 Woman, aged 48; has large fibroid, profuse menor- 
 rhagia for fifteen weeks, greatly emaciated, anemic, constipated 
 and weak ; pulse, 140 ; respiration, 60 ; temperature, 102 F. Pass- 
 ing clots as large as a hen's egg, and when seen was the picture 
 of distress, with no appetite, very nervous, and unable to sleep; 
 suffering also with a remittent malarial fever. 
 
 Her case seemed to me to be one in which, at best, life could 
 not be expected to last longer than a few days. Treatment- 
 calomel, followed by salines, and 15 grains of quinin sulphate 
 daily for the malarial element in her case. Deep hypnosis was 
 induced at my first visit, and proper suggestions were made to 
 restore sleep and relieve nervousness, regulate her bowels, to stop 
 hemorrhage, to aid digestion, to give appetite, and to build up 
 hope, and to change her intuition or belief that she was going to 
 die into belief that she would get well. 
 
 From the first treatment by suggestion her nerves were quiet, 
 her sleep was refreshing and plentiful, her appetite was good, and 
 
 1 The facts in this case can be substantiated by a prominent southern attorney, upon 
 whose farm this colored woman resided.
 
 184 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 her heart beats slower and stronger, and breathing easier. After 
 four treatments by suggestion the menorrhagia had entirely 
 stopped. She was then put on a tonic. Two years later she was 
 in good health, with her fibroid growing smaller. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 13. 
 
 A Unique Case. A patient, aged 15, with acute gonorrhea and 
 badly swollen prepuce, had not urinated in thirty-six hours. His 
 bladder in lower part of abdomen felt like a large cocoanut. 
 His pain and suffering were intense. The meatus had in it a 
 large drop of characteristic yellow pus. He had used a hot water 
 hip bath for the relief of his trouble, but without success. To use 
 a catheter would mean to push the disease back into his bladder, 
 giving him gonorrheal cystitis. Hypnosis was induced, and sug- 
 gestion made that when he awoke he could urinate freely. 
 
 On awakening he expressed the desire to urinate, "oh, so bad," 
 and in one more minute a forcible, but small, stream began, lasting 
 five minutes. I then gave him a prescription for his gonorrhea, 
 and he went home happy and free from pain. Ten days later he 
 was seen and the case was progressing nicely. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 14. 
 
 Another Unique Case. A physician said to me on one occasion, 
 "Can you hypnotize this boy so that I can catheterize him." He 
 had acute gonorrhea, and was having a catheter used twice a day 
 in order to relieve his full bladder, which he was not able to 
 relieve in the usual way. Hypnosis was induced, and suggestion 
 given to relieve the psychoneurotic element, and when he awoke 
 he urinated without catheterization and continued to do so there- 
 after. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 15. 
 
 Morphin Habit. This was a patient of one of the best known 
 physicians in the South. Her ovaries had been removed, cervix 
 and perineum repaired, but the operative procedures had only
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUTICALLY APPLIED. 185 
 
 aggravated the neurotic symptoms that they were intended to re- 
 lieve. In addition to the aggravated nervous symptoms, she had a 
 pain in one side, which had appeared as a result of adhesions, and 
 to relieve this the administration of morphin had been instituted 
 and continued for several months or more. The pain had subsided, 
 but the demand for the continued use of morphin was imperative 
 at least from this lady's point of view. Five or six months had 
 elapsed since the beginning of the habit, which was now well fixed. 
 The patient lived forty miles distant, and was ordered to come 
 into the city. Her physician explained to her that I had a treat- 
 ment which would relieve her of the morphin habit without incon- 
 venience, and both she and her husband consented to co-operate 
 with our plans. She was given the following dose as the first of 
 four doses : 
 
 IJ Calomel 1 grain 
 
 Resinous podophyllin | grain 
 
 Extract of nux vomica ,\ grain 
 
 Powdered extract of cascara sagrada 1 grain 
 
 Aloin & grain 
 
 Misce et fiat capsula No. I. 
 
 This dose was given in a capsule every two hours for four doses, 
 beginning at two o'clock in the afternoon, and the patient was 
 allowed to have her usual hypodermic of 1 grain of morphin that 
 evening. 
 
 The following morning she was given two drams of rochelle 
 salts every hour until copious watery evacuations were produced, 
 and this was directed to be given without regard to the action of 
 the purgative dose administered the previous day. 
 
 Thorough elimination of the by-products of morphin must be 
 secured as well as the getting rid of all retained excreta due to 
 the continued use of morphin. At 11 o'clock the next day a warm 
 bath was ordered, warm enough to secure thorough relaxation, and 
 the drinking of copious draughts of water was also insisted upon 
 for eliminative purposes. 
 
 No more morphin was allowed after the dose the day previous. 
 When thorough elimination is secured in this way, morphin can 
 be abruptly withdrawn without any inconvenience to the heart's
 
 186 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 action; in fact, the patient is less apt to die without the morphin 
 than with it, provided the nervous element in the case is cared for, 
 and this can be controlled by suggestion. 
 
 At noon on the second day, after copious actions of the purgative 
 given the day previous and a saline had been given, and a warm 
 bath had been administered, the patient was hypnotized and al- 
 lowed to sleep for three hours. It was suggested that her nerves 
 were steady, and quiet, and strong, and that her heart would beat 
 strongly and regularly ; that every minute and hour after that her 
 nerves would get steadier, and quieter, and stronger ; that she would 
 enjoy her meals, feel hopeful, optimistic, and cheerful, and after 
 that would have an antipathy for morphin or any form of opium ; 
 that she would breathe deeply, drink water freely, and take an 
 interest in the affairs of life as she had not done in many months. 
 It was suggested that at bedtime she would take three drops of a 
 placebo prescription and go sound asleep, and sleep soundly all 
 night, and awaken every morning feeling refreshed and well rested. 
 
 After three hours' sleep she was awakened and sfte a lunch of 
 milk, bread, and butter, and at once took the train for home, forty 
 miles away. Five days afterward I went to this lady's home town, 
 where her husband had gotten the physicians interested in my class 
 work, and instructed a class of physicians at that place, allowing 
 the husband of the patient to be present. She was then sleeping, 
 eating, and doing well in every way. 
 
 Twenty-seven days after the withdrawal of the morphin, in re- 
 sponse to a letter of inquiry, I learned that the patient had experi- 
 enced no more inconvenience, had slept well, enjoyed eating, gained 
 in weight, and was happier and better in every way. "But," 
 said he, "yesterday my wife overexerted herself and I used a 
 hypodermic of !/4 grain of morphin last night, the first that she had 
 taken in twenty-seven days." The only thing left for me to do 
 was to write to him and express my regret that he had acted so 
 unwisely, and urged him to use reason, castor oil, epsom salts, hot 
 poultices, bromids, or do anything else except to deliberately start 
 her on morphin with an already acquired predisposition for the 
 drug. 
 
 To educate an individual in the principles of psychotherapy is
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUTICALLY APPLIED. 187 
 
 one thing, but to get him to exercise the force of character sufficient 
 to apply these principles is something else. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 16. 
 
 Chronic Indigestion. A country editor, aged 34, had for sev- 
 eral years suffered from indigestion, and in two years he had not 
 eaten meat for supper without spending a restless night and hav- 
 ing little sleep, followed by no appetite and a bad headache the 
 next day. 
 
 He was hypnotized, and suggestions were given to encourage 
 a freer flow of blood in his stomach, to stimulate the cerebral cen- 
 ters that influence this important organ and also to quiet the nerv- 
 ous element in his case, get him to breathe deeper, and drink more 
 water. Upon awakening him I advised that he eat some of every- 
 thing upon the table at his boarding place that evening. "But 
 suppose it makes me sick," asked he. "Then I will pay your 
 doctor's bill," was my reply. "Suppose it kills me?" "I'll buy 
 your coffin and pay your burial expenses, ' ' was my answer. 
 
 Then addressing him, I said, "Mr. Blank, go and eat as much 
 of everything you have on your table as you desire and especially 
 eat meat, and come tomorrow and tell me how you are feeling." 
 The next day he returned and said he had eaten a hearty supper 
 of pork sausage and broiled beefsteak, and never had a better 
 night's sleep or felt better in his life. I laughed and in a friendly 
 way advised him to eat as much of everything as he wished in the 
 future, except printing presses and newspaper editors. Several 
 days afterward he was cheerful and happy, and had experienced no 
 more difficulty. 
 
 It is interesting to me to see the skilled laboratory chemical 
 analysis of the gastric contents, made by some of our physicians, 
 and the diet and medication prescribed according to indications 
 in the light of the teachings of modern physiology. It is beautiful 
 work, requires great skill, and proceeds upon exact scientific basis, 
 and I hope some day to be equipped to do such work myself in 
 order to more scientifically report the results of psychological meth- 
 ods of treatment, but my confidence in the brain plasm and its
 
 188 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 influence over the physiological processes is such that these meth- 
 ods, in the large majority of cases, seem to me to be quite unneces- 
 sary. 
 
 In gross pathological changes, however, due to destructive 
 processes, malignant stomach affections, etc., there is presented 
 quite another aspect of the subject, and these methods throw a 
 wonderful light upon the case at hand. We must, however, be 
 careful not to fasten upon our patient by the unconscious use of 
 suggestion a psychopathological condition instead of relieving him 
 of a psychoneurotic disturbance. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 17. 
 
 Subacute Sciatica. A man, aged 45, was confined to his bed 
 with acute sciatica for several weeks, and for five or six months 
 following had used crutches, unable to bear his weight on the 
 affected side. His physician had invited some of his professional 
 friends to witness the treatment of this case. 
 
 The history of the case, the time that had elapsed, the rational 
 therapeutic measures, etc., that had been employed, together with 
 the symptoms at hand, convinced me that the severe pain, in- 
 somnia, and functional disturbances were unduly aggravated by 
 the prolonged attention that had been given to them by the patient, 
 which had created sense impressions that reproduced themselves in 
 the peculiar mental state exhibited by him. 
 
 There is always a tendency for the nervous system to retain an 
 impression after the cause which gave it birth has passed away. 
 This proved to be true in this case of sciatica. The patient was 
 hypnotized, and suggestions were given to relieve his pain, to quiet 
 nervousness, restore sleep, and re-establish the function of the dis- 
 abled limb. The man, while in the hypnotic state, was persuaded 
 to use the limb, and, when awakened, stamped his foot on the floor, 
 walked, jumped, hopped on the affected limb, and then turned 
 in all seriousness to the physician and said he was easy for the 
 first time in five months. After seeing him three more times on 
 each of the following days successively, he went to his work. This
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUTICALLY APPLIED. 189 
 
 man was a carpenter and appeared in no sense to belong to the 
 hysterical type, yet this was a psychoneurotic condition. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 18. 
 
 Bronchitis, Asthma, Pneumonia, Etc. A man, aged 50, had had 
 chronic bronchitis for fifteen years, with occasional paroxysms of 
 asthma. He now had acute pneumonia, affecting only the lower 
 lobe of the right lung, but had a temperature of 104.5 F. ; pulse, 
 135; and rapid respiration also. On the fifth day of his acute ill- 
 ness he had slept but little the previous three nights, and was 
 extremely nervous and oversolicitous about his condition. There 
 was a large element of fear about his case, which gave rise to very 
 bad autosuggestions. These were encouraged by an overanxious 
 family and friends. I had done all within my power to reassure 
 him by suggestion without hypnotism, but to no avail. 
 
 Seeing his anxiety so pronounced, and the psychic element in 
 his case so adverse to his recovery, I decided that one more day 
 without a change would mean the death of my patient. Taking 
 in my hand a bottle of some placebo, I said to him earnestly, "Mr. 
 Blank, there is a nervous element in your case that I am going to 
 relieve before I leave you. This medicine, used as I am going to 
 use it presently, will put you to sleep, quiet your nerves, strengthen 
 your heart, and help you to get well. Now, it can't hurt you, but 
 will make you stronger. I will stay with you until you awaken, 
 and you will be feeling better and stronger, and take quite a dif- 
 ferent view of your condition when you awaken. ' ' 
 
 A patient in that condition is always easy to hypnotize. This 
 man readily consented to the treatment, and while in the hypnotic 
 state I suggested to him that all nervousness was going away, and 
 that his nerves were getting steady, and quiet, and strong. Then 
 I also suggested that his heart was beating stronger and stronger, 
 and that his hands and feet were getting warm, that the blood was 
 circulating freely all over his body, that all congestion and pain 
 about his lungs were going away, and that his fever was cooling, 
 temperature getting more normal, and nerves, and muscles, and 
 heart getting quiet, and steady, and strong. I suggested that every
 
 190 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 dose of the medicine he was taking would quiet his nerves, 
 strengthen his heart, lessen his fever, aid his digestion, and that 
 whenever he thought of himself he would feel that he was getting 
 oetter, feeling stronger, and going rapidly on to recovery. I al- 
 lowed him to sleep for twenty minutes or half an hour. When I 
 awakened him I gave him the answer to my question, which was 
 more an affirmation than a question. "You are feeling better, Mr. 
 Blank ? This has done you a great deal of good. " * ' Yes, Doctor, ' ' 
 said he, "I feel that I am going to get well and have not felt that 
 way before." I then took his temperature and found it two de- 
 grees lower than it was thirty minutes previously, and his pulse 
 beats twenty a minute fewer than before he went to sleep. 
 
 He slept well that night, as I suggested he would, and his pulse 
 and temperature were better the next day. His temperature never 
 went any higher than 102.5 F. after that or his pulse above 120 a 
 minute. His lungs cleared up on the ninth day. 
 
 Two years afterward that man had not had another attack of 
 asthma, as I had suggested on two or three occasions following the 
 first treatment by hypnotic suggestion that he would never have 
 asthma again, that he would always drink plenty of water, the 
 bowels would move regularly every day, and he would sleep 
 soundly, have a good digestion, and always feel better. 
 
 It may be pointed out that in asthma there are always func- 
 tional disturbances due to deficient elimination, causing a general 
 neurotic condition, of which the asthmatic paroxysm is the pre- 
 dominant manifestation, and attracts the greatest attention. 
 
 In regard to the use of hypnotism in very sick people suffering 
 with pneumonia and enteric fever, the acute infectious diseases, 
 etc., I have always felt that if I could get the patient to exercise 
 enough self-control to go into the hypnotic state he would be cer- 
 tain to recover. No possible harm can come from giving a patient 
 suggestions to quiet nervousness, relieve pain, re-establish function, 
 and encourage the action of all the brain centers, turning this 
 energy represented by the cells that compose the cerebral cortex to 
 the strengthening of every cell and every function in the body. 
 
 Hypnotism is only an intensified, and therefore more efficacious, 
 form of applying suggestion, and it seems to relieve a very sick
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUTICALLY APPLIED. 191 
 
 patient of a heavy responsibility when you use his psychic powers 
 for him, direct them, and regulate their control over his body 
 rather than keep him on the alert to do this for himself. 
 
 There are yet some physicians who believe that suggestion is of 
 value only in hysterical subjects, and that only hysterical people 
 can be benefited. If that be true, then all sick people are hys- 
 terical, for there is no acute febrile illness in which the psychic 
 factor does not play an important role in helping or hindering the 
 recovery of the patient. 
 
 Kemember that there is such a thing as nervous shock, due to 
 sense impressions which give rise to fear thoughts that hold the 
 attention, of a very sick patient. The physician who can change 
 these psychic states changes the mental attitude of his patient, 
 encourages all involuntary physiological processes, and helps his 
 patient to recovery. 
 
 It is hard to hypnotize an hysterical patient, while, on the other 
 hand, a normal nervous organization always best responds to sug- 
 gestion and makes the best hypnotic subject. This I have demon- 
 strated and proved to the satisfaction of several thousand Amer- 
 ican physicians, notwithstanding the opinion of a few prejudiced 
 neurologists, who are self-hypnotized by their preconceived con- 
 victions, to the contrary. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 19. 
 
 Dressing 1 a Painful Wound. A man, aged 32, had his foot in- 
 fected with a gas-producing germ, which caused the leg to swell 
 enormously. To give him the only chance to recover, the surgeon 
 amputated the limb at a point about seven inches below the hip 
 joint and dressed the amputation wide open, not allowing the flaps 
 to close, in order to secure thorough drainage. Large quantities 
 of gauze came away at each dressing literally soaked in purulent 
 discharge, as the infection had extended above the amputation. 
 
 The patient's reserve forces were being drawn upon heavily, and 
 his toxic condition left him unable to withstand pain. He did 
 not appear hysterical, but at each dressing of the wound he could 
 be heard crying all over the hospital on account of the severe pain.
 
 192 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 He was placed in a suggestible condition, using a placebo medicine 
 as an aid; suggestions were given to produce anesthesia, and the 
 wound was dressed without the slightest complaint on the part of 
 patient. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 20. 
 
 Hysteria, Neurasthenia with Delusions, Hallucinations, Etc. 
 A delicate, high-strung, nervous young woman, with ambition 
 while in college three times in excess of her physical strength. A 
 decidedly neurotic tendency, always oversensitive and morbidly 
 conscientious. This condition had been encouraged by overstrain 
 in education and by one incident after another, which proved to be 
 a shock too great for a nervous system so unstable; yet not more 
 than a normal individual could easily withstand. Finally came an 
 attack of typhoid fever, and when the patient was seen several 
 months later she had for five months been confined to her room 
 with hands and arms fastened, with delusions of persecution, and 
 impersonating one character after another sent down to earth by 
 Prometheus, etc. 
 
 She drank but little water, and took only a small quantity of milk 
 for nourishment ; her bowels moved only under influence of purga- 
 tives; there was constant enuresis, sleep was secured only by hyp- 
 notics, bromids, etc. She had a furred tongue, fetid breath, rapid 
 pulse, was extremely nervous, with an excitable, overactive brain, 
 and finally would become exhausted and lie with head hot and 
 bathed all over in perspiration. At my first visit I released her 
 arms, and acted as if I had perfect confidence in her; had her 
 exercise every muscle, breathe deeply, drink one glass of water, and 
 after an hour another glass. I then put her into a light state of 
 hypnosis, and gave suggestions to quiet nervousness, to relieve an 
 overexcitable brain, secure sleep, cure enuresis, correct delusions, 
 create appetite and thirst, to regulate bowels, etc. 
 
 Besides releasing her from the fastenings on her arms, all medi- 
 cine was withdrawn at once, save %-grain dose of protoiodid of 
 mercury, which was ordered to be given at bed time for its general 
 tonic effect. From the first treatment by hypnotic suggestion she 
 became quiet, slept well at night, ate three wholesome meals a day,
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUTICALLY APPLIED. 193 
 
 had but few delusions, enuresis was stopped, pulse quiet and 
 normal, talk rational, and the whole picture of the case was 
 changed. 
 
 After one week she was eating, sleeping, drinking water freely, 
 exercising and resting alternately, practicing deep breathing, and 
 presented every indication of great improvement, while previously 
 she had been gradually growing worse for several months and 
 probably several years. After two weeks' treatment she made up 
 her own bed, swept her own room, took walks in the park, and as- 
 sisted in the housework, busying herself with fancy work, etc. 
 
 The outcome of this case is for only time to decide. The per- 
 manency of the results obtained by suggestive therapeutics depends 
 altogether upon the stability of the nervous system. A favorable 
 outcome in a case like this will depend upon our ability to bring 
 about those conditions necessary to physical development sleep, 
 food, drink, exercise, mental quietude as well as directing her 
 habits of thought and action into healthful, normal channels. Yet, 
 the results so far show the possibilities for help even in this unfor- 
 tunate class of cases. 
 
 Sanity or insanity is not to be ascertained by any definite stand- 
 ard. They are terms that can not be defined, for one merely 
 denotes the absence of the other. They are both only relative 
 terms. It is absolutely impossible to find a person of so healthy 
 a mind and body that some form of degeneracy can not be observed. 
 As a well-known psychologist remarked, "No one can be accused 
 of being hopelessly sane." Yet, if an individual is unable to look 
 after his affairs and is dangerous to himself and others, and inter- 
 feres with society, he may undoubtedly be said to be of unsound 
 mind. At any rate, insanity is not revealed by any one symptom. 
 The change is displayed by everything, both physical and mental. 
 The degeneration affects the body as a whole. 
 
 Not every person who is sick, then, should be counted as in- 
 sane, for all disease affects both mind and body in a degree. 
 There are many people who are insane, however, who, had timely 
 treatment been instituted, could have been completely restored 
 to a normal condition of health in both mind and body. "Treat- 
 ment," in the sense used in the above remark, involves education,
 
 194 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 environment, dietetics, exercise, and employment, and all that con- 
 tributes to the evolution of the individual. 
 
 Suggestions, both with and without hypnotism, in the hands 
 of a thoughtful physician can do much toward bringing about 
 those conditions under which recovery may be rendered possible. 1 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 21. 
 
 Suprapubic Cystotomy. The operation was decided on, the 
 patient being a man aged about 40, who had an infection pro- 
 duced by a catheter being thrust through the urethra behind the 
 bladder into the peritoneal cavity, an abscess being formed, ex- 
 tending above and in front of the bladder. It was the "other 
 fellow's patient," and I had been invited to go with the con- 
 sulting surgeon to see what could be done for the unfortunate. 
 The surgeon said to the sick man, already in a suggestible con- 
 dition, due to his anxiety over his serious case, ' ' This is a physician 
 friend of mine, and he will give you chloroform and put you to 
 sleep, and we will dp the right thing for you. Do just as he tells 
 you, and he will take good care of you." 
 
 With a piece of gauze on the bottom of my hand and with ten 
 drops of chloroform on it, I said to the patient, "Close your eyes, 
 breathe through your mouth, and think of going to sleep. As 
 you inhale this chloroform you will get drowsy and sleepy, and 
 go on to sleep without any trouble." I then exercised sugges- 
 tion on him, using the formula described in Chapter V (Hypnotism 
 Demonstrated) to induce hypnosis. 
 
 With a piece of cotton saturated with water, after the patient 
 was hypnotized, I gently touched the area to be operated on, say- 
 ing to him, "All feeling is going away; this part is becoming 
 perfectly dead, no feeling in it at all, and by the time I count ten 
 it will be perfectly dead and without feeling." 
 
 In the midst of the operation the surgeon asked, "How much 
 of this is suggestion and how much is chloroform?" I answered 
 him by holding the man's arm up and suggesting that he allow 
 
 1 Three years have elapsed since this case was reported. She has entirely recov- 
 ered, and now presents a normal mind and healthy body, has gained twenty-five 
 p.mnds in weight, and is a healthy,' happy young woman.
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUTICALLY APPLIED. 195 
 
 it to remain until the operation was completed. We afterward 
 awakened the patient, with nerves steady, and quiet, and strong, as 
 suggested to him, and he stated that he had experienced no pain and 
 felt much better. In this case we used not over twenty drops of 
 chloroform by actual measurement. 
 
 Always tell your patient how he will feel before awakening him. 
 That will determine his feeling after he is hypnotized. It is not 
 only what you do and what you say that brings success, but the 
 way you do and how you say it. This is true of the use of sug- 
 gestion both with and without hypnotism. 
 
 In reducing dislocations, setting fractures, opening abscesses, 
 sewing up incised wounds, and numerous other conditions, hyp- 
 notic suggestion is applicable. Yet, so much depends upon the 
 environment, for an adverse environment produces a counter in- 
 fluence by unconscious suggestion that is often impossible to 
 overcome. In private practice, however, we have an ideal con- 
 dition for the application of suggestive therapeutics. It is here 
 that the best results are always obtained, for there is a closer 
 personal relation between the physician and his patient. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 22. 
 
 Operation for Adenoids. This patient was a little girl aged 
 10, with adenoids to be removed. She was hypnotized, and the 
 suggestion given that when the doctor examined in her mouth 
 and back of her throat and nose, it would only tickle her a little, 
 that the parts back there were dead, had no feeling in them, and 
 that when I said, "Wake," she would awaken laughing and see 
 some blood come out of her nose and mouth. The operation 
 was done by a well-known specialist, and with perfect success. 
 The little girl did not shed a tear. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 23. 
 
 Suggestion in Dental Surgery. A young man, aged 24, by oc- 
 cupation a drug clerk, had serious valvular lesions, and cocain, 
 or chloroform, or ether was positively forbidden by his physician.
 
 196 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 At his request I hypnotized him in the presence of three well- 
 known physicians and surgeons, and two large molar teeth were 
 extracted without pain, and he was less nervous after the opera- 
 tion than before he took his seat in the chair. Two of the physi- 
 cians examined the heart before and after the operation, and re- 
 marked upon the improved nervous condition. After inducing 
 hypnosis I suggested that he open his mouth, and, applying a 
 small quantity of an antiseptic solution upon some cotton around 
 his tooth, suggested that all feeling was going away, that his gum, 
 and tooth, and jaw were becoming perfectly dead, that by the 
 time I counted five that entire side of his face would have no feel- 
 ing in it, and that the dentist could extract the tooth without the 
 patient feeling any pain. 
 
 To use hypnotism or suggestion with success in surgery or 
 dentistry, you must have the confidence of your patient. In fact, 
 the best results from suggestive therapeutics in all classes of 
 practice can be obtained only where a perfect confidential relation 
 exists between the patient and the attending physician. For that 
 reason suggestive therapeutics will never be particularly appli- 
 cable to general hospital work, but in private practice, where the 
 physician is brought into close relation to his patient, an ideal con- 
 dition is presented. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 24. 
 
 Psychical Impotency. A young man had been accused by a 
 jealous wife of worshiping a foreign goddess. This he strenuously 
 denied. He, however, on one occasion walked past his home with 
 the lady in question and was observed by his suspecting wife. 
 Though he assured her that his being with her on the occasion was 
 only a coincidence, his assurances did not allay his wife's sus- 
 picions, and she then and there demanded that he prove his 
 fidelity by his ability to perform the sexual act. Though the young 
 man was innocent, the psychic effect, of being put to so crucial a 
 test so suddenly was sufficient to completely inhibit his ability to 
 meet the demands. Then the exacting wife turned with double 
 vehemence upon the unfortunate husband, and the sense impressions
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUTICALLY APPLIED. 197 
 
 or suggestions produced by her declarations that she had proof 
 positive of the correctness of her suspicions rendered the poor 
 fellow impotent, in her presence, for a month. 
 
 The stability of his home was in jeopardy, and threats of abandon- 
 ment were made by the wife, who felt that she had been wronged. 
 His physician sent for me, and my treatment for the young man 
 was by instruction and education as to how he should steer him- 
 self out of his dilemma. He was also hypnotized, and special 
 suggestions were given to combat the psychic effect of the sugges- 
 tions that had so completely subdued him. This was on Saturday, 
 and on Monday he reported that the psychic atmosphere of his 
 home had been completely changed and that the treatment was a 
 decided success. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 25. 
 
 Insomnia Treated in a Unique Manner. "Doctor, I wish you 
 would give me something to make me sleep better at night," said 
 the wife of a hard-working man upon whom the cares of life were 
 pressing heavily. 
 
 ' ' Why can 't you sleep, Mrs. Blank ? ' ' said I. 
 
 "Oh, I just toss and roll about for hours and hours, and last 
 night I didn't close my eyes until after one o'clock." 
 
 This lady was a great religious character, and I knew this was 
 her most vulnerable point from a psychological standpoint. So I 
 asked her if she believed that if two people agreed regarding any 
 one thing, it could be done for them. "You know I do, Doctor," 
 she answered. 
 
 "All right," said I. "Let's agree that you are going to go to 
 sleep right now." I was standing at the foot of her bed, and, 
 looking into her face for a moment, I said in a calm monotone 
 voice, "Just look at me and think of sleep. As you do, your eyes 
 will become heavy, and you will get drowsy and sleepy, and go 
 to sleep. Now, close your eyes lightly and go to sleep, sleep, sleep, 
 sleep. By the time I count ten you will be fast asleep one, two, 
 three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and now you are asleep, 
 fast asleep." 
 
 Then, coming up to her, I gently soothed her forehead with a
 
 198 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 few strokes on either side with my fingers. "You are sleeping 
 nicely; having a calm, refreshing sleep. Sleep soundly for two 
 hours and then awaken. Your sleep will be restful and refreshing. 
 After this you will be able to go to sleep at any time you desire 
 to do so. Just close your eyes and relax every muscle, and think 
 of sleep, and you will go to sleep and sleep soundly all night, and 
 awake feeling refreshed and rested every morning. You will drink 
 water freely every two hours from morning until you retire at 
 night. You will enjoy your meals, have a good appetite, find 
 pleasure in your work, rest when you get tired, enjoy the com- 
 panionship of your husband, and children, and friends, and al- 
 ways feel happier on account of the improved condition of your 
 health." 
 
 Two years afterward this woman's husband reminded me of 
 this experience. He said his wife had slept well and enjoyed her 
 meals, had no more headaches, and was greatly improved in every 
 way. " Nothing ever did her so much good, Doctor, as that one 
 visit of yours, but we lost our baby with cholera infantum two 
 months ago and my wife is 'just all in,' and I want you to see 
 her again. ' ' This was on a passing visit to my home, and I could 
 not see his wife as requested, but I have always felt that I missed 
 a great pleasure in not having the opportunity to infuse into her 
 sad life some of my own strength and optimism by another sug- 
 gestive treatment. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 26. 
 
 A Psychoneurotic Condition. A young lady, aged 22, the 
 beautiful daughter of a prominent physician, had not been able to 
 eat any meat, without its causing gastric disturbance, since the 
 death of her mother two years before, and since that time she had 
 been nervous, suffered with insomnia, and lost considerable in 
 weight. I gave her two suggestive treatments, having first secured 
 a suggestible condition. Two weeks later she reported her case, 
 and had gained in weight, slept well at night, ate all the meat she 
 desired without the slightest inconvenience, and felt better and 
 happier in every way.
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUT1CALLY APPLIED. 199 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 27. 
 
 Nausea and Vomiting of Pregnancy. A physician once stated 
 to me frankly that he had no confidence in anything pertaining to 
 these methods, and could not possibly become interested in a sub- 
 ject that he had so disregarded. He was an excellent gentleman, 
 but, like so many physicians in our profession, had not troubled 
 himself to look into the subject of psychotherapy. 
 
 A day or two later he said to a patient of his, the wife of a lead- 
 ing banker in his city, who had suffered with gravid nausea per- 
 sistently for several days, "If you don't get better, I will bring a 
 physician here who will treat you by hypnotic suggestion." 
 
 Her mother, who was present, urged that he do so, and referred 
 to a physician who had relieved her brother, the Reverend Blank, 
 D.D., a prominent educator, of a most distressing supraorbital 
 neuralgia after no benefit had been obtained from other methods 
 of treatment for over two weeks. His patient also urged that I be 
 called in to see her. In his conveyance, while on our way to see 
 this patient, I asked why he desired to use a method in which he 
 ' ' had absolutely no confidence, ' ' and had so expressed himself only 
 two days before, when he related to me the circumstance just re- 
 ferred to. 
 
 ' ' For this visit she is my patient as well as she is yours, Doctor, ' ' 
 said I, "and I expect to get a fine result." 
 
 The preconceived mental attitude of your patient is of great 
 psychic significance in determining the results of any kind of 
 therapeutic measures. I had this lady's confidence before I ever 
 saw her, and this was an ideal relation. 
 
 After talking with her for a few minutes I turned to her and 
 said I was glad to have the opportunity of demonstrating to Doctor 
 Blank the efficacy of the method of treatment which I was in- 
 troducing to physicians, and in this particular case it would be a 
 genuine pleasure for her sake, as well as for my own and Doctor 
 Blank's. 
 
 I had that lady hypnotized or in a suggestive condition before 
 I suggested that she go to sleep, yet I placed her in a deep sub- 
 conscious or hypnotic condition and made appropriate suggestions.
 
 200 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 She was allowed to sleep twenty minutes, and awoke comfort- 
 able; ate some bread and buttermilk, as I suggested, and, as she 
 drank it down, stopped to ask her mother if she remembered that 
 she went to the refrigerator upon her return from her graduating 
 exercises four years before, and remarked that no milk had ever 
 tasted so nice before or since until she got this glass, and she pro- 
 ceeded to drain its contents. Her comments upon that glass of 
 buttermilk reminded me of how I relished nice buttermilk when a 
 boy on the farm, and I asked for a glass and drank to her health, 
 and it was fine, too. I hypnotized my patient, but got hypnotized 
 myself into drinking a glass of milk before I left the room. 
 
 That lady ate her evening meal, slept well that night, enjoyed 
 her breakfast, and was out driving the next day. A year later 
 her mother reported to me that she went for several weeks without 
 inconvenience, but after that the destruction of some choice flowers 
 by a stupid gardener brought on the return of her trouble, but 
 "it was never so bad." 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 28. 
 
 Supraorbital Neuralgia. The case of the prominent educator 
 mentioned in illustration 27, who had supraorbital neuralgia, was an 
 interesting one, and is worth relating here, as it brings out some 
 important features in connection with the application of sugges- 
 tive-therapeutics, and at the same time clears up some misappre- 
 hensions in regard to hypnotism and its application to the higher 
 grades of intelligence. The gentleman in question was the presi- 
 dent of a well-known college in his state. When I met him he 
 apologized for his "stupidity," and explained that his case had 
 resisted all treatment for two weeks and was getting the best of 
 him. He said that 25 grains of quinin daily and 214-grain doses 
 of morphin sulphate had been his dose for the past several days, 
 besides using static electricity, hot applications, different standard 
 neuralgic remedies, and all the modern "antis." 
 
 "Let me relieve you by suggestion, Doctor," said I. 
 
 "What, do you mean to hypnotize me?" he replied, somewhat 
 astonished.
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUTIC ALLY APPLIED. 201 
 
 ' ' Yes, get you to take a suggestion. ' ' 
 
 "But I never thought I could be hypnotized," said he. 
 
 "Only weak-minded persons can not be hypnotized, can not be 
 induced to execute an idea or series of ideas, for the lack of ability 
 to exercise self-control, and certainly one can not hypnotize a 
 strong-minded person who does not care to be hypnotized. Of 
 course, you belong to the latter class, but, if you will consent, I will 
 show you what can be done for you." 
 
 "My dear sir," replied he, "I will consent to anything that 
 even holds out a hope of relief." We very promptly arranged to 
 give him the treatment, and I left him in a condition supposed 
 to be sleep, having made appropriate suggestions. 
 
 Ten days later I saw him again, and he was quick to thank me 
 for the very prompt and efficacious relief given him by the treat- 
 ment, and said he had not suffered one iota from that condition 
 since I left him. "But, Doctor," said he, "I don't think I was 
 asleep. I wanted to tell you that I was easy before you left, but 
 promised to lie still in the condition as you requested!" 
 
 That was just where he consented to act intelligently upon and 
 execute an idea, or take my suggestion. All that is necessary is 
 the intelligent co-operation of the patient. So I repeat again, for 
 I desire to drive this point home, that hypnotism is nothing more 
 or less than getting an individual to act upon an idea or series of 
 ideas, either consciously or subconsciously. 
 
 Get out of your mind anything you ever saw on the stage in 
 exhibition of the amusement features of hypnotism. Even there, 
 however, you see an illustration of the subject under discussion. 
 Boys like fun ; it is in their line in accordance with their thought 
 and conduct and they go on the stage having perhaps uncon- 
 sciously decided to act upon or execute any idea or series of ideas 
 given by the hypnotist. Your patient does the same thing when 
 he co-operates with you in any ordinary method of treatment. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 29. 
 
 Alcoholism and its Accompanying Neuroses. Once, in one of 
 our great American cities, a well-known physician telephoned me
 
 202 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 to learn what I could do with a case of acute alcoholism. I re- 
 plied that I had good results in my private practice in such cases, 
 but that it all depended upon the character of the individual. 
 
 He wanted me to come at once to treat a patient of his who had 
 been drinking too freely for a week or more, had taken not 
 less than fifteen drinks that day, but was anxious to quit. His 
 patient was a fine man, who proved afterward to be one of the 
 most delightful men I ever met, but he had his vulnerable point 
 and his friends had led him too far. 
 
 If I can talk to an individual for a few minutes, I feel the 
 personality of the man sufficiently to approach him with a degree 
 of certainty or with uncertainty regarding results. I suppose 
 this is acquired by experience. Anyway, I was not in this gentle- 
 man 's presence five minutes before I said to his physician, ' ' Doctor, 
 we are going to get along all right. I am ready to proceed with 
 the treatment." The patient, a business man and capitalist, aged 
 about 48, was nervous, emotional, irritable, miserable, and had 
 suffered with insomnia, anorexia, etc., and just felt that something 
 had to be done for him. Even in the condition described the 
 man was a gentleman, showed that he had a great soul in him, and 
 I could feel that I had in him the elements of a man to use in his 
 own behalf, which he, from inability to express the supreme function 
 of consciousness the will had failed to use for himself. 
 
 I induced the suggestive state, and allowed him to sleep for 
 three hours, giving him a glass of water at intervals of an hour 
 apart without arousing him from the existing state of suggesti- 
 bility. 
 
 He was then awakened and advised to take a walk for half an 
 hour or more with his wife, a bowl of chicken broth being ordered 
 in the meantime. In the suggestive state I had made such sug- 
 gestions as would quiet nervousness, relieve soreness in the epi- 
 gastric region, restore self-confidence, produce an antipathy or 
 hatred for whisky, and arouse the highest element of selfhood 
 into action. 
 
 It was also suggested that after his walk he would eat a bowl 
 of chicken broth, and then go to bed and at once go sound asleep ; 
 that he would sleep soundly all night, and that, if he became rest-
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUTICALLY APPLIED. 203 
 
 less during the night, his wife would give him a glass of water 
 and he would go sound asleep again. I impressed on him that 
 he would not wake until nine o'clock the next day, at which 
 time his wife would awaken him. Then, as has been my custom, 
 I told him he would feel rested, refreshed, self-sufficient, and not 
 want whisky any more. 
 
 At eleven o'clock the next day his wife telephoned me, in re- 
 sponse to an inquiry about his condition, using these words: "Oh, 
 Doctor, he is doing beautifully. He slept all night long, taking 
 w r ater twice, and looks so calm and self-poised this morning. He 
 says he does not want any more whisky, and I never saw him look 
 and talk like this after a spree before." 
 
 I saw him only twice more, and talked to him face to face as 
 friend with friend. Several weeks later, when I was ready to 
 leave that city, he came to my room at the hotel, again expressing 
 his thanks, and, like the real man that he was, said, "Doctor, 
 you have helped me more than any one ever did in my whole life. 
 You have given me a new conception of myself, and made me feel 
 in regard to myself as I never felt before." 
 
 I had awakened in him a higher self-consciousness or an ap- 
 preciation of a higher selfhood, and the memory that I have of 
 hundreds and hundreds of such experiences is to me one of life's 
 greatest rewards. 
 
 Conversion is suggestion just disguised, 
 The new man is the old man hypnotized. 
 
 It is a great thing to have confidence in human beings; faith 
 in humanity is faith in God; it is to recognize the divine in 
 human life. 
 
 The individual or individuals who have helped me the most 
 in life have been those who were able to discover the germination 
 of a higher selfhood as an actuating impulse in my own life and 
 conduct. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 31. 
 
 Pulmonary Tuberculosis. In a southern town a few years ago 
 the thermometer suddenly dropped and the weather was uncom-
 
 204 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 fortably cold. At the hotel a lady from a different state, in a 
 well-advanced stage of pulmonary tuberculosis, was visiting. 
 Cough, cough, cough was all that she could do. Her weakness 
 aroused my sympathy, and I said to her: "Mrs. Blank, I can 
 help you a great deal by suggestion, and would be glad to do so 
 while I am here for the pleasure I should get out of seeing you 
 benefited. ' ' 
 
 "Why, Doctor Munro, I have consumption. Pray, how could 
 hypnotism help me? This is no imaginary disease." 
 
 "Mrs. Blank, you are evidently very nervous. I heard you say 
 you did not sleep two hours in all last night, and I noticed that 
 you ate practically no breakfast this morning." 
 
 "Yes," she replied, "I am so weak and nervous I can scarcely 
 walk. This bandage on my hand is the result of an injury re- 
 ceived from a fall yesterday. No, I can not eat or sleep, and this 
 miserable weather is terrible on me." 
 
 She had a forlorn, downcast look, but I honestly believed that 
 I could benefit her. 
 
 "Mrs. Blank," said I, "by suggestion in the hypnotic state 
 I can quiet that irritability of your nervous system, give you a 
 good, refreshing night's sleep, and yet you can relieve yourself 
 by expectorating when necessary in your sleep. Getting a good 
 night's rest, you will conserve your energies and will awaken with 
 a good appetite and strong, quiet nerves. Then, as you eat more, 
 sleep better, and get stronger, I will get you to breathe deeper 
 and take in more oxygen. The increased amount of air will mean 
 much to your general health, for oxygen is a food that many 
 people do not take in sufficient quantities. Along with the in- 
 fluence of more oxygen upon all bodily functions will be an in- 
 crease in elimination, both of carbon dioxide from your lungs 
 and from a freer activity of all bodily functions. 
 
 "In your particular case I have confidence in the benefit to be 
 derived from deep breathing in other ways. Increased function 
 means increased blood supply, and by breathing deeper your lung 
 substance will be better nourished and its resistive powers in- 
 creased, and your chances to recover strengthened ten to one as 
 compared with the present. There are other ways that sug-
 
 HYPNOTISM THERAPEUT1CALLY APPLIED. 205 
 
 gestion would prove of benefit, but, though you could not under- 
 stand if I attempted to explain them to you, I feel warranted 
 in saying that I know you will be benefited to a remarkable 
 degree. ' ' 
 
 ''Doctor Munro, I am ready whenever you are, and as often as 
 you see fit to give this treatment," she replied. 
 
 Calling her friend, Miss Blank, into a room to be present at the 
 time of the administration of this treatment, I proceeded to put 
 her into a condition of suggestibility and gave suggestions to quiet 
 her nervousness, restore more plentiful and refreshing sleep, inflate 
 the lungs, and, above all, to stir all latent psychic activities into 
 action, to increase her resistive powers, etc. 
 
 This young lady present told me that when she was a school- 
 girl Mrs. Blank was a fine singer and had a lovely voice. So at 
 another time, while she was hypnotized, I gave her a suggestion 
 that she was again a schoolgirl, and was going to sing while her 
 friend furnished the music. The song was "The Angel's Sere- 
 nade, ' ' and she sang, too. She reached the highest note in ' ' Hosan- 
 nah in the highest, Hosannah to his name." 
 
 I then appreciated, as I had never done before with any patient, 
 what I had done for her. All that I did was out of kindness 
 and sympathy, but with optimism and faith. There was no money 
 in this case. There was no selfish motive in it. 
 
 After four days she had been sleeping, eating, drinking, exer- 
 cising, and singing as she had not before in years. Six weeks later 
 I learned indirectly from her husband in another town in that 
 state that she had gained six pounds, and was rapidly improv- 
 ing every day. 
 
 When I left the town where I treated this lady she thanked me 
 sincerely, and gave me a note which she had prepared to send 
 to me at the train by the porter. In this she expressed her 
 gratitude that she had received through me the ability to eat 
 and sleep, for the relief from pain, nervousness, etc., and ended 
 by saying, "You have put into my life a bit of blue where all 
 before was smoke and cloud." 
 
 Four years later this lady was enjoying life and much improved 
 in health.
 
 206 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 1 shall hope that every reader of these pages may do as much 
 for many individuals who do not need medicine, but do need to 
 have aroused in them a self-consciousness of dormant potentialities 
 awaiting utilization.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 RATIONAL THERAPEUTICS IN EVERY-DAY PRACTICE. 
 
 The Rationale of Psychotherapy. The foundation of rational 
 therapeutics is in pathology, etiology, and diagnosis. We must 
 get at the cause of a malady before we can give the patient in- 
 telligent treatment. After we have detected and eliminated the 
 cause, we have made such rapid progress in the treatment of the 
 patient that we are rapidly accomplishing a cure. It is already 
 in sight. The true mission of the physician is to lead the patient 
 to the goal where he can be independent of him. The modern 
 treatment of tuberculosis has illustrated what can be done for the 
 patient by instruction in the art of living, so as to maintain the 
 highest degree of resistive power in the cells of his organism, en- 
 abling them to overcome the ravages of the tubercle bacillus, and, 
 as the result of the application of rational, hygienic, dietetic, and 
 educational measures, this disease is lessening every year. The 
 true physician holds no secrets of his profession from his patients. 
 He gives them the benefit of all his knowledge. He strives to make 
 his patient, who is his pupil, perfect in health, even as himself. 
 
 This attitude on the part of the physician toward his patient 
 marks the most important step in the evolutionary progress of 
 medicine. Most of the human ills which we are called upon to treat 
 are due to violations of right living. The restoration of the patient 
 to habits of normal living constitutes the highest scientific treat- 
 ment it offers cure for the present and prevention for the future. 
 The profession of medicine is outgrowing the mere function of 
 prescribing drugs, and is rapidly taking its place as the science 
 of sanitation, dietetics, education, and hygiene. The profession of 
 medicine began in its infancy by efforts to make the sick well, 
 but to that has been added the effort to secure and maintain the 
 
 207
 
 208 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 health of the patient. Such is the function of rational psycho- 
 therapy. 
 
 Good health a sane mind and a strong body is an acquire- 
 ment. It must be earned by the individual by his own personal 
 efforts, but the average individual has not evolved sufficient in- 
 telligence to be willing to pay the price for detailed instruction in 
 the way to acquire and maintain a condition of perfect health. He 
 prefers to pay a man who is willing to dope him on drugs, carve 
 his body, and allow him to live in open violation to the known 
 laws of health. Some are unwilling to pay the price in personal 
 effort to achieve the coveted goal. They prefer to remain victims 
 of irrational living, even positively refusing to conform their lives 
 to the regimen outlined for their restoration and preservation. 
 
 Nature's laws are infallible. They reap as they sow, and the 
 harvest is measured by the increase in new-dug graves, by the 
 constantly increasing number of inmates in our insane asylums, 
 and by the weak bodies and imperfect nervous organizations every- 
 where in evidence. These cases are amenable to treatment by 
 rational therapeutics, as is being illustrated by the every-day prac- 
 tice of the physician who dares exercise the intelligence and courage 
 to make employment of such measures as secure for the patient 
 conformity to the physiological conditions whereby health may be 
 acquired and maintained. But much depends upon the intelligent 
 co-operation of the patient. Some there are who are too stupid 
 to exercise their potentialities in normal lines of thought and 
 action whereby results can be obtained, even after detailed instruc- 
 tion in hygiene, dietetics, exercise, and normal living has been 
 given them. These constitute the incompetents, which will ever 
 be a burden upon society, but they are being reduced just in pro- 
 portion as the physician can induce them to follow sane, rational, 
 normal methods of thought and action. 
 
 Here is a physician occupying the chair of Principles and Practice 
 of Medicine in one of our medical universities. He says to me: 
 "Munro, you are on the right track. You are teaching what we 
 all must recognize as the truth as sane, sound, rational, common 
 sense, practical knowledge. You are not playing to the galleries 
 you are making an appeal to the intelligence and brains of the
 
 RATIONAL THERAPEUTICS IN EVERY-DAY PRACTICE. 209 
 
 profession, but the question is, are all its members endowed with 
 that unselfish, broad, altruistic spirit sufficient to utilize and ap- 
 propriate the measures you are advocating?" 
 
 The cases here cited will illustrate the value of the measures out- 
 lined as applied to a class of cases where the methods in general 
 use had proven inadequate. The strongest argument in favor of 
 any method of treatment is the practical results that accrue from its 
 administration. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 1. 
 
 This patient was referred to me by a physician of this city. 
 No less than seven college professors, east and west, figured 
 in the treatment of this case. No less than twenty-one physicians, 
 among them surgeons, gynecologists, neurologists, etc., had exhausted 
 their resources in vain endeavor to benefit this patient. She was 
 a young woman who gave birth to a child, and excessive hemorrhage 
 left her very much exsanguinated and weakened. By the time 
 she was getting to a normal condition again she had an acute 
 attack of salpingitis and a year later was operated on. A large 
 pus tube was removed, together with a badly diseased ovary. She 
 then began to have attacks of migraine, which steadily increased 
 in frequency and severity for four or five years after this opera- 
 tion. Then her uterus was anchored, her appendix removed, and 
 the remaining ovary resected. 
 
 When I saw her she had been ill for ten years, during seven of 
 which she had been a migraine sufferer, and for relief of the 
 attacks morphin had been employed. At the time I saw her she 
 had been taking morphin two or three times a day for five months, 
 with no let-up in her headache. She was a despondent, miserable, 
 pessimistic, blue human being, with the loss possibly of every hope 
 in life. Her physician induced me to try psychotherapeutic 
 measures in her case, and I want to tell you that I took hold 
 of that patient with a strong impression that I could not benefit 
 her. I made no promises, except to do my best. She had had 
 such marked pathological alterations in her neuron elements that 
 I did not believe that their function could be restored. 
 
 After employing psychotherapeutic measures for two months, she
 
 210 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 entirely and completely gave up the morphin, and at the end of 
 two more months she had gained fifteen pounds in weight; and 
 now that woman is well, comfortable, optimistic, and happy, and no 
 longer the miserable, despondent being that she was before the 
 employment of psychotherapeutic measures. 
 
 The measures employed in the treatment of this case consisted 
 of physical education, prophylactic education, suggestion with and 
 without hypnosis, instruction in diet, hydrotherapy, and gymnastics. 
 Among the methods included in treatment by "suggestion" was 
 the psychoanalytic method devised by Freud, of Vienna, which is 
 but the employment of suggestion pure and simple. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 2. 
 
 Female, aged 33; by occupation a stenographer. Was suffering 
 from insomnia, headaches, constipation, and obsessions, besides a 
 functional disturbance of the stomach. For a long while she had 
 vomited most of her meals as soon as she finished eating them. 
 Appendix had been removed, stomach had been washed out for a 
 long while, and electrotherapeutics, hydrotherapy, massage, and 
 drugs had been employed ad nauseam. The diagnoses given her 
 complication were legion. 
 
 I told this patient that I would admit that she had all the 
 diseases that she had been taught to believe she had, provided 
 she would co-operate with me in a rational regimen to become 
 a well, strong, healthful individual. She was greatly emaciated, 
 discouraged, and despondent, but co-operated intelligently. After 
 treatment for two months she had gained twenty-three pounds 
 in weight, and had been sleeping soundly for six weeks; had a 
 good appetite, retained her food from the first treatment by hyp- 
 notic suggestion, was no longer annoyed by obsessions, and for more 
 than a year has been at her work, with no return of her symptoms. 
 
 The treatment followed was the daily employment of hyp- 
 notic suggestion for a month and twice a week for the second 
 month, and instruction in diet, exercise, gymnastics, hygiene, and 
 sanitation. She left for her home in a distant state well equipped 
 with a sound philosophy of life, as well as with a well, normal 
 body.
 
 RATIONAL THERAPEUTICS IN EVERY-DAY PRACTICE. 211 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 3. 
 
 Male, aged 54; by occupation a farmer; mother had committed 
 suicide. He was psychasthenic, suffering from insomnia, obses- 
 sions, constipation, and indigestion; was emaciated physically, and 
 had apparently lost interest in everything pertaining to life, ex- 
 cept the study of his own symptoms. This man was so weak 
 physically that he could hardly stand a walk of five blocks without 
 appearing exhausted. 
 
 After two months' treatment by hypnotic suggestion, and by in- 
 struction on almost every line or phase of life, as well as by the 
 enforcement of exercise, gymnastics, and instruction in a sound 
 mental and physical hygiene and dietetic regimen, this patient went 
 home comparatively self-reliant, physically strong, capacitated to 
 take a brisk walk of eight miles, run a foot race, play ball, or 
 do anything incident to the life of the ordinary farmer. 
 
 Previous to treatment by me he had been treated by neurologists, 
 stomach specialists, electrotherapeutists, and had also had his ap- 
 pendix removed, having been informed that the disease of this 
 organ was responsible for all of his symptoms. Up to one year 
 after treatment, when he was last heard from, he had attended to 
 his usual duties, and was comfortable and happy. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 4. 
 
 Female, aged 41 ; single. Had suffered more or less from utero- 
 ovarian disease for many years, and two years previous to fall- 
 ing under my care had undergone operation, having had her 
 uterus, ovaries, and large fibroids removed, since which she had 
 suffered with headaches, constipation, insomnia, and indigestion. 
 She was psychasthenic and extremely emaciated. After one 
 month's treatment by the method employed in the foregoing cases 
 she was eating, exercising, and sleeping, and had gained several 
 pounds in weight. She went away contrary to my advice, as she 
 could not conveniently remain longer under my care, but con- 
 tinued to improve for two months, after which she experienced a 
 return of some of her former symptoms, and my advice was sought
 
 212 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 in the selection of a medical adviser in a neighboring city. Three 
 or four months' continuous treatment of this patient would un- 
 doubtedly have prepared her for meeting the exigencies of life 
 and to maintain a condition of reasonably good health. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 5. 
 
 Male, aged 48; by occupation a farmer; had a sister who died 
 of epilepsy and an aunt who committed suicide. For two years he 
 had labored under the delusion that he was being watched by detect- 
 ives, and suffered from insomnia, constipation, anorexia, and 
 headaches. He was psychasthenic and weak. He had sought treat- 
 ment from various sources, and was sent to me by a well-known 
 western surgeon. Most of the physicians whom he consulted told 
 him that there was nothing the matter with him, and this only 
 added to his depression, which was extreme. I informed him that 
 he was a sick man and needed treatment, but that the employ- 
 ment of medicine, or electricity, or massage, which had been em- 
 ployed by other physicians, was not applicable in his case. 
 
 After two months had elapsed, during which time he had visited 
 my office daily for treatment, advice, instruction, and education, 
 he went home a sane, happy, self-reliant man, free from all his 
 symptoms. Fourteen months later he dropped in to see me hale, 
 hearty, and happy and informed me that had I "condemned him, 
 as had the others, he would be in his grave. ' ' He had gained more 
 than thirty pounds in weight, and was the picture of strength and 
 optimism. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 6. 
 
 Female, aged 42 ; married ; no children ; height, 5 feet 6 l / 2 inches ; 
 weight 87% pounds. Menstruation had ceased ten years ago. 
 Was neurasthenic, psychasthenic, and extremely despondent. Had 
 frequently threatened self-destruction. Her other symptoms were 
 those of anorexia, insomnia, constipation, and general psychic and 
 physical weakness. I made no promise to the husband of this 
 patient, who accompanied her from a distant state, but stated that 
 I would do my best for her.
 
 RATIONAL THERAPEUTICS IN EVERY-DAY PRACTICE. 213 
 
 She returned home after a month, having gained five pounds in 
 weight, had good appetite, and was sleeping fairly well ; one month 
 later wrote me that she had gained four more pounds in weight, 
 and was finding a comfort and pleasure in life which she had 
 not experienced in many years. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 7. 
 
 Female, aged 34; single. This patient had all the classic 
 symptoms of grand mal and had been the patient of several of the 
 most distinguished neurologists that adorn the list of the American 
 profession. The diagnosis given by them was that of grand mal, 
 and by them all the bromids were employed. 
 
 The history of the malady dated back twenty-five years. She had 
 all the characteristics of an overindulged child and a very much 
 underdeveloped personality. Was at first almost unmanageable, re- 
 fusing positively to co-operate in the measures advised. Sug- 
 gestions given in the hypnotic state were carried out, and in this 
 way she was induced to conform to the dietetic and hygienic 
 measures outlined. At first her seizures occurred as often as every 
 ten days or twice per month, and two or three hard seizures were 
 followed by lighter attacks. After treatment for nine months she 
 had gone three months entirely free from attacks, exhibited a 
 markedly changed personality, was comparatively pleasant and 
 agreeable, and had acquired habits that were little short of the 
 normal individual. 
 
 The value of functional exercises, education, purposeful endeavor 
 on the part of the patient, and a sane dietetic and hygienic regimen 
 in this class of patients, to qualify them for using the normal 
 mechanisms of the nervous system as a means of controlling the 
 function of dissociated complexes, causing the convulsive seizures, 
 are beyond question. Hypnotic suggestion, as a means of securing 
 the co-operation of this patient, was of unmistakable value. 
 
 Spiller and Oppenheim have called attention to the fact that many 
 cases exist that have heretofore been diagnosticated epilepsy or 
 hysteria which bear not the stigma of either. Just in proportion 
 as rational psyehotherapeutic measures are employed in the treat-
 
 214 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 merit of this class of cases are we finding out that psychasthenic 
 attacks resembling epilepsy are amenable to treatment, and the 
 number of "epileptics" will decrease just in proportion as correct 
 treatment is employed. The value of psychotherapeutic measures 
 in the treatment of true epilepsy has not as yet been definitely de- 
 termined. There can be no question of the value of such measures 
 in the development of the normal potentialities or nervous 
 mechanisms of such cases, which have for so long a time been con- 
 sidered hopeless. Time, persistence, and patience are necessary in 
 the treatment of such cases, but the beneficial results to the patient 
 are highly satisfactory. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 8. 
 
 Male, aged 40; highly neuropathic constitution. After a siege 
 of domestic quarrels, resulting in mental and nervous derange- 
 ments insomnia, constipation, and hysterical manifestations was, 
 by order of his physician, fastened with restraint apparatus and 
 taken to a hospital, where he was kept in a room with iron bars 
 and dosed upon hypnotics for four days, but with practically no 
 improvement in his symptoms, when he was brought to my office 
 for the purpose of examination, with the expressed wish that I 
 treat him, under the care of a nurse, at a local hospital. 
 
 After spending an hour with my patient, in which time I had 
 succeeded in gaining his absolute confidence, I informed those in 
 care of him that he needed the assistance of a friend as well as 
 a physician, and assured the patient that I would take his part 
 and give him all the necessary assistance without confinement in a 
 hospital. He agreed to acquiesce in my regimen for the ameliora- 
 tion and cure of his condition, and, after a confidential talk to him 
 alone for twenty minutes, I instructed him to go home and re- 
 turn to my office daily for treatment. After treatment for ten 
 days he returned to his work, and up to six months afterward, 
 when he last reported, had experienced no return of his symptoms. 
 
 For six weeks prior to the first treatment by hypnotic suggestion 
 this man had slept not more than two hours per day. From the 
 first treatment by hypnotic suggestion he had plentiful and re-
 
 RATIONAL THERAPEUTICS IN EVERY-DAY PRACTICE. 215 
 
 freshing sleep, good appetite and digestion, bowel movements were 
 regular every day, and he was agreeable with all with whom he as- 
 sociated. The treatment of this case consisted of the employment 
 of suggestion with and without hypnosis, and instruction in 
 dietetics, hygiene, exercise, gymnastics, and education along the 
 practical problems of life and the art of true living. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 9. 
 
 Male, aged 42 ; by occupation a real estate and bond dealer. Had 
 been for two years seeking relief for a severe pain, which an- 
 noyed him at frequent intervals, in one side of his head. Besides 
 this annoying symptom, he had for many years suffered from 
 chronic constipation, insomnia, and was, on account of his failure 
 to obtain relief by the various methods of treatment which 
 physicians had employed, very much alarmed over his condition. 
 One physician had had a skiagraph taken in an effort to determine 
 if he had a brain tumor, and this experience had added to his 
 anxiety. He was incapacitated entirely for attending to business, 
 and was altogether quite miserable. 
 
 After six weeks' treatment by suggestion, hypnotic suggestion, 
 instruction in diet, exercise, and gymnastics, he was enabled to re- 
 turn to his business entirely free from the symptoms which had 
 annoyed him, and has now, after sixty days, had no return of 
 them. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 10. 
 
 Male, aged 50 ; height, 5 feet 5 l / 2 inches ; weight, 140 pounds ; by 
 occupation a physician. This person was a brother of the pa- 
 tient described in case 9, who came from a distant state to visit 
 the patient just as he came under my care. This physician was 
 impressed by the "oddity" of the regimen outlined for his brother, 
 and made no hesitancy in expressing his doubt as to the practical 
 outcome of such measures. After watching with interest the satis- 
 factory results which were obtained in a very short time by the 
 employment of psychotherapeutic measures in the case just de- 
 scribed, this physician put himself under my care. He had a
 
 216 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 history that clearly showed that he had undergone an overstrain 
 in his education before and during his career as a student of medi- 
 cine, from which he had never entirely reacted. Eight years ago 
 he underwent an operation for a tubercular disease of the epididy- 
 mis, and had also a cystitis supposed to be of tubercular origin. 
 After the operation mentioned, in the course of several years, he 
 recovered from the tubercular disease, but was left with a con- 
 tracted bladder, holding not more than an ounce of urine, and, as 
 a consequence, he was compelled to empty his bladder at frequent 
 intervals both day and night. Notwithstanding this impediment, 
 he resumed his professional work. 
 
 Eight months previous to coming under my care he had a para- 
 lytic stroke, having fallen during the administration of an anes- 
 thetic and three days elapsed before consciousness returned. When 
 he came under my care the arm and leg on the affected side were 
 partially impaired, and his memory for names and places almost nil. 
 
 His knowledge of the pathology of his condition, and his failure 
 to recover after so long a period, left him psychasthenic and phys- 
 ically incompetent. 
 
 After treatment for one month by suggestion, hypnotic sugges- 
 tion, and by instituting a dietetic, hygienic, gymnastic, and exer- 
 cise regimen, in which the patient gave intelligent, faithful co- 
 operation, he has made more improvement than in all the previous 
 eight months combined, and, instead of feeling compelled to resign 
 his life to "vegetating" for the balance of his days, he feels quali- 
 fied to meet the exigencies and responsibilities incident to his 
 struggle for existence as a competent, self-reliant, capable, and 
 normal man, and has for several months followed his practice. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 11. 
 
 Female, aged 42; married. Had been a sufferer from subacute 
 gastritis for many years, for which medicine, rest, travel, mineral 
 waters, electricity, massage, and hydrotherapy had been employed, 
 together with numerous dietetic regimens, with no benefit. Con- 
 stipation, insomnia, and other neurasthenic symptoms were in evi- 
 dence. The temperature of this patient was 101%, specific grav-
 
 RATIONAL THERAPEUTICS IN EVERY-DAY PRACTICE. 217 
 
 ity of urine 1,000, and she was nervous and irritable. She had 
 recently declined a surgical operation for the relief of her stomach 
 disorder, which she was assured would bring the only permanent 
 relief from her symptoms. She was greatly reduced in weight, 
 pale, and anemic, having a sallow complexion, furred and red 
 tongue, an irritable throat and nagging cough, as the result of an 
 excessively acid stomach secretion. 
 
 After one month's treatment by psychotherapeutic procedures, 
 in which the measures employed in the foregoing cases were insti- 
 tuted, she has gained ten and a half pounds, sleeps well, is free 
 from cough and throat symptoms ; specific gravity of urine is nor- 
 mal, bowel movements are regular every day, skin has lost the 
 sallow, waxy hue, and she is strong, optimistic, and happy. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION 12. 
 
 Female, aged 65. Highly cultured in fact, a victim of overin- 
 dulgence in the pleasures derived from reading, study, travel, and 
 other modes of a particular type of luxurious living and in many 
 respects a sensible, practical woman. Since ten years ago she had 
 reduced in weight from 125 to 93 pounds, suffered from nervous- 
 ness, insomnia, and obsessions, as well as other neurasthenic and 
 psychasthenic manifestations. She had availed herself of the treat- 
 ment of the leading physicians of her home city, as well as having 
 received treatment by one of the best known neurologists of New 
 York city and a famous physician of Berlin, but she had continued 
 to lose in weight, and to suffer from her various psychoneurotic 
 manifestations, in spite of all that had been done for her. 
 
 She came to me as the result of reading a former edition of this 
 book, and was quite willing to intelligently co-operate with my mode 
 of treatment, which consisted of hypnotic suggestion, re-education, 
 instruction in dietetics, exercise, and gymnastics. 
 
 After seeing her at intervals of from once per day to once per 
 week for three months, she had gained eighteen pounds, enjoyed 
 a general feeling of well-being, slept comparatively well, and felt 
 stronger and happier in every way. The employment of Jung's 
 association method pointed to many abnormal complexes, all of
 
 218 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 which revealed her scholarly character and strong ambition to 
 learn, which no doubt was the cause of her symptomatic manifes- 
 tations. 
 
 No effort was made to go into an analysis of the psychogenetic 
 origin of her symptoms more than to point out to her the necessity 
 of living the simple life, and I also taught her how, as a means of 
 conserving and maintaining the highest possible degree of nervous 
 and mental stability, she could meet the exigencies incident to a 
 normal wholesome life. 
 
 I could report many more cases where the employment of psycho- 
 therapeutic treatment, embracing the measures employed in the 
 cases here reported, have been attended with gratifying results 
 where other measures in general use had been inadequate. 
 
 As to the correctness of the diagnoses in the cases mentioned, 
 they were in accord with the opinions of physicians, most of whom 
 are occupying professorships in medical universities throughout 
 various sections of the United States. 
 
 As stated in the beginning of this chapter, the foundation of 
 rational therapeutics is in pathology, etiology, and diagnosis, but 
 the trouble in most of these cases was that there had been too much 
 pathology and diagnosis impressed on the patient, and too little 
 regard for practical methods of training him away from the pa- 
 thology of his condition by the employment of the normal mech- 
 anism of his nervous system, whereby his general condition, as well 
 as relief from his special pathology, might be obtained. It is the 
 function of psychotherapeutic measures to so utilize the normal 
 machinery of the physiological organism that the destructive meta- 
 morphosis may be arrested, and, as far as possible, repaired. By 
 the employment of these methods for the maintenance of the func- 
 tions of the entire organism, restitution of the special pathological 
 processes will, in many instances, undoubtedly be the result. Con- 
 sequently, the method of treatment is not to be limited to the treat- 
 ment of merely so-called functional diseases, and, when it is skill- 
 fully and judiciously employed, it is unquestionably one of the 
 most important therapeutic resources at our command, the value 
 of which we are appreciating more and more as our experience with 
 its employment becomes broader.
 
 RATIONAL THERAPEUTICS IN EVERY-DAY PRACTICE. 219 
 
 In all of the cases reported in this chapter, hypnotic suggestion 
 was freely employed as well as simple suggestion, and instruction 
 in dietetics, hygiene, exercise, and gymnastics. Every phase of the 
 life of the individual patient was freely discussed, and he was re- 
 educated upon every practical problem of life as a means of help- 
 ing him to readapt himself to his environment. In this process of 
 "re-education" the patient received the benefit of all that could 
 be gained by the psychoanalytic form of psychotherapy, which has 
 been so extensively elaborated by Freud, whose methods are noth- 
 ing more or less than his way of employing suggestion. 
 
 Just a word in regard to the employment of hypnotic suggestion. 
 In no instance do I attempt to deceive the patient. I explain to 
 him what hypnotism is, giving him a lucid explanation of its the- 
 oretical basis, as a therapeutic agent, as applicable to his individual 
 case. I frankly and truthfully explain to him that he is not going 
 to sleep, but that by his assistance and co-operation I am enabled 
 to train him into placing himself into a condition of increased re- 
 ceptivity to suggestion whereby his neuron elements are better 
 enabled to conserve the ideas, feelings, and emotions produced as 
 the result of the suggestions employed by me. As all motor ac- 
 tions arise in the emotions, the patient is enabled to accomplish by 
 his own voluntary efforts that which he could not accomplish with- 
 out such assistance. Hypnotic suggestion has enabled me to dis- 
 pense with hypnotics in the treatment of insomnia. By the use of 
 hypnotic suggestion, intelligently and judiciously applied, we are 
 enabled to promote sleep, quiet nervousness, relieve pain, encour- 
 age secretion, aid excretion, stimulate functional activity, control 
 sensation, aid digestion, strengthen the will, develop latent talents, 
 strengthen the muscles, correct morbid fears, cure despondency, 
 hallucinations, obsessions, and, in conjunction with other psycho- 
 therapeutic measures, to prevent certain forms of insanity. 
 
 Here I would again repeat that psychotherapeutic measures are 
 not a complete system of medicine, but should be used in conjunc- 
 tion with other therapeutic resources, though often they give relief 
 where other remedies have failed, and often, when used alone, 
 other measures are unnecessary. The measures embraced in the 
 application of the principles of psychotherapy are applicable to
 
 220 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 every patient who is able and willing to give intelligent co-opera- 
 tion. In its employment we do nothing more or less than help the 
 patient to make use of the normal potentialities of the psycho- 
 physiological organism, and equip him or her to be better enabled 
 to use these mechanisms or nervous potentialities for oneself.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 SOME OTHER PRACTICAL POINTS. 
 
 Unquestionably the fine art in applying suggestive therapeutics 
 lies in the employment of suggestion without an effort to induce 
 a sleeplike condition. Yet, if the individual can be induced to act 
 upon and execute your suggestion, either consciously or subcon- 
 sciously, it is by the use of the same method call it reasoning, per- 
 suasion, advice, preaching, education, suggestion, or hypnotism. 
 
 Upon one occasion, when I was standing by a cigar stand with 
 two physicians, and holding in my hand a small vial of water, a 
 third physician, a stranger to me, walked up and asked, "What is 
 that in your hand ? ' ' 
 
 ' ' Liquid electricity, ' ' was my reply. 
 
 "Liquid electricity; why, what is that and what is it for?" 
 
 "It is used locally as an anesthetic to relieve paia, cure headache, 
 extract teeth, and do minor surgery," said I. "Hold out your arm 
 and I will demonstrate its efficacy. ' ' 
 
 The physician extended his arm, and, rubbing some of the water 
 on the back of it for half a minute, I drew from my pocket a 
 small steel pin, and, holding it between my eyes and his, said to 
 him, "You see this pin. I am going to stick it through a fold of 
 skin on your arm, but you will not feel it. Your arm is perfectly 
 dead, and, if that hurts you in the least, let the physicians present 
 know it. Look at it; here it goes," thrusting the pin through a 
 large fold of his skin. 
 
 "Did that hurt you?" asked one of the physicians. 
 
 "Not the least bit," was his reply. 
 
 Taking me by the arm, the first physician said, "Come back this 
 way, Dr. Munro; come back with us, Dr. Blank." In his office he 
 turned to me and said, Dr. Munro, shake hands with Dr. Blank." 
 
 "I want some of that preparation of yours," said he. 
 
 221
 
 222 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 When I explained that the medicine was only water, and that 
 I had been talking to the other physicians present about the efficacy 
 of suggestion, he laughed heartily and seemed to appreciate the 
 experience. 
 
 Such experiences have been mine in hundreds and hundreds of 
 instances, not only experimental and demonstrative, but also with 
 a direct therapeutic aim. I state this experience in detail to bring 
 out this point the unconscious use of suggestive methods is the 
 most effective. 
 
 In three-fourths of the cases where an individual requests that 
 he be placed in the hypnotic state, we fail to get him into a state 
 of suggestibility sufficiently effective to induce anesthesia by sug- 
 gestion, but by suggestion in disguise we frequently succeed in a 
 hundred cases consecutively without a failure. A physician in 
 a western city questioned the above statement, as have many other 
 physicians who had to be shown. 
 
 On an occasion of my lecture and demonstrations, one physician, 
 after inducing hypnosis, proceeded as usual and induced anesthesia 
 and made other tests. Then another did the same, upon an entirely 
 new subject, to the extent that a large pin was thrust through the 
 fold of the man's face without his evincing the slightest evidence 
 of pain, and he was also made to sustain a weight of two hundred 
 pounds on his body with his head on one chair and his heels on 
 another, to demonstrate the efficacy of suggestion. 
 
 At this juncture the physician who had questioned my ability to 
 successfully hypnotize such a large percentage of individuals, asked 
 if I called that hypnotism. "Why," exclaimed he, "you are get- 
 ting those men to do that through autosuggestion. ' ' 
 
 ' ' Certainly, Doctor, ' ' was my reply. 
 
 "Well, why don't you call your work by the right name, and 
 say you are demonstrating and teaching suggestion and autosug- 
 gestion ? ' ' 
 
 Other physicians present, who were men of the highest profes- 
 sional attainments, assured the physician in question that they had 
 never witnessed more successful demonstrations of the efficacy of 
 suggestion, having seen work both in America and Europe by com- 
 petent men.
 
 .SOME OTHER PRACTICAL POINTS. 223 
 
 The extreme ignorance manifested by some men in regard to the 
 practical and theoretical phases of psychotherapy is pitiful. They 
 expect to find in hypnotism some uncanny influence by which they 
 can dominate and control people without regard to their wishes or 
 knowledge, as has been claimed by every kind of outlandish faker 
 advertising to teach all sorts of absurdities. 
 
 The only class of people that we can dominate, as distinguished 
 from simply aiding them to execute an idea or series of ideas, is 
 those of an unstable nervous organization, in whom a consciousness 
 of self-control has never been evolved. Such people are so sug- 
 gestible that they readily take suggestions put in the form of posi- 
 tive affirmations in the waking state, but for therapeutic purposes 
 they are the least satisfactory patients, although the very ones that 
 most need our help, and the class of cases for whom suggestion is 
 more useful than any other measure. 
 
 I have experimented with hypnotism and suggestion in every 
 possible manner, both for amusement, demonstration, and thera- 
 peutic application. The more normal, reliable, and strongest nerv- 
 ous organizations have always produced the most satisfactory re- 
 sults, because they could best exercise self-control, and were better 
 able to act upon and execute a suggestion, both consciously and 
 subconsciously. We can treat by suggestion any individual who 
 seeks our services as a physician. 
 
 Never, under any consideration, let a patient suggest to you the 
 kind of treatment you must adopt. 
 
 In the case of unstable and degenerative nervous organizations, 
 the problem is to bring about those conditions that increase their 
 protoplasmic energies, as well as to direct those energies into nor- 
 mal, useful, healthful channels. I have often prescribed a placebo 
 to satisfy the patient, while I only too well realized that his benefit 
 and recovery depended altogether upon my influence upon his 
 habits of thought and conduct. 
 
 A neurotic lady, for whom I prescribed a teaspoonful of com- 
 pound rhubarb and soda mixture at bedtime for sleep, and advised 
 to relax, and breathe deeply and rhythmically for ten minutes when 
 she retired, so the medicine could have full effect, complained that 
 she slept so soundly that she felt "dead all over" the next morning.
 
 224 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 I accepted that as evidence of a splendid result of the treatment, 
 but advised her to reduce the dose one-half, drink more water, and 
 take more exercise in open air and sunshine, assuring her that the 
 "dead feeling" was only her "nervousness dying out." 
 
 Never use hypnotism or suggestion for amusement upon any 
 occasion. 
 
 The physicians in the United States who have felt that their 
 practices were injured by their use of suggestion and hypnotism 
 have been those who have given parlor entertainments, etc. I have 
 yet to find a single man who employs suggestive measures in a dig- 
 nified, conscientious manner but whose success has been augmented 
 both therapeutically and financially. 
 
 I can cite some men who have stated to me five years after taking 
 my instruction in suggestive therapeutics that the knowledge de- 
 rived from the one lesson had benefited them more than a three- 
 months' course of post-graduate instruction. They were men who 
 had not before realized their own worth, and by the lesson in sug- 
 gestive therapeutics they awoke to a higher appreciation of their 
 personality as a therapeutic recourse. 
 
 It has been asserted that a patient who has been frequently hyp- 
 notized has been robbed of self-reliance and become so helpless that 
 he must lean upon his hypnotizer for support. On the contrary, 
 I have frequently planted suggestions into the minds of patients 
 that have rendered them so independent, and capable, and self- 
 reliant that they have refused to have further suggestions from me, 
 taking their lives into their own hands, being guided by their own 
 reason, while we remained the best of friends. 
 
 A man had been so crazed by a long drunken spree that he be- 
 came delirious, and rushed out of his house in the dark, ran into 
 a fence, and landed in a neighbor's house, begging him to protect 
 him, his face bleeding from the obstacles he had encountered. Be- 
 side his bed was found an iron poker, and on either side of him 
 were respectively a pistol and a large knife. His stomach had at 
 last become his best friend, and given him a chance to end his 
 siege of alcoholic poisoning by rejecting all whisky he attempted 
 to put into it, as well as all medicine given for the relief of his 
 miserable nervous and mental condition. He felt, however, crazed
 
 SOME OTHER PRACTICAL POINTS. 225 
 
 as he was, that I was his friend, and I did my best to prove worthy 
 of his confidence. 
 
 I placed a cold towel upon his forehead, and began my sugges- 
 tions to hypnotize him by telling him that the cold application 
 \vould quiet him all over and make him drowsy and sleepy, and 
 that he would go to sleep and sleep soundly all night, and awaken 
 in the morning feeling all right. Though I had secured thorough 
 relaxation, with his eyes closed and with him breathing through 
 his mouth, when I suggested that "this cold towel will put you 
 to sleep and you will sleep soundly all night," he took a deep in- 
 spiration and said, "Lord grant it," showing how he acquiesced 
 in the treatment. He was hypnotized, and suggestions were given 
 to quiet all nervousness, to relieve his irritable stomach, to get him 
 to sleep soundly all night, to excite a disgust or antipathy and 
 hatred for whisky, and, above all, to awaken within him a con- 
 sciousness of manhood and duty to his family. 
 
 He slept soundly all night from half-past five in the afternoon 
 until half-past seven the following morning, and, as I approached 
 the front door on my return visit, his wife, whose nervous system 
 had been shattered by such experiences for several years, met me 
 with the exclamation, "Oh, Dr. Munro, do you reckon Mr. Blank 
 will ever wake up?" 
 
 "Why, certainly, Mrs. Blank; he is breathing, is he not?" 
 
 "Yes, he has been resting nicely, and I was able to retire last 
 night and get some sleep for the first time in three weeks." 
 
 Upon awakening the patient in question, who was a large, strong, 
 well-educated, successful business man, I congratulated him upon 
 having a good night's sleep and assured him that he would not care 
 for more whisky, and was going to be a man after that. 
 
 That evening I said to him, "Mr. Blank, I desire to put you to 
 sleep again," and, extending his hand, he said, "Dr. Munro, you 
 c-a-n-t do it, I thank you very much for the treatment last night 
 and shall always appreciate it, but I do not expect to touch any 
 more whisky, and I shall get along all right." 
 
 I assured him that I was very glad indeed to hear him talk that 
 way, and that for his wife's and daughter's sake, as well as his 
 own, I knew he would feel happier. I turned, however, to an at-
 
 226 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 tendant and directed that a placebo capsule (of powdered licorice 
 root) be given at eight o'clock, and, in case he did not sleep soundly 
 by nine, to give a second capsule, suggesting to the patient that 
 he would sleep soundly all night. He refused hypnotic sugges- 
 tion, but took the placebo capsules and slept soundly. 
 
 It is very easy to get an individual to accept a suggestion that 
 is in accordance with his natural desires. Some people do not want 
 to get well. They enjoy the sympathy and attention of an over- 
 anxious family ad nauseam. In such cases a suggestion given to 
 set up a reaction may become necessary. 
 
 A physician had a pneumonia patient who had insisted that he 
 was going to die on a certain night. The family had asked that 
 another doctor be called in, and that each of them stay on watch 
 during the night. 
 
 The attending physician had kindly assured the family that there 
 were no alarming symptoms, and also did all he could to reason 
 with and reassure the patient. Nevertheless, at the appointed time 
 the young man sent for his family and began bidding them 
 good-by, when at that juncture the attending physician walked into 
 the room, where the new recruit had for two hours been on watch. 
 
 He was a man who did things in his own way; so he insisted 
 that all the family go out of the room and demanded of the patient, 
 as if he were mad enough to fight, what all this commotion meant ? 
 When the young man assured him that he was going to die and 
 could not get well, etc., the wise old physician answered, "Well, 
 die, - - you, die and be in a hurry about it; make haste and let 
 me see you." Then placing his hand on his forehead, he called 
 the boy by name and said to him kindly, "I am tired of all this 
 foolishness. You are going to get well. You can't die, it matters 
 not how hard you try. Now, close your eyes and go to sleep, and 
 let me hear no more from you." The patient was relieved of his 
 morbid psychoneurotic condition and made a nice recovery. 
 
 A hypodermic of % grain of apomorphin has served the author 
 as a most valuable means of suggestion. 
 
 In some psychoneurotic cases a Paquelin cautery, heated to a 
 cherry-red heat before the patient's eyes and brushed with quick 
 light strokes down the spine, proves a most valuable expedient as
 
 SOME OTHER PRACTICAL POINTS. 227 
 
 a means of suggestion. Hundreds and hundreds of physicians 
 are using the static machine at so much per treatment. Says one, 
 who is honest enough to admit that it is only a suggestive means 
 of treatment: "It matters not what be the trouble, I give them 
 all the same dose. ' ' 
 
 A man who will exercise the courage to do so, can use suggestion 
 and get results when all such subterfuges are worthless. He can 
 take his equipment with him wherever he goes, and the general 
 practice of medicine is unquestionably the field for its most valu- 
 able and effective employment. 
 
 In my work among the physicians it has been a matter of ob- 
 servation that psychotherapy is being appreciated just in propor- 
 tion as culture and education are most in evidence. Its successful 
 employment, as with all other branches of medicine, depends 
 largely upon the personality of the physician. There is no disease 
 or condition where its use is contraindicated, provided the right 
 suggestions are given to help the patient. 
 
 If used to benefit the patient, its employment will make friends 
 for the physician. No selfish, cold-blooded physician who is in 
 the practice of medicine solely for the money, and who has his 
 patients' interest not more at heart than the desire to secure a 
 fee, can ever be a successful psychotherapist. It is best employed 
 by the man who is most willing to stand up for his weaker brother 
 who is most anxious to help his patients to help themselves. 
 Character, which is educated thinking, desiring, willing, and act- 
 ing, is a valuable asset in the make-up of a physician's therapeutic 
 armamentarium. With such an asset his conduct toward his pa- 
 tients will be governed accordingly.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SUGGESTION AS AN ADJUNCT IN THE ADMINISTRATION 
 OF ANESTHETICS. 
 
 In my association with the physicians in the capacity before 
 mentioned I have been interested in all phases of surgical work, 
 and have witnessed operations in many leading hospitals by some 
 of the foremost surgeons of our country, as well as by those of 
 lesser note, and have had the importance of the subject of sug- 
 gestion to the general welfare of surgery impressed on me by many 
 illustrations in both hospital and private work. 
 
 I invite the reader's attention to (a) the efficacy of suggestion 
 to induce anesthesia; (b) the danger to the patient attending the 
 administration of anesthetics; (c) the possibility of better results 
 in surgical work where the minimum amount of anesthetic is used ; 
 (d) the efficacy of suggestion as an adjunct in the administration 
 of anesthetics, and the safety of the method to the patient. 
 
 (a) As to the efficacy of suggestion to induce anesthesia, I have 
 instructed physicians to follow a simple method of using sugges- 
 tion to the extent that anesthesia was induced so that a pin was 
 thrust through the fold of the skin in an individual's arm or face, 
 or through his lip or neck, without the slightest evidence of pain. 
 These tests were made under conditions of absolute fairness, the 
 subject for each demonstration being taken at random from the 
 streets, and had not the slightest idea that the results were other 
 than the effect of a placebo (a bottle of medicine) which was used 
 as a means of suggestion. 
 
 Among the first group of physicians to give me audience was a 
 dentist, who, within less than an hour after our engagement, ex- 
 tracted teeth for two patients without pain or even the knowl- 
 edge that the teeth had been removed, having used suggestion for 
 the operation. 
 
 Since that time I have had occasion to demonstrate the efficacy 
 
 228
 
 SUGGESTION AS AN ADJUNCT TO ANESTHETICS. 229 
 
 of suggestion to induce anesthesia in dentistry many times, and 
 would occasionally anesthetize a patient, where a favorable psycho- 
 logical situation presented itself, in the presence of one or more 
 physicians in the removal of tumors, sewing up incised wounds, 
 opening abscesses, setting a fracture, amputating a finger, resect- 
 ing a rib, in operation for empyemia, where the use of ether or 
 chloroform were not justifiable, in operation for adenoids, the re- 
 moval of tonsils, and in obstetrics. 
 
 One physician, to my knowledge, had within five months used 
 suggestion in minor surgery in not less than five or six hundred 
 instances, and hundreds of physicians, who made effort to do so, 
 had success in the application of this phase of psychotherapy far 
 beyond what they had ever expected possible to obtain. Among 
 these were some who had availed themselves of opportunities to 
 witness the practical employment of suggestion in all parts of the 
 world, and had implanted within them the conviction that sug- 
 gestion was not of efficacy when employed by them. 
 
 Of the subjects used for demonstrations by the physicians 99 
 percent were amenable to suggestions, made by physicians with no 
 previous experience, sufficient for anesthesia to be induced. 
 
 (b) Regarding the danger to the patient attending the adminis- 
 tration of anesthetics, no satisfactory statistics are today obtain- 
 able in reference to the mortality from chloroform or ether anes- 
 thesia. Nitrous oxid is not yet practicable for general surgical 
 work, however meritorious and free from danger this agent may 
 be ; so my remarks will be restricted to the use of suggestion as an 
 adjunct to the employment of ether and chloroform in the produc- 
 tion of anesthesia. 
 
 Statistics collected by Julliard show a mortality from chloroform 
 in 524,507 administrations of 161 deaths rate, 1 in 3,258; and 
 from ether in 314,738 administrations of 21 deaths rate, 1 in 
 14,987. Those collected by Gurlt in Germany from 1891 to 1897 
 show a death rate of 1 in 2,039 from chloroform, and 1 in 5,000 
 from ether. 
 
 My opinion is that the mortality is very much greater than is 
 shown by statistics. Many deaths, no doubt, occur from the exces- 
 sive administration of ether and chloroform that are ascribed in per-
 
 230 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 feet candor to the inadequate physical condition of the patient and 
 not to the anesthetic, and my reason for this conclusion will be 
 fully set forth. 
 
 In a city of my knowledge two deaths occurred on the operating 
 table, a week apart, which were reported at the local medical so- 
 ciety, and the cause ascribed was the administration of ether (not 
 the excessive administration of ether). 
 
 In another city two deaths occurred, one each from chloroform 
 and ether, in a period of less than sixty days apart. These four 
 deaths occurred upon the operating table and were directly the 
 effect of the excessive administration of the anesthetic upon the 
 centers presiding over the circulation and respiration. 
 
 In another instance of my knowledge an eastern expert was giv- 
 ing a lecture on the administration of ether, and at the same time 
 demonstrating the technic of the method employed by him, before 
 a body of medical men. He was urging the importance of pro- 
 found anesthesia for the safety of the patient, and was pushing 
 the anesthetic to its full physiological effect to secure the condition 
 desired, when the surgeon in waiting modestly touched him, call- 
 ing his attention to the condition of his patient he was dead. 
 This case went on the hospital records as ' ' heart failure, ' ' and the 
 magnanimous spirit of the physicians present did all they could 
 to console their crestfallen visitor. 
 
 I have more than once asked in confidence the resident physician 
 in a large hospital, "Do you ever have a death on the operating 
 table from the anesthetic?" and received this or a similar reply, 
 "Oh, yes, I am sorry to say that we do, more frequently than we 
 feel is justified." 
 
 The immediate untoward effects of the anesthetic have been most 
 strongly impressed upon me, and this leaves out of consideration 
 the secondary effects or conditions likely to follow as a sequel to 
 the administration of an anesthetic, more especially where used in 
 excess, such as bronchitis, broncho-pneumonia, lobar pneumonia, 
 renal congestion, nephritis and urinary suppression, jaundice, 
 glycosuria, and insanity. These and other results are known to 
 follow the administration of anesthetics. 
 
 Whatever else might be said in regard to the physiological ac-
 
 SUGGESTION AS AN ADJUNCT- "TO ANESTHETICS. 231 
 
 tion of chloroform and ether, they undoubtedly act by arresting 
 the activity of the nervous centers concerned in sensation. Given 
 in excess, they destroy life by paralyzing the nervous mechanism 
 concerned in the circulation or respiration, or possibly in both. 
 
 Any drug that is capable of depriving an individual of conscious- 
 ness and rendering him insensible to pain is a poison, and should at 
 all times be regarded as such. The use of chloroform and ether 
 in the production of anesthesia, administered by inhalation, influ- 
 ences the nerve centers presiding over all bodily functions, and 
 causes degenerative cellular changes in every organ and cell in the 
 body. The toxemia produced in consequence of the administra- 
 tion of these anesthetics varies in severity in different patients, 
 dependent on the amount of the anesthetic administered at a given 
 time, the strength of the drug used, the length of time employed 
 in anesthesia, and the quality of neuron structure in the complex 
 mechanism of the entire physiological organism. 
 
 In by far the greater number of surgical patients there exists 
 a general condition of physiological insufficiency or a marked de- 
 gree of physiological incompetency. Aside from the gross patho- 
 logic changes in the local area to be relieved by surgical procedures, 
 the cells of the entire organism do not properly perform their 
 functions. 
 
 The predisposing factors which contribute toward fatal results 
 are such conditions as sepsis, anemia, loss of blood, chronic wasting 
 diseases, and any similar condition that lowers the resistive powers 
 of the cells of the organism. 
 
 In all such cases less of the drug employed is required to pro- 
 duce anesthesia, due to the existing vulnerable condition of the 
 protoplasmic elements of the organism. 
 
 Cells that are already engaged in mortal combat with pathogenic 
 germs, or weakened from loss of blood, or struggling to eliminate 
 toxic material from some of the various morbid conditions which 
 give rise to surgical intervention, in the administration of anes- 
 thetics (especially when used in excess of the minimum amount 
 required for anesthesia) are deprived of their fighting qualities, 
 their function is inhibited, activity is arrested stunned, benumbed, 
 exhausted poisoned to a degree that renders them unresponsive
 
 232 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 to internal or external stimuli; so no wonder the tendency to col- 
 lapse, surgical shock, or death. 
 
 (c) Let us briefly consider the possibility of better results in 
 surgical work where the minimum amount of the anesthetic is used. 
 
 The American text book of surgery, on page 1116, says : ' ' Anes- 
 thetics act by producing paralysis of the cerebrospinal nerve cen- 
 ters. There is first a stage of cerebral excitement, followed by a 
 stage of cerebral insensibility, then a loss of voluntary movement, 
 followed by a loss of reflex action. Consciousness is lost before 
 the paralysis of the muscles supervenes, and a patient is said to 
 be fully anesthetized when the nerve centers are paralyzed, with 
 the exception of those presiding over respiration and circulation." 
 
 It is conceded by the writers of the text books on surgery that 
 the dangers from chloroform are chiefly in connection with the 
 circulation, and are manifested by various degrees of circulatory 
 depression ; and that the dangers from ether are chiefly in connec- 
 tion with the respiration, and are manifested by various degrees 
 of asphyxia. 
 
 The point that I desire to emphasize by these references is that 
 ether and chloroform are dangerous poisons, and that they are re- 
 garded as such by all writers on surgery. The only logical conclu- 
 sion, then, is that the least amount of the anesthetic administered 
 to secure complete insensibility is most conducive to the safety of 
 the patient. 
 
 But since it happens that death occurs with comparative fre- 
 quency in trivial operations with incomplete anesthesia, it is sup- 
 posed by most surgeons that the giving of too little of the anes- 
 thetic is attended with quite as much danger as, if not more than, 
 the free use of the drug employed for the production of anesthesia. 
 
 The deaths that occur in the administration of anesthetics when 
 given for trivial operations are due to the morbid psychic factor in 
 those cases, which at the present time is not sufficiently appreciated 
 by anesthetists and surgeons. Fear, an emotion which arises as a 
 result of the analysis of consequences, has a most depressing effect 
 upon the circulatory and respiratory centers, and this, in conjunc- 
 tion with the physiological action of chloroform and ether, given to 
 a patient who becomes alarmed at the bare idea of taking an anes-
 
 SUGGESTION AS AN ADJUNCT TO ANESTHETICS. 233 
 
 thetic, without the proper precautions to secure a favorable psycho- 
 logical attitude on the part of the patient, is likely to produce death 
 in some instances, and in such cases the reason is ascribed to too 
 little anesthetic. 
 
 It is possible that death may occur from purely nervous shock. 
 Shock may be defined as a complete suspension of some and partial 
 of others of the functions of the nervous system. The anesthetist 
 who understands the technic of using suggestion in conjunction 
 with the administration of anesthetics will not only avoid the 
 danger from their use in trivial operations, but will minimize the 
 danger from their use in excessive doses in all surgical work, and 
 greatly increase the possibility of good results to the patient from 
 the operation as well. 
 
 Success in surgery is determined by the benefit to the patient 
 in consequence of the operation. In my opinion no anesthetist is 
 justified in pouring a large quantity of ether into a closed inhaler 
 every two to five minutes during the administration and placing 
 this over the patient's face so as to exclude all air, as is so com- 
 monly done. 
 
 Since the anesthetic produces actual, organic, structural changes 
 in the cells of the entire organism, and, in proportion to the amount 
 used, exhausts the patient's reserved energy, the best results from 
 surgery are impossible where the anesthetic is used in excess of 
 what is actually necessary by its most skillful administration. 
 
 Observation has convinced me that the amount of the anesthetic 
 employed in a given operation by different anesthetists varies con- 
 siderably, and that the time required to anesthetize a patient varies 
 even more. 
 
 From thirty to forty-five minutes in the administration of ether, 
 the anesthetic most commonly employed at the present time, before 
 complete anesthesia is produced is quite a common occurrence, if 
 not the rule, in the majority of administrations ; and when we take 
 into consideration the fact that enormous quantities of ether are 
 used in these prolonged administrations, administered in a closed 
 cone or inhaler that unduly excludes the admixture of air, the 
 wonder is that the mortality from the administration of anesthetics 
 is not even greater than it is, to say nothing of the lasting injuri-
 
 234 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 ous effects to a nervous organization, notwithstanding the benefit 
 derived from surgery in the relief of a gross pathologic condition. 
 But what is more important to be considered is the outcome of 
 surgical work in cases of excessive employment of agents so power- 
 ful in their effects as to produce catabolism or destructive meta- 
 morphosis, with the consequent toxemia which follows, with its 
 disastrous effect upon an already outraged nervous system, as 
 occurs with the present method commonly employed in the ad- 
 ministration of chloroform and ether. 
 
 However skilled a surgeon may be, or perfect in his operative 
 technic, the results of his work are seriously handicapped where 
 the functions of every cerebral and spinal center is seriously and 
 permanently injured and the resistive power of every cell of the 
 organism is weakened, as is done where an undue amount of chloro- 
 form or ether is employed. 
 
 Nor are the various compounds of morphin tablets administered 
 hypodermatically to inhibit all functional processes, and, in a 
 degree, to prevent the normal reaction of the patient from the 
 anesthetic administered by inhalation, in my opinion justifiable, 
 except in so far as the procedure is coupled with a suggestive 
 influence that conveys to the patient the idea of safety, and in a 
 measure secures a favorable psychological situation for the use of 
 chloroform or ether. Administered in homeopathic doses, such 
 combinations, while not essential, would be of unquestioned value 
 as a means of suggestion. 
 
 (d) Let us now look into the facts bearing evidence of the value 
 of the employment of suggestion as an adjunct in the administra- 
 tion of anesthetics and the safety of the method to the patient. 
 
 Alice Magaw, Dr. W. J. Mayo's anesthetist at Rochester, Min- 
 nesota, who has, with possibly one exception, anesthetized more 
 patients than any other person in the world, has an unbroken 
 record of approximately seventeen thousand surgical anesthesias 
 without a single death directly from the anesthetic. 
 
 No other surgical clinic in the world has been so constantly wit- 
 nessed by surgeons during the last several years and no other clinic 
 presents a greater number of difficult cases to be operated upon,
 
 SUGGESTION AS AN ADJUNCT TO ANESTHETICS. 235 
 
 or those that are more unfit for favorable results from the ad- 
 ministration of anesthetics. 
 
 At St. Mary 's Hospital, in the personalities of Alice Magaw and 
 Miss Henderson, the anesthetists of W. J. and C. H. Mayo, at Roch- 
 ester, Minnesota, we see the results from the outcome of surgical 
 work done with the minimum amount of the drug employed for 
 anesthesia, and the free and intelligent use of suggestion as an 
 adjunct to its administration. 
 
 It was with no small degree of pleasure that, upon a visit to 
 Rochester during the month of November, 1907, I found these 
 women actually putting into practice one particular phase of 
 psychotherapy that I had so strongly urged upon surgeons during 
 the eight years previous. 
 
 Both Alice Magaw and Miss Henderson were highly appreciative 
 of that particular part of my lecture to the Physicians' Club of 
 Rochester wherein I urged the importance of the employment of 
 suggestion as an adjunct in the administration of anesthetics, and 
 cited their every-day work as an illustration of complete surgical 
 anesthesia with the use of but little ether, and the employment of 
 suggestion to meet the requirements of the individual patient as 
 an adjunct. Moreover, these women were free to say that they 
 knew from every-day experience that what I had to say in refer- 
 ence to the use of suggestion as an adjunct in the administration 
 of anesthetics was true. 
 
 In the Journal of Surgery, Gynecology, and Obstetrics of Decem- 
 ber, 1906, Alice Magaw says: "Suggestion is a great aid in pro- 
 ducing a comfortable narcosis. The anesthetist must be able to 
 inspire confidence in the patient, and a great deal depends on the 
 manner of approach. . . . The secondary or subconscious self 
 is particularly susceptible to suggestive influence; therefore, dur- 
 ing the administration, the anesthetist should make those sugges- 
 tions that will be most pleasing to this particular subject. Pa- 
 tients should be prepared for each stage of the anesthesia with an 
 explanation of just how the anesthetic is expected to affect him 
 'talk him to sleep,' with the addition of as little ether as possible." 
 
 By the employment of suggestion scientifically and earnestly,
 
 236 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 very little ether is required to produce surgical anesthesia, and 
 even less chloroform, to keep a patient surgically anesthetized. 
 
 I do not exaggerate in the least when I assert that it is quite 
 the common occurrence for an anesthetist who does not understand 
 the use of suggestion to use from ten to twenty times the amount 
 of ether in anesthetizing a patient that is used by Alice Magaw 
 and Miss Henderson, who make use of suggestion in every possible 
 way in a given operation. 
 
 Nor is the anesthesia where such enormous quantities of ether 
 are employed one iota more satisfactory from the surgeon 's point of 
 view than is secured for the Mayos. On the contrary, there is no 
 period of excitement, no struggling of the patient that demands 
 restraint, comparatively little stertorous breathing, no feeling of 
 the pulse, and no hypodermics administered in the course of the 
 operation, and, more yet, an unbroken record of approximately 
 seventeen thousand cases of anesthesia without a single death from 
 the anesthetic. 
 
 But the significance of the employment of suggestion as an 
 adjunct to the administration of anesthetics goes far beyond the 
 danger to the patient idirectly and immediately during the course 
 of the operation. The surgeon who does not have his patient's re- 
 served energies so weakened and exhausted, and the patient 's brain 
 and nerve centers presiding over all physiological processes so 
 seriously and permanently injoired, as is the case with the Mayos, 
 on account of the employment of suggestion to obviate the neces- 
 sity of such enormous quantities of the anesthetic, simply has 
 more recuperative power left in the cells of the organism upon 
 which the hope for a favorable outcome from a major operation is 
 based, and surgical operations upon patients with the minimum 
 amount of poison from the anesthetic to combat are unquestionably 
 attended with better results than where larger quantities of the 
 drug are used. 
 
 Inherent within the protoplasmic mechanism of the human organ- 
 ism is an untapped reservoir of available energy, which is either 
 utilized by the judicious employment of suggestion for the welfare 
 of the patient, or it is exhausted, perverted, or wasted by the in- 
 discreet use of the anesthetic.
 
 SUGGESTION AS AN ADJUNCT TO ANESTHETICS. 237 
 
 By suggestion intelligently employed as an adjunct to surgery 
 during the administration of the anesthetic, all involuntary physio- 
 logical processes can be influenced, the normal resistive powers of 
 the patient conserved and utilized, and the amount of shock from 
 a given operation reduced to comparative insignificance. 
 
 Instead of the excitement, muscular resistance, respiratory and 
 circulatory disturbance that are occasioned by the usual method 
 of administering anesthetics without the employment of suggestion, 
 where suggestion is properly employed, all these manifestations are 
 absent. Instead of increased neuron activity, which must be para- 
 lyzed by large quantities of the anesthetic, the dendritic processes 
 of the neurons are persuaded to retract; both motor and sensory 
 functions suspend, and with the addition of a small amount of the 
 anesthetic "a comfortable narcosis" is induced, which answers 
 every purpose of the surgeon from the standpoint of complete 
 anesthesia. 
 
 In the article cited Alice Magaw farther says: ''From experience 
 we know that a patient can be brought under ether in from three 
 to five minutes, and, when ready, patients do better if the opera- 
 tion is started at once." She here recognizes the psychological 
 moment at which the operation should be started for the best in- 
 terest of the patient. The significance of this remark can be ap- 
 preciated only by those experienced in the employment of sugges- 
 tion for the production of anesthesia. 
 
 From three to five minutes is also the time required by Miss 
 Henderson to produce surgical anesthesia with ether, employing 
 suggestion as an adjunct. I challenge any anesthetist to produce 
 such satisfactory anesthesias as are exhibited by Miss Henderson and 
 Alice Magaw in the clinic of the surgeons of St. Mary's Hospital 
 by any other method than the intelligent employment of sugges- 
 tion as an adjunct to the administration of the anesthetic. 
 
 These women employ the ether "drop method" and "the inhaler 
 used is the improved Esmarch, with two thicknesses of stockinet, 
 the frame boiled and stockinet changed after each patient." To 
 show the small amount of ether employed where suggestion is used 
 as an adjunct to its administration, I quote further from Alice 
 Magaw 's article:
 
 238 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 "We use the dropper described, dropping as slowly and care- 
 fully in giving ether as though it were chloroform until the pa- 
 tient's face is flushed; then a few layers of surgeon's gauze are 
 added, and the ether given a trifle faster until the patient is surgi- 
 cally etherized ; then return is made to the same covering as at the 
 start, and the regular drop method continued throughout the opera- 
 tion." 
 
 It has been within my experience, with suggestion employed as 
 an adjunct to the administration of chloroform, to satisfactorily 
 anesthetize a patient for a double amputation above the knees with 
 sixty minims of chloroform, and another for a suprapubic cyst- 
 otomy with as little as twenty minims of this drug. 
 
 Surgical patients, with but few exceptions, come to the opera- 
 ting table in a condition of voluntary self-surrender, and are 
 particularly good subjects for the employment of suggestion. Their 
 faith in the efficacy of the anesthetic employed is a powerful auto- 
 suggestion, and renders them pliable and easy in the hands of an 
 anesthetist who is familiar with the principles of psychotherapy 
 and the methods of its practical administration. 
 
 From eight years' experience with the medical profession, during 
 which time I toiled, and plodded, and prayed for a recognition of 
 psychotherapy as an adjunct to the generally recognized thera- 
 peutic agencies, by making a personal canvass from office to office 
 until headway was made in organizing groups of physicians to 
 witness the demonstration and elucidation of practical methods of 
 the employment of suggestion, I learned to appreciate the great 
 need to the profession of such knowledge as could be employed by 
 the general practitioner as well as the specialist. 
 
 Many there were who did not doubt the efficacy of such measures 
 in the hands of the few, who had what they deemed some peculiar 
 power over people, but they doubted the efficacy of psychological 
 methods in their own hands. 
 
 This lack of self-confidence, child of ignorance as it was, was 
 everywhere in evidence, and was one of the greatest obstacles that 
 I had to overcome in bringing a small group of physicians to- 
 gether. One such physician said to me, in perfect frankness, ' ' Why, 
 my dear sir, some people can not apply these methods successfully,
 
 SUGGESTION AS AN ADJUNCT TO ANESTHETICS. 239 
 
 and I am one who can not, for I have studied suggestive thera- 
 peutics for ten years; the past five years were spent in Europe, 
 where I availed myself of opportunities to witness the practical 
 employment of suggestion, both with and without hypnosis, in the 
 great French and German universities ; in my library are more than 
 twenty volumes by various writers on Suggestive Therapeutics; 
 could I get results like those you mention, I would gladly pay ten 
 times the small fee that you demand." 
 
 Our profession has had either no instruction in regard to the 
 employment of the more efficacious application of suggestion, or it 
 has been wrongly taught. 
 
 To every one of such doubting individuals I positively guaranteed 
 that he and every other physician present should take an individual 
 who was a stranger to me, taken at random from the passing crowds 
 on the streets, and by a simple efficacious method of using sugges- 
 tion which I would explain they each should by his own words and 
 personal efforts demonstrate the efficacy of suggestion to induce 
 anesthesia, each physician using a different subject. 
 
 As previously stated, approximately five thousand American 
 physicans personally tested the efficacy of suggestion to produce 
 anesthesia, using a small vial containing an antiseptic solution, a 
 placebo, as a means of suggestion. 
 
 It requires but little chloroform, or ether, used in conjunction 
 with the judicious employment of suggestion to surgically anes- 
 thetize a patient. The greatest essential is a comprehensive knowl- 
 edge of the theoretical and practical features of suggestion as ap- 
 plied in multifarious ways to the general practice of medicine. 
 The subject of psychotherapy comprehends hypnotism, for hypno- 
 tism is but the employment of suggestion efficaciously and system- 
 atically. 
 
 The individual is hypnotized by suggestion ; he is then in a con- 
 dition of increased suggestibility, and surely, if suggestion is of 
 value as an adjunct in the administration of anesthetics, the most 
 effective form of suggestion is of greatest value, for just in pro- 
 portion to its efficacy is the amount of the anesthetic employed 
 minimized. 
 
 To use suggestion as an adjunct in the administration of anes- '
 
 240 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 thetics is simply to deal with the patient in such a humane, natural 
 manner that the anesthetist becomes thoroughly en rapport with his 
 patient, securing a conscious acquiescence, and then so directing 
 the conscious and subconscious, the voluntary and involuntary func- 
 tions of the nervous system, psychic states, or streams of con- 
 sciousness, that, while administering the anesthetic, we persuade 
 certain nerve and brain centers to suspend the performance of 
 their functions, and others to increase, until the small amount of 
 ether or chloroform being administered produces a more profound 
 state of unconsciousness, a physiopsychological condition, in ac- 
 cordance with a natural law. 
 
 A little 5 year-old boy, in my office with his mother, needed to 
 be circumcised. Everything was in readiness, and I called his 
 mother to be present to see that I would not hurt him in the least. 
 In a natural, pleasant manner I allowed him to smell a delicate ex- 
 tract which I had ordered especially for him, ' ' because he was such 
 a fine boy." I then informed him that he could lie on my opera- 
 ting table, and smell some perfume and go to sleep. This he con- 
 sented to do, and, having secured a thorough relaxation, a few drops 
 of the perfume was allowed to fall on the towel which had been 
 placed over his entire face, and suggestions at once commenced, 
 just as if I were telling him the effect was being produced by the 
 perfume, followed in probably thirty seconds by chloroform, 
 dropped on the towel, just below the tip of his nose, from a small 
 homeopathic vial taken from my pocket, with a toothpick arranged 
 by the side of the cork so as to allow a small drop to slowly trickle 
 from the bottle, until additional suggestions appropriate to the 
 understanding of the patient produced the desired result. He went 
 into a comfortable sleep in from two to three minutes and remained 
 so until I again sterilized my hands and did the simple operation 
 while he appeared to enjoy his slumber. By actual measurement 
 twenty minims of chloroform were used. 
 
 On repeated occasions I have produced anesthesia by suggestion 
 while holding an unopened bottle of chloroform in my hand, and 
 have demonstrated to the surgeon that a pin could be thrust through 
 the patient's face or arm. I proceeded to drop ten drops of chloro-
 
 SUGGESTION AS AN ADJUNCT TO ANESTHETICS. 241 
 
 form on a piece of gauze of three or four thicknesses that had been 
 placed in the bottom of my partly closed hand, and, placing the 
 hand thus charged with chloroform over the patient's nose and 
 mouth, I proceeded to administer it, using suggestion to get the 
 patient to breathe naturally and rhythmically and go into a deeper 
 sleep. By a small addition of chloroform, surgical anesthesia was 
 produced in this way, and the amount of the drug used varied from 
 20 to 30 minims. The patient would sleep for twenty or thirty 
 minutes after the operation and awake without nausea, as sug- 
 gested. 
 
 The use of suggestion in conjunction with an anesthetic, where 
 the patient has given his consent to the operation, is attended with 
 no failures, though the amount of the anesthetic used necessarily 
 varies, according to the individual idiosyncrasy of the patient, and 
 the time required to produce surgical anesthesia varies from two 
 to five minutes. In all such cases the amount of the anesthetic 
 used is reduced to comparative insignificance, and the procedure 
 may be regarded as absolutely devoid of danger. 
 
 A patient of mine had a visitor some years previous who died 
 in her home from the administration of chloroform for an opera- 
 tion for intussusception, and the psychic effect of this experience 
 had been the cause of her declining an operation for a badly 
 lacerated cervix. I had resorted to suggestion for the temporary 
 amelioration of severe headaches and other neurotic symptoms 
 which existed in consequence of this pathologic lesion, and on one 
 occasion gave her suggestions in the hypnotic state to relieve the 
 fears of the anesthetic and to get her consent to the proposed opera- 
 tion. She readily consented to the operation after that suggestion, 
 stating that she no longer feared the effect of chloroform. An 
 hour previous to the operation I suggested to her in the hypnotic 
 state that she would go soundly asleep as soon as the anesthetist be- 
 gan to let her inhale the chloroform, that she would breathe 
 rhythmically and naturally, that her heart would become stronger 
 from inhaling the chloroform, and her sleep sound and deep, so 
 that she would have no feeling whatever. Not over 30 minims of 
 chloroform were required to do this operation, given by another
 
 242 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 physician, who co-operated with my suggestive measures, and the 
 patient awoke at the time suggested without nausea or other in- 
 convenience. 
 
 Invariably the anesthetist or surgeon who makes employment of 
 suggestion as an adjunct to the administration of anesthetics with 
 marked success is he who has taken a great interest in hypnotism 
 as a means of using suggestion efficaciously. 
 
 Among other surgeons than the Mayos whose work has attracted 
 attention on account of superior skill and large experience, who 
 make employment of suggestion with success in the administration 
 of anesthetics besides ether and chloroform, may be mentioned Bo- 
 dine, of New York, in his herniotomy and other operations done 
 with a y w of 1-percent solution of cocaine, and A. W. Morton, 
 of San Francisco, in the production of spinal anesthesia. 
 
 That Bodine employs more talk in his operations with his 
 "Yio of 1-percent solution of cocaine" is recognized by him and all 
 physicians familiar with the practical employment of suggestion, 
 and I know from Dr. Morton 's own statement to me that his success 
 with spinal anesthesia, both for the safety of his patients and in 
 the completeness of his anesthesias, has been considerably aug- 
 mented by the artful employment of suggestion. 
 
 A careful study of the chapter on Hypnotism Demonstrated 
 will give the reader all the necessary additional information req- 
 uisite to equip him to make employment of suggestion in con- 
 junction with the administration of anesthetics.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPY IN RELATION TO THE EXPECTANT 
 
 MOTHER. 
 
 It is generally conceded that the disorders that complicate the 
 state of gestation are purely functional in character, but it is 
 important to bear in mind that a functional disorder (so-called) 
 always implies a physical change, however minute or microscopic 
 this may be, and that a functional disorder or disease, if neglected 
 long enough, may lead into an organic condition, and that the 
 timely administration of psychotherapy to correct the functional 
 disorder may prevent its resulting in a gross pathological disease. 
 
 Psychotherapy is of value in the prophylaxis and treatment of 
 the functional and neuropathic manifestations that annoy the ex- 
 pectant mother just in proportion as we are enabled to exert an 
 influence upon her habits of thought and action, both conscious 
 and subconscious. 
 
 Each time the physician comes into her presence he has the op- 
 portunity to make such impressions upon her brain plasm as will 
 give rise to emotions, thoughts, and feelings, which are of unques- 
 tionable therapeutic value on the one hand, and that will lead to 
 habits that are conducive to both physical and mental well-being 
 on the other. 
 
 "What most of our expectant mothers need is education, knowl- 
 edge, and guidance other names for honest, truthful suggestion 
 and not instruction in the pathology of possible diseases that may 
 arise from functional disorders accompanying the state of gesta- 
 tion. 
 
 A comprehensive understanding of the pathology of the more 
 serious diseases of pregnancy on the part of the physician is of 
 unquestionable value, but such knowledge is always detrimental 
 when in the possession of the patient. So, while duly appreciating 
 
 243
 
 244 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 a knowledge of the pathology of such diseases, what is of far greater 
 importance to the patient is that the physician be qualified to so 
 manage her psychologically and physically as to prevent the oc- 
 currence of such diseases. 
 
 Take the expectant mother into your confidence, and give her a 
 plain, common-sense talk of such character as will dispel her morbid 
 self-consciousness and give her something wholesome to think about, 
 and tell her what to do to maintain a condition of physical and 
 mental well-being during the state of gestation. 
 
 The creative power of the imagination as a reliable, potent factor 
 in bringing the ideal into actualization has been repeatedly em- 
 phasized by our ablest psychologists, and as a therapeutic resource 
 this psychological fact is appreciated today as never before in the 
 history of medicine. 
 
 We can by suggestion, or by mental pictures impressed upon the 
 brain plasm of a patient who has sufficient confidence in us to seek 
 our aid, encourage the functional activity of every cell of her 
 organism, and do so in such a humane, natural manner as can but 
 evoke the appreciation of our patient. Moreover, we quiet her 
 nervousness, assuage her fears, dispel her gloomy forebodings, cor- 
 rect functional disturbances, and inspire her wdth confidence and a 
 determination to do all that we outline for her in the way of con- 
 forming to the physiological requirements of health. 
 
 In general, I explain to the expectant mother in the early months 
 of gestation that, by the new element that has been added to her 
 personality, the function of every cell in her body is quickened and 
 encouraged to new activity, and that increased vigor of both mind 
 and body should be the consequence. I impress on her that this 
 is a natural, healthy condition a physiological state and that 
 upon her obedience to the mental and physical laws that environ 
 her depend the best growth and development of a human life com- 
 mitted to her care, as well as her own physical and mental welfare 
 and happiness. I appeal to her motherly instincts by impressing 
 on her the sacredness of the trust that is by nature committed to her 
 care, and get her to realize that of all divinely instituted privileges 
 that of motherhood is the highest, noblest, and best. I impress on 
 her the importance of beginning the training of her offspring nine
 
 PSYCHOTHERAPY AND THE EXPECTANT MOTHER. 245 
 
 months before it is born for the purpose of obtaining the best re- 
 sults in both mental and physical development. I explain to her 
 that the more or less morbid subjective feelings, sensations, and de- 
 sires that sometimes annoy the expectant mother are but the recogni- 
 tion by her nervous system of the new role that it is called upon to 
 play, and advise her that this must be taken as a friendly warn- 
 ing or notification that her diet must be of nutritious, easily digested, 
 and easily eliminated consistency, such as good milk and butter, 
 fresh fruit and vegetables, and either fresh eggs or a small quantity 
 of meat once per day. I give her sufficient assurance and en- 
 couragement to have her make effort to develop a mental and 
 physical constitution well capacitated for the training and nourish- 
 ing of her offspring. The suggestion of the importance of physical 
 exercise out-of-doors in the fresh air and sunshine as a daily pleas- 
 ure and duty, as well as the wholesome employment of her faculties 
 in lines of useful endeavor and achievement, together with a con- 
 tented mind not ashamed of the exalted function of motherhood, as 
 a means of obtaining the greatest good for herself and offspring, 
 should never be omitted by the physician desiring to influence his 
 patient's habits of thought and conduct as a means of preventing 
 the disorders that so frequently manifest themselves in this class 
 of cases. 
 
 Our artificial methods of living so frequently encourage habits 
 that are contrary to the conditions which produce and maintain the 
 highest standard of protoplasmic energy in the cells of the human 
 organism, that most of the functional disorders incident to the 
 state of gestation is but nature's penalty for the violation of 
 known laws of health. 
 
 Psychotherapy apparently plays a secondary role in its employ- 
 ment to get the patient to conform to the physiological and physical 
 requirements of health, but by planting a conviction in the mind 
 of the patient that relief from certain functional disorders will 
 be obtained, as the individual case may present, we give the patient 
 the benefit of both the psychic and physical results of complying 
 with the suggestion. 
 
 As physicians, we are nothing if not practical men, and the time 
 has come when we should take our place as leaders and teachers of
 
 246 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 the people, as well as that of students of pathology and prescribers 
 of medicine. 
 
 It will be an unlucky day for our civilization when our psycho- 
 therapy becomes so allied with mysticism and religious functions 
 that we forget to conform to the physical or physiological require- 
 ments of health. To do our best in any department of life, one 
 must first be a healthy animal, and the hunger of the body for bread 
 and fruit is not more real than is manifested today by intelligent 
 people for facts and principles by which life and conduct may be 
 guided. Therefore, our psychotherapy must consist of psycho- 
 logical, physiological, and educational therapeutics in order to meet 
 the demands of the intelligence of the present age. 
 
 In all my dealing with the expectant mother, in connection with 
 either materia medica agencies or psychotherapy, I never lose an 
 opportunity to implant in her mind the idea that, by her conform- 
 ance to the regimen outlined, or as the result of the treatment she 
 is following, both physiological and medicinal, it is absolutely im- 
 possible for her to do else than have a safe and easy delivery, and 
 such will be the case by virtue of the creative power inherent in 
 the cells of the organism that my suggestions have stimulated into 
 action, provided the plasm that constitutes the physical organism is 
 of such quality as to receive the impress of my suggestions and 
 execute its functions. 
 
 With all the advantages of psychotherapy, what folly it is to 
 ignore either the physical or psychical basis of life. 
 
 For the relief of persistent nausea and vomiting, when such 
 patients have neglected the mental and physical rules by which 
 health could have been maintained, or where the milder forms of 
 suggestion are not practicable on account of the temporary illness 
 of the patient, suggestion in the hypnotic state has proven effi- 
 cacious upon repeated occasions in the experience of the writer.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 THE PSYCHOLOGIC FACTOR IN OBSTETRICS. 
 
 It was once my pleasure to be present at a medical society meet- 
 ing at which, from a psychological point of view, the discus- 
 sions of a most highly interesting and instructive paper on the use 
 of "Forceps in Obstetrics" interested me very much. 
 
 One physician related his experience in a recent case where he, 
 with another physician present, had found it necessary to make 
 several prolonged and strenuous efforts at traction upon the fore- 
 coming head before they succeeded in a delivery, which resulted in 
 a badly lacerated cervix and a most completely lacerated perineum, 
 stating in the conclusion of his remarks that he found it frequently 
 necessary to resort to the use of forceps, and for this reason he 
 highly appreciated the paper. 
 
 Another physician referred to a recent high forceps operation, 
 and the difficulty in applying forceps before the head began to 
 descend and while the os was as yet but partially dilated. 
 
 A third referred to the frequency with which he had found it 
 necessary to resort to the use of forceps in obstetrics, and how he 
 dreaded such ordeals. 
 
 Still another speaker emphasized, among other valuable ideas, 
 the small amount of traction with which she had been able to de- 
 liver her forceps cases, even while the patient had been thoroughly 
 chloroformed. 
 
 Among those who discussed the paper was yet another, a large, 
 self-possessed, and magnificent-looking physician, a little past fifty- 
 five I should judge, who stated that he rarely, if ever, had to resort 
 to the use of forceps, and he urged the advisibility of not being 
 in a hurry, and giving the natural physiological processes time to 
 accomplish their work, rather than hastily resorting to instrumental 
 assistance or interference. 
 
 I do not claim to be perfectly accurate in my passing references 
 
 247
 
 248 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 to the discussion to which I have referred, but the features brought 
 out in those discussions illustrate conclusively the importance of 
 more attention being paid to the psychologic factor in obstetric 
 practice. 
 
 It was quite evident that the large, self-possessed physician to 
 whom I referred did appreciate the psychologic factor, and hence 
 " rarely, if ever," had to resort to the use of forceps. It was also 
 equally evident that some of the physicians present were rather in- 
 clined to be nervous, and unconsciously had been a potent factor 
 in producing the condition in their patients which necessitated the 
 use of instruments. 
 
 More than in any other part of the practice of medicine, in 
 obstetrics the physician should be well-poised and self-possessed, 
 and should maintain a quiet demeanor, keeping his mental and 
 nervous equilibrium well conserved in the presence of an excitable, 
 frightened, and nervous patient. 
 
 In the early years of my professional work I assisted three times 
 in the instrumental delivery of a lady who at the time of her 
 fourth delivery fell into my hands. Knowing the difficulty that she 
 had experienced with her previous deliveries, and seeing the de- 
 pression that her condition and the approaching ordeal produced 
 upon her, I had her come to see me quite frequently and positively 
 assured her that I had her on a treatment that would insure a safe 
 and easy delivery, and before her confinement I had eliminated all 
 element of fear. When I was called to see her at the time of 
 delivery, after making a careful diagnosis, I again positively as- 
 sured her that it was absolutely impossible for her to do otherwise 
 than get along nicely, and I have never attended an easier delivery 
 than hers. 
 
 Where it has been possible, it has been my habit to see the 
 prospective mothers often enough before parturition to keep well 
 en rapport with them. I have frequently placed them in the 
 suggestive state two or three times during the last weeks of 
 pregnancy in order to insure a perfect psychological attitude at 
 the time of delivery. 
 
 The influence of the mind upon metabolism is well established. 
 To keep our prospective mothers in a buoyant, hopeful, cheerful
 
 PSYCHOLOGIC FACTOR IN OBSTETRICS. 249 
 
 state of mind helps to prevent albuminuria, eclampsia, and other 
 complications. All other essentials requisite to the well-being of our 
 patient should not, of course, be overlooked. A wholesome vege- 
 table diet, with milk and eggs, as well as regular out-door exercise, 
 should be insisted upon. 
 
 When called to see your patient when in labor manifest a kindly 
 interest in her well-being, and make her feel that you are kind, 
 firm, and self-sufficient by your conduct in her presence. After 
 carefully making your diagnosis, do all you can to calm her spirit, 
 assuage her fears, and inspire her with confidence in your ability 
 and intentions to do what is best for her. Assume absolute com- 
 mand of the situation, and allow no environing influence, such 
 as overanxious expressions of friends, to influence her. Let her 
 feel the masterful, helpful, encouraging influence of your person- 
 ality, as well as get the benefit of your kindly assistance. 
 
 When the members of the medical profession become awake 
 to the importance of the psychological factor in obstetrics, forceps 
 deliveries and lacerated cervices and perinei will be far less fre- 
 quent. 
 
 While in a southern city four years ago a well-known physician 
 requested me to see with him a woman in labor, and I quote the 
 following from his report of the case: "About two o'clock in the 
 morning I was called to Mrs. W., a young primipara, who was 
 frightened, exceedingly nervous, and hard to control. Two hours 
 later Doctor Munro came at my request and demonstrated the ef- 
 ficacy of suggestion in a most satisfactory manner by substituting 
 for the extreme nervousness a condition of placid repose. The 
 rapid heart beats became normal, the patient slept peacefully be- 
 tween contractions and 'bore down' to her pains without complaint. 
 It proved especially efficacious during that nagging stage of dila- 
 tion. Later on, with the aid of only a few drops of chloroform, 
 the case was conducted to a finish with perfect satisfaction both 
 to myself, my patient, and her friends. I am fully convinced that 
 when physicians learn to practice intelligently what for ages we 
 have all been practicing ignorantly i. e., suggestive therapeutics 
 the obstetric couch will be robbed of its horrors."
 
 250 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 TECHNIC OF APPLICATION. 
 
 Labor is well established, the os is dilated to the size of a fifty- 
 cent piece, more or less, and the contractions and general condition 
 indicate that there is to be no cessation of symptoms until your 
 patient is delivered. 
 
 She is begging you to do something for her. You have made 
 out your diagnosis and reassured your patient, but now the severity 
 of her symptoms is such that she feels that she must have help. 
 You have the reputation of using chloroform, and she would not 
 be satisfied unless you did use chloroform. You are waiting for the 
 right psychological moment she has patiently endured her suf- 
 ferings, and feels that she can hold out no longer without help that 
 she has not received. You have assured her that she is doing well, 
 that every indication is for a safe delivery, and that you are going 
 to use chloroform, so that she will not suffer. The urgency of the 
 occasion grows more imperative and you decide to make another 
 digital examination. 
 
 As this is completed, say, "All right, madam, be patient and 
 bear strong and hard to the next pain, and just as that leaves you 
 I will give you chloroform, so that you will get well under its 
 influence by the time another contraction comes, and you will not 
 suffer any more." 
 
 Just as the contraction has expended its energy, synchronously 
 with the first inspiration after a long bearing down, shake about 
 thirty drops of chloroform upon a handkerchief in a paper cone 
 or which you have placed in a tumbler, and, placing that close over 
 her nose and mouth, suggest to her strongly, "Breathe this down 
 now, and go to sleep." She takes a deep inspiration, and you 
 quickly and strongly suggest, "Breathe it in again, and now again, 
 away down deep." 
 
 The three deep inspirations from the thirty drops of chloroform 
 administered in this way at this particular moment have sufficient 
 physiological effect to annihilate completely the receding contrac- 
 tion, and these three deep inspirations in succession, together with 
 the physiological effect of the chloroform, secure the thorough re- 
 laxation of your patient. She is now in a receptive condition, and
 
 PSYCHOLOGIC FACTOR IN OBSTETRICS. 251 
 
 you must quickly, but emphatically and distinctly, follow this up 
 with your suggestions to get her into a deeper suggestible condition 
 or into a hypnotic state. 
 
 So, removing the cone or glass about two inches from her nose, 
 you proceed to suggest, "Now, go to sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep. Now 
 you feel quiet all over. Your muscles are relaxed. Everything is 
 dark to you. You do not hear anything but my voice. You are 
 drowsy and sleepy, s-o-o-o-o sleepy. You feel the sleep coming 
 over you. You are going to sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep. By the time 
 I count ten you will be fast asleep. One, two, three, four, five, six, 
 seven, eight, nine, ten, and you are asleep, fast asleep. By the time 
 I count five you will be sound and dead asleep. One two, three, 
 four, five, and you are asleep, fast asleep, sound asleep, dead 
 asleep, and you will not awaken now until I tell you. Every second 
 your sleep becomes sounder and sounder, and deeper and deeper. 
 You will not hear anything, or feel anything, or know anything, ex- 
 cept what I tell you. Sleep on quietly now until I awaken you." 
 
 Your patient is now in a deeper condition of suggestibility, but 
 you want to take an additional precaution to secure more thorough 
 relaxation, so, without the addition of more chloroform, you bring 
 the cone or glass closer to her nose and suggest, "Breathe deeply, 
 deeper yet, once again away down deep. There, now, you are 
 thoroughly relaxed." 
 
 Then, stroking her forehead gently, make suggestions about as 
 follows: "Sleep on quietly. Now your nerves are getting steady, 
 and quiet, and strong steady, and quiet, and strong all over. By 
 the time I count ten the last bit of nervousness will be gone, and 
 your nerves will be steady, and quiet, and strong all over. One, 
 two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and your nerves 
 are steady, and quiet, and strong all over." 
 
 "Now, on account of the sedative effect of the chloroform upon 
 you, you feel all pain, or aching, or soreness, or hurting about your 
 abdomen, or back, or womb going away ; you are getting easier and 
 easier, and by the time I count five you will be perfectly easy and 
 not suffer any more. One, two, three, four, five, and you are 
 perfectly easy. 
 
 "Now your labor will be regular and normal ; you will labor hard,
 
 252 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 but will feel no pain. Your contractions will be strong, the mouth 
 of your womb will dilate and open easier, but you will feel no pain. 
 
 "Sleep on, and when the next contraction comes reach up your 
 hands, and bear down strong and long, but you will feel only a pres- 
 sure you will not experience any pain." 
 
 As the contraction again becomes evident, say to your patient, 
 "Bear down hard now ; it will not hurt you. That is fine ; stronger 
 yet, more yet. There, now, take more chloroform and go into a 
 deeper sleep." 
 
 Here you put about twenty drops of chloroform on the handker- 
 chief in the cone or glass and make a few additional suggestions 
 about as follows: "Sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep, breathe deeply, sleep 
 soundly. Now sleep on quietly until the next contraction, and then 
 don 't wake up just reach up your hands and bear down, but sleep 
 on." 
 
 As this contraction recedes you give about ten drops more of 
 chloroform and make a few additional suggestions. 
 
 By that time your patient is sufficiently amenable to suggestion 
 to the extent that I have frequently had patients go two hours in 
 labor without more than the slightest complaint, getting them to 
 relax thoroughly after each contraction and making a few addi- 
 tional suggestions. 
 
 Toward the latter part of the second stage of labor, with the last 
 two or three expulsive pains, it is best that you give chloroform at 
 the beginning of the contraction for its physiological effect, using 
 it freely and effectively, as it enables you to manipulate the head 
 and perineum, and render such assistance as best to prevent lacera- 
 tion. 
 
 I have yet to see the first case of post-partum hemorrhage in a 
 case where suggestion was used, though I have always followed the 
 expulsion of the child with my left hand and grasped the fundus of 
 the uterus after Crede's method. Post-partum hemorrhage is 
 largely a nervous phenomenon, and properly directing and con- 
 trolling the psychic factor is a safeguard against it, though I never 
 neglect any other precaution, and consequently I have never had 
 any trouble on this score. 
 
 A rigid os indicates an irritable involuntary nervous system, and
 
 PSYCHOLOGIC FACTOR IN OBSTETRICS. 253 
 
 it rapidly disappears when the psychic factor is properly directed 
 as above outlined. Your success will be in direct ratio to the extent 
 to which you secure thorough relaxation of the patient and properly 
 make suggestions. 
 
 The patient need not necessarily be asleep ; a merely partial sub- 
 conscious condition is attended with excellent results, provided you 
 have the confidence and co-operation of your patient, and this it is 
 your privilege to gain very quickly after you enter the room. 
 
 A nervous physician is undoubtedly a menace to the welfare of 
 an obstetric patient, for nervousness begets nervousness and fear 
 begets fear. Self-control and self-confidence on the part of the ac- 
 coucheur carry, all unconsciously, a wonderfully helpful influence. 
 
 Don't neglect any other therapeutic resource. An obstetric pa- 
 tient of mine had two sisters, each of whom died of eclampsia in 
 her first labor. The effect of such a family record was most de- 
 pressing upon her. During the last weeks of pregnancy I saw her 
 every few days, and assured her positively that the treatment on 
 which I had her would prevent any such occurrence. She was a 
 plethoric, full-blooded woman, and the secundines were removed 
 with practically no hemorrhage at all. A severe headache, extreme 
 nervousness, and rapid, full pulse which followed required not only 
 large doses of veratrum hypodermatically, but free bleeding also, as 
 well as suggestion in the form of reassurance, persuasion, and en- 
 couragement, with large doses of calomel and jalap. 
 
 To a patient who had aborted after four months, and had con- 
 siderable hemorrhage and was almost pulseless, I suggested strongly 
 and loudly, upon making an examination, "You will be all right. 
 Be brave, madam; you will have no trouble, etc.," though I pro- 
 ceeded to clear and pack her uterus. 
 
 In a case of twins I "chloroformed" my patient with alcohol ad- 
 ministered by inhalation and suggestion, and used forceps on the 
 first child and internal version on the second with perfect suc- 
 cess. 
 
 Ten drops of chloroform given to a patient after each contrac- 
 tion while she is thoroughly relaxed, passive, eyes closed, and 
 breathing rhythmically through her mouth, and suggestions made 
 in a monotone, conversational way, to quiet nervousness and render
 
 254 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 the patient conscious that something was being done for her, is at- 
 tended with excellent results without any farther effort to induce 
 hypnosis. 
 
 The confidence of the patient in her physician can be consider- 
 ably augmented by properly directing the psychic factor in ob- 
 stetrics, and the welfare and safety of the patient are rendered far 
 more certain. 
 
 In a case of an abortion at five months, before the expulsion of 
 the uterine contents, which was attended with much hemorrhage, I 
 packed the vagina and put on T-bandage, hypnotized the patient, 
 made appropriate suggestions, and went away, returning in three 
 hours to find that the patient had been easy, but upon removal of 
 the packing both fetus and secundines came away together. 
 
 A patient who once has the assistance of a physician who properly 
 directs the psychic factor will instinctively feel that she has never 
 before had the right attention in her previous confinements. 
 
 A number of physicians of my acquaintance have been able to 
 execute successfully the above described methods greatly to the 
 satisfaction of themselves and patient. 
 
 Your success in obstetrics, as in all other classes of work, will be 
 in direct ratio to the integrity and stability of your patient's nerve 
 and brain plasm on the one hand, and your ability to present sug- 
 gestion properly on the other. 
 
 The ideas suggested in this chapter are of value to the individual 
 physician in direct ratio to his ability to appropriate and use 
 them.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 THE GUIDANCE OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 
 
 The importance of a more intelligent effort on the part of the 
 medical profession directed toward the guidance of the sexual 
 instinct has assumed such a prominent relation to the successful 
 employment of psychotherapy in the treatment of the psycho- 
 neuroses, as has been clearly demonstrated by the work of Freud, of 
 Vienna, and Jung, of Zurich, that no work purporting to be an elu- 
 cidation of the subject can be considered complete unless this phase 
 is also presented. The present status of the subject is such that it 
 would be most reprehensible and cowardly to dodge the issue on ac- 
 count of the fear of antagonism by those who adhere to conflicting 
 opinions. 
 
 That abnormalities of the sexual functions are among the most 
 common causes of nervous and mental diseases, and that insanity, 
 suicide, and death are often the final outcome, is today recognized 
 by all who have given this question thoughtful consideration. 
 
 At the present time we are not content to say that some "func- 
 tional disorder" is the cause of an abnormal nervous and mental 
 condition, but we seek to discover the cause of this disorder, pre- 
 sented as a part of the complication to be treated. 
 
 Freud has brought forth a most convincing array of facts, based 
 upon actual clinical experience, showing that the obstacles of a 
 normal sexual life, or unhappy love, are frequently the cause of 
 violent disturbances of the mind, and that often, as the result of 
 these obstacles, mental disorders appear after a continued derange- 
 ment of the organic functions. 
 
 Such obstacles, Freud considers, are the most important causes of 
 the functional psychoneuroses, which have heretofore been con- 
 sidered to be the result of a constitutional taint. It is his con- 
 clusion that these obstacles are due more to the inherited envi- 
 roning and educational influences to which the individual has been 
 
 255
 
 256 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 subjected through life than to an inherited weakness of the physical 
 organism at the time of birth. 
 
 This viewpoint is not to depreciate the inherited physical qualities 
 or characteristics which we bring into the world as an endowment, 
 but to give recognition to the potency of the influences brought to 
 bear upon the human mind and body by environment and educa- 
 tion after we are born, and to emphasize the importance of such in- 
 fluences in the determination of the mental and physical character- 
 istics exhibited by the individual as a consequence. 
 
 With these preliminary remarks, let us consider the facts per- 
 taining to the guidance of the sexual instinct as a preparatory 
 measure to a useful, wholesome, happy life of the individual on the 
 one hand, and as a preventive measure against untold unhappiness, 
 with its consequent derangement of the normal functions of mind 
 and body, resulting in mental and physical deterioration, suicide, 
 divorce, death and insanity, on the other. 
 
 This discussion is not intended to cover the influence of patho- 
 logical processes resulting from venereal disorders, which are al- 
 ready recognized as one of the most potent causes of the more 
 serious nervous and mental diseases, nor to go into the abortion 
 question, which has assumed the role of one of the most important 
 problems confronting our American civilization. That story is best 
 read in the history of a large proportion of the cases recorded in 
 our annual list of suicides, insanities, death records, causes of the 
 surgical operations in the numerous hospitals, and in the large in- 
 fantile mortality list annually turned out by many of our metro- 
 politan cities. The results of physical degeneracy resulting from 
 venereal disorders must not stop here. It is a large contributing 
 factor in the annual mortality list resulting from tuberculosis, pneu- 
 monia, enteric fever, cancer, Bright 's disease, and many other acute 
 affections. That venereal diseases lessen the resistive powers of the 
 individual, and render him comparatively an easy victim, and in all 
 other ways handicap his usefulness in life, is not in the least degree 
 questioned by our ablest clinicians at the present time. 
 
 In this era of enlightened civilization it is not enough to say that 
 this or the other parasite, microbe, or abnormal cell was the cause 
 of the physical manifestations of disease or pathological process
 
 GUIDANCE OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 257 
 
 presented. We must go back farther than that. We must consider 
 the causation of the cause exhibited in the gross pathological mani- 
 festation of diseased processes, and in thousands upon thousands 
 of instances the primary cause, as every intelligent, conscientious 
 physician must admit, is to be found only in the failure of the in- 
 dividual to live up to his highest privileges on account of the lack 
 of proper education in early life to equip him to be qualified for 
 the guidance of his sexual instinct. 
 
 One who seeks to better humanity by giving expression to his 
 ideas concerning the guidance of the sexual instinct should be pre- 
 pared by broad experience and deep study. He should know men 
 and women as we find them in the common, every-day walks of life, 
 from the lowest to the highest, and deal with facts as they are, con- 
 sidering sexual laws that govern the entire race of mankind; for 
 otherwise he is not prepared to speak out on this subject, with 
 opinions based upon real conditions and unprejudiced researches in 
 the laws of natural morality, the necessary requisites in qualifying 
 one to give advice which can be followed because in perfect harmony 
 with the laws of nature. 
 
 People should be made to understand that nature's laws are God's 
 laws ; that the sexual instinct is a part of human nature, and is not 
 in itself immoral; that a love connection is not in itself immoral, 
 but that it may lead to unhappy consequences as the result of social 
 conflicts. The unhappy consequences of ignorance in regard to the 
 performance of the sexual act, even in marriage, is in evidence in 
 the every-day experience of the observing physician. To enumerate 
 these illustrations would require more pages than are to be devoted 
 to this chapter. 
 
 Here is a young man who applies for the treatment of gonorrhea 
 one month after his marriage, stating that his wife had been con- 
 taminated by the infection. He "thought he had been cured," 
 and begs that his wife be kept in ignorance of the nature of her 
 disease. A pus tube operation, and the marred happiness of one 
 of the purest and sweetest of the human race is likely to be the 
 consequence of this disastrous blunder on the part of a boy who 
 would gladly have sacrificed life itself rather than infect his in- 
 nocent wife.
 
 258 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 The sexual function of the natural instincts is the strongest of 
 all the bodily appetites. ' is a most important source of happi- 
 ness and health, and its in, 1 performance exercises the most 
 beneficent influence upon all other bodily and mental functions. 
 The want of the gratification of ti : normal sexual instinct is a 
 source of deep moral and mental suffering, lessens the love of life, 
 and induces a sad and despondent existence. 
 
 The participation of the opposite sexes in the sexual relation 
 through the attraction of love is one of the most beautiful phe- 
 nomena of existence, and, when properly conducted, is in no sense 
 to be construed as vulgar or disgusting, which religious ascetics 
 have described as lust. 
 
 Monogamy is the ideal of the sexual relation for all civilized 
 races, but its performance without personal sympathy is only a 
 physiological function as a means of purely animal gratification, 
 and, whether in or out of marriage bonds, it is degraded into lust. 
 But where the psychic elements of the two personalities are in 
 perfect harmony, where the joining links in the chain of love 
 are present, and where personal sympathy exists, the sexual func- 
 tion is something more than the expression of physiological desire. 
 It is also the gratification of the desire to be in the embrace of 
 and in intimate contact with the one beloved, and, not only is 
 orgasm evoked, but the relation strengthens the bond of personal 
 sympathy, conduces to health and happiness, and is the highest 
 expression of true love. "Without this higher attraction it is, as 
 a consequence, only a temporary relation, and in no sense worthy 
 of performance by the self-respecting individual. Under such con- 
 ditions, instead of being attended by salutary results to the par- 
 ticipants, the effects are those that leave the self-respecting person 
 with a feeling of disgust weakness, nervous irritability, and a 
 feeling of self-condemnation. Whether in or out of the marriage 
 relation, the sexual function under such inharmonious conditions 
 is prostitution pure and simple, and is degrading to mind and 
 body. When engaged in between husband and wife while either 
 is an unwilling participant, it is nothing more or less than legal- 
 ized prostitution. 
 
 For a husband to force the act upon a self-sacrificing wife who
 
 GUIDANCE OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 259 
 
 feels that, though unpleasant to her, she is> under obligation to 
 yield to his desires, which she prefe^I rather than to cause him 
 to have an excuse to seek sexua'^'tftisf action elsewhere, and he 
 forces her thus to submit to him, though positively detrimental to 
 her health and happiness uwfter such conditions the sexual func- 
 tion becomes an act of forced legalized prostitution in the fullest 
 sense of the expression. 
 
 My association with several thousand physicians, and the infor- 
 mation communicated to me by many of them in seeking aid for 
 some psychoneurotic manifestation, has coincided with my own ob- 
 servations that there are many married women who do not enjoy 
 their conjugal relation with their husbands, and that this is one of 
 the most fruitful causes of unhappy domestic relations extant, re- 
 sulting in various functional disorders of the female generative 
 organs, with its attendant insomnia, nervousness, and general 
 psychoneurotic manifestations. Occasionally a case is presented 
 where the most complete happiness in the conjugal relation can not 
 be obtained because the psychic life of the woman is under the 
 control of religious emotion, which is, on account of the psychical 
 correlation of religious emotion and the sexual instinct, substituted 
 for the normal sexual enjoyment which the wife should obtain from 
 her husband. 
 
 When a female religious enthusiast has her psychic life abnor- 
 mally influenced, her emotions being unduly stirred by her min- 
 ister, and also enjoys the sexual relation with her husband, the 
 sexual act is then more of a physiological response to the minister's 
 psychic stimulation than the normal reaction to the personality 
 of her husband, and intercourse under such conditions is most 
 disastrous to both mind and body. She is, in reality, playing a 
 dual role psychically enjoying her minister, physically enjoying 
 her husband and this abnormal, unnatural situation degrades her 
 marital relation, in effect, to an act of prostitution. The over- 
 expenditure of nerve energy from this double situation entails a 
 draught upon her reserved forces in excess of her recuperative 
 powers, while she is in perfect innocence. But the violation of 
 natural laws in innocence and ignorance are no less followed by 
 nature's penalty than if violated intentionally. She becomes dis-
 
 260 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 qualified for her domestic duties and social responsibilities, be- 
 comes neurasthenic, psychasthenic, or hysterical, and this result- 
 ing train of psychoneurotic symptoms or functional disorders 
 sometimes leads to insanity or bodily sickness, and even death may 
 result indirectly therefrom. 
 
 Women are frequently observed who come out of a series of 
 prolonged emotional religious services weak, nervous, pale, and 
 bedridden, who passively yield to the physical and psychical re- 
 action of such dissipations feeling that they have conscientiously 
 performed their duty in "the Lord's work." On one occasion, 
 when explaining to a religious devotee the disastrous effect of an 
 emotional sermon, telling her that I believed death itself had fre- 
 quently been caused by such emotional preaching, she replied that 
 "it would be a lovely way to die." Her response reminded me 
 of the answer given by a mentally decrepit old man seventy-six 
 years of age, who, when told that if he was forced to satisfy the 
 sexual requirements of a young woman twenty-six years of age, 
 whom he was endeavoring to marry, for two weeks it would kill 
 him, replied that if he could live with her for two weeks he would 
 prefer to die rather than live twenty years without her. The 
 manifestations of the sexual instinct exhibited by this woman in 
 her religious emotion and by this man's desire to gratify his ani- 
 mal passion are here strikingly similar. 
 
 Religious excitement encourages masturbation in both boys and 
 girls. To excite the nervous system in one way encourages ab- 
 normal excitability in another. A young woman whose parents 
 were religious enthusiasts confessed that she had frequently been 
 stirred by a religious service, and as a result masturbated and felt 
 that she had done nothing wrong. The temporary relaxation fol- 
 lowing orgasm relieved the nervous tension induced by the emo- 
 tional religious service, and she felt decidedly more comfortable. 
 
 The sexual instinct frequently manifests itself in emotional re- 
 ligious meetings by a nervous young woman becoming ardently 
 interested in the religious welfare of some particular young man. 
 
 A bride of two months became very much aroused by religious 
 emotion, and, as she went forward to shake hands with the minister, 
 her young husband rushed to her and before the entire assembly
 
 GUIDANCE OP THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 261 
 
 kissed her passionately for a half dozen or more times. The sexual 
 instinct here manifested seemed to get beyond his control, but the 
 unthinking audience considered this manifestation a beautiful ex- 
 hibition of his Christian spirit. In many instances a young woman 
 has mistaken the religious exaltation for what in fact was nothing 
 less than ungratified sexual desire. To what extent religious feel- 
 ings depend upon physiological conditions has not yet been defi- 
 nitely ascertained. 
 
 A physician on one occasion asked me in confidence why his 
 wife had grown so indifferent to his approaches in the sexual rela- 
 tion. Upon questioning him, I found that she was an ardent sup- 
 porter of a worn-out religious creed, around which her entire 
 psychic life centered, and one which his scientific training had 
 caused him to repudiate. The psychic inharmony existing in his 
 marital relation had robbed him of all happiness to be obtained 
 from this source, and he, still endeavoring to be loyal to her, was 
 despondent, unhappy, and miserable. 
 
 Upon the discovery of a clandestine relation existing between 
 a married man and a woman who was not his wife, I questioned 
 him: "How can a man of your esthetic development live that 
 way?" His response was: "This woman loves me, but my wife 
 don't, and I'd sooner be dead than live a loveless life." He had 
 a beautiful home, surrounded by shade trees and flowers, and three 
 children were the result of his unwise marriage, but, rather than 
 humiliate them by divorce proceedings, he had found a solution 
 of the situation in a manner which met the requirements of his 
 sexual instincts, contrary to the laws of morality and civilization. 
 
 To a highly educated girl, showing evidence of having had the 
 home influences and social standing unexcelled by those to be 
 found anywhere, who was living in a house of prostitution, I put 
 the question, ' ' Why are you here ? ' ' The story of her life showed 
 that she was seduced by a man to whom she was engaged, having 
 yielded to him out of the purest love, and after a most bitter dis- 
 appointment had sought to drown her sorrow by plunging deeper 
 into it, and finally had landed in the lowest depths. Many such 
 examples don't mean to do wrong in the beginning. They are 
 those who were not properly educated in self-preservation, and,
 
 262 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 without the necessary training in the guidance of the sexual in- 
 stinct, had committed serious blunders in the pursuit of happiness 
 as best they knew. There are thousands of such cases that are 
 martyrs to the ignorance that is prevalent on account of the false 
 modesty exhibited by educators in regard to the laws of natural 
 morality. 
 
 Healthy physiological functions and demands make the founda- 
 tions for sexual feelings. They belong to all healthful, normal 
 human beings as a part of human nature, and are not sinful, nor 
 do they exist in opposition to all that is noble in man or woman. 
 They are not indications of a low order of personality, but are of 
 the greatest importance for the welfare and happiness of the hu- 
 man race, designed by nature for the preservation of the species. 
 Man or woman could not exist without them, but, if they are to 
 be a source of happiness, beauty, pleasure, and joy, as they should, 
 they should be held within proper limits by intelligent guidance. 
 
 A young merchant sought to know why his wife did not enjoy 
 the sexual relation. Upon further inquiry it was found that or- 
 gasm with him was premature, the act not consuming more than a 
 half minute for its completion. Though married four years, and 
 the mother of one child, she had never experienced pleasurable 
 sexual intercourse. She had, as the result of this abnormal rela- 
 tion, suffered from various functional disturbances, for which she 
 had been treated by various methods to no avail, and finally be- 
 came morose and unhappy, and dissatisfied with everything in life. 
 Her husband submitted to treatment for a condition which was the 
 result of masturbation, and life to both himself and his wife was 
 afterward fraught with a happiness, zest, and buoyancy of spirits 
 which they had never known before. 
 
 A further enumeration of types of cases illustrative of the hu- 
 man misery resulting as a consequence of the prevalent ignorance 
 in regard to the sexual instinct is unnecessary to give emphasis to 
 the necessity for the more universal dissemination of ideas concern- 
 ing its proper guidance. It is necessary for health, as well as 
 morals, that the sexual function be intelligently guided. It is 
 equally, if not more, essential to the welfare of the human race 
 that the individual submit to a rational mental and sexual hygiene,
 
 GUIDANCE OP THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 263 
 
 as that he should be taught sound rules concerning dietetics ex- 
 ercise, and other methods of cultivating the moral and intellectual 
 qualifications which contribute to the betterment of the entire hu- 
 man organization. 
 
 It is immoral for moralists to attempt to suppress the normal 
 activity of the functions of the human organization, even though 
 it is done with the best intentions and with the belief that it quali- 
 fies the individual for the attainment of happiness in another life. 
 
 The world's strongest, greatest, most useful men and women are 
 those who are born with strong natural desires, but they are not 
 libertines. As a rule, they are virtuous, because they have learned 
 how to direct their energies into wholesome, useful lines of thought 
 and action, such as would ennoble both their psychic and physical 
 constitutions, contributing to the development of mind and body, 
 bringing about a harmonious co-operation of all the natural forces 
 and functions, promoting the highest development of the individual 
 and the most helpful influence to the human race. On the other 
 hand, many ascetics or puritans deserve no credit for being virtu- 
 ous, for they really are not, as they are from birth born weak, 
 devoid of the normal bodily appetites, and consequently they have 
 never had a single sexual desire to resist. 
 
 Many women are made cold and unresponsive by the inhibitory 
 influence of false ideas concerning sexual desire, and their person- 
 alities have become dwarfed, and the homes of such women, when 
 married, are in consequence gloomy sepulchers, where the lives of 
 their husbands are spent in melancholy and despondency. 
 
 By the dissemination of false ideas concerning the sexual instinct 
 many young boys and girls are allowed to become masturbators, 
 with the grave consequence that impotency in man frequently re- 
 sults, and in woman the most incorrigible psychoneurotic manifesta- 
 tions accompany them through life. With female masturbators 
 the result is that the desire for the embrace, the fondling, petting, 
 caressing all of the strongest expressions of love are absent, and 
 she is incapacitated to respond to the normal psychic and physio- 
 logical reactions which should attend the sexual relation. They 
 are thus incapacitated to excite the normal desire in man, and in 
 her presence he becomes impotent.
 
 264 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Thus Schrenk-Notzing says: "The self-satisfaction places the 
 habitual masturbator in a strange so to say, unphysiological 
 position to the opposite sex. In making the sexual intercourse 
 unnecessary, it weakens the sexual desire and undermines the 
 strongest of our natural emotions the longing for love, which is 
 the sexual foundation, the impulse of high, ideal actions and 
 adulterates the fire of the sexual senses, which is the stimulus of 
 development of strength in the individual and of social life in the 
 world of the beautiful and the moral. The act of onanism is more 
 injurious to the central nervous system than the normal inter- 
 course, because phantasy must fill the place of reality, and thus 
 a great amount of nerve substance, possessing a higher functional 
 value, must be consumed." 
 
 The effect of temporary masturbation must not be confounded 
 with the results attending habitual masturbation. Much harm is 
 done by advertising medical quacks, who speak of masturbation 
 without making this discrimination, and many a poor victim is 
 unnecessarily frightened and much irreparable harm is done to 
 such overanxious individuals who read the books of these grafters, 
 which are intended more to frighten them into submission to 
 treatment than to truthfully set forth facts. Practically all unin- 
 structed boys who have passed beyond the teens have at some 
 period of their lives been temporary masturbators. The effect 
 upon the individual case depends entirely upon the stability of his 
 nervous system, and the time, frequency, and extent over which 
 the habit was practiced. One can never, however, truthfully say 
 that onanism can be practiced without more or less injurious re- 
 sults, and in the greater proportion of such cases with the cessation 
 of the habit the physical effects soon pass away. The psychic 
 effects often last much longer, the treatment of which requires the 
 most intelligent and judicious employment of psychotherapeutic 
 measures. As a rule, they respond to treatment very readily, with 
 highly satisfactory results to the victims. 
 
 The entire list of examples cited, and those described as well, 
 depending upon no organic disease as the result of venereal infec- 
 tion, or other physical abnormality, are cases where psychotherapy 
 finds a most important field of application. No work undertaken
 
 GUIDANCE OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 265 
 
 by the physician requires more time, patience, tact, experience, 
 skill, and perseverance than the effort to guide many of the ex- 
 amples cited back to a normal, wholesome, natural, sexual life; 
 but, where no unmanageable domestic situation or incorrigible 
 temperament is presented as a part of the complication to be han- 
 dled, one can in due course of time restore such patients to their 
 normal mental and physical condition, and with results that en- 
 able them to readapt themselves to their environment to live use- 
 ful, wholesome, happy lives. 
 
 To treat such cases, one must be well grounded in the psychology 
 of the sexual instinct he must treat the psychology of the indi- 
 vidual patient. Such knowledge involves the consideration of the 
 physical, emotional, intellectual, ethical, esthetic, and moral quali- 
 ties of human beings as we find them in the broad, e very-day 
 world. It is related to every phase of life educational, religious, 
 social, and moral and plays an all-important part in the produc- 
 tion of health and happiness. The highest function of the phy- 
 sician is to be prepared to give sane, wholesome, sensible advice 
 where needed in such cases, and to save such as are seeking help 
 from the vampires who live and thrive upon the distorted imag- 
 inations, credulity, and suggestibility of those who are honestly 
 and earnestly seeking relief. 
 
 In no class of conditions can the old adage, "an ounce of pre- 
 vention is worth a pound of cure," be so aptly applied as to illus- 
 trate the importance of efforts sanely and intelligently directed 
 in the guidance of the sexual instinct as a means of preventing 
 untold mental and physical suffering and in promoting the wel- 
 fare, health, and happiness of the human race. What is needed 
 by children, boys and girls, young men and young women, and 
 many who have reached the age of fifty as well, is education, knowl- 
 edge, and guidance in order that the best interest of the human 
 race may be secured and maintained. 
 
 But before outlining practical ideas that should be disseminated 
 as a means of prevention of the woeful blunders which those who 
 are ignorant of the laws of sexual life, or from lack of knowledge 
 in self-preservation from inexperience, are likely to make, as has 
 been illustrated by the examples cited, it is well that we refer
 
 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 briefly to the more normal manifestations of the sexual instinct, 
 and not leave the reader with a feeling of repugnance to this most 
 sacred, most beautiful, and beneficent attribute of human nature, 
 which popular theological morality has regarded as lust. 
 
 If sexual desire, the strongest bodily appetite the highest func- 
 tion of health, love, and happiness a necessary condition for life 
 itself, is to be regarded as an evidence of sinfulness, and as the 
 sign of the low and baser propensities in man, deserving only to 
 be suppressed, stifled, and killed out in order that the divine and 
 spiritual element, or what is regarded as the higher qualities be- 
 longing to human nature, may become manifested in our life and 
 conduct, then we have conclusive evidence that the Creator made 
 an unpardonable mistake, and should have consulted some of the 
 antiquated theologians, who are responsible for much of the er- 
 roneous ideas concerning the "baseness," "lowness, " and "sin- 
 fulness" of this beautiful, psychic, and physical passion, which is 
 the most conspicuous and most prominent characteristic in the 
 lives of all of the world's greatest men and women, and, above all 
 others, deserves to be exalted, and in its manifestations guided into 
 lines that uplift and ennoble mankind, and this guidance is true 
 morality. 
 
 The sexual instinct, if properly guided, is capable of elevating 
 and ennobling human character, promoting the development of the 
 higher psychic qualities generosity, magnanimity, reverence, al- 
 truism, philanthropy, and a tenacious stand for the right. But 
 if the individual is left to obey the instincts inherent within his 
 protoplasmic elements without judicious guidance, it may lead 
 him to the lowest depths of depravity and jeopardize the happi- 
 ness and success of the lives of others with whom his life is 
 bound. 
 
 It is the sexual instinct which is the source of all that is pure 
 and noble within the human race, and anything which hinders or 
 arrests its normal development robs human character of all those 
 virile qualities which are so highly esteemed. It is identical in 
 every way with creative energy as manifested in all departments 
 of human life and action. 
 
 The two strongest natural instincts are, and have ever been,
 
 GUIDANCE OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 267 
 
 side by side in all living animals, and it is questionable if they 
 are not synonymous and identical. Self-preservation and the in- 
 stinct of propagation are qualities of healthy, normal, vigorous 
 living beings, wherever found. The instinct to propagate and the 
 ability to fight for the preservation of its progeny reverses its 
 relative proportion as animal life rises in the scale of evolutionary 
 development ; so, in human beings they blend in what is commonly 
 designated as virile qualities, and they are manifested in both 
 psychic and physical attributes. 
 
 From this natural virility in man is the species preserved and 
 the home created. 
 
 From it arises our delight in music, poetry, literature, sculpture, 
 paintings, and all the attributes of art. 
 
 From it comes our enjoyment of rivalry in athletic sports, motor- 
 ing, horse racing, ball games, rowing, shooting, dancing, singing, 
 and oratory. This natural virility in man gives rise to his desire 
 to associate with the opposite sex, and is the incentive to all social 
 life. 
 
 It is the impulse that gives rise to educational institutions and 
 forms of government. 
 
 It finds expression in the mechanical arts, invention, and navi- 
 gation. 
 
 It manifests itself by the discovery of new countries, the clear- 
 ing of forests, the building of cities, and the construction of rail- 
 roads. 
 
 It is the impulse that gives rise to all the achievements of 
 science, and incites the birth of all philosophies and religions. 
 
 It is the instinctive impulse that has prompted human activity 
 in all ages, developed business and financial institutions, given 
 rise to wars, cruelty, and bloodshed, or to philanthropic, benevo- 
 lent, and charitable institutions. 
 
 In factories, on farms, in mines, school houses, stores, business 
 places of all sorts, in the work of all professions wherever human 
 activity is manifested there do we find the mode of expression of 
 the natural virility, or sexual instinct, in its multifold manifesta- 
 tions, according to the psychic and physical potentialities of the 
 individuals concerned.
 
 268 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 A vigorous sexual nature is the logical accompaniment of a 
 great intellect and a strong, healthy body. 
 
 Without it there would never have been a Plato, an Aristotle, a 
 Marcus Aurelius, a Darwin, a Huxley, a Tyndale, a Carlyle, an 
 Emerson, a Gothe, a Shakespeare, a Milton, a Tennyson, an Edison, 
 a Morse, a Stephenson, a Caesar, a Napoleon Bonaparte, a Payne, a 
 Voltaire, a Hugo, a Webster, a Calhoun, a Clay, a Washington, a 
 Grant, a Lee, a Buddha, a Confucius, a Jesus Christ, or any other 
 one of the names of those who have possessed the high order of 
 psychic and physical qualities of manhood to dare to get out of 
 the beaten path of the common herd and give to humanity the 
 highest expression and meaning of a life. These persons and 
 thousands of like character, who have achieved special success in 
 their respective departments of endeavor and become the world's 
 true benefactors, have been men who have been endowed with the 
 strongest natural passions and feelings, and their special achieve- 
 ments indicate the channels into which this inherent power of 
 psychic and physical manhood had by them been directed. With- 
 out it, ambition would sleep, virtue would flee, pride would van- 
 quish, and we would be as those who are emasculated impotent, 
 cowardly, and weak. Without it the individual is unfit for life's 
 battles, lacking in the distinctive qualities of sexual beauty, flabby 
 in muscle, weak in mind, and minus the highest qualities of moral 
 sense. 
 
 Heredity plays an all-important part in the mode of manifesta- 
 tion of the sexual instincts; so much so, that a single fertilized 
 cell contains all the psychic and physical qualities, dispositions, 
 traits of personality, and mental and physical attributes of an- 
 cestors for ages past. All the potentialities are transmitted in 
 this microscopic fertilized cell. 
 
 But what is really inherited at the time of the birth of the in- 
 dividual is that innate, inherent quality of psychophysical force 
 that instinctive primordial "urge," strong or weak as it may be 
 which is expressed in the various manifestations of the conduct of 
 the individual and indicated by what is commonly referred to as 
 desire. We see it manifested in the new-born chick as it kicks, and 
 scrambles, and bursts its way out of the shell in which it was
 
 GUIDANCE OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 269 
 
 developed, and seeks a broader, more favorable environment, where 
 it can grow and develop according to the laws of its being. 
 "We see it also manifested in the healthy human infant as it raven- 
 ously seizes its mother's nipple when placed in contact with it, and 
 so markedly is this desire manifested that many children are what 
 is sometimes described as "born hungry." This appetite, desire, 
 or craving is generally admitted to be a strong motive to conduct, 
 and this is manifested from the time of birth all the way through 
 the entire life of the individual. 
 
 More and more is it dawning upon us that the mode of manifesta- 
 tion of this inherent quality of psychophysical force or creative 
 energy, natural virility, or life power depends upon the influences 
 brought to bear upon the individual after we are born. It is at 
 least very largely determined by education, knowledge, and guid- 
 ance, which is received by the individual in his growth from in- 
 fancy to manhood, as is furnished by environment. 
 
 This guidance, as the result of the influence of environment, may 
 be for the good or harm of the individual. It may be acquired 
 consciously or unconsciously. Who can determine at what age the 
 impressions made upon the receptive tablets of the child's brain 
 plasm are retained, by which ideas, propensities, and inclinations 
 are conserved, to manifest themselves in the life and conduct of 
 the individual later in life? 
 
 Contemporary psychologists are agreed that ideas are conserved 
 by the neuron elements, forming psychophysiological complexes, or 
 physiological centers, the functionating of which determines the in- 
 dividual's habits of thought and conduct in after-life. These 
 groups of ideas are conserved by the neuron elements in such a 
 way as to form physiological centers, that carry with them ideas 
 and bodily feelings as well, and these do not always functionate in 
 such way as to conduce to the best interest of the individual. The 
 result is the development of many manifestations of abnormal 
 mental and bodily symptoms, commonly referred to as the func- 
 tional psychoneuroses. The reason for this inharmony between 
 man's acquired habits of thinking and bodily functions, and those 
 natural physiological processes with which we are born, is the re- 
 sult of false education. All education should be in harmony with
 
 270 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 the natural functions of the human body, and not antagonistic to 
 them as such antagonism will pervert them if health, happiness, 
 and contentment is to be maintained. This is natural morality, and 
 any educational or religious influence contrary to the laws of nature 
 such as cause the individual to condemn the body, and regard his 
 normal sexual feelings as sinful, as "lust of the flesh" is re- 
 sponsible for many unhappy psychoneurotic manifestations, result- 
 ing in divorce, suicide, insanity, and often in death. Such religious 
 teaching is positively immoral and deserves to be condemned. 
 
 "We should not regard our normal sexual feelings as something 
 sinful, low, vile, and lustful, as theological morality has taught. 
 They are, on the contrary, indications of normal virility and be- 
 long to all normal, healthful, human beings, and are an indication 
 of creative power that can be directed into lines of healthful, use- 
 ful endeavor, as various as are the pursuits, pleasures, and avoca- 
 tions of mankind, and should at all times be under the dictation 
 and guidance of reason and judgment. 
 
 We are constructed on a double principle. Man has a dual 
 nature, and contains within himself two forms of existence, inti- 
 mately and mutually interwoven, which are respectively constantly 
 influencing each other, and they should never be at war or out of 
 harmony with each other. 
 
 As animals, we have within us the instincts, passions, feelings, 
 and sensations common to all other animal life. As intelligent 
 human beings, we possess a moral will, by which we are able to 
 modify, guide, and direct the bodily motions. Mental action and 
 bodily functions also go hand in hand, constituting the psychic 
 and physical manifestations of man as a psychophysical organism. 
 These mutually influence each other, as is indicated in the old 
 maxim, "mens sana in corpore sano. " This is why many in- 
 fluences commonly designated as sympathies, or irradiations of the 
 nervous system, frequently manifest themselves as psychoneurotic 
 functional disorders. The psychic contents of the personality, as 
 the result of education and environment, are collected in the central 
 nervous system, conserved as dormant physiological complexes, and 
 make themselves manifest as dissociated unconscious reflexes, or as 
 conscious sensations. Hence arise moods such as mental irrita-
 
 GUIDANCE OP THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 271 
 
 bility, nervousness, perversions of imagination, jealousy, and other 
 obstacles of a normal sexual life and these are the greatest 
 obstacles to the manifestation of a normal, useful, happy, success- 
 ful existence as well. 
 
 The highest privilege of life is that the individual develop and 
 give to the world the very best personality that can be made of 
 himself physically, mentally, and morally. This is the very goal 
 of all human endeavor and achievement, and, no matter what suc- 
 cess the individual may attain, life is a failure unless one has suc- 
 ceeded in the acquirement of a personality consisting of such 
 physical and mental attributes as are an inspiration and encourage- 
 ment to other personalities with whom he or she is associated. 
 
 The sexual instinct is a phenomenon that has both its physio- 
 logical and psychological manifestations. In no phase of human 
 conduct do we see the influence of personality upon personality so 
 markedly exhibited as in the sexual relations between man and 
 woman. The love of the normal man is awakened and nourished 
 by essential and natural qualities in woman beauty, gayety, 
 vivacity, healthy normal love, and devotion and he values 
 domesticity as well as knowledge; helpful, sympathetic co-opera- 
 tion in his life's duties, as well as physical attractiveness; and in 
 all of the relations of life her influence upon him is as a psycho- 
 physiological depressant if she is unhappy, exacting, quarrelsome, 
 and constantly exhibiting psychoneurotie manifestations. The in- 
 fluence of the personality of the man upon wife, or the wife upon 
 husband, determines one's conscious sensations pleasant or dis- 
 agreeable, as the case may be and no factor in human life so 
 contributes to health, happiness, and success, and all that goes to 
 make life worth while in the world, as the influence exerted by 
 the personality of the individual upon his or her companion in the 
 marriage relation. 
 
 Sensations that are pleasant or unpleasant, agreeable or disagree- 
 able, stimulating or depressing, play a most important role in the 
 mental as well as the bodily manifestations of man. Those sensa- 
 tions that arise from an association that produces effects upon 
 mind and body that are pleasant, agreeable, and stimulating to the 
 organism encourage all bodily functions, stimulate the activities
 
 272 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 of the mind, and increase the capacity of the individual for mental 
 and physical work, thus evoking health, love, life, and happiness. 
 
 Sensations that are unpleasant, disagreeable, and depressing 
 cause mental depression, despondency, and nervous irritability. 
 Such an influence may result in actual pain, and cause a marked 
 inhibition of mental and physical capacities. 
 
 Self-preservation is the first law of nature, and therefore it is 
 only in accordance with the constitution of the human organiza- 
 tion to perceive as pleasant, agreeable, and stimulating everything 
 favoring itself, as expressed in bodily functions or in mental ac- 
 tivity, for all helpful sensations encourage health, success in busi- 
 ness pursuits, and happiness as a natural consequence. 
 
 Agreeable sensations do much more to contribute to the happi- 
 ness of man than is generally supposed. They carry with them 
 ideas, feelings, and beliefs that constitute luck, joy, happiness, 
 love, and sympathy. They soothe and satisfy the cravings of the 
 normal human organization, and predispose to active and useful 
 endeavor in the great every-day world. 
 
 Disagreeable sensations, on the other hand, are positive psycho- 
 physiological depressants. They depress and inhibit the functions 
 of the entire organization, cause nervous and mental irritability, 
 make the individual miserable and unhappy, and rob life of its 
 zest and enthusiasm. 
 
 The necessary requisites for a happy and permanent sexual re- 
 lation concern the entire personality, psychic and physical, in 
 which educational qualifications, mental attributes, acquisitions, 
 and temperament, likes and dislikes, are of equal importance to 
 bodily qualities. The natural attraction of sex to sex, present in 
 the sexual act, is more influenced by psychic qualities and all 
 that is implied in the word "congeniality" than by the physio- 
 logical expression of the desire to gratify sexual passion by orgasm. 
 
 Many marriage relations are entered into only from sensual in- 
 toxication, as the result of constant association of the opposite sexes, 
 without considering whether psychic qualities exist which make a 
 marriage relation for life possible. Such marriages are often the 
 burial ground for happiness and joy, as well as for a useful life 
 in the business world.
 
 GUIDANCE OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 273 
 
 The different developments of character and faults in the parties 
 to a marriage relation, usually as the result of education and en- 
 vironment in early life, frequently cause the disharmony which 
 proves destructive to the home life. 
 
 Thus Nystrom has well said: "One thing is certain viz., that 
 not the most obviously wise legislation concerning marriage, nor 
 the most rigid superintendence, is able to create happiness of mar- 
 ried people, safety of children, and happy homes. Love alone can 
 do this, and where it is absent a union is false and marriage is 
 unworthy oppression, which ruins character, and all prattle of 
 infidelity is without inner deeper import." 
 
 True love, mutual sympathy, and respect are the fundamental 
 conditions for the happy marital union of two well-developed in- 
 dividuals. This embraces comradeship, understanding, mutual in- 
 terest, sympathy, loyalty, and all that contributes to the happiness, 
 success, and development of the entire personality. 
 
 The sexual relation is only an incident in the life of the parties to 
 a union where the fundamental conditions above enumerated exist, 
 and it is then only one of the numerous ties which unite and hold 
 man and wife together. 
 
 In many cases, on the other hand, the sexual act is the only 
 link that binds in the marital relation, and such a relationship is 
 not the same as love. It may be performed as the result of habit, 
 without love or sympathy, in response to the physiological de- 
 mands of the animal nature, carrying with it no gratification for 
 one party and is a humiliation for the other. Such a relation is 
 devoid of devotion, and thus the main element of sexual life is 
 lacking, and has in it not one element worthy of the participation 
 of a self-respecting being. Sickness, suicide, divorce, or the most 
 unhappy state of existence is the consequence. Many such mar- 
 riage relations are in existence. The man is willing to surrender 
 his happiness, success, convictions, ideals his very life for the 
 sake of the conservation of a home, where the children who are 
 born as the result of his unhappy union may be reared and edu- 
 cated. Such men are martyrs, for the unhappiness they are forced 
 to conceal is worse than the most malignant cancer constantly prey- 
 ing upon life. Of the ten or twelve thousand suicides per annum
 
 274 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 in the United States, many that are reported as caused by "busi- 
 ness complications" are the result of an unhappy domestic union. 
 Many marriages too early in life are entered into under the in- 
 fluence of emotion, or the stimulus of animal passion, which is 
 mistaken for love. Psychic qualifications do not enter into such 
 relations as an incentive to the selection of a mate. Later on in 
 life man's psychic nature is stronger in its influence upon him 
 than mere animal passion, and sexual intercourse without the 
 stimulus of the higher elements of congeniality produces a sur- 
 feit, a disgust, and positive repulsion in perfect accord with the 
 laws of his higher nature. 
 
 Man is a being of intelligence, with moral and social ideals, aspi- 
 ration, reason, ambition, knowledge, perception, and judgment, 
 and, where a union is maintained without congeniality in regard 
 to these higher evolutionary factors of personality, but only as a 
 means of gratifying his animal passions, intercourse is robbed of 
 the essential psychic elements which produce a favorable reaction 
 upon mind and body, without which it is prostitution pure and 
 simple. 
 
 Beastiality, or the act of having intercourse with a brute, is 
 not an uncommon occurrence among the uneducated negroes of the 
 southern states. A horse has been known to be the instrument for 
 this disgusting act by a man in whom the higher psychic qualities 
 had not been developed. The sexual act is the same in effect when 
 a man has intercourse with a prostitute, who grants him the privi- 
 lege of using her body to produce orgasm for a price, as in the 
 instance where the horse was employed. In both instances the 
 essential psychic elements were lacking, and only an individual 
 who has smothered every worthy quality within him, or one in 
 whom they had never been evolved, could engage in such a dis- 
 gusting relation. 
 
 Just in proportion as man rises in the scale of evolution, or 
 has become more civilized, does his sexual instincts become more 
 refined and ennobled, and the qualities of mind and character 
 enter his ideal of what his conjugal mate should be. 
 
 Like attracts like in the mating instinct as in other departments 
 of nature. The feminine nature is drawn by the man who most
 
 GUIDANCE OP THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 275 
 
 nearly conforms to her ideal of what a man should be. Beckey, a 
 popular young negress, was infatuated by Jordan, the strongest 
 negro on the farm because he was more than the equal of the other 
 negro men when a test of strength w r as made at loading cotton, car- 
 rying logs, splitting rails, and in all places where physical endur- 
 ance was the test of manhood. He was also a born fighter, and she 
 gloried in his virile qualities manifested in the most primitive way. 
 
 Mary, another negress, was a great church devotee, and no negro 
 man in the neighborhood stood in her estimation as compared with 
 Lewis, the young deacon. She was proud to become his wife be- 
 cause he measured up to her highest ideal of what she conceived 
 a man should be. 
 
 And all along up in the scale of civilization, from the lowest 
 to the highest, woman is attracted most by the man who is near- 
 est the embodiment of the physical and psychic qualities which 
 most nearly conform to her ideal. The masculine nature is drawn 
 by the woman who most strongly believes in him, and he naturally 
 desires to be her protector. He is strengthened and encouraged 
 by her confidence, comforted by her sympathy in the battles against 
 environment, and in all of life's struggles made more of a man by 
 her self-sacrifices for his success. 
 
 The types of individuality are as varied as are men and women 
 in the world, and among them all this natural sex attraction is in 
 evidence. A woman's ideal of what a man should be depends upon 
 her training, as determined by environment and education. Ac- 
 cording to her development is she prepared to appreciate the high- 
 est qualities of ideal manhood, and she is instinctively drawn to 
 the man most nearly representing in her estimation the character- 
 istics of what true manhood should be; and man is drawn to the 
 woman who most nearly conforms to his ideal of womanly per- 
 fection. This element of sympathy pertains more to psychic than 
 to physical qualities, and in this alone does man differ most con- 
 spicuously in sexual instincts from those manifested by the brute. 
 Nothing so helps in the making of a man as the love, and confi- 
 dence, and helpful co-operation of a woman who truly believes in 
 him. She is the vis a tergo the power behind the throne the 
 mainspring to man's effort at doing and being something in the
 
 276 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 world in which he lives, and a true woman wishes no higher place 
 in life than to inspire one man to put forth his energies in the 
 performance of useful, helpful service to mankind. To help him 
 in his work by her love and helpful co-operation and kindly sym- 
 pathy, and to know that she is justly appreciated by her hero, is 
 the reward that the normal, sane, wholesome woman seeks above 
 all else in the world. 
 
 It is but the manifestation of the normal sexual instinct in 
 man that is manifested in any and every line of wholesome, useful, 
 conscientious endeavor, in all that pertains to making himself and 
 family a living, educating and developing them, and contributing 
 his best efforts for the betterment of humanity; and it is but the 
 manifestation of the normal sexual instinct in woman to help him, 
 believe in him, love and encourage him, and so reign as the queen 
 of his home that in her kingdom he can obtain peace and happi- 
 ness, joy and comfort, and the rest that he needs from a life of 
 care and responsibility. 
 
 No human being can stand alone very long unless supported by 
 the love and helpful co-operation of other human beings with 
 whom he is related. As the head of a home, man's life is a fight 
 between himself and the entire world, and his comrade, his fighting 
 mate, his inspiration and encouragement, his best help, must come 
 from the wife who loves him, believes in him and his work, and 
 stands ever ready to contribute all within her power to his happi- 
 ness and success. 
 
 With over ten thousand suicides and fifty thousand divorces 
 yearly in the United States ; with our overcrowded insane asylums, 
 hospitals, and penitentiaries; with weakness, impotency, incompe- 
 tency and disease thronging our cities, the time has arrived when 
 physicians, and laity as well, should face this question of the 
 guidance of the sexual instinct in the young, so as to equip them 
 to live sane, useful, normal, healthful, happy lives as a means of 
 preventing the disastrous consequences which result from ignorance 
 concerning the power inherent in all human beings, and we should 
 take such measures as would prevent the fate of all who are al- 
 lowed to drift unguided along in the world into disease, unhappi- 
 ness, and degeneracy on account of the failure of educators to en-
 
 GUIDANCE OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 277 
 
 lighten them upon the simple, practical questions of every-day life. 
 And in efforts to educate and enlighten the young and older people 
 as well it should be remembered that education may be ever so 
 good, principles of life ever so high, but, unless they are in harmony 
 with nature's laws and meet the requirements of the normal, natural 
 individual, they fall short of meeting the requirements of the needs 
 of mankind. 
 
 Conscience, that secret monitor which decides the righteous- 
 ness or sinfulness of our actions, is the result of education, and 
 has a tremendous influence upon the guidance of the sexual in- 
 stinct. Most children either have no instruction in regard to the 
 sexual function or they have been wrongly taught. 
 
 To send children to church, and leave all moral guidance to 
 its influence, is not sufficient. It is idle to promulgate lofty 
 theories and sentiments when we are brought face to face with 
 conditions that should be handled practically. It may appear 
 beautiful to teach a boy to sing, "There is sunshine in my soul 
 today," but we who have seen the miserable mental depression 
 and physical suffering resulting from gonorrhea and syphilis con- 
 tracted by unthinking youths, or the despondency with which they 
 suffer later on in life as the result of masturbation, know that it 
 is far wiser to talk to them plainly about the sexual functions and 
 give them that knowledge that all boys are eager to receive, and 
 thus save them from the pitfalls that lurk in their pathway by an 
 earnest appeal to their reasoning faculties. 
 
 Many people look with disapproval upon any effort to solve the 
 problem of social vice. They pride themselves in their ignorance 
 and call this purity, but violations of natural laws in innocence 
 and ignorance are attended with the same penalty as other crimes 
 of misconduct. 
 
 To teach children to sing, "We will walk in the light," and not 
 forewarn them of the consequences of physical degradation and 
 vice, is mockery and deceit. 
 
 It is in early childhood that we can plant sense impressions or 
 suggestions upon the soft tablets of their brain plasm, and so form 
 habits of thought and action that will make them conquerors in 
 life. The consequences of vice as a hindrance to their develop-
 
 278 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 merit should be explained to children, and constantly iterated and 
 repeated by those responsible for their training. They should 
 be made to feel that every part of their body was created for a 
 purpose, and that function should be carefully explained to them. 
 They should not be allowed to become ashamed of their procrea- 
 tive organs, but should be taught to regard their care and preserva- 
 tion as a sacred trust, and that upon that care and preservation 
 their future happiness, health, and success in life will largely de- 
 pend. 
 
 Children should be taught that every living thing, from man 
 down to the lowest insect, comes into the world as the result of 
 the union between the sexes by coaptation of the sexual organs, and 
 that, instead of regarding sexual cohabitation as low and degraded, 
 it is nature's method of procreating the species, and therefore the 
 most sacred of all relations. As a means of self-preservation, they 
 should be taught the harmful effects of self-pollution, or pollution 
 by others, and wisely trained to bring their bodies, minds, and char- 
 acters into perfect manhood and womanhood, so that they can be 
 prepared to enter the marriage relation well qualified for man's 
 and woman's greatest usefulness to the world that of populating 
 it with children well endowed with all the physical and psychical 
 attributes to make the highest type of the species. 
 
 There is a time in the life of every boy and girl, just as they 
 enter the age of puberty, when they feel the thrill of the sexual 
 impulse, and, witnessing the rapid development of the organs of 
 generation, they seek from every available source information upon 
 this most vital subject, and in the majority of instances are falsely 
 educated by those who are thrown in their environment, without 
 the slightest warning of the danger that comes from the abuse of 
 these most beautiful emotions and most worthy aspirations. 
 Children should know that such passions are but an evidence of 
 energy that seeks to find expression in their lives and conduct, 
 and that such energies can, by the guidance of reason, be turned 
 into intellectual and physical development. They should be so 
 trained that their habits of thought and action during the first 
 twenty years of life will produce strong bodies, clear minds, and 
 buoyant, happy spirits. The best development comes in the un-
 
 GUIDANCE OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 279 
 
 conscious exercise of a child's faculties in wholesome endeavor and 
 useful employment, such as will call both mind and body into 
 action. 
 
 Children should be taught to know that their bodily passions 
 are but the indications of awakening and developing capabilities 
 of mind and body, and that these they can restrain, control, direct, 
 and govern. They should be taught how to divert their surplus 
 energy into channels of useful work and achievement such as will 
 result in mental development and muscular strength, and that will 
 qualify them to make the fight against environment for all that 
 constitutes success, happiness, and usefulness in the world. The re- 
 sults of masturbation should be carefully explained to them, and 
 the possibility of disease and pregnancy resulting from an effort 
 to gratify their passions in an illegitimate way should be pointed 
 out. 
 
 Children have a right to know the truth about all these questions 
 of life which most concern their future welfare. We warn them 
 against the danger of firearms and deep water, and of the risk they 
 take in exposure to ferocious beasts, but the care and protection of 
 their minds and bodies we leave too often to the guidance of utterly 
 unreliable sources. 
 
 The meaning of kissing, hugging, fondling, and caressing be- 
 tween the sexes should be taught, and the utility of these love mani- 
 festations in the marriage relation emphasized, both for their 
 future happiness as well as a means of self-protection from the 
 standpoint of virtue and as a safeguard from disease. 
 
 The moral cowardice of men and women in regard to these mat- 
 ters is worthy of deepest contempt. Even some physicians, who 
 reap a reward of thousands of dollars yearly on account of the 
 indiscretions of ignorance and youth, vigorously protest against 
 any movement to educate and enlighten those who are surrounded 
 by a thousand pitfalls. 
 
 The pursuit of happiness is the incentive to the acts of all human 
 beings as well as the motive of conduct of the lower forms of life, 
 and children should have the education that the human animal 
 needs to meet the requirements of his primitive instincts and to
 
 280 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 adapt his life to conform to the requirements of morality and of 
 civilization as well. 
 
 Prevention of disease, poverty, unhappiness, insanity, divorce, 
 suicide, crime, incompetency, illiteracy, and all that tends to the 
 degeneracy of the human race are the watchwords of the present 
 age. The tendency of the age is toward the growth of convictions 
 that are more concerned with the conduct of life and the develop- 
 ment of the individual qualification for meeting the exigencies of 
 life, incident to making his struggle for existence, than mere belief 
 in dogma. There is a growing conviction among all well-educated 
 people that the work of physicians, educators, politicians, philan- 
 thropists, social servants, jurists, theologians, and commercial men 
 should be in closer touch, in greater harmony, in deeper sympathy 
 for the accomplishment of the best results in either field. The line 
 of demarkation between work that is secular and work that is 
 religious, work that is human and work that is divine, is growing 
 less and less every day, and scientific knowledge practically applied 
 for the social, moral, mental, and physical welfare of humanity is 
 permeating every phase of human life. Body, mind, and character 
 are so related that their development can not be separated. It 
 is practically impossible to obtain the highest development of one 
 element of human personality while the others remain weak or de- 
 graded. The test of the value of any line of work is displayed 
 in its influence on the development of man as a whole. The final 
 test must ever be found in the character and purpose of the indi- 
 vidual effort to contribute to the public weal. We have reached 
 that stage in the development of the virile human intellect where we 
 have ceased to become afraid. Progress is the order of the world, 
 and to have a part in the universal movement for the uplifting of 
 humanity is the work that is most worth while. 
 
 As we advance in knowledge we behold a new order of things. 
 Old conceptions are dropping out of sight, and we have a clearer 
 viewpoint of life, duty, and destiny. Only those who are inert and 
 impotent mentally and morally are content to be satisfied with the 
 existing order of things. Too long have we submitted, under the 
 guise of religion, to the promulgation of those ideas not in harmony 
 with the teachings of modern science, with the result that life has
 
 GUIDANCE OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 281 
 
 been suppressed, intellect has been overthrown, and all the potenti- 
 alities inherent within the protoplasmic elements of the individual 
 stifled and smothered. 
 
 Those who speak lightly of the functional psychoneuroses, in- 
 cluding such as the undifferentiated depressions, psychasthenia, 
 hypochondriasis, neurasthenia, hysteria, and obsessions, and disre- 
 gard the part played by education and environment in their eti- 
 ology, are asleep, and they need to be aroused from their lethargy. 
 
 The prophylactic spirit, so conspicuously at work in applying the 
 principles of bacteriology and immunity to the prevention of in- 
 fectious diseases, is no less in evidence in the field of preventive 
 insanity, preventive degeneracy, poverty, crimes, drunkenness, and 
 other conditions resulting from perverted or misguided potenti- 
 alities. Who can say that neurasthenic symptoms, if neglected 
 for a sufficient length of time, will not become a contributing 
 factor in paresis, dementia precox, paranoia, or a maniacal depres- 
 sive insanity? 
 
 The treatment of the psychoneuroses, which are usually the re- 
 sult of the failure of the individual to receive that guidance of his 
 powers of mind and body to qualify him or her to exercise them 
 in wholesome, useful lives of thought and action by psychothera- 
 peutic measures which embrace moral education, physical educa- 
 tion, prophylactic education, as well as the employment of sugges- 
 tion both with and without hypnosis in order to overcome the 
 harmful effects produced by false education upon the functional 
 activity of the neuron elements, if timely administered, would pre- 
 vent a greater proportion of the insanities than is commonly sup- 
 posed. The people in our insane asylums are the same kind that 
 we see every day on the outside, but with exaggerated differences. 
 All that is needed for a great portion of the human race to develop 
 manifestations of insanity is the unfortunate environment that has 
 surrounded during infancy and childhood those who are insane. 
 The heredity of many of us is not better than those mental defect- 
 ives who are allowed to become so because of false education, and, 
 had the same environing influences fallen to our lot, the results 
 would have been the same. 
 
 Children should be given something truthful and practical to
 
 282 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 think about and to act upon they should be taught to exercise their 
 faculties by early wholesome work and employment. They should 
 be made to feel that they are helpers in carrying the burdens of 
 life and thus develop self-reliance. They should be made to realize 
 that they have within themselves an inherent quality of psycho- 
 physical force, or natural virility, which they can exercise so as to 
 be of real use in the world. 
 
 They should be made to realize that every man is a creator that 
 he is endowed not only with procreative energy, as is indicated by 
 the normal sexual feelings, but that this is one manifestation of 
 that innate, inherent capacity of mind and body with which his in- 
 fluence in the world of thought and action will be felt by his kind. 
 
 Desire is the positive part of our being, and by it the normal in- 
 stincts are manifested. These, by false education, may be re- 
 pressed, perverted, or stifled, and abused, as the case may be; or 
 they can, as the result of education, knowledge, and guidance, be 
 encouraged into normal lines of activity, by which the individual is 
 developed and the best interest of the human race conserved. 
 
 The world has not yet adequately realized the importance of the 
 recognition, use, and guidance of the natural virility of the human 
 being. To use it right, we need a degree of intelligence to which 
 the human race has not yet attained. To equip us to use it in nor- 
 mal, healthful lines of thought and action is the problem of edu- 
 cation, the problem of science, and its guidance concerns all that 
 contributes to the evolution of the human race. 
 
 In the education and intelligent guidance of the natural virility 
 of man, or of the sexual instinct, lies the method of true reform, 
 which deals with causes and not effects. It opens the way to indi- 
 vidual emancipation and progress, and the regeneration of society 
 should follow. Conventions and mass meetings avail nothing in 
 the decision of the way to direct this natural virility within us all. 
 That is a problem for the individual, and one which every one 
 must sooner or later solve according to his limited knowledge and 
 experience, and through its intelligent guidance is his happiness, 
 health, sanity, and success in life determined. Preparation to 
 guide and direct our energies into lines of wholesome, useful, help- 
 ful endeavor is not to be acquired or assumed by a psychological
 
 GUIDANCE OP THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 283 
 
 change called conversion. It must come by effort, education, de- 
 velopment, and growth, in accordance with the laws of the evolu- 
 tion of the psychic and physical potentialities in man. 
 
 Intelligent guidance of the sexual instinct must come as the re- 
 sult of long and persistent training, and in childhood is the time 
 to begin this training. Life consists in the exercise of our faculties 
 and functions, and happiness results from the performance of duty 
 and from successful achievement. 
 
 We are in the world for growth and development. We are each 
 endowed with a mind and a will to use for ourselves. We have 
 within us high and noble aspirations, which have spurred us on 
 to develop and train this mind, that we may comprehend the phys- 
 ical and mental laws by which we are controlled. Long and tedious 
 has been the way, slow and painful has been our ascent from dark- 
 ness into light. Every foot of our progress has been obstinately 
 contested by ignorance, superstition, fanaticism, and misdirected 
 zeal. The illumined genius of man has never evolved a life-saving 
 or mind-soothing discovery that has not been bitterly fought by 
 the great masses of the people. It has been ever thus, and will be 
 until the end of time. 
 
 The intelligent guidance of the sexual instinct involves all that 
 contributes to the evolution of the individual. It embraces the 
 question of food, home, clothing, education, work, exercise, mental 
 and physical development, beliefs, moral teaching, and companion- 
 ship. Its guidance is an attempt to direct the course of that sub- 
 limely grand evolutionary principle which extends from the low- 
 est form of animal life up to the most highly cultured man and 
 woman. 
 
 According to the physical development of the individual are his 
 sexual instincts manifested, and according to his psychic develop- 
 ment are they guided, whether by the impulse actuated by physio- 
 logical desire from within the protoplasmic elements of his own 
 being or by the psychophysiological influences exerted from with- 
 out. One thing is certain the guidance of the sexual instinct in 
 the young, before the psychic development of the individual has 
 rendered him competent to become master of his own potentialities, 
 is most beneficent in its results, and it may exercise a potent in-
 
 284 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 fluence for the good or harm of the individual throughout his en- 
 tire existence. 
 
 No sectarian interpretation of the problems of life contains the 
 clue to its correct guidance, but the knowledge obtained from all 
 books of science, philosophy, sociology, history, psychology, and all 
 religions the accumulated knowledge of the ages sheds light 
 upon this important question. The times demand a leadership 
 that will appeal to reason and not to ignorance, to the intellect and 
 not to prejudice a philosophy that will develop the individual 
 into the complete statue of man and womanhood and not suppress 
 the normal physiological activities of the human organism, nor in- 
 hibit the normal manifestations of his or her personality. 
 
 The influence of mind upon mind, or the influence of suggestion, 
 must be fully comprehended before one can appreciate the dis- 
 astrous influence of a religion not in accord with the facts as re- 
 vealed by science. Children, and grown people as well, are capa- 
 ble of believing only those things that come within the domain of 
 personal experience. The untrained and uneducated mind, unac- 
 quainted with the facts of science, can be taught to believe any- 
 thing, be it true or false, and the majority of people at the present 
 time go through life fettered by beliefs thrust upon them during 
 childhood. The greater portion of the old people of our age are 
 nothing more than grown-up children so far as brain power and 
 intellectual development are concerned. The only hope for the in- 
 dividual to escape from the consequences of his unfortunate hered- 
 ity and environment is by self-education, self -development, and 
 self-control. 
 
 The religion does not exist and will never exist that contains 
 all the requirements of a perfect guidance for human conduct. 
 Evolution, growth, and change in religious concepts must keep pace 
 with the intellectual development of mankind, or they stand as 
 positive hindrances to the progress of all that conduces to the 
 best interest of the human race. 
 
 No sane individual can protest against an effort to promote the 
 moral development of the human race, but, when a belief is pro- 
 mulgated that robs this life of its zest and enthusiasm, fetters the 
 human mind, and weakens the body, it is high time that we should
 
 GUIDANCE OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 285 
 
 manifest character and true manhood sufficient to demand a higher, 
 truer, and more enlightened philosophy of life. The old anthropo- 
 morphic conception of deity, capricious and bloodthirsty, must be 
 replaced by a conception that embraces the idea of a universe that 
 is ruled by law. Man, as an intelligent being, must be recognized 
 as a part of the universal intelligence that rules the world; and, 
 while yet under the rule of law, it is his privilege to discover the 
 laws of the universe, of which he is a part, and to so conform his 
 life and conduct thereto that health and happiness can be main- 
 tained. 
 
 The old conception of this life as a vale of tears, that must be 
 endured until we are transported to a locality of everlasting happi- 
 ness, must be replaced by one in which life is regarded as our op- 
 portunity for growth, education, and development, and our im- 
 mortality must consist in the contribution made by us to the sum 
 total of human happiness. 
 
 The hope of humanity consists in the belief that each human 
 being will some day so strive to contribute his best efforts to the 
 furtherance of the highest and best qualities of manhood and 
 womanhood, that he may like a tiny pebble that, when cast into 
 a body of water, causes a ripple that grows larger and larger 
 affect each human life with which he becomes associated in such 
 manner that his influence will be felt in the evolution of the human 
 race down the centuries of time throughout eternity. 
 
 In this struggle for the higher development of mankind, man 
 and woman will go hand in hand, side by side, without which 
 united effort neither can attain the greatest development or accom- 
 plish the best service. 
 
 The time comes in the life of every highly-developed man when 
 his strongest desires the normal aspirations of his natural virility 
 are to give to the world the highest and best expression of his 
 life in deeds of useful endeavor and in helpful service in perfect 
 accord with the laws of his psychic nature. The highly-developed 
 woman does not desire to hold him back or hinder his activities; 
 on the contrary, she prefers to push him out into the arena, so that 
 her woman's femininity will not, through force of its love, cause 
 him to be weakened and to grow effeminate to lose any of his
 
 286 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 normal virility. For, no matter how intensely a woman may love, 
 if she is true and her love is pure, she prefers not the continual 
 presence of her lover at her feet, but to watch his fight with his 
 fellowman to see him conquer, to be victorious, to know he loves 
 the struggle because he loves her and she loves and adores him 
 as her hero because he dares and does. Thus the sexual instinct 
 finds expression in the higher development of the individual and 
 promotes the best interest of the human race. It matters not how 
 interested a man or woman may become in their respective work, 
 or how worthy its purpose, over them at times come feelings of 
 "longing, lonesomeness, and love," which is the natural attraction 
 of sex to sex, without which no life is normal, and through which 
 the species is reproduced and happiness obtained, in accordance 
 with the natural laws governing the normal instincts of all human 
 beings. 
 
 "In this manner we should strive to obtain happiness to make 
 this earth an empire of love, where happy and healthy people can 
 enjoy their existence, and the mind should be open for all that is 
 beautiful, pure, and true, vibrating with joy and the love of life.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PSYCHOANALYSIS IN THE TREATMENT OF THE 
 PSYCHONEUROSES. 
 
 America's ablest neurologists and psychiatrists now boldly assert 
 that the greatest triumph of neurology is its successful employment 
 of measures aimed to modify the mental mechanism underlying the 
 symptomatic manifestations presented in that class of nervous dis- 
 eases designated as the psychoneuroses, which embrace hysteria, 
 psychasthenia, and the large "heap" of neurotic disturbances in- 
 cluded in the so-called neurasthenia. 
 
 This sentiment is well voiced by Dr. J. J. Putnam, professor of 
 nervous and mental diseases in the Harvard Medical School, in 
 these well-chosen words : 1 
 
 "The neurologists of the present day tend less and less to treat 
 the nervous invalids intrusted to their care in accordance with the 
 principles of a narrow 'militarism' or as subjects for cajoling, 
 and more and more as reasonable beings, possessed of consciences 
 and independent wills, and capable of intelligent co-operation. In 
 proportion as our knowledge of mental life has become deeper and 
 more accurate, there has been a growing tendency to seek further 
 and further for the causes of distressing symptoms whether these 
 causes lie in the environment of the patient, or in habits, instincts, 
 and experiences dating back to the years of childhood, or expressed 
 in inherited physical traits." 
 
 The interest in this special branch of applied psychotherapeutic 
 technic has arisen from the investigations of Freud, Bleuler, Breuer, 
 Babinski, Jung, Prince, Sidis, Meyer, and others, and has resulted 
 in the employment of a method of diagnosis and treatment of the 
 psychoneuroses by laying bare and remedying the pathological 
 mechanisms underlying the symptomatic manifestations presented 
 
 1 Psychotherapy, by Morton Prince and others, consisting of the p ? per 5,. p JT e !!i nl ?J 1 
 before the American Therapeutic Society, May, 1909. Published by Richard 
 Badger, Boston. 
 
 287
 
 288 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 in the individual case, and the technic of the procedure is known as 
 psychoanalysis. 
 
 It is more especially through the work of Freud, of Vienna, that 
 the psychoanalytic form of psychotherapy has been given to the 
 medical profession. That the method, and the theory upon which 
 it is based, represents one of the most important steps in the evolu- 
 tion of psychotherapy, particularly as applied to the treatment of 
 the psychoneuroses, and is destined to become more and more use- 
 ful, just in proportion as the theory and technic of its application 
 is simplified and rendered more rational, as the result of further de- 
 velopment, is beyond question to the fair-minded investigator. 
 That the ability to successfully apply the psychoanalytic form of 
 psychotherapy must be limited to those having a special adapta- 
 bility for comprehending, appreciating, and employing the simpler 
 methods of psychotherapeutic technic must be equally certain. 
 The efficacy of any therapeutic or surgical procedure will, in most 
 cases, depend upon the development of the personal capacity of the 
 individual employing it. The truth of this assertion can not be 
 denied. The same rule holds good with the employment of the psy- 
 choanalytic method of treatment as applies to other departments of 
 medical practice. Professional skill is the result of work, study, 
 and painstaking development. 
 
 In many respects, Freud's psychology harmonizes with my own 
 theoretical explanations for the results obtained from other methods 
 of employing suggestion in all classes of medical and surgical prac- 
 tice. The essential difference in his technic lies in his method of 
 employing suggestion as a means of detecting and remedying the 
 effects of previous harmful suggestions or "psychic traumas," as 
 he calls them due to experiences occurring in early childhood and 
 other processes of experience. The essential difference in his theory 
 is in his conviction that the dissociated functionating complexes 
 which are within the domain of the subconscious, conserving the 
 painful ideas which are the most productive factors in the etiology 
 of neurotic symptoms, are, in the ultimate analysis, those consist- 
 ing of wishes or impulses related in some way to the sexual instinct, 
 representing the pathological fulfillment of a repressed wish, and 
 having its origin in the sexual incidents of infancy and early
 
 PSYCHOANALYSIS IN TREATMENT OF PS YCHONEU ROSES. 289 
 
 childhood, producing the traumas which are the psychogenetic fac- 
 tors responsible for the neurosis developed in later life. 
 
 I will discuss these two points of technic and theory in which 
 Freud's methods are so radically different from my own after show- 
 ing the points of similarity, or harmony, existing between his views 
 and those set forth by me in the present and previous editions of 
 this book. In doing so I hope to set a correct valuation on Freud's 
 contribution to the psychology of the psychoneuroses, as well as to 
 illustrate the small value of his methods of psychotherapeutic 
 application. 
 
 The ipse dixit of some recent writers, purporting to describe 
 Freud's methods, denies that suggestion plays any part in the 
 method of employing psychoanalysis, or that it is to its efficacy that 
 the cure is effected. On this point I was an agnostic until read- 
 ing a description of his technic by Freud himself, showing that he 
 uses suggestion from the start to the finish of his psychoanalytic 
 procedure, with the special intent of eliciting the autosuggestions 
 of the patient, so that the mature judgment of the individual pa- 
 tient can react to the evidence evoked through recalling effectively 
 to his memory the influence of experiences of the forgotten past, 
 which have been responsible for his neurotic symptoms. In this he 
 is conforming to a well-known principle known by every one mak- 
 ing successful employment of any method of applied suggestion 
 i. e., that every suggestion, to be effective, must be presented in 
 such a manner as to be accepted and assimilated as an autosugges- 
 tion. No suggestion can be effective if not presented to the pa- 
 tient in such a manner as to appeal to the reason, to the voluntary 
 desire, to the intelligent will of the patient, unless it be by forcibly 
 attempting to dominate, coerce, or intimidate the patient, a method 
 which is as unreasonable as the attempt to hold up a victim at the 
 point of a pistol, and is unjustifiable under any circumstances. 
 
 This method of intimidation, or of forcing a suggestion upon 
 the undeveloped personality, is the method of the stage hypnotist, 
 and is the method employed by Freud to extort from the subcon- 
 sciousness of the undeveloped hysterical patient a revelation of 
 his most intimately guarded psychic processes, as is clearly shown 
 by Freud's description of his technic, though he carefully omits a
 
 290 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 record of the suggestions given to the patient, which would prove 
 the correctness of my assertion. 
 
 The reader must study Freud himself, as shown in his writings, 
 to appreciate the dominating power of his suggestions in his effort 
 to invade the secret precincts of the human soul, or to understand 
 how he exacts from the subconsciousness of his patients the re- 
 pressed ideas which were incompatible with the wishes of the con- 
 scious ego, and were producing the disagreeable feelings responsible 
 for the symptomatic manifestations. 
 
 In so far as the principle, or theory, is concerned, when not 
 carried to the extreme of forcing the individual neurotic to reveal 
 the remote and innocent experiences of childhood, it contains much 
 that is sane, sound, practical, and useful. But the application of 
 the principle involved has its limitations, and these are not recog- 
 nized by Freud or set forth in his writings. The method as advo- 
 cated by him is liable to produce untold harm, even to the extent 
 of inciting the patient, under certain conditions, to self-destruction, 
 or to be so painfully self-conscious of his or her shortcomings that 
 it is capable of rendering life more unbearable, and will serve to 
 add to the severity of the neurosis instead of remedying it. 
 
 Be it far from me to discredit the theories and technic elucidated 
 by Freud, and described in his writings, which have been accepted 
 by so many able physicians as "scientific psychotherapy." On the 
 other hand, let us not forsake or discredit the results of our own 
 investigations which have proved to be of practical utility in the 
 hands of thousands of conscientious American physicians. 
 
 In any department of human knowledge, coming as the result of 
 painstaking investigation, we can react to the influence of ideas 
 only according to our individual experience. Consequently, no 
 two men can view the ideas obtained through personal association 
 or from literature in the same light. It is in this spirit that I shall 
 attempt an elucidation of psychoanalysis, for Freud's method can 
 never be my method. All that I obtain from his theory and technic 
 must go through the refining alembic of my own reasoning, and, 
 whether it is or is not made to be of more practical utility to the 
 reader by the resulting modification, will still remain a matter of 
 individual viewpoint. My purpose is not to seek the approval of
 
 PSYCHOANALYSIS IN TREATMENT OF PSYCHONEUROSES. 291 
 
 the small handful of pupils of Freud and Jung, but to exact the 
 practical from the subconsciousness of the ideas presented by these 
 men after the method of psychoanalysis, and give to the general 
 practitioner an account of the underlying principles in such man- 
 ner as to be of practical utility. I shall endeavor to make Freud's 
 ideas conform to my individual viewpoint, though setting them 
 forth for the judgment of the reader to decide for himself, and for 
 the forthcoming distortion of the originator's concept the reader 
 must not hold Freud entirely responsible. If the result of my 
 effort can give the reader only a sufficient glimpse into the subject 
 of psychoanalysis to serve as an incentive to a further investiga- 
 tion of the Freudian theories, together with the evidence against 
 his extreme theories as viewed by other writers, I will be more than 
 compensated for the audacity manifested in undertaking to express 
 my individual convictions on this subject. 
 
 My sixteen years of experience with the employment of psycho- 
 therapeutic procedures in all departments of medicine and surgery, 
 in conjunction with all other sane and rational surgical, medicinal, 
 hygienic, dietetic, and other therapeutic procedures, has been con- 
 served as functionating complexes, which do not react to the stimu- 
 lus of high-sounding theories like those newly created complexes 
 only recently formed in virgin soil. In other words, I am unable 
 to react to the teaching of Freud in the same manner as the man 
 with little or no experience in the general application of psycho- 
 therapeutic procedures reacts to all classes of medical practice. 
 
 It was with intense interest that I read the reports of the cases 
 treated by Freud, in the translation by Brill, entitled "Hysteria 
 and the Psychoneuroses, " as well as his addresses delivered on the 
 occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the opening of Clarke Uni- 
 versity, translated from the German by Harry W. Chase, on "The 
 Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis." These contributions 
 by Freud were of particular interest to me because of the strong 
 similarity of his theories and practical technic, together with the 
 radical differences of the same, to my own personal experiences, 
 theories, and writings, though expressed in an entirely different 
 terminology, and limited in its application by him to only a small 
 field.
 
 292 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 So far as his results from the employment of the psychoanalytic 
 form of psychotherapy are concerned, I have herein reported a 
 much greater variety of cases, showing the applicability of sugges- 
 tion both with and without hypnosis, and employed in all varieties 
 of medical and surgical practice. Moreover, so far as its applica- 
 tion to the treatment of hysteria is concerned, I have reported many 
 more cases, showing results obtained from the employment of the 
 simpler methods in equally, if not more, difficult cases, and which 
 were accomplished in only a small fraction of the time required by 
 the technic described and elucidated by Freud, and not limited 
 exclusively to the higher classes of intelligence, which he has most 
 emphatically assured us are the only patients suitable for the em- 
 ployment of his method. 
 
 As many hystericals are, like the Christian scientists, inordi- 
 nately proud of their superior "intelligence," this claim will no 
 doubt catch many patients. In this claim for the adaptability of 
 the method only to those of superior intelligence we discern a very 
 clever use of disguised suggestion as a means of obtaining patients. 
 A very good ruse, so far as the interest of the physician is con- 
 cerned, but of no value for the interest of the scientific application 
 of psychotherapy. 
 
 In deference to Freud's methods, I must repeat again, the reader 
 can never fairly appreciate the value of his contributions to the 
 evolution of psychotherapy, particularly his psychology as applied 
 to the better understanding of the psychoneuroses, without a care- 
 ful study of the methods and theories as presented by Freud him- 
 self, nor will he be able to fairly estimate the theories of Freud 
 and other foreign investigators without a careful study of the 
 writings of Prince, Miinsterberg, and Sidis, to say nothing of Put- 
 nam, Meyer, Brill, and other well-known American writers, whose 
 names are mentioned in the preface of the present edition of this 
 book. The more thoroughly one studies this subject from the writ- 
 ings of all who have contributed to its development, the better will 
 he be able to judge of the practicability and soundness of the meth- 
 ods which the writer has given to the profession, and which stand 
 unscathed and unreproached by all of these scholarly investigators. 
 In the hewing out of the crude, coherent mass our conception of
 
 PSYCHOANALYSIS IN TREATMENT OP PSYCHONEUROSES. 293 
 
 rational psychotherapy, let us adhere to the line of truth, letting 
 the chips fall where they will. 
 
 As to Freud's sexual theories and their relation to the psycho- 
 genetic origin of the psychoneuroses, I am not prepared to indorse 
 them. On the other hand, I am free to say that more and more 
 have I become convinced of the importance of the guidance of the 
 sexual instinct in the earliest years of infancy and childhood, con- 
 struing the "sexual instinct" in the broad manner indicated in the 
 foregoing chapter on this subject. As unpopular as is the sexual 
 subject in America, I have dared to express my convictions freely, 
 however much the personal sacrifice may prove. The change of a 
 single word in Freud 's sexual theories and their relation to hysteria 
 would make them very nearly harmonize with my individual opin- 
 ions on this subject. 
 
 Freud tells that "he who understands the language of hysteria 
 can understand that the neurosis deals only with the repressed 
 sexuality. One should, however, understand the sexual function in 
 its proper sphere as circumscribed by the infantile predisposition. 
 Where a banal emotion has to be added to the causation of the dis- 
 ease, the analysis regularly shows that the sexual components of 
 the traumatic experience, which are never missing, have exercised 
 the pathogenic effect." 
 
 I would transpose his statement as follows : He who understands 
 the language of hysteria can understand that the neurosis deals 
 only with a repressed personality. One should, however, under- 
 stand that sexuality is one of the component elements of every nor- 
 mal human being, and that all the elements going to make up the 
 development of the personality are influenced by hereditary pre- 
 disposition, and that where a banal emotion has been added to the 
 causation of the disease the analysis regularly shows that the en- 
 vironing influences of early childhood have been the determining 
 factors in contributing to the development of the neurosis, and the 
 sexual component may or may not have entered into the traumatic 
 experience exercising the pathogenic effect. 
 
 As long back as 1897 I had frequently removed hysterical symp- 
 toms by employing suggestion in the hypnotic state to detect the 
 forgotten painful experience contributing to the development of the
 
 294 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 symptoms manifested, discussed the incidents which were painful 
 and objectionable to the conscious ego, and again hypnotized my 
 patient for the purpose of removing the hysterical symptoms mani- 
 fested, with complete and permanent success. By this means I not 
 only brought into the consciousness of the patient memories of pain- 
 ful experiences which were responsible for the feelings of depression 
 nervousness, insomnia, and other neurotic manifestations but by 
 the clearer understanding of the gross psychogenetic factors, or 
 " psychic traumas," contributing to the development of the symp- 
 toms with which I had to deal, I was better enabled to re-educate 
 my patient, after I had obtained this new insight into his relations 
 to his life's problems, so as to equip him for readaptation to his 
 present and future environment. 
 
 In many of these patients the irritating subconscious factor, or 
 series of factors, which was responsible for the repression and re- 
 tardation of the development of the patient's personality had so in- 
 terfered with the functions of the physiological machinery as to 
 markedly lessen the mental and physical capacities of the patient, 
 and he was unfit to take up the duties and responsibilities incident 
 to the strain and stress of his occupation until his physiological ma- 
 chinery could re-establish the lessened physical resistance which had 
 resulted as a consequence of the disturbing psychogenetic factor or 
 factors. In such cases, detecting the psychogenetic factors was 
 only the beginning of the treatment by other means. Until the 
 physiological machinery of the patient could be qualified to meet 
 the duties and responsibilities incident to his struggle for exist- 
 ence, hypnotic suggestion, suggestion without hypnotism, reason- 
 ing, persuasion, re-education, exercise, gymnastics, and dietetic and 
 hygienic instruction were all essential to the qualification of the 
 patient for obtaining a sufficiently stable mental and physical con- 
 dition commensurate with a happy, useful existence. These pa- 
 tients were taken from every department of life. 
 
 On the other hand, the cases reported by Freud were patients 
 whose lot in life had been without the physical strain and stress 
 of the individuals constituting 95 percent of our American citizen- 
 ship. His patients, according to his reports, knew nothing of 
 physical hardships. They were reared more like "hot house flow-
 
 PSYCHOANALYSIS IN TREATMENT OF PSYCHONEUROSES. 295 
 
 ers," as his reports clearly show and as he positively assures us, 
 though he uses other words to express it. Moreover, the expense 
 of treatment by methods requiring as long a time as is required by 
 Freud to accomplish results according to his "favorite method" 
 would bar fully 95 percent of the average American psychoneu- 
 rotics, since we are informed by one of his pupils that Freud de- 
 votes an hour each day for from one to three years to effect a cure 
 in some of his cases. Even those effected by him in much shorter 
 time are at a considerable expense to the patient on account of the 
 relatively long time required. 
 
 Freud tells us: 1 "The process is toilsome and wearisome for 
 the physician; it presumes a profound interest for psychological 
 incidents as well as personal sympathy for the patient. I could 
 not conceive myself entering deeply into the psychic mechanism 
 of a hysteria in a person who appeared to me common and dis- 
 agreeable, and who would not, on closer acquaintanceship, be able 
 to awaken in me human sympathy; whereas I can well treat a 
 tabetic or a rheumatic patient regardless of such personal liking. 
 Not less are the requisites on the patient's side. The process is 
 especially inapplicable below a certain niveau of intelligence. It 
 is rendered extremely difficult wherever there is the least tinge of 
 weakmindedness. It requires the full consent and attention of the 
 patients but, above all, their confidence, for the analysis regularly 
 leads to the inmost and most sacredly guarded psychic processes. 
 A large proportion of the patients suitable for such treatment with- 
 draw from the physician as soon as they become cognizant whither 
 his investigations tend ; to them the physician remains a stranger. 
 In others, who have determined to give themselves up to the phy- 
 sician and bestow their confidence upon him something usually 
 voluntarily given, but never demanded in all those, I say, it is 
 hardly avoidable that the personal relation to the physician should 
 not become unduly prominent, at least for some time. Indeed, it 
 seems as if such influence exerted by the physician is a condition 
 under which alone a solution of the problem is made possible. I 
 do not believe that it makes any essential difference in this connec- 
 tion whether we make use of hypnosis, or have to avoid or substi- 
 
 1 Hysteria and Other Psyehoneuroses. Translation by Brill, page 84.
 
 296 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 tute it. Yet fairness demands that we emphasize the fact that, 
 although these inconveniences are inseparable from our method, 
 they nevertheless can not be charged to it. It is much more evi- 
 dent that they are formed in the preliminary neurosis to be cured, 
 and that they attach themselves to every medical activity which 
 intensively concerns itself with the patient, and produce in him 
 a psychic change. I can see no harm or danger in the application 
 of hypnosis even in those cases where it was used excessively. The 
 causes for the harm produced lay elsewhere and deeper." 
 
 So, according to the statements of the originator of psychoanal- 
 ysis, by the method employed and taught by him, the agent stands 
 condemned, so far as its value to the greater majority of psycho- 
 neurotics is concerned. 
 
 In reading the latter half of the above quotation from Freud, I 
 could hardly believe the evidence of my own senses, since I had 
 learned from some of his pupils that he regarded the employment 
 of hypnosis as an unjustifiable personal relation between the phy- 
 sician and patient, and, so far as my limited knowledge of the 
 opinions of Freud will warrant, I have found no statement from 
 him to contradict his expressed opinion that he "can see no danger 
 in the application of hypnosis even where it was used excessively." 
 
 In the name of common honesty, why do some recent writers 
 make such statements as to convey the idea that the relation be- 
 tween a physician and his patient where psychoanalysis is employed 
 is so essentially different from that where hypnotic suggestion, or 
 any other medical or surgical agency, is employed ? 
 
 The jealousy exhibited by some neurologists, going so far as to 
 maliciously falsify, in their zeal to limit psychotherapeutic expedi- 
 ents to* the small handful of Freud's personal pupils, who are pur- 
 ported to be the only individuals qualified to employ psychoanal- 
 ysis, is, to say the least, unworthy of scientific men. If they mean 
 to follow their leader, let them learn the a b c of his honesty of 
 purpose and strive to emulate his example. 
 
 The reader is now prepared, if he has followed me comprehen- 
 sively, to understand my reasons for not being so enthusiastic over 
 the employment of psychoanalysis, as an exclusive psychothera- 
 peutic agent, in the treatment of the psychoneuroses, as the Freud-
 
 PSYCHOANALYSIS IN TREATMENT OF PSYCHONEUROSES. 297 
 
 ians, who would have us believe that this method of treatment is 
 the only psychotherapeutic agency worthy of employment by the 
 ' ' well-trained neurologist. ' ' 
 
 My relation to the medical profession, in regard to psychothera- 
 peutic methods, is such that I am obliged to stand alone. My ef- 
 forts have been to help the general practitioner to procure for 
 himself, from the great mass of psychotherapeutic knowledge, the 
 useful and practical, as applied in the treatment of all classes of 
 patients, coming under the domain of the general practice of medi- 
 cine. All psychotherapeutic methods look alike to me, and I can 
 not afford to give undue prominence to any one procedure until its 
 proven utility warrants its high commendation. The fact remains, 
 however, that the medical profession is indebted to Freud for a 
 most important contribution to the evolution of psychotherapy, par- 
 ticularly his psychology of the psychoneuroses, however much his 
 method of therapeutic application deserves to be improved. 
 
 However much his technic may be altered or his theories chal- 
 lenged, the truths that he has set forth will attest his deep compre- 
 hension of human nature, and emphasize the importance of a better 
 understanding of the psychogenetic factors contributing to the eti- 
 ology of the psychoneuroses, just in proportion as his work is stud- 
 ied by the intelligent, open-minded investigator, who holds himself 
 well in hand, with the view of finding the sane, the useful, and the 
 practical contained in his presentation. From the darkness of a 
 comparatively unexplored field of scientific study, Freud has 
 brought to light many beautiful truths, however mixed with the 
 irrational they may be, which are useful and practical. 
 
 Without an attempt at discrimination for the time being, let us 
 now see what some of Freud's ideas are, so as to be better equipped 
 to understand the therapeutic application of psychoanalysis, taking, 
 first, a glance into Freud's psychology, upon which the psycho- 
 analytic method of treatment, by whatever modification it may be 
 therapeutically applied, is founded. 
 
 Freud has conclusively demonstrated that it is the emotional life 
 which furnishes the dynamic energy which guides and controls the 
 actions of both normal and abnormal persons. Every case of hys- 
 teria is the result of a series of psychic traumas, occurring at some
 
 298 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 period in the life of the neurotic, and these represent the steps in 
 the development of the neurosis. No single experience can be re- 
 sponsible for the symptoms manifested, but usually several or many, 
 each contributing to the effect of the former experiences. Every 
 experience which produces the painful effect of fear, anxiety, 
 shame, or other psychic pain may act as a psychic trauma. The 
 psychic trauma, or the memory of the same, acts like a foreign 
 body, which, even long after its penetration, must continue to act 
 like a new causative factor. 
 
 According to Freud, the etiologically effective traumas from 
 which hysterical symptoms are derived reach to experiences which 
 belong to the patient's childhood and concern his sexual life. 
 Even where a banal emotion of a nonsexual nature has occasioned 
 the outburst of the disease, this can be traced back to the sexual 
 traumas of childhood. 
 
 "The incomparable significance of sexual experiences in the eti- 
 ology of the psychoneuroses seems therefore firmly established, and 
 this fact remains until today one of the main supports of the 
 theory." 1 
 
 In the application of psychoanalysis for the relief of the psycho- 
 neurosis it is necessary to reproduce from the subconscious into 
 the conscious memory of the patient, the entire series of pathogenic 
 memories in chronological order, the last coming first and the first 
 last. 
 
 The nervous system faithfully conserves the experiences and 
 "complexes" resulting from the emotional excitations during the 
 life of the patient stand like monuments, conserving the original 
 experiences so that hysterical patients suffer from conscious or 
 unconscious reminiscences, from which they are powerless to es- 
 cape. This conservation and fixation of the experiences producing 
 the psychic traumas are the essential characteristics of the neu- 
 rosis. When these complexes are stimulated, the patient is under 
 the embarrassing situation of having to suppress strong feelings, 
 or he must give vent to them in conscious words or actions. Only 
 childhood experiences can explain the excessive sensitiveness to 
 later traumas, and only when these memory traces, which are 
 
 1 Hysteria and Other Psychoneuroses Translation by Brill, page 188.
 
 PSYCHOANALYSIS IN TREATMENT OP PSYCHONEUROSES. 299 
 
 almost always forgotten, are discovered and made conscious is the 
 power developed to banish the symptoms. 
 
 Freud further tells us that, as a protective measure, the indi- 
 vidual receiving a psychic trauma attempts to force out the pain- 
 ful and disagreeable idea from his conscious memory, resulting 
 frequently in a splitting off from the main content of the conscious 
 personality, the complexes conserving the experience. Though 
 submerged below the threshold of consciousness, these emotional 
 complexes take on an automatic or independent activity. Thus 
 the individual, being unaware of the functionating of the com- 
 plexes conserving the emotions, feeling tones, and other sensations, 
 is harassed by neurotic manifestations, to be reproduced in his 
 conduct as often as they are stimulated by similar associations. 
 In the same individual several mental groupings are possible, func- 
 tionating independently of each other, presenting, it may be, a 
 double or multiple personality. "When such splitting occurs, the 
 conscious personality represents one or the other of the respective 
 mental groups, while the other, or others, remains unconscious. 
 The hysterical is incapable of correlating and unifying the various 
 mental states resulting from his manifold experiences hence his 
 tendency to mental dissociation. 
 
 Freud employs suggestion by the induction of a state of sug- 
 gestibility which might be regarded as a light hypnosis, though 
 he claims no similarity to this condition of abstraction to hypnosis, 
 to revive from the subconscious the forgotten experiences, fre- 
 quently having considerable resistance to overcome, before extort- 
 ing from the subconsciousness memories that were apparently lost. 
 On this idea is based his theory of the psychic mechanism of hys- 
 teria. In order to cure his patient, it was only necessary to bring 
 to bear suggestion with sufficient effectiveness to exact from the 
 subconsciousness the memory of the pathogenic experiences that 
 had been crowded out of the consciousness of the patient by the 
 repression process, which he regards as characteristic of the mech- 
 anism of hysteria. He informs us that in all such experiences it 
 happened that a wish had been aroused, which was in sharp oppo- 
 sition to the other desires of the individual, which was not capable 
 of being reconciled with the ethical, esthetic, and personal preten-
 
 300 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 sions of the patient's conscious personality; that there had been 
 a short conflict, and the end of the inner struggle was the repres- 
 sion of the idea which presented itself to the subconsciousness as 
 the bearer of this irreconcilable wish. This was, then, repressed 
 from consciousness and forgotten. The incompatibility of the idea 
 in question with the ''ego" of the patient was the motive for the 
 repression the ethical and other pretensions of the individual 
 were the repressing forces. 
 
 The presence of the incompatible wish, or the duration of the 
 conflict, Freud considers, had given rise to a high degree of mental 
 pain, which pain was avoided by repression. The later process 
 is evidently in such a case a device for the protection of the con- 
 scious personality. However, the repressed presentation then 
 avenges itself by becoming pathogenic, and the hysterical symptom 
 is a species of self-gratification. The disagreeable idea is rendered 
 harmless to the conscious personality of the hysteric because the 
 force of the trauma is transformed into physical manifestations, 
 a process which Freud designates as conversion. 
 
 The embarrassing psychic conflict characteristic of neurotic pa- 
 tients is frequently exhibited. Freud considers it an attempt of 
 the ego to defend itself from painful memories, but it does not 
 necessarily result in complete dissociation or splitting of the per- 
 sonality. Just how the "repression" contributes to the develop- 
 ment of the hysterical symptoms, and how these symptomatic 
 manifestations connect with the pathogenic experiences causing the 
 psychic trauma, is not clear. It must be hypothetically assumed, 
 and the correctness of the theory demonstrated by the results ob- 
 tained from psychoanalytic therapy, as the cure of the symptoms 
 imist be traced over the same route to the suppressed idea. 
 
 However completely the painful ideas may have been driven out 
 from the conscious memory, the nervous mechanism conserving 
 them, at the expense of a great amount of psychic pain to the pa- 
 tient, still exists in the subconsciousness as a suppressed wish, ready 
 to functionate in a disguised and distorted manner, accompanied 
 by the same painful sensations that were produced by the original 
 experience, and from which the patient believed he was relieved by 
 the process of repression. The cure is effected, under such coudi-
 
 PSYCHOANALYSIS IN TREATMENT OF PSYCHONEUROSES. 301 
 
 tions, by convincing the conscious personality of the patient that 
 he was wrong in rejecting the pathogenic wish, which he may ac- 
 cept entirely or in part, or the wish may be directed to a higher 
 goal, in channels free from objection to the conscious ego, by a 
 process of sublimation; or the rejection may be regarded as the 
 right disposition of the wish, in which case the automatic mech- 
 anism of the complex conserving the repressed wish may become 
 so changed that it becomes an indifferent functionating complex, or 
 one conserving entirely different associations. Thus the cure of 
 the patient is effected, and he becomes master of himself. 
 
 Freud has explained with repeated emphasis that the effectivity 
 of psychoanalytic therapy depends upon a reproduction of the 
 emotional excitement accompanied by the original traumatic ex- 
 perience. If the patient is reproducing the traumatic scene to the 
 physician, the process has no curative effect if, by some peculiar 
 chance, there is no development of emotion. How he gets the adult 
 to reproduce the emotions caused by infantile and childhood "sex- 
 ual traumas" is not clear to me. At any rate, he regards the 
 emotional processes as being that upon which the illness of the 
 patient and the restoration to health are dependent. The illness 
 of the patient results because the emotion developed in the patho- 
 genic situation was prevented from escaping normally, and hys- 
 terical symptoms are due to the fact that these "imprisoned" emo- 
 tions undergo a series of abnormal changes. They are conserved 
 as an ever present source of psychical disturbance, and are trans- 
 ferred into bodily innervations and inhibitions, which present 
 themselves as the physical symptoms of the disease. 
 
 Since it is the "reproduction of the emotional excitement accom- 
 panied by the original experience" upon which Freud depends to 
 effect his cures, I see in his method nothing but a process of nag- 
 ging his patient about "sexual incidents of life," by which means, 
 the emotions are deeply stirred or aroused, and in this particularly 
 suggestible moment he appears pleased to have discovered "a 
 psychic trauma," which was no doubt produced by his process of 
 torture, and the assurance given to the patient that an important 
 step in the cure of her hysteria had been accomplished gave her
 
 302 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 a feeling of relief until the next hour of digging into the sexual 
 incidents of her early life should be resumed. 
 
 Under the guise of religion I have frequently witnessed a stir- 
 ring of the emotions in hysterical subjects, and noticed the effec- 
 tiveness of the suggestions of the pulpit orator in producing a 
 state of extreme delight in such subjects, and in sending them away 
 with a feeling of well-being in the extreme. I can see nothing but 
 the same method of using suggestion in disguise by Freud's proc- 
 ess of holding the patient's attention, day after day for a year or 
 more, to ideas concerning her sexual experiences, consisting of 
 impulses and "wishes" during early childhood, as well as adult 
 life, and finally succeeding in so embarrassing^ the unstable per- 
 sonality that she bursts into tears, or exhibits other marked mani- 
 festations of emotion, thus obtaining relief from the "psychoanal- 
 ysis" for that day, as she is assured that another step in the "cure" 
 is effected. 
 
 One of the strongest arguments in favor of my opinion that 
 hysteria and other neurotic manifestations are the result of an 
 environment of early childhood, which was responsible for the re- 
 pressed personality or the retardation of the normal psychic and 
 physical development, is found in the following quotation from 
 Freud : 1 
 
 ' ' The former value of the person should not be overlooked in the 
 disease, and you should refuse a patient who does not possess a 
 certain degree of education, and whose character is not in a meas- 
 ure reliable. We must not forget that there are also healthy per- 
 sons who are good for nothing, and that, if they show only a mere 
 touch of the neurosis, one is only too much inclined to blame the 
 disease for incapacitating such inferior persons." 
 
 Showing the limited scope of the measure, as advocated by Freud 
 and set forth in his writings, I quote again : 
 
 ' ' If one wishes to take a safe course, he should limit his selection 
 to persons of a normal state, for in psychoanalytic procedures it is 
 from the normal that we seize upon the morbid. Psychoses, con- 
 fusional states, and marked (I might say toxic) depressions are 
 unsuitable for analysis, at least as it is practiced today. ' ' 
 
 1 Hysteria and Other Psychoneuroses. Translation by Brill, page 181.
 
 PSYCHOANALYSIS IN TREATMENT OF PSYCHONEUROSES. 303 
 
 He, however, further remarks : 
 
 1 ' I do not think it at all impossible that, with the proper changes 
 in the procedure, it will be possible to disregard this contraindica- 
 tion, and thus claim a psychotherapy for the psychoses. ' ' 
 
 At least the cases I have reported in the foregoing pages will 
 show a broader application of psychotherapy embracing the vari- 
 ous methods of psychotherapeutic technic, including psychoanal- 
 ysis, physical education, moral education, prophylactic education, 
 suggestion with or without hypnosis, instruction in diet, hydro- 
 therapy, exercise, and gymnastics and will give us a psycho- 
 therapy applicable to all branches of medical practice, and, as 
 applied strictly to neurological work, will reach a much greater 
 variety of cases, as the case reports herein presented will prove 
 beyond contradiction, than the limited field admitted by Freud for 
 psychoanalysis. 
 
 Moreover, we have a psychotherapy not limited to "class or 
 wealth," but, when selected and applied to meet the requirements 
 of the individual patient, according to his peculiar development, 
 it is applicable to the great mass of sufferers needing assistance by 
 the combined efforts of all classes of medical practitioners. 
 
 In the application of psychotherapy, in the broad sense indi- 
 cated, by the various educational, dietetic, hygienic, and physio- 
 logical methods embraced, results are accomplished in a shorter 
 time, and by the employment of all such measures the physician is 
 less liable to find himself in a muddle of embarrassing complica- 
 tions, for his remedial agents are such as to meet the requirements 
 of the individual as a whole. 
 
 Adolph Meyer has well said: "Mind should be looked upon as 
 a sufficiently organized living being in action, and not a peculiar 
 form of mind stuff. Mental activity is best understood in its full 
 meaning as the adaptation and adjustment of the individual as a 
 whole, in contrast to the simple activity of single organs, such as 
 those of circulation, respiration, digestion, elimination, or simple 
 reflex activity. It is the act that counts; the reaction of the per- 
 son as a whole not merely one ' thought. ' Psychotherapy is regu- 
 lation of action, and complete only when action is reached. Habit 
 training is the backbone of psychotherapy suggestion merely a
 
 304 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 step to the end. Action with flesh and bone is the only safe cri- 
 terion of efficient mental activity; and actions and attitude, and 
 their adaptation, are the issue in psychotherapy." 
 
 But, as important as is "action with flesh and bone," we must 
 not forget that the psychic elements, either inherited or acquired, 
 are what determine the activities, actions, and attitudes of the 
 individual in action. Freud and Jung have shown with masterful 
 skill how the bisexual elements of father and mother are mani- 
 fested in the activities of the offspring, constituting the chief 
 psychic and physical determinants to the characteristics of the 
 individual, with as much certainty as that the seeds of two varie- 
 ties of corn, planted side by side, will produce corn having char- 
 acteristics not the exact reproduction of either of the original 
 varieties, but presenting all the marked characteristics of the par- 
 ent elements. Moreover, those who have studied the laws of hered- 
 ity show us how the individual of today is but a reproduction of 
 the psychic and physical characteristics of ancestors eons and ages 
 remote. This we know from the study of the histories of normal 
 and abnormal persons, or from the study of ourselves and others, 
 and the principle holds good whatever be our especial character- 
 istics. 
 
 If the reader will pardon a personal reference, I can trace for 
 him my own essential characteristics, as illustrated in every page 
 of this presentation, showing that all through life I have been my 
 mother's boy and my father's son, and how the emotional factors 
 proved to be the determinants. On my mother's side her pre- 
 dominating emotional manifestation was seen in her motherly at- 
 titude toward the exslaves and the children of exslaves. For these 
 she constantly exhibited as much kindly interest and motherly 
 sympathy as if they were her own children. In sickness or in 
 trouble of any kind she took their part with the zeal of one whose 
 own heart had felt the pressure of their tremendous problems, and 
 they leaned upon her when in need of advice or material assistance, 
 but never imposing upon her generosity, on account of the dignity 
 of her method of dealing with them. From her I acquired my 
 passion for taking the part of the "under dog" in all of my rela- 
 tions in life.
 
 PSYCHOANALYSIS IN TREATMENT OF PSYCHONEUROSES. 305 
 
 My father's greatest emotional manifestation seemed to be a 
 subconscious recognition of his own loss in the death of his only 
 brother. He had no recollection of his own father, who died in 
 his early infancy ; so he leaned upon this elder brother, many years 
 his senior, making him his model of ideal manhood. This elder 
 brother, in accordance with the wishes of his mother, received a 
 splendid education at one of the best eastern universities and after- 
 ward studied medicine. Shortly after his graduation in medicine 
 he was thrown from his conveyance by an unruly horse, sustaining 
 injuries from which he shortly died. On account of his death my 
 father's education was necessarily neglected, and his widowed 
 mother practically reduced to poverty. This physician brother 
 seemed to have been my father's ideal, and, although my father 
 later became one of the most important contributors to the cause 
 of scientific agriculture, and though I enjoyed farm life as a duck 
 enjoys water, I felt impelled, as if by an irresistible force, to study 
 medicine. 
 
 But why should I, an unsophisticated country practitioner, have 
 also felt impelled, by a force which I was powerless to resist, to 
 give lectures on psychotherapy? I must go back to the records of 
 Edinburg University, and there I find that for one hundred con- 
 secutive years my direct forefathers had held a professorship in 
 that institution. Hence we see both hereditary and environing 
 determinants in their respective relations to individuality. But 
 this has nothing to do with the formation of a neurosis, might be 
 said of the defenders of Freud's theory. Then I will make a per- 
 sonal illustration of the factors contributing to the development of 
 a pronounced neurosis, and make my deductions from that illustra- 
 tion. 
 
 The association method of Professor Carl G. Jung, of Zurich, 
 which I will describe presently, has demonstrated beyond question 
 that the writer has a pronounced psychological "sore spot." In 
 other words, according to this reliable and profoundly instructive 
 diagnostic test method, I am a psychoneurotic. Of this I was glad 
 to learn, for in no other way could I have been so thoroughly con- 
 vinced of the reliability of the method as a means of obtaining the 
 accurate history of a patient, detecting the "psychic traumas"
 
 306 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 resulting from painful experiences of his past history, and definitely 
 locating the ideas producing the neurosis. 
 
 One hundred "stimulus words" have been formulated by Pro- 
 fessor Jung after many years' experience. He tells us that the 
 words are chosen and partially arranged in such a manner as to 
 strike easily almost all complexes of practical occurrence. In this 
 formulary which he has constructed there is a regular mixing of 
 the grammatical qualities of words, which has its definite reasons. 
 In describing his method, Professor Jung says : * 
 
 "Before the experiment begins, the test person receives the fol- 
 lowing instruction: 'Answer as quickly as possible the first word 
 that occurs to your mind.' This instruction is so simple that it 
 can be easily followed by anybody. The work itself, moreover, ap- 
 pears extremely easy, so that it might be expected that any one 
 could accomplish it with greatest facility and promptitude. But 
 contrary to expectation, the behavior is quite different. The first 
 thing that strikes us is the fact that many test persons show a 
 marked prolongation of the reaction time. This would make us 
 think at first of intellectual difficulties wrongly, however, as we 
 are often dealing with very intelligent persons of fluent speech. 
 The explanation lies rather in the emotions. In order to under- 
 stand the matter comprehensively, we must bear in mind that the 
 association experiments can not deal with a separated psychic func- 
 tion, for any psychic occurrence is never a thing in itself, but is 
 always the resultant of the entire psychological past. The associa- 
 tion experiment, too, is not merely a method for the reproduction of 
 separated word couplets, but it is a kind of pastime a conversa- 
 tion between experimenter and test person. In a certain sense it is 
 even still more than that. Words are really something like con- 
 densed actions, situations, and things. When I present a word to 
 the test person which denotes an action, it is the same as if I should 
 present to him the action itself, and ask him, 'How do you behave 
 toward it ? What do you think of it ? What do you do in this sit- 
 uation?' If I were a magician, I should cause the situation cor- 
 responding to the stimulus word to appear in reality, and, placing 
 
 1 Lectures delivered by Carl G. Jung at the celebration of the twentieth anniversary 
 of Clarke University. Translation by Brill.
 
 PSYCHOANALYSIS IN TREATMENT OF PSYCHONEUROSES. 307 
 
 the test person in the midst, I should then study his manner of reac- 
 tion. The result of my stimulus words would undoubtedly ap- 
 proach infinitely nearer perfection. But, as we are not magicians, 
 we must be contented with linguistic substitutes ; at the same time 
 we must not forget that the stimulus word, as a rule, will always 
 conjure up its corresponding situation. It all depends on how the 
 test person reacts to this situation. The situation ' bride ' or ' bride- 
 groom' will not evoke a simple reaction in a young lady, but the 
 reaction will be deeply influenced by the provoked strong feeling 
 tones the more so if the experimenter be a man. It thus happens 
 that the test person is often unable to react quickly and smoothly to 
 all stimulus words. In reality, too, there are certain stimulus words 
 which denote actions, situations, or things, about which the test per- 
 son can not think quickly and surely, and this fact is shown in the 
 association experiments." 
 
 In having my reaction test recorded by a physician well quali- 
 fied to take it, whereas my average reaction time to each of one 
 hundred words was one and eight-tenths seconds, upon the stimulus 
 word "to pray," to which my answer was "religion" (the answer 
 indicating the reaction) and my reproduction "delightful," my 
 reaction time was five and four-tenths seconds. 
 
 My impediment in reacting to the stimulus word, "to pray," indi- 
 cated that my adaptation to the stimulus word was disturbed. 
 Hence, as Jung tells us, "the stimulus words are therefore a part of 
 reality acting upon us; indeed, a person who shows such disturb- 
 ances to the stimulus words is in a certain sense really, but imper- 
 fectly, adapted to reality. Disease is an imperfect adaptation; 
 hence in this case we are dealing with something morbid in the 
 psyche with something \vhich is either temporary or persistently 
 pathological ; that is, we are dealing with a psychoneurosis with a 
 functional disturbance of the mind. This rule, as we shall see 
 later, is not without its exceptions." 
 
 The latter half of the last sentence in the above quotation allows 
 me, perhaps, to believe that I am one of the exceptions. Be that as 
 it may, the history of that complex and the painful sensations 
 caused by its functionating, after I was obliged to follow the dic- 
 tates of my own reasoning faculties and reject the idea of an an-
 
 308 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 thropomorphic deity, and my early religious convictions based upon 
 the conception, completely upset my adaptation to my environment 
 after I had for ten years been engaged in the general practice of 
 medicine. 
 
 It may be of interest to the reader to know that I am not con- 
 sciously aware of this psychological "sore spot" until all of the 
 chapters of this book, except the present, had been written. One can 
 easily see how the emotional element, suppressed and unconscious, 
 fairly, glistens from every page, especially where I am fighting 
 against religious teachings based upon superstition and ignorance, 
 and pleading for a religious conception in accord with the teachings 
 of modern science. 
 
 The association method of Carl G. Jung, as an incomparable diag- 
 nostic psychotherapeutic agency, in enabling one to elicit the his- 
 tory of the patient without his knowledge, and in giving us an in- 
 sight into his most secretly guarded psychic processes, be these 
 conscious or dissociated, without the prolonged digging into the 
 sexual incidents of the patient's life, as employed by Freud, can be 
 fully appreciated only by one having made employment of this 
 method of diagnostic technic. By it we are enabled to interrogate 
 the patient without his consent, frequently enabling the physician 
 to detect the psychogenetic factors contributing to the development 
 of a neurosis as could be obtained in no other manner. 
 
 One illustration will suffice: The patient was a young man of 
 thirty years of age, having a wife and five children. He came to 
 me to be treated for impotency, and no pathological cause, from a 
 physical examination, could be ascertained to account for his impo- 
 tency. The history elicited by questioning him gave no clue to the 
 etiology of his psychoneurotic manifestations. He assured me that he 
 was devoted to his wife ; that they were congenial in every respect ; 
 that no foreign goddess figured in the etiology of his condition ; 
 that he had been otherwise well capacitated physically until a few 
 weeks previous to consulting me, at which time he began to suffer 
 from insomnia, indigestion, depression, and other nervous symptoms. 
 His conduct, however, excited my apprehensions, and on one occa- 
 sion I interrogated him unconsciously by the employment of the 
 association method of Jung. This was commenced by taking in my
 
 PSYCHOANALYSIS IN TREATMENT OP PSYCHONEUROSES. 309 
 
 hand a list of one hundred words and beginning by asking him this 
 question : 
 
 "If I should say stork, of what would you be reminded?" 
 
 "Baby," was his reply. 
 
 ' ' Very well ; in the same way repeat the first word that comes into 
 your mind as I read to you this list of words." 
 
 Let me say that I have adopted a method of diagramming the re- 
 action time of each test person instead of recording the reaction 
 time with a stop watch. After repeating the stimulus word, I begin 
 making a number of straight perpendicular lines about like the 
 figure " 1 " as it appears when written with a lead pencil, making 
 probably three to each second. In looking over my test sheets I 
 can recognize at a glance the "complex indicators" by the long row 
 of marks opposite the stimulus words. The answers to the stimulus 
 words the reaction words are also recorded. After going over 
 the list once, the patient is held in waiting for ten minutes by divert- 
 ing his attention to some other subject, and he is then requested to 
 see if he can repeat his answers to the stimulus words. The repro- 
 duction is indicated by a cross mark, and, if the reproduction words 
 in going over the second time are not identical with the first reac- 
 tion words, they are likewise recorded, and these are frequently 
 very significant "complex indicators," showing impeded adaptation 
 in the test person to the group of ideas aroused by the stimulus 
 words. Further explanation of certain acts manifested by the test 
 person such as a failure to react to the stimulus word, interroga- 
 tions, repetitions, etc. will not be necessary unless I were going into 
 the minute technic of employing Jung's association method, but 
 these are not without significance as probable complex indicators. 
 They always indicate something very important for the individual 
 psychology of the test person. 
 
 Now, to return to my patient for the significance of the record 
 diagrammed as described. A glance over the test sheet warranted 
 me in saying : 
 
 "I am so very sorry to find that you are laboring under such a 
 suppressed feeling of shame and humiliation; you are carrying a 
 heavy burden which yon are forcing yourself to conceal ; it con- 
 cerns some one dear to you ; a separation has been seriously con-
 
 310 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 sidered; it concerns your most intimate family relations; the wel- 
 fare of your children is at stake,; you have contemplated beating 
 some one; your pride has been wounded, and you are very much 
 depressed by this unfortunate state of affairs. I now see the bear- 
 ing of this misfortune upon your symptoms. Do as you please 
 about telling me the details of what is here plainly indicated, but, 
 if you care to confide in me, I shall be more than glad to render 
 whatever assistance I possibly can to help you adapt yourself to 
 this situation." 
 
 He arose from his chair, put on his coat and was in the act of 
 going from my office, but again removed his coat and gave me the 
 facts, showing that I had obtained a true history of this recent 
 psychic trauma. The unbosoming or liberation of the pent-up feel- 
 ings which he had borne alone had the effect to bring about a rapid 
 amelioration of his neurotic symptoms, but the earnest talk given 
 him, in which I endeavored to show him how he could be as a 
 "savior" to the life and happiness of the erring one, and save his 
 children from a hurtful trauma from which they would never com- 
 pletely recover, as well as the weekly conversations afterward, must 
 not be overlooked, for these combined efforts constituted the psycho- 
 therapeutic management of the case in question. 
 
 Jung tells us that the larger number of neurotics show a tendency 
 to cover up their intimate affairs in impenetrable darkness, even 
 from the doctor, so that the doctor finds it very difficult to form a 
 proper picture of the patient's psychology. In all such cases the 
 association experiment is indispensable. 
 
 Jung further tells us that one must get rid of the idea that edu- 
 cated and intelligent test persons are able to see and admit their 
 own complexes. Every human mind contains much that is unac- 
 knowledged, and hence unconscious as such, and no one can boast 
 that he stands completely above his complexes. Those who persist 
 in maintaining it do not see the spectacles which they wear on their 
 noses. 
 
 The study of psychoanalysis the field of investigation is only 
 begun, and is indispensable for the intelligent understanding of 
 neurotic disease. It helps us to understand ourselves and others 
 with whom we associate in every department of life, and enables
 
 PSYCHOANALYSIS IN TREATMENT OP PSYCHONEUROSES. 311 
 
 one to be more tolerant of the frailties and weaknesses of human 
 nature. Especially does it better equip us to help the psychic crip- 
 ples to help themselves, which is the ultimate aim of every branch of 
 psychotherapy. Moreover, it gives us a clearer insight into the un- 
 derstanding of child life, and will better enable us to begin today a 
 method of preventing many of the psychoneuroses and psychoses of 
 a hundred and a thousand years hence. But be it understood that 
 by indorsing the great value of "psychoanalysis" I do not mean 
 sexual psychoanalysis, as I have endeavored to distinctly emphasize 
 throughout this entire article. 
 
 Dream analysis promises to be of some value as a psychoanalytic 
 method of dealing directly with the subconscious processes, as the 
 investigations of Prince, Sidis, Freud, and others have conclusively 
 demonstrated. The study of the various theories presented by these 
 men teaches us that dreams are not something that happen in a 
 haphazard, meaningless manner, but that they appear as the logical 
 sequence of impressions, ideas, and experiences conserved by the 
 neurons as the result of ordinary every-day conduct. 
 
 The bungling, apparently meaningless acts of neurotics, and nor- 
 mal men and women as well, deserve the rank of symptoms, and 
 their observations, like those of dreams, can lead to the discovery 
 of hidden complexes of the psychic life. Thus the psychoanalyst 
 is distinguished by an especially strong belief in the determination 
 of the psychic life. "For him," says Freud, "there is in the ex- 
 pressions of the psyche nothing trifling, nothing arbitrary and 
 lawless. He expects everywhere a widespread motivation, where 
 customarily such claims are not made; more than that, he is even 
 prepared to find a manifold motivation of these psychic expressions, 
 while our supposedly inborn causal need is satisfied with a single 
 psychic cause. ' ' The idea embraced in this quotation is in perfect 
 accord with the entire presentation of my work in the present and 
 previous editions of this book, as the reading of the following chap- 
 ters will conclusively demonstrate. 
 
 How to introduce the pathogenic psychic material into conscious- 
 ness, and so do away with the suffering brought on by the creation 
 of licensed symptoms by the study of the eruptive ideas called up 
 by free association, by Jung's association diagnostic experiments,
 
 312 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 the patient's dreams, and his bungled and symptomatic acts, and 
 adding to these the value of other phenomena which emerge in the 
 study of the individual patient is the object, aim, and purpose of 
 psychoanalysis. 
 
 That there is much in Freud's contributions to the psychology of 
 dreams which is of great value, I am more than glad to acknowl- 
 edge. But in so far as he attributes every dream to being the 
 "disguised fulfillment of a repressed wish," and attempts to trace 
 that "wish," in its ultimate analysis, to signify an ungratified 
 sexual desire, I prefer not to dignify such theories by further quo- 
 tations. Those who are suggestible enough to be hypnotized into 
 believing such rot are welcome to their delusion, so far as I am 
 concerned. The pity is that the unfortunate, suggestible, hyster- 
 ical patient must be brought under the dominating power of such 
 suggestions as a pretense to cure her unpleasant psychoneurotic 
 manifestations. 
 
 I have employed ' ' dream analysis " as a form of suggestive treat- 
 ment with highly satisfactory results. In all such cases I could 
 trace the dreams to be the natural sequence of the previous proc- 
 esses of experience, which had been conserved by the nervous system 
 and which were reproduced in the sleep consciousness. They were 
 caused by suggestion, and were relieved by suggestion, in conformity 
 with the laws governing normal and abnormal psychic processes. 
 
 An hysterical patient, who had a strong revulsion for her husband, 
 which I discovered by Jung's association method, night after night 
 awoke frightened and nervous because of a dream that a snake was 
 in her room. I could get no clue to the meaning of this dream, in 
 which the snake constantly figured, until she dreamed that the' 
 snake was at her dining table and she awoke in the act of snatching- 
 her child away from the reptile, lest the child should be harmed. 
 The meaning was then clear to me. Her husband slept in a sepa- 
 rate bed in the same room, and she had as much revulsion for the 
 demonstration of his affections as if he were a snake. In her con- 
 scious thoughts she expressed her revulsion, probably, in this for- 
 mula : "I would as lief have a snake touch me as to have my 
 husband touch me." In her dream consciousness she was sleeping 
 in the room with a snake, and became afraid that it would harm
 
 PSYCHOANALYSIS IN TREATMENT OF PSYCHONEUEOSES. 313 
 
 her, and, again, she was eating at a table where a snake was beside 
 her child, and she feared that the snake would bite it. My expla- 
 nation of the meaning of her dream removed the vision of the snake 
 from her home ever afterward, and she was no more troubled by 
 snake dreams. But the procedure did not get rid of her husband, 
 who needed psychic treatment as well as his wife, which he refused 
 to have administered. So, nothing was left but for the patient to 
 transfer the feeling of unhappiness resulting from this inharmonious 
 domestic situation into some other psychic or physical manifesta- 
 tion as a means of expressing her lack of adaptation to her en- 
 vironment. 
 
 Another patient, a cultured and refined young woman of twenty- 
 two years of age, dreamed frequently that she was in the act of 
 parturition, suffering all the pain of a woman in the child-bearing 
 act. By the aid of light hypnosis, a condition identical with ' ' hyp- 
 noidization" a la Sidis, I assisted her in recalling to memory an 
 incident in which she, when a small child, overheard a conversation 
 relating to the pain and suffering of a woman who had given birth 
 to a baby. The older persons engaged in the conversation thought 
 she was asleep, but she heard their conversation, received the im- 
 pressions, or suggestions, and these expressed themselves in the 
 dream consciousness many years later, though she had apparently 
 forgotten everything about the original experience, which was re- 
 sponsible for this psychic manifestation many years later in the 
 dream consciousness. Of course the Freudians will see in this the 
 fulfillment of a repressed wish. This patient shortly afterward 
 found a normal outlet for her emotional energy in a useful, helpful 
 occupation ; she became enthusiastic in her work and has made of 
 it a great success. Every psychoneurosis will be banished if the 
 early home training of the patient has been such as to equip him 
 for a place of real service in the world, and the individual can be 
 induced to find that place and fill it to the best of his ability. But 
 he must have a congenial occupation. It must be a work in keep- 
 ing with the mental and physical capacities of the individual, and 
 one in which his mental and physical powers can find their highest 
 expression. Such is the only safe goal to health and happiness. 
 
 In another patient a severe migraine of over ten years' standing
 
 314 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 was traced by the aid of hypnosis to a severe fright by the effort 
 of her husband to kill a cat which had been confined in a cellar. 
 The crying of the cat suddenly aroused the patient from her sleep 
 at a time when she was ill, producing a severe fright, with nervous- 
 ness, headache, tremors, and other manifestations. Since the orig- 
 inal experience she occasionally dreamed of cats, always waking 
 with a severe headache and all the other feeling tones accompanying 
 the original experience. The discovery of this submerged func- 
 tionating complex, with all the painful sensations that it had so 
 faithfully conserved, enabled me to effect a cure of the resulting 
 symptoms. 
 
 Friedlander, in quoting from Jung, in which he sums up the value 
 of his association methods, says : x 
 
 (1.) "The complex appearing in the associations of the psycho- 
 genetic neurosis is the cause of the disease (a disposition is pre- 
 supposed). Every psychogenetic neurosis contains a complex 
 which differs from the normal complex in that it has an extraor- 
 dinary emotional tone, and can thus bring the entire personality 
 under its influence. ' ' 
 
 (2.) "Association tests can, therefore, be of great help in un- 
 covering the pathogenic complex, and also serve as a means of facil- 
 itating and shortening Freud 's psychoanalytic method. ' ' 
 
 (3.) "Association tests enable us to obtain experimentally an in- 
 sight into the psychologic structure of the neurotic symptoms. 
 Hysterical and psychic symptoms are nothing but symbolic repre- 
 sentations of the pathogenic complexes. ' ' 
 
 Further quoting from Jung, Friedlander says: "The complex 
 uncovered by the association method is the cause of the dreams and 
 of the hysterical symptoms. The disturbances which the complex 
 causes in association experiments are nothing else than resistances 
 met in Freud's psychoanalytic method. 
 
 "The mechanism of repression is the same in the association ex- 
 periments as it is in the dream and in the hysterical symptoms. 
 
 "In hysteria the complex possesses an abnormal stability, and 
 tends to an independent existence. It progressively diminishes the 
 
 1 Hysteria and Modern Psychoanalysis, by Dr. A. Friedlander, Frankfort, Germany. 
 Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Boston, February-March, 1911.
 
 PSYCHOANALYSIS IN TREATMENT OP PSYCHONEUROSES. 315 
 
 power of the ego complexes and substitutes itself in their place. A 
 new diseased personality is thus gradually formed, whose inclina- 
 tions, judgments, and decisions are directed by the diseased will. 
 The ego is thus destroyed by the new personality, and is forced to 
 become a secondary complex. 
 
 "The effective treatment must, therefore, aim to strengthen the 
 normal self, to induce new complexes which should free the per- 
 sonality from the mastery of the disease complex. ' ' 
 
 Commenting upon these deductions of Jung, Friedlander says: 
 "These conclusions are indeed very interesting. But the last sen- 
 tence contains what every psychotherapeutist has been attempting 
 to do without perhaps such fundamental psychological considera- 
 tions. To strengthen the ' diseased personality, ' to induce new aims 
 in the diseased thought, to train the patient in self-control, to sup- 
 press the emotions, and to train the patient in diverting work, all 
 these were and still are the effective instruments in the treatment 
 of hysteria and neuroses in general. And that which Jung calls 
 the disease complex is still termed by the 'old school' effective dis- 
 turbances and autosuggestions." 
 
 Here I rest my argument. I leave it to the sane judgment of 
 any well-known psychotherapist such as Prince, Sidis, Meyer, 
 Miinsterberg, or others to decide if the results accomplished by 
 this "scientific psychotherapy," called psychoanalytic, are not ac- 
 complished in precisely the same manner and by the same effective 
 mental mechanism employing the same physiological machinery 
 as are the results accomplished by the simpler methods which I 
 have elsewhere elucidated in this book, and which I have taught 
 and demonstrated for the past twelve years. 
 
 The psychoanalytic method, as taught by Freud, is tedious and 
 uncertain. The hereditary abnormalities have a long pedigree, and 
 the experiences of childhood are too remote to uncover, with the 
 least possible advantage to the patient, or for the adult or mature 
 judgment to correct. Kecent gross pathological psychogenetic com- 
 plexes may, however, be broken up, altered, modified, changed, and 
 rendered more benign. 
 
 The directing of the emotional energies into normal channels 
 must ever predominate in psychotherapeutics, whatever be the
 
 316 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 technic or the method employed. A new point of view, a new habit 
 formed, a new conviction instilled into the conscious personality, 
 will change an individual as nothing else can do, without the humil- 
 iating, tedious, expensive efforts at delving into the sexual past as 
 taught by Freud. However entertaining his theories may appear, 
 and I admit that they are as fascinating as some of the erotic pro- 
 ductions of fiction writers, we can never make an individual over. 
 He is the product of the hereditary and environing determinants, 
 which are as certain in their results as the law of gravitation. 
 Then, what can we do? We can take our patients as they are, 
 and help each to make the best of his or her potentialities, be they 
 much or little, weak or strong. 
 
 In referring to Freud's method of holding the attention of the 
 hysterical patient to the sexual incidents of infancy and early child- 
 hood, by the employment of the methods described by him, in sup- 
 port of his extreme sexual theories, Friedlander remarks: "At 
 any rate, I can conceive of parents who would see their daughter 
 hysterical all her life rather than submit her to a sexual psycho- 
 analysis lasting for years." 
 
 As a preparatory step to the beginning of the study of psycho- 
 analysis, I most earnestly commend the article on "Hysteria and 
 Modern Psychoanalysis ' ' by Dr. A. Friedlander, of Frankfort, Ger- 
 many, published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Boston, 
 February-March, 1911. In this article Friedlander remarks: 
 
 "The retrospect we have taken is not consoling perhaps a view 
 of the future is more promising. Scientific strife stands for prog- 
 ress, provided it does not turn into personal quarrels. Freud and 
 his followers should see if they could not get equally satisfactory 
 results without their 'sexual investigations.' We, the opponents, 
 gladly acknowledge their psychological work helping us to under- 
 stand the neuroses. 
 
 "But it must be remembered that, with all their analysis, they 
 have not succeeded in throwing any more light as to the real nature 
 of hysteria. Psychoanalysis in itself is indispensable to the neurolo- 
 gist and psychiatrist. Sexual psychoanalysis, on the other hand, 
 appears to many of us as objectionable and superfluous. We all 
 recognize the importance of sexuality in the normal human life as
 
 PSYCHOANALYSIS IN TREATMENT OF PSYCHONEUROSES. 317 
 
 well as in disease; but, with the exception of rare cases, treatment 
 should be directed to the suppression of the sexual representations 
 and not to bring them to the surface. Education of youth relative 
 to sexual matters is indeed desirable, but the discussion of all pos- 
 sible perversions is objectionable. 
 
 ' ' I may conclude with the hope that the future is not far distant 
 when no undue emphasis will be given the sexual factor, and when 
 we will be able to come to an understanding without doing violence 
 to the facts ; and that not only should we learn from Freud, Jung, 
 and Steckel, but that the latter should give earnest, critical consid- 
 eration to the views of their opponents." 
 
 At least in America the sane trustworthy judgment of Prince and 
 Sidis should have the earnest consideration of every truth-seeking 
 investigator of psychoanalysis in the treatment of the psychoneu- 
 roses before risking his chances of getting lost in the fascinating 
 mirage set forth by Freud.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 TRAINING THE SUBCONSCIOUS SELF. 
 
 A Rational Basis for Autosuggestion. Every sense impression, 
 or perception, or idea that has come within our individual experi- 
 ence through education or environment has left its impress upon 
 the brain cells. These brain cells, stimulated by ideas of a similar 
 character, reproduce the memory pictures gathered by experience, 
 and this process is what is called thinking. Thinking, in logical 
 sequence, constitutes reasoning. Thinking gives rise to mental 
 processes, or states of mind, or conditions of consciousness that are 
 constantly changing, so that the conscious mind or ego of one mo- 
 ment is not that of the next. 
 
 So interrelated are our psychical and physical processes that 
 much has been learned of our subconscious psychic activities by 
 observing the influence of the mind over the body. 
 
 The subconscious self corresponds to all mental and physical 
 processes which lie beneath the stream of consciousness. We 
 often flatter ourselves by believing that we control our thoughts 
 when, as a matter of fact, thinking is but a reflex of the sense im- 
 pressions that have been made upon our cerebral cells by all that 
 has gone to make up our experience in life. Yet, education, travel, 
 association with people, and all other like experiences, benefit us 
 only as we react to them. 
 
 Every impression or idea that is made upon the conscious mind 
 of the individual throughout his entire life has been conserved by 
 the neurons, and is one of the factors that, collectively, constitute 
 the training of the subconscious self. The result of this training 
 constitutes our assets, as represented by body, mind, and character. 
 
 Our ability to react upon and be benefited by the experiences of 
 life is dependent upon an inherited quality of brain plasm on the 
 one hand and education on the other. We can be benefited by 
 
 318
 
 TRAINING THE SUBCONSCIOUS SELF. 319 
 
 the experiences that come into our lives only as we are prepared 
 by knowledge gained from previous experiences. 
 
 That which influences us most is what most persistently holds 
 our interested attention. The kind of thought or line of endeavor 
 that most receives our purposeful attention, sustained by reason, 
 will, and determination, so reacts upon our bodies and minds that 
 we unconsciously become molded by that particular kind of work. 
 
 The mind, like the body, becomes strengthened or weakened by 
 mental and physical action. The blacksmith, who uses a sledge 
 hammer, day by day develops a muscle of steel, while the book- 
 keeper, who lifts no more ponderous weight than the leaves of his 
 ledger from week to week, has muscles that have become atrophied 
 and shriveled. The man of genius is distinguished from other men 
 only by his exceptional power of attention to one given subject. 
 On any line of work in all professions the individual who becomes 
 most proficient is he who most persistently gives attention to his 
 specialty. 
 
 It has been well said that the mind set habitually and strongly 
 in any one given direction loses the power to think upon any other 
 line. The Christian scientist, who ignores the material aspect of 
 disease, and the physician who does not appreciate the psychical, 
 are good illustrations of the above statement. The particular line 
 of thought to which we constantly give our attention and by which 
 we habitually act makes us what we are. 
 
 To be strong, capable, and free is the ideal that every individual 
 should strive to attain, but strength in mind and character can 
 not be attained by neglect of the body, for the interdependence 
 of mind and body is such that the highest development of the one 
 quality depends upon the other for its support. 
 
 Use your faculties and live, grow, and develop is a decree of 
 nature from which there can be no escaping. Some day, sooner 
 or later, each individual awakens to the realization that his life 
 is a fight between himself and the entire world. We are so related 
 to each other, however, that the duty of the individual and his 
 dependence upon other individuals and their dependence and re- 
 lation to the great whole must never be left out of consideration. 
 Yet, the individual must stand upon his own feet, see the world
 
 320 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 with his own eyes, do things with his own hands, and interpret the 
 problems of life with his own intellect. 
 
 To be prepared for this conflict, this contest this body, mind, 
 and character tryst is the problem of training the subconscious 
 self. Life itself is the greatest incentive for living, and to attain 
 the highest development and expression of the subconscious self 
 renders the individual capable of enjoying life, not only for his 
 or her own sake, but because to him or her comes a double pleasure 
 of being better equipped to help make life more worth while to 
 others. 
 
 Since we are endowed with a little, infmitesimally small portion 
 of the universal life, wisdom, intelligence, and force that exist in 
 the universe, the highest privilege of every human being is that 
 of being a chooser the privilege of exercising a choice between 
 what shall and what shall not receive his attention. The ideas 
 which we encourage become stronger, last longer, and exercise the 
 greatest influence on our habits of thought and conduct. 
 
 Even in the case of what are commonly held to be involuntary 
 mental processes, which crowd themselves upon us unwelcome and 
 unbidden, when we are consciously all unaware of their existence 
 coming as the result of previous experiences we can, to a very 
 large degree, encourage those that are desirable and inhibit others 
 that are undesirable. But, while we can only partly inhibit those 
 memory pictures that are undesirable, we can as choosers decide 
 what shall in the present and in the future claim our conscious, 
 intelligent attention. 
 
 Everything that claims our conscious attention strongly and per- 
 sistently constitutes "food stuff" for the subconscious self, which 
 contributes to the remolding and rebuilding of our physical and 
 mental constitutions. Character itself is evolved in accordance 
 with this same law. 
 
 As choosers, then, the privilege is ours to be open and receptive 
 to whatsoever is good, true, and useful in the realms of thought 
 as expressed in the literature of poetry, fiction, philosophy, re- 
 ligion, or science, or from association with individuals that may 
 be of use to ourselves or other human beings. We should study
 
 TRAINING THE SUBCONSCIOUS SELF. 321 
 
 it honestly, appropriate its truths, and live by them in all depart- 
 ments of life. 
 
 In the same realm of human experience, with respect to what- 
 ever is not good, and not true, and not useful for our best growth 
 and development, let us exercise the courage of our convictions 
 and reject it, even though it has the time-honored sanction of con- 
 ventionalism and authority. We should let truth herself sum up 
 the case, and guide our lives and conduct in accordance with the 
 light and knowledge of the present age. This is the clue to the 
 correct training of the subconscious self. 
 
 Then, too, since we realize the power of mind upon mind and 
 the influence of the mind upon the body, both for our own good 
 and for the benefit of others, we should encourage mental states 
 that make us hopeful, optimistic, and cheerful. We should look 
 upon the bright side of everything and strive to say and do some- 
 thing to cheer the lives of others. As we sow shall we also reap 
 is the law of nature in the realm of both thought and action. Who- 
 soever uses suggestion to help others is using the highest form of 
 autosuggestion to help himself. Our effort to create healthful 
 mental states in others reacts upon our own subconscious selves, 
 so that what we are is to a great extent the result of what we have 
 given to others. 
 
 Individuality and strength should be our highest and most con- 
 stant aim in life. The great subconscious self, with its millions and 
 millions of living cells of brain, and blood, and bone, and muscle, 
 all reservoirs of expressive energy, is for us to educate, train, and 
 develop in accordance with the laws of evolution. Each individual 
 is the maker of himself in a far greater sense than is realized by 
 the pessimistic philosophers of our age, who would surrender all 
 to heredity and environment. The limitations set by heredity and 
 environment are, of course, beyond question, but, when once we 
 become strong enough to think for ourselves and to rely upon the 
 powers and capabilities inherent within the cells of our organism, 
 those influences that would fetter and mold a weaker individual, 
 and hinder bodily and mental growth and development, become 
 for us strengthening and wholesome exercise. 
 Each individual contains within himself an ideal man, and to
 
 SL GGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 bring forth this individual harmoniously and symmetrically devel- 
 oped in all the qualities of selfhood should be our constant en- 
 deavor. What the man or woman of the future is to be depends 
 upon our habits of thought and conduct today. No proposition is 
 more true than that by constant endeavor we can day by day gain 
 in strength of body, mind, and character. 
 
 The great trouble with the majority of people is that they have 
 not an adequate appreciation of the potentialities and possibilities 
 inherent within the cells of their own organism, which are ever 
 ready to be trained into active, useful service. Others are satis- 
 fied as they are, and they constitute a large percentage of our 
 population. They are drifting along day after day without mak- 
 ing any special effort at self-development, and almost wholly de- 
 pendent upon others to think and do for them. Depend upon 
 others to think, and act, and do for you, and you become incapa- 
 ble of thinking, and acting, and doing for yourself. That which 
 makes a man strong in all the qualities of self social, intellectual, 
 physical, moral, business, or ethical is action, effort, concentra- 
 tion, persistency, determination. 
 
 Recognition of our defects and desire for self-improvement are 
 the incentives which urge us to higher growth and development. 
 Those who feel that they are self-sufficient, and are all that they 
 care to be, have not been stirred by the influences which induce a 
 self-consciousness that gives rise to the impulse to make effort. 
 Perhaps they are unfortunate, and have not been awakened to a 
 consciousness of what they are as compared with what they rnay 
 become. 
 
 The hope of humanity lies in the law of the "survival of the 
 fittest." The great mass of the people do not think for them- 
 selves above the most elementary questions of life. In problems 
 of health and education, ethical and moral ideals, their views are 
 more a matter of inheritance than based upon intelligent convic- 
 tion as the result of careful investigation. The physician who can 
 arouse them to observation, reflection, and self-activity is doing 
 them the highest service that an enlightened mind can render. 
 
 The problems of health are the problems of life, and pertain to 
 all questions of human interest. Body, mind, and character are
 
 TRAINING THE SUBCONSCIOUS SELF. 323 
 
 in it reflections of the great subconscious realm, with its inherited 
 or acquired impulses, habits, instincts, or ideals, and these, like 
 the flower garden, need to be continually uprooted and reset. The 
 false, and barren, and useless should be rejected, and new varieties 
 planted in keeping with knowledge and experience. 
 
 Surely this line of thought has a practical application in the 
 practice of medicine. Stand any day you choose on a street corner 
 and see the masses as they pass, and with pencil and paper in hand 
 make a mark for every one who is weak and living minus the quali- 
 ties of a normal, healthy individual, and you will find that at least 
 fifty percent of our population have weak bodies and imperfect 
 nervous organizations. 
 
 The great majority of those who are sick need to be taught how 
 to keep well, how to eat, how to drink, how to exercise, how to 
 work, and how to sleep in short, how to live. More than at any 
 time in any age does the individual need self-reliance and the 
 feeling of independence and freedom. This belongs only to those 
 who have achieved sufficient selfhood to dare to exercise the cour- 
 age to stand by their convictions. 
 
 Self-reliance is nothing more than one's own recognition of his 
 or her ability to act, and think, and live according to the dictates 
 of reason and judgment. Each individual has a different problem 
 to solve. All people are not "born free and equal," so far as 
 heredity and environment are concerned, but all are born with the 
 privilege to think, act, and do for themselves, that the greatest 
 health and happiness may be maintained. 
 
 People, as a rule, are not sufficiently educated to take their lives 
 into their own hands. In their efforts to do for themselves and 
 to struggle with the problems of life, they make many blunders 
 which react with ill results to both mind and body, and, as experts 
 in the healing art, our aid is sought to help them. They do not 
 always need medicine, but they do always need education, knowl- 
 edge, and guidance. 
 
 The physician must have more than profession! knowledge and 
 skill. He should be an expression of the highest thought and cul- 
 ture of his age to be prepared to take his place as a leader and 
 teacher of his fellowman.
 
 324 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 The practice of medicine offers great privileges for real, genuine, 
 unselfish service. The opportunities for being of real help to our 
 fellowman are the greatest of any calling in the list of human 
 achievement. In no other profession are such conditions offered 
 for brain development, self-reliance, and altruism. 
 
 The people have a right to make every effort to keep healthy 
 and strong without relying upon us to administer to their physical 
 necessities. It should be a part of our work to help them to help 
 themselves, and then the followers of the different nonmedical 
 therapeutic systems would no longer continue their hold upon the 
 people. 
 
 So long as new-born babies come to gladden the hearts of the 
 men and women of the world, physicians will be in demand. 
 While human endeavor continues, accidents will happen and the 
 surgeon will be needed. We have not yet subdued the mosquito 
 so as to prevent his carrying malaria and yellow fever germs, or 
 eradicated vice to prevent the diseases of physical degradation due 
 to infectious germs. 
 
 The Klebs-Loffler bacillus, the bacilli of anthrax and typhoid 
 fever, and the thousand other germs of infection, do not respect 
 even a healthy human organism, and for all these conditions the 
 services of the physician will be invoked. The astigmatic eye and 
 other refractive errors are here to stay to cause reflex disturbances 
 and functional diseases of both mind and body. Infantile dis- 
 eases will claim our little ones as long as it is human to err in 
 dietetics and the world remains the abode of Weischelbaum 's ba- 
 cillus of meningitis and other infectious diseases. The great white 
 plague alone claims one out of ten of all human beings. In spite 
 of our knowledge of mental therapeutics, women will grow tumors, 
 and a million years of special effort will not annihilate the physical 
 results of inebriety and syphilis or prevent insanity in its various 
 forms. 
 
 The one sure event in the pathway of every human being is 
 death, sooner or later, and the one hope of every individual is that 
 his life will be prolonged. Let us, then, do all we can with all 
 therapeutic measures when the people are sick, but by all means
 
 TRAINING THE SUBCONSCIOUS SELF. 325 
 
 let us help them to keep well by teaching them how to live, as far 
 as possible, to maintain healthy bodies. 
 
 The benefit to be derived from work, exercise, water, laughter, 
 rest, food, companionship, education, environment, and self-devel- 
 opment in a thousand ways should be ever kept before them. All 
 these things should be studied by the people, and all these consti- 
 tute the correct training of the subconscious self.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 COKRECT DIAGNOSIS A SAFEGUARD AGAINST 
 BLUNDERS. 
 
 It goes without saying that a good clinician has a wonderful 
 advantage over the individual who has not had sufficient training 
 and the necessary experience to interpret the symptoms of a dis- 
 ease, and quickly couple those symptoms with its etiology, pathol- 
 ogy, prognosis, and treatment. 
 
 As has been stated in previous pages, suggestive therapeutics 
 should be applied with an understanding and comprehension of 
 the anatomical and physiological relations of the organism as well 
 as of the pathological conditions to be alleviated. 
 
 Good men in our profession who do not sufficiently appreciate 
 the psychic factor in therapeutics are frequently so engrossed with 
 pathology that they forget to tell the patient what he can expect 
 in the way of recovery and to keep this idea constantly impressed 
 upon him. They do, however, often impress him with the serious- 
 ness of his condition in a detailed explanation of its pathology, 
 but they fail to inspire him with a conviction of recovery. Such 
 physicians leave the patient depressed, and if, forsooth, he happens 
 to fall into the hands of a quack who has sufficient personality to 
 lift him out of the depression thrust upon him, and recovery is 
 not incompatible with the pathology of his disease, the patient "is 
 cured" and the physician's reputation is injured. 
 
 As bearing upon this subject, in a discussion of a paper read by 
 me in one of our larger cities, one of the best known men in the 
 medical profession thus expressed himself: "Now, gentlemen, you 
 know as well as I that there are a great many people in this city 
 that have been treated by some of our very best physicians for 
 months and years, but satisfactory results have failed to be at- 
 tained by them. Yet, those same patients, after going the rounds 
 from one physician to another, finally land in the office of some 
 
 326
 
 CORRECT DIAGNOSIS A SAFEGUARD. 327 
 
 one of the notorious quacks in the city, and do obtain the relief 
 so vainly sought at our hands. When we know that such things 
 as this exist all about us, it seems the time has come when we can 
 afford to study some of the secrets of the quack, for what they can 
 do for morbid processes we also can do." 
 
 At that same discussion another physician, in the course of her 
 remarks, said: "Doctor Munro dares to speak out aloud what all 
 thinking physicians have recognized, but do not express, except at 
 low breath when among themselves." 
 
 This line of therapeutics is undergoing a rapid evolution, and 
 the true, and useful, and good that are in it are being sifted from 
 the false and useless. Those of our profession who take a stand 
 against it are doing much to encourage the followers of the modern 
 "creeds" and "cults," "ists" and "paths," who go to extremes 
 in their views of the influence of the mind over the body. 
 
 People easily believe that which it is to their interest to believe. 
 Physicians are educated to their view that medicine is the natural 
 recourse of the sick man, and it is hard for them to recognize the 
 psychologic factor because it happens to be the basis of all forms 
 of quackery. Yet, the thinking portion of the American people 
 are on the alert, and they are ever ready to accept and support 
 anything true and useful, it matters not how strong their preju- 
 dice may have been. Christian science, Weltmerism, etc., have 
 served a useful purpose. They have stimulated the people to re- 
 flect and exercise more self-control, but they have made, and are 
 destined yet to make, many gross and painful blunders before their 
 fanatical zeal is quelled. 
 
 In several instances within my knowledge disastrous results have 
 followed the vigorous methods of those who use massage as a means 
 of suggestion. In a case of acute articular rheumatism in a little 
 boy of twelve, the inflammation which followed this treatment by 
 vigorous massage was such that an amputation of the limb was 
 necessary to save the little fellow's life. 
 
 In a case of diphtheria the methods employed served only to 
 increase the inflammatory exudate, and a speedy death followed, 
 whereas the timely employment of antitoxin in diphtheria has re- 
 duced tbe mortality of that disease to a very small death rate.
 
 328 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 A case of acute mastoiditis, resulting from a neglected middle- 
 ear disease, was treated by the methods of the Christian scientist, 
 whereby surgical intervention was withheld until too late to be 
 effective. 
 
 In several instances it has come to my knowledge where appen- 
 dicular abscesses were ruptured by massage with fatal conse- 
 quences, to say nothing of children with gastroenterocolitis who 
 died under Christian science psychotherapeutics, while legitimate, 
 prophylactic, antiseptic, medicinal, and dietetic methods were with- 
 held. 
 
 I once witnessed the removal of sixty-five stones from the gall- 
 bladder of a woman who had been taught to ignore such ''errors 
 of mortal mind," but, after becoming weak, jaundiced, and anemic, 
 with all bodily functions disturbed, she at last yielded to the 
 rational advice of her friends in time to resort to surgical pro- 
 cedures for relief and recovered. 
 
 At a Christian science service not long since, just in front of 
 me sat a young man who was rapidly losing his hair as a result 
 of an infection of the hair follicles with the germ which causes 
 seborrheic eczema. The psychic effect -of his religion upon him 
 was great, but the germs went on with their work just the same. 
 
 Christian science was held before the attention of the audience 
 by readings, songs, and prayer as a sovereign remedy for sin, sick- 
 ness, and death. Over on my left sat a lady in mourning. With 
 her head drooped and lips closed tightly, she sat there, not at all 
 receptive, and took her medicine, though her expression showed 
 a consciousness that realized the mockery of all that was receiving 
 her attention. Her face was sad because her husband was dead, 
 and this experience was setting up a mental reaction to all the 
 negations that fell upon her ears. 
 
 Over on my right sat a gentleman with eyes open like full moons, 
 and his lower jaw dropped as if it had no muscles to support it, 
 with a well-fixed gaze upon the reader of the suggestions that had 
 been prepared to hypnotize the audience. He was suffering with 
 locomotor ataxia, and, though credulous, receptive, and suggestible 
 in the most complete sense, he walked away upon two "errors of 
 mortal mind," usually called crutches.
 
 CORRECT DIAGNOSIS A SAFEGUARD. 329 
 
 Yet, physicians are far from infallible. All their patients do 
 not get well, neither does absolute knowledge upon any subject 
 exist, while every conception, or theory, or viewpoint represents 
 some relative phase of truth to be determined by individual ex- 
 perience. 
 
 While we know what mercury will do in syphilis, and quinin 
 in malaria, and sulphur in itch, and antitoxin timely administered 
 in diphtheria, and what the result of corrected errors of refraction 
 will bring in the relief of headaches and numerous functional dis- 
 turbances, and what relief surgery will bring in gross pathological 
 changes, etc., yet there are many conditions confronted in all lines 
 of professional work in which we do not know absolutely what the 
 outcome will be, and no physician has done his full duty until he 
 has given his patient the full benefit of every therapeutic aid. 
 The rule should be, "while there is life there is hope." 
 
 Two cases here cited that have been brought to my attention 
 will illustrate the blunders that may be made by too quickly jump- 
 ing at conclusions without due appreciation of the psychologic 
 factor in therapeutics. 
 
 A well-known physician and surgeon was consulted in reference 
 to a patient of another physician with an incipient malignant af- 
 fection of the cervix, and he strongly advised operative procedures 
 as the only safe course to pursue. The operation was deferred, 
 and several months later this patient was taken on a litter to a 
 prominent surgeon in one of our larger cities. After carefully con- 
 sidering the case, together with the assistance of a well-known 
 pathologist who made a microscopical examination to determine the 
 exact character of the disease, he declined to operate, as he be- 
 lieved this would only serve to transplant the disease to more vital 
 structures and hasten her death. Discouraged and hopeless, the 
 lady finally yielded after much protest to the solicitation of a 
 Christian science friend, and consented to do so because this was 
 the only promise held out to her for a possible hold on life. After 
 three or four months' treatment by Christian science psychological 
 methods, that lady had gained twenty pounds and returned home, 
 walking erect and strong, and after three years would occasionally 
 call upon the consulting surgeon in her home town who advised
 
 330 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 the operation in the incipiency of her disease, and laugh heartily 
 over the incidents connected with her case. The facts in this case 
 can be well authenticated. 
 
 Again, in a western city a gentleman about thirty-five years of 
 age had been treated for pulmonary tuberculosis for a period ex- 
 tending over many months, and was finally advised to go to a 
 higher and drier altitude, his physician assuring him that this was 
 the only hope offered for him. He went to a town situated just 
 west of the Rocky Mountains, and carried with him a letter of 
 introduction from his home physician, together with a report from 
 a competent pathologist showing sputa teeming with tubercle ba- 
 cilli. After examination and observation for several days, this 
 physican advised the sufferer to go home at once and die among 
 his friends and relatives. He then sought the assistance of a Chris- 
 tian scientist, and after two days did return home inspired with 
 hope, and, having been able to sleep and eat under the psychic 
 effects of that method, he was much improved, and put himself 
 under the care of a Christian science "practitioner" at his home 
 town. When I saw him he was holding the position of city attor- 
 ney, and in his hands he held the report of the pathologist, as 
 unquestionable proof of the correctness of his history, which he 
 flaunted, while he enthusiastically related his experience at one of 
 their midweek meetings, stating that he had gained thirty pounds, 
 and was enjoying life eating, working, and happy. 
 
 As illustrating another phase of the subject at hand, however, 
 in another western city a well-known physician advised an imme- 
 diate operation for an incipient malignant disease of the cervix. 
 Seeing his patient a few weeks later, he very naturally greeted her 
 and expressed his pleasure at seeing her looking so well. "Oh, I 
 have never been sick, doctor. That was all an 'error of mortal 
 mind.' I am perfectly well." Her phraseology at once "put him 
 next," so, with the salutation, "I wish you well, madam," he mod- 
 estly left her. 
 
 Several months later she returned to his office. The temporary 
 psychic stimulation that had for awhile held her up, in spite of 
 the existing pathological conditions, had reacted, and now that 
 characteristic, sallow, cachectic hue which attends this disease was
 
 CORRECT DIAGNOSIS A SAFEGUARD. 331 
 
 plainly in evidence. She was weak and anemic, nervous and over- 
 anxious about her condition. She had at last decided to have him 
 operate, but she had waited too long, and there was nothing left 
 but to leave her to face the inevitable. 
 
 In the first case of ''malignant disease" it is probable that the 
 pathologist was mistaken; and tuberculosis, under favorable cli- 
 matic conditions and when not too far advanced, is by no means 
 an incurable disease. Good food, dry open air, sunshine and op- 
 timism often do wonders in the way of giving the recuperative 
 powers of such patients an opportunity to overcome pathogenic 
 bacteria and re-establish a condition of health. In less serious 
 affections, especially, should the influence that the psychic factor 
 exerts be well kept in mind before an unfavorable prognosis is 
 rendered, for there are numerous instances in which the prognosis 
 may determine the outcome of the disease on account of the part 
 played by suggestion in aiding or retarding recovery. 
 
 In many diseases an exact diagnosis is not always possible, 
 though few expert diagnosticians will admit this, and even in 
 psychiatry and nervous diseases those that are amenable to treat- 
 ment, either curative or palliative, are benefited just in proportion 
 as the mental and bodily functions, both voluntary and involuntary, 
 are encouraged into normal activity. 
 
 No possible harm can come to the, individual by suggestive meas- 
 ures, used either with or without hypnotism, which are only a 
 means of getting the individual to rely upon the properties, facul- 
 ties, and functions inherent within the biological elements of the 
 cells of his organism. By suggestion we can stimulate and de- 
 velop all bodily and mental functions, both voluntary and involun- 
 tary. 
 
 All other sane, sensible measures are, of course, not to be neg- 
 lected, such as rest or exercise, dietetics, hydrotherapy both in- 
 ternal and external relaxation, deep breathing, and materia med- 
 ica agencies, as the individual case indicates. Yet, there are many 
 cases, not incompatible with complete recovery, in which the pa- 
 tient would get well, due attention being given to the psychologic 
 factor, but which would not recover without its aid. 
 
 In all cases let us give the patient the benefit of the doubt.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND KELIGION THEIR RELATION TO 
 
 HEALTH. 
 
 From a psychological standpoint all religious services of all 
 denominations are especially interesting. If we attend them to 
 learn, we usually find our lesson between the lines. 
 
 The psychic effect of the commingling of several hundred male 
 and female voices, with sentiments of love expressed in song ; with 
 the martial spirit of soldiers battling in unison and marching as 
 conquerors from victory to victory ; amid music and beautiful flow- 
 ers, fine clothes and suggestive mottoes, and mystical carvings; all 
 these combine to have a significance but little appreciated by one 
 in a thousand of the people of our times. They subtly and gently 
 stimulate all the involuntary cells of the body, and temporarily 
 lift the individual out of his self-conscious physical and psychical 
 weaknesses, and, in general, when free from emotional excitement, 
 prove to be an experience which, like other stimulations, reacts with 
 benefit upon both mind and body. 
 
 Suggestion is to be seen in all such experiences from start to 
 finish. The methods adopted by the clergyman of getting en rap- 
 port with the audience the unconsciously induced condition of 
 receptivity by quartets composed of male and female voices, the 
 reading responded to by the audience, followed by a female solo 
 all create a psychic condition which renders the individual forget- 
 ful of self and his surroundings. 
 
 For the time being he is completely amenable to the suggestion 
 given from the pulpit orator, who for from thirty to sixty minutes 
 has the opportunity to create sense impressions and present ideas or 
 suggestions that are beneficial or harmful, as the case may be. 
 They are wholesome, beneficial, and helpful suggestions just in 
 proportion as they are the reflection of a broad, well-educated, 
 truth-loving mind or personality. 
 
 332
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION IN RELATION TO HEALTH. 333 
 
 It has been my privilege to hear such men in all denominations, 
 both Protestant and Catholic, Jew and Gentile, Mormon and Free 
 Thinkers, as well as promulgators of Oriental philosophies and re- 
 ligions, containing much that is true, and useful, and good. 
 
 Just in proportion as the people are becoming sufficiently well 
 educated to comprehend in some degree the cosmic order of the 
 universe and the laws of its evolution, and to appreciate the part 
 played by heredity, environment, and education in determining 
 the ideas and ideals which go to construct the religious beliefs of 
 individuals, are they becoming more open to accept the contribu- 
 tion made by science to our moral and religious philosophy. 
 
 The more enlightened element of all denominations now admits 
 that science has in numerous instances unquestionably demon- 
 strated that religious teachings have at times been wrong as to 
 matters of fact. Be that as it may, man is a religious being, for 
 he is by nature a truth seeker, and every one must either have a 
 philosophy of his own in reference to the questions of life or be 
 creed-fettered by some fixed religious dogma, which seeks to mold 
 him according to prescribed ideals. 
 
 At no time in the world's history were the rights of the indi- 
 vidual so much appreciated as now. All religions are useful just 
 in proportion as they contribute to the development of the indi- 
 vidual in body and mind. 
 
 As long as religion appeals to the intellect and renders the in- 
 dividual conscious of his privilege of being a thinking, reasoning, 
 responsible entity, with the power to exercise choice as to what shall 
 and what shall not enter his life; as long as its promulgators in- 
 spire men and women with high ideals, and point to sane, rational, 
 sensible rules of conduct, both for self-betterment and for the 
 health of his f ellowman ; as long as it teaches him self-appreciation 
 and altruism, and its influence is for what is good, and true, and 
 useful for human happiness, and health, and growth, the bene- 
 ficial influence of religion for the evolution of the individual can 
 not be questioned. 
 
 The sublime faith that carries with it a conviction that is un- 
 shaken, that brings peace, eliminates fear, and makes life serene, 
 or a reasonable philosophy thnt is entirely satisfactory to the in-
 
 334 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 dividual in regard to his past evolution, present conduct, and future 
 development, is as essential to the life, health, and happiness of 
 a rational human being as is food, water, exercise, sleep, air, con- 
 genial associates, or other life essentials. It is here that the mind 
 takes refuge in those problems that are forced upon the attention 
 of all civilized races. 
 
 Yet, when the emotions have been wrought upon and the indi- 
 vidual is led into that extreme state of monoideaism which exists 
 in religious ecstasy with crying, shouting, or other manifestations 
 of joy or grief, pleasure or hope, and he or she is no longer under 
 the guidance and control of reason, it can but be regarded as 
 psychical prostitution pure and simple. 
 
 The psychical correlation between religious emotion and the ani- 
 mal passions is now recognized by all our ablest psychologists, neu- 
 rologists, and psychiatrists. The erotic and religious feelings are 
 so closely associated that the step from the emotional religious 
 enthusiast to the sexual prostitute is but a very short one. 
 
 As bearing upon this subject, Howard says: ''Religious emo- 
 tion springs from the animating power of the sexual nature, and 
 through the emotion thus aroused we deify and worship the inspira- 
 tional source of our spiritual longings." 
 
 Kraft-Ebing remarks: "How powerfully sensuality expresses 
 itself in the histories of religious fanatics, and in what revolting 
 scenes, true orgies, the religious festivals of antiquity, no less than 
 the meetings of certain sects in modern times, express themselves. 
 . . . Owing to the correspondence in many points between these 
 two emotional states, it is clear that when they are very intense 
 the one may take the place of the other, since every manifestation 
 of one element of mental life also intensifies its associations. ' ' 
 
 The reader is aware that the more enlightened leaders of all 
 religions now openly oppose any form of emotional excitement in 
 religious services, and regard it as a deplorable relic of ancient 
 barbarism. But, be that as it may, it has been my experience to 
 attend such meetings all over our country, and the consciousness 
 of the degrading influence of such meetings on innocent, impressi- 
 ble, and highly suggestible boys and girls, men and women, who
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION IN RELATION TO HEALTH. 335 
 
 are the victims of these induced endemics of temporary emotional 
 insanity, has been particularly painful and revolting to me. 
 
 Children, as well as men and women, who are not sufficiently 
 educated to think for themselves upon these questions are, when 
 the emotions are stirred, suggestible in the highest degree, and any 
 method of coercion which incites fear, plays upon the imagination, 
 and dethrones reason is prostitution of body and mind. One neu- 
 rotic boy of my knowledge remained in a subconscious state all 
 night long, and his nervous system never reacted from the shock 
 or sense impressions of that experience. He was weak-minded and 
 hysterical ever afterward, and finally became insane and died in. 
 the asylum. A neurotic woman, after having been subject to re- 
 ligious excitement for several days, began having cataleptic seiz- 
 ures, and had kept this up constantly every day for two years, 
 being all the while in a state of religious fervor, and was frequently 
 visited by her minister, who would talk and pray with her, thus 
 keeping up this morbid, psychoneurotic condition. 
 
 It has been my experience to be called in consultation to see two 
 persons, ill with an acute disease, who died as a result of the effect 
 of having been for several days subjected to the injurious sense 
 impressions produced by a fanatical, emotional revivalist. The 
 timely use of suggestion to drive back these perverted mental states 
 and plant new sense impressions in their stead would, no doubt, 
 have altered the results, but neither of these patients was amenable 
 to treatment at the time I visited them. 
 
 The conviction of sin, and fear of hell and the awfulness of the 
 ''judgment day," were impressed upon them until every organic 
 function had been disturbed, they had been unable to sleep, food 
 and medicine had not been assimilated, and they died of diseases 
 from which under different conditions they should have made a 
 speedy and sure recovery. Such has been the experience of hun- 
 dreds of physicians of my acquaintance as a result of emotional, 
 religious excitement. 
 
 But, aside from the danger that such pernicious influences exert 
 upon life itself, the positive harm to the development and growth 
 of body and mind is the worst. To speak plainly, the effect upon 
 the entire individual is identical with that of excessive sexual inter-
 
 336 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 course, and it is questionable if the results upon mind and body 
 of sexual excesses are not even less injurious. 
 
 Every intellectual state is accompanied by definite physical mani- 
 festations. The physical concomitants of such psychical states as 
 where the individual is under the sway of emotional religious ex- 
 citement are vasomotor phenomena, respiratory phenomena, and 
 motor phenomena, or phenomena of expression. 
 
 The vascular modifications that take place are felt in the form 
 of arterial pulsations, heaviness, and a sense of choking, all of 
 which are usually ascribed to being ''the power of the holy spirit" 
 acting upon the individual. They all denote a state of tension of 
 the organism and of concentration of effort. Such emotion is con- 
 tagious. Mental states beget similar mental states in others who 
 are so situated as to receive sense impressions from those thus 
 affected. The tension produced upon the nervous system and the 
 physical reaction to such experiences for several days in succession 
 leaves such individuals nervous and weak, with all bodily functions 
 disturbed. Sleep is hindered, and they are often pale and indiffer- 
 ent to interest in all other things except religious matters. 
 
 We all realize that this is nothing more than a condition of 
 hysteria, but such hysteria is contagious, and when often repeated 
 forms a habit, and such habits are positively injurious. To be ex- 
 posed to such influences interferes with the growth of both mind 
 and body of children, and the habit of having one's psychic life 
 controlled and played upon by an emotional enthusiast, in the per- 
 sonality of an individual of the opposite sex, is positively de- 
 structive to the essential conditions of a happy marriage relation. 
 
 To educate an individual to be guided and controlled by emotion 
 or passion in religious matters, and expect him to exercise reason 
 and judgment in reference to other phases of his life's conduct, 
 would mean to teach him to act directly contrary to his religious 
 teaching. 
 
 The overexpenditure of nervous energy from such emotional 
 religious experiences and the habit of being psychically aroused by 
 such experiences reduces the individual to a condition of mental 
 and physical inertness. It is horrible to contemplate, but there 
 are thousands of ardent female religious devotees whose psychic
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION IN RELATION TO HEALTH. 337 
 
 life is so dominated and controlled by their church executive or 
 <; spiritual adviser" that their husbands find no more place in their 
 higher nature than a dog finds comfort upon the grave of his buried 
 master. 
 
 This state of affairs reduces such marriage relations into noth- 
 ing less than legalized prostitution. Whoever holds the attention 
 of an individual, stirs his emotions, and directs his thoughts, 
 governs his actions and controls his life both consciously and sub- 
 consciously ; and when married women are so dominated and con- 
 trolled, the higher social affiliations and more complete amalgamation 
 of personalities between man and his wife are rendered impossible. 
 Such marriages, then, are a fraud and a farce, and the result is 
 unhappiness and nervousness, functional disorders and disease, 
 Such practices might be excused in old maids and widows who are 
 safely beyond the danger of ever getting married and who have no 
 ambition to attain in life, but no growing young man or woman, or 
 wife or prospective mother should be exposed to their pernicious in- 
 fluences. 
 
 Adolescence, especially, should be kept free from an environ- 
 ment of religious fervor, which holds the constant attention of the 
 individual and causes a useless expenditure of nervous energy to 
 the neglect of the development of all other physical and mental 
 attributes that should be cultivated by directing the person's life 
 into the normal, healthful, useful lines of thought and action. 
 
 The religious training of a great many individuals has but served 
 to educate them into a psychoneurotic disease, which practically 
 disqualifies them for the duties and responsibilities of life. To 
 maintain a robust, vigorous state of health and physical well-being 
 while adhering to such religious practices is an absolute impos- 
 sibility. 
 
 It is from this class of religious neurotics that Christian 
 science largely draws its membership, and its dogma of negation 
 and affirmation is only a suggestive means to drive back morbid 
 states of consciousness produced by sense impressions made in 
 times gone by and forgotten, and to replace these by conceptions, 
 ideas, sense impressions, or suggestions that give rise to a new 
 consciousness, to mental states that are more pleasant, more hope-
 
 338 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 ful, less emotional, more optimistic and cheerful, and these react 
 favorably upon the body. With all its absurdity, Christian science 
 is a stepping-stone, perhaps not an indispensable one, to the evo- 
 lution and revision that is today taking place in the religious 
 philosophies of the world. To the man who is broad enough, and 
 generous enough, and wise enough to detect the kernel of psycho- 
 logical truth buried within its capsule of religious dogma, this 
 cult serves as an illustration for an important lesson namely, 
 that the mind and the influence exerted upon it through religious 
 worship plays an important role in the cause of disease and the 
 maintenance of health. 
 
 People are not to be blamed for their religious beliefs or habits 
 of conduct in life. As a rule, they are creatures of circumstance, 
 fettered by environment, unfortunate heredity, and deficient edu- 
 cational advantages. 
 
 The clue to the situation was unconsciously admitted by a 
 country clergyman in the South, who, in discussing the evolution 
 that is taking place in religious ideals among the more enlightened 
 centers of our country and the part that education exercises in 
 shaping our religious beliefs, answered, ''Yes, but we care noth- 
 ing about such ideals and education down here." And so it is 
 with every one in reference to his philosophic and religious con- 
 victions. He instinctively feels that he is right from his view- 
 point, and he is. His religion fills an essential need to his life, 
 and he has as much right to it as he has to life itself. And so has 
 the individual who has acquired a broader perspective the same 
 right to reject the false, worn out, and useless, and to interpret 
 the problems of life for himself. 
 
 We are still only half civilized. Ten million years of growth, 
 evolution, and development will not have remedied all the conse- 
 quences of the ignorance that exists today. 
 
 Institutions, organizations, and religions are a necessity. When 
 they do not interfere with individual liberty and expression, they 
 are useful. The majority of people are incapable of thinking and 
 reasoning for themselves. They have not as yet acquired strength 
 of intellect and knowledge of the universe sufficient to give them 
 the confidence to take their lives into their own hands.
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION IN RELATION TO HEALTH. 339 
 
 To them the power, strength, authority, and privileges of the self- 
 conscious ego are as much a stranger, and as intangible and use- 
 less in the choice as to what shall govern and control their life, 
 as if they never existed. Indeed, such a self -consciousness to them 
 does not exist, for this quality of human personality is also de- 
 veloped according to the general laws of existence through heredity, 
 environment, and education. 
 
 However, individual responsibility can not be evaded. Men and 
 women who know better, and have evolved moral courage sufficient 
 to give them the impulse to act up to their convictions, are im- 
 pelled by immutable law under which they can not decide to do 
 otherwise than press forward, and onward, and upward, and they 
 are increasing their strength day by day according to the law of 
 development by use. 
 
 We live in a new age and are confronted by new conditions. 
 New opportunities are thrust upon us. We must live up to our 
 privileges or take the consequences. We must turn opportunities 
 to good account. We must each go our route. We can not live 
 and do as any other individual in this world today or in any age 
 has done. 
 
 The great need of the world is men and women to interpret life 
 and its meaning in the light of modern education and enlighten- 
 ment; such as will speak out aloud and tell the truth as the more 
 enlightened people of this day see it, and who will not be in- 
 timidated by the bulwarks set in our way of progress by the igno- 
 rance and superstition of ages past and gone. 
 
 At least to us, as physicians, there is no other time but now, and 
 no other place but here, and a billion of years will not make it 
 otherwise.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 CONSERVATION OF ENERGY. 
 
 Education and Control of the Emotions Breathing, Relaxation, 
 Dietetics, Etc. More power, strength, and ability is a radical crav- 
 ing of the human being. Such cravings are as instinctive as the 
 desire to live. 
 
 Each individual is endowed with latent potentialities or energy 
 expressed in the millions of cells of his organism, according to their 
 quality, and these he may use or abuse as he decides for himself. 
 
 How to create and conserve the highest expression of personality 
 as represented by body and mind, in order that the greatest hap- 
 piness may be maintained, is worthy of the serious consideration of 
 every intelligent human being. 
 
 When we take stock of ourselves, we find that we have all the 
 qualities of the lower animals, and others besides, which are the 
 distinguishing characteristics between human beings and the lower 
 forms of intelligence. Appetites, passions, emotions, feelings, de- 
 sires, and a consideration for others of its species belong to the 
 animals beneath us. Man alone of all the animal creation is capable 
 of thinking and reasoning, and of communicating his ideas to 
 others in spoken and written language. 
 
 No rule of conduct can be pointed out as a guide as to the best 
 methods for the individual to pursue in order that the highest de- 
 gree of physical strength, intellectual development, and moral char- 
 acter may be maintained. That is the problem that confronts 
 every individual. It is the problem of life which each one must 
 solve for himself; yet, how many there are who fail to live up to 
 their privileges. 
 
 When we, as physicians, are brought face to face with the prob- 
 lem of treating disease, we have but to reflect for a moment to see 
 that the real problem for the individual is how to live. 
 
 The most fruitful cause of disease and weakness of body and 
 
 340
 
 CONSERVATION OF ENERGY. 341 
 
 mind lies in uncontrolled and misguided appetites, emotions, and 
 passions, and a failure to properly conserve and direct our mental 
 and physical energies into healthy channels of thought and con- 
 duct. 
 
 With the properly developed individual the intellectual functions 
 and physiological processes are so under his control that he can 
 by practice direct any selected one as he chooses. The true pur- 
 pose of education is to teach the individual self-control and a just 
 consideration for the welfare of others. 
 
 The sexual function, of the natural instincts, is second only to 
 the instinct of self-preservation. In some individuals it is per- 
 haps the strongest of all the bodily appetites and passions. The 
 healthy, vigorous glow of sexuality, when not debased by sensuality, 
 is the crowning glory of a man or woman. We have but one energy, 
 and this is expressed by the individual in every manifestation of 
 his life's conduct, whether physical, intellectual, or emotional in 
 character. 
 
 Scott l has well said that "purity is the crown of all real manli- 
 ness, and the vigorous and robust, who by repression of evil have 
 preserved their sexual potency, make the best husbands and fathers, 
 and they are the direct benefactors of the race by begetting progeny 
 who are not predisposed to sexual violation and bodily and mental 
 degeneracy. ' ' 
 
 The tendency of rational medicine is getting more and more 
 toward the prevention as well as the cure of disease, insanity, and 
 degeneracy in its numerous manifestations. Educators and teachers 
 are at last awakening to the importance of defending ignorance 
 and innocence against morbid moral processes, as well as to pro- 
 tect them from smallpox and yellow fever; so the day is not re- 
 mote when children will be taught in our common schools to re- 
 gard the care and preservation of their bodies as paramount to 
 their lessons in English grammar and arithmetic. 
 
 Monogamy will modify all excesses in the sexual line, and right 
 thinking will eliminate all habits which may be destructive to an 
 individual or against the best interest of the community. 
 
 Aside from a condition of lowered vitality that is frequently 
 
 1 Scott: The Sexual Instinct. K. B. Treat & Co.
 
 342 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 maintained in both men and women by such indiscretions, emotional 
 religious feelings, too much social excitement among enthusiastic, 
 exuberant young people; overeating, excessive chewing and smok- 
 ing of tobacco, whisky and beer drinking, worry and overanxiety 
 about business; anger, envy, jealousy, and fear; irregular habits 
 of sleep, work, and recreation all contribute their quota to hold the 
 individual in check and prevent the highest and best expression of 
 individuality in body and mind. 
 
 A lady who had emerged from an excitable emotional religious 
 revival, weak and nervous, after being sick for a day, was anxious 
 to return, and when I admonished her of the danger of such dis- 
 sipation, and remarked that death itself was not infrequent as a 
 result of such indiscretions, she answered suavely that "it would 
 be a lovely way to die." 
 
 In the same spirit another patient, whom I advised to abandon 
 the use of tobacco and whisky if he expected to get well, replied 
 that he would rather not live if he had to give them up, that he 
 had reached the age when his sexual powers had failed, and he 
 now felt that these offered all that went to make life worth while. 
 
 It is hard to realize, until one stops to consider this subject, 
 in what complete slavery many human beings are held by their ap- 
 petites and uncontrolled emotions and passions. 
 
 A country parson once sent for me, and very seriously and con- 
 fidentially explained that the physicians of his town did not under- 
 stand his case; that he had for years suffered so much with indi- 
 gestion until he was unable to do mental work, and, though he 
 "loved his work and was completely in the hands of the Lord," 
 that it troubled him to be unable to prepare sermons that would 
 hold the people. He was six feet high and weighed two hundred 
 and eighty pounds. After he had related his tale of woe, I in- 
 formed him that the external evidence in his case did not coincide 
 with his interpretation ; that, instead of suffering with indigestion, 
 he gave every evidence of digesting and assimilating too much 
 food. Then, turning to his wife, I asked how much he ate for 
 breakfast as compared with the other members of the family, and 
 she answered as much as herself and their four children combined. 
 I reasoned with him, and explained how it was impossible for his
 
 CONSERVATION OF ENERGY. 343 
 
 stomach and his intellect each to perform the highest function at 
 
 le same time, and outlined a reasonable diet, advised that he walk 
 jn miles a day and cut his own wood, work in his garden, and take 
 such other physical exercise as would reduce his weight. He took 
 my advice kindly, and two weeks afterward informed me that he 
 felt like a new man. He had been so completely occupied in get- 
 ting individuals to "save their souls," that he had forgotten the 
 present salvation of his own character sufficient to control his 
 bodily appetites. 
 
 I was once introduced to an aged physician, then ninety-one 
 years old, who had just returned from a six-mile ride on horse- 
 back on a visit to a patient in the country. I inquired why he did 
 not leave such trips to "the boys" in the profession, pointing to 
 two physicians who were themselves between sixty and seventy 
 years old. I shall never forget his answer. He died of pneu- 
 monia several months afterward, but that answer of his contained 
 a fine lecture on psychotherapeutics. His reply was: "I don't 
 want to die. Don't you know that as long as a man is at work he 
 is thinking, and that when he is working and thinking he is using 
 his brain cells, and that the brain cells, kept in constant use, give 
 strength to every part of his body?" 
 
 For sixty-five years this physician had kept in harness, fre- 
 quently making trips on horseback for sixty miles in the early part 
 of his professional career, and he furnished a good illustration 
 of the salutary effect of continuous exercise and useful employ- 
 ment. 
 
 The only safe way to control our emotions, appetites, and pas- 
 sions is to direct our energies into channels of wholesome and 
 useful effort, whether it be physical or mental effort. The result 
 is strengthening to both mind and body, provided it is done cheer- 
 fully and with a purpose. 
 
 The emotional part of our nature, when guided by reason, is 
 expressed in enthusiasm, a quality which is essential to success in 
 any line of effort. Be it man or woman, the continuous and per- 
 sistent pursuit of some steady work or useful employment will 
 react as health and strength-producing factors to both mind and 
 body. This very effort conserves our energy, guides and controls
 
 344 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 the emotions, and cultivates all the positive qualities of human 
 character. The proficiency which comes from continuous persistent 
 effort achieves a self-reliance that eradicates fear. 
 
 Worry is only our own recognition of our inadequacy or inability 
 to be equal to the exigencies of life. It shows a lack of self-re- 
 liance, without which man is but the plaything of chance, a puppet 
 of circumstances. 
 
 Envy, and anger, and jealousy are all characteristics of weakness 
 and incompetency. Such negative qualities can find no place in 
 the life and character of a real man or woman. 
 
 There is a retroactive degeneracy of wealth which, as history 
 has shown, proves the destroyer of the idle, the proud, and the 
 self-conceited. 
 
 The sooner every human being can learn that the real elements 
 that create health, and strength, and happiness, and success in 
 life are inherent within him, and that reason should be the guiding 
 star by which he should direct, and control, and develop, and use 
 the potentialities within his own organism, the sooner will he real- 
 ize that upon him alone depends the responsibility of so living 
 that he can maintain sufficient resistive power in the cells of his 
 organism for health to become a habit, and happiness and success 
 the rule of his .life. 
 
 We have only a few medicines that can be relied upon in their 
 application to the treatment of disease, and in some instances it 
 is really remarkable how well people get along without any medi- 
 cine at all. 
 
 In one little city of 25,000 inhabitants the physicians informed 
 me that a nonmedical practitioner in that town was doing more 
 work than any two physicians in the place. He had taught school 
 for a good many years, and had gained quite a fund of general 
 information in regard to psychotherapeutics, dietetics, hydro- 
 therapy, massage, exercise, etc., which, coupled with a good per- 
 sonality, enabled him to practice with remarkable success. 
 
 Now, I am not a therapeutic nihilist. We should use medicine 
 when indicated, and there are conditions in which it is absolutely 
 indispensable, but in the great majority of cases that come to us 
 for aid we should display more confidence in our patient's brain
 
 CONSERVATION OF ENERGY. 345 
 
 plasm and in the recuperative powers inherent in the cells of his 
 organism under proper conditions to re-establish a condition of 
 health. 
 
 Without the co-operation of the patient, it matters not what be 
 our therapeutic measures, we are handicapped very seriously. It 
 is not what we do for the patient with materia medica agencies that 
 is the greatest factor in therapeutics, but the environment which 
 we create for him and what we get him perhaps unconsciously 
 to do for himself. If his brain cells do not respond to the sense 
 impressions made upon them so as to get him to act upon and exe- 
 cute our ideas both consciously and subconsciously, then may we 
 expect very little benefit to be derived from the administration of 
 medicine. It is what he eats and what he drinks, how he acts and 
 the way he thinks, together with breathing and relaxation, fresh air, 
 pure water, work, and sunshine, that are the real helps to get a sick 
 man well. 
 
 Thousands of the ablest physicians place little or no confidence 
 in more than a few medicines aside from the confidence that the 
 patient has in their efficacy. Is it not time that we should deal 
 with our patients squarely and honestly, and, while giving medicine 
 when indicated, either for its physiological or psychological effects, 
 let them know that the real source of health and happiness depends 
 upon their own control and direction of their conscious and uncon- 
 scious psychic activities into normal, healthful lines of thought and 
 conduct ? Where an individual needs such advice, and the majority 
 of them do, I should deem myself untrue as his physician and 
 false to my Hippocratic oath, did I not express my honest convic- 
 tions relative to the real elements that contribute to his health and 
 well-being. 
 
 Thousands of American people today are magnificent examples 
 of what intelligent, systematic, physical exercise can do in the way 
 of developing a vigorous, robust, healthy body. A large percentage 
 of our most successful physicians are physical athletes as the re- 
 sult of intelligent physical training. 
 
 As yet not one person out of five knows how to breathe, or real- 
 izes that sufficient oxygen taken into his lungs from the inspired 
 air is as important as the food that he eats.
 
 346 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Water pure, wholesome water as a functional stimulant, a 
 toxin eliminant, and health-producing agent, has not occupied the 
 place it deserves in our therapeutic armamentarium, or in the ap- 
 preciation of the people, whose privilege it is to use it without our 
 advice. 
 
 Most of our people still overtax their nervous systems with an 
 excess of meats as an article of diet, and thus maintain a lowered 
 power of both mind and body on account of such indiscretions and 
 excesses. The tests at Yale University, made by Professor Irving 
 Fisher, have, proved beyond all question that "a low protein, non- 
 flesh or nearly nonflesh dietary," is conducive to a greater mental 
 and physical endurance than the ordinary American diet. 
 
 The use of the corset as a fruitful source of disease yet needs to 
 be impressed upon the minds of our women. 
 
 Intemperance or lack of self-control, and the use of reason in 
 eating, dress, business activities, religious worship, and sexual mat- 
 ters, and emotions of all kinds and passions of every description, 
 should all be kept in mind by the physician who intends to make 
 such suggestions as will redound to the greatest benefit of his pa- 
 tients. Self-control is humanity 's greatest, highest, noblest achieve- 
 ment.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 ROUGHING IT AS A MEANS OF HEALTH. 
 
 Disease is a condition where the cells of a part or of the entire 
 organism do not properly perform their function. At any rate, it 
 denotes an absence of health. These are only relative terms, for 
 what might be a condition of reasonably good health for one in- 
 dividual would be so far below the normal standard of another 
 as to be considered disease for him. 
 
 A problem that confronts every human being is how to maintain 
 the highest possible degree of resistive power in the cells of his 
 organism so as to render them invulnerable to pathogenic germs and 
 other etiological factors of- disease. This can not always be ac- 
 complished by tonics, reconstructive agents, etc. In many in- 
 stances it is simply a question of getting the individual to conform 
 to those conditions and habits of life which bring an increased de- 
 gree of resistive power to the cells of his organism as a consequence. 
 Such habits can often be brought about as the result of an idea put 
 strongly into the brain plasm of your patient. Before you can 
 succeed in putting such an idea sufficiently strong to get your pa- 
 tient to act upon it so as to change his habits of thought and con- 
 duct, you must believe in the efficacy of the means to secure the de- 
 sired end. Confidence begets confidence, and conviction creates 
 conviction ; courage begets courage, and health begets health. 
 
 So, if a physician is weak, discouraged, and tender-footed, he 
 must get right himself before he can get others to act upon an 
 idea, either consciously or subconsciously. To bring about this 
 end, try "roughing it" as a means of health, and get your pa- 
 tients to do likewise. 
 
 The finest reconstructive agent at our command is an idea con- 
 veyed to your patient that will create hope, expectancy, confidence, 
 and optimism. All these encourage anabolism or constructive 
 metamorphosis, and this is doubly true when it moves one out into 
 
 347
 
 348 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 the sunshine and fresh air, and enforces exercise and deep breath- 
 ing, resulting in sound sleep, good appetite, and increased diges- 
 tion and assimilation. It means new blood for the patient, and all 
 these contribute to health. 
 
 Along with this comes a rest from the routine path of life, the 
 dropping of business cares and perplexities, and a chance to catch 
 something of the inspiration that comes from associating with birds 
 and wild flowers, trees and rocks, and running streams. The 
 psychic and physical effect for the good of the individual of all 
 such measures can not be overestimated. 
 
 We are told that one death out of ten in the world today is the 
 result of tuberculosis. It is not so. The people who die infected 
 with tubercle bacilli do so because they do not live so as to main- 
 tain that high degree of resistive power to enable the cells of their 
 organism to withstand the onslaught of this pathogenic enemy. 
 
 In offices and street cars, in places of business and on the street, 
 we in cities are exposed to the tubercle infection every day of our 
 lives. We do not 'contract the disease because we are alive enough 
 to resist its invasion. The factors of disease are here and ever will 
 be. It is up to us to learn how to live. 
 
 No better illustration of the value of roughing it can be cited 
 than where thousands and thousands of individuals with this 
 disease are yearly going to the high altitudes along the range of 
 the Rockies and dropping all home comforts, having the will and 
 courage to face hardships in the- West, living out-of-doors in open 
 tents, and in this way making the fight for their lives. The very 
 decision to do that which they believe will result in their recovery 
 is the important essential which, favored by a dry high altitude and 
 the conditions for living in the open air and sunshine, and en- 
 couraged by the optimism and cheerfulness of those who have been 
 in that section long enough to have dropped the title of "tender- 
 foot, ' ' brings about a restoration of health. 
 
 Life is a struggle with us all. In order to live, we must dare to 
 be. We need sufficient resistive power in the cells of our organism 
 to combat the etiological factors of disease, and this can be secured 
 only by conforming to the requirements for creating and maintain-
 
 ROUGHING IT AS A MEANS OF HEALTH. 349 
 
 ing that high standard of healthfulness that will secure this 
 quality. 
 
 In all classes of practice, medicine is only an aid. With its as- 
 sistance the individual's chances of recovery, when sick, depend 
 upon the natural recuperative powers of the cells of his organism. 
 
 In thousands of instances during warfare individuals have left 
 their homes of comfort and luxurious ease, and for years have en- 
 dured the hardships of camp life and the stress of battle, on scanty 
 food and insufficient bedding without shelter, only to return after 
 the campaign strong and robust, and in a perfect state of health. 
 
 During the cowboy days many young men, reared in wealth and 
 affluence, went as physical weaklings to the western plains, and, 
 astride a broncho, followed a herd of cattle and endured the hard- 
 ships of camp life and simple diet until they were rewarded with 
 health and vigor of mind and body. 
 
 The very process of learning to be content with little to make one 
 comfortable and satisfied with extemporized substitutes cultivates a 
 mental and physical stoicism which, as a means of health, is hard to 
 overestimate. 
 
 We watch with interest a game of baseball or football on the hot- 
 test day of summer, and wonder how the participants can so ignore 
 the heat and enjoy such sport; such " roughing it" brings its reward 
 and produces physical athletes. 
 
 At a temperature of 110 degrees in the shade I watched a gang 
 of men working for hours and hours in the hot sun engaged in 
 laborious manual labor with pick and shovel. This acquired 
 physical resistance came "by roughing it," and the men were 
 healthy and happy. 
 
 A month after the earthquake of San Francisco, when a hundred 
 thousand people were in improvised tents and on plain, coarse food, 
 the health of that city was officially reported as being better than 
 at any time in its history. Neurasthenics who must have a cup 
 of coffee with snowflake crackers in bed before rising in the morn- 
 ing were, after one month of "roughing it," enjoying a breakfast 
 of onions and beans. 
 
 The health and vigor that rewarded the early settlers in the
 
 350 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 pioneer days of our country, when they were compelled to labor 
 hard, live simply, and have but little, also has its lesson. 
 
 To the thoughtful observer it is plain that our artificial methods 
 of living at the present time are not conducive to the highest de- 
 velopment of manhood and womanhood. 
 
 When education interferes with physical development, it strikes a 
 weakening blow at the quality of the brain plasm of the individual, 
 an element that must be kept at a high standard to attain the 
 best results in mind and body building. 
 
 It has often been observed that the most successful men in all 
 professions and in all lines of business in our large cities have 
 been, and are, those who were reared in the less populous towns 
 and rural districts, where those natural conditions of simple living, 
 fresh air, pure water and sunshine, quiet surroundings and whole- 
 some food, exercise and employment, furnished the environment 
 under which the highest standard of physical development could 
 be produced. Such conditions favored the growth and develop- 
 ment of a quality of brain plasm that manifested itself in the facility 
 with which the individual was enabled to withstand the arduous 
 duties and responsibilities amid the more complex environment 
 of city life. 
 
 The boy reared in the fields, well acquainted with the woods and 
 familiar with the chop ax and the wood pile, thought he was hav- 
 ing a hard time, but we know better now. 
 
 The country girl that rides horseback to school, carries a cold 
 lunch in a bucket, and grows up among the birds and flowers, with 
 cheeks painted by fresh air and sunshine, has a mental and physical 
 equipment for life that far surpasses the accomplishments of her 
 more delicately formed city sister. Let this be supplemented with 
 a liberal education, and she is prepared to withstand the exigencies 
 of life under any and all conditions. 
 
 Yes, ' ' said one physician, ' ' granting that all you say about the 
 value of physiological and mental therapeutics be true, if we put 
 the laity in possession of such knowledge, we physicians are likely 
 to be out of a job. ' ' 
 
 To entertain for one moment such a selfish idea or to give ex-
 
 ROUGHING IT AS A MEANS OF HEALTH. 351 
 
 pression to such sentiments is not in accord with the spirit that 
 actuates the leaders of our high and noble profession. 
 
 We are rapidly learning to appropriate every possible means of 
 maintaining a high degree of physical resistance in the cells of 
 the organism as a means of enabling it to withstand the stress and 
 strain of modern life. 
 
 The distance from the primitive life of our forefathers is too 
 short to suddenly abandon the habits whereby they developed muscle 
 and sinew. The most important factors in the maintenance of 
 health are not on sale in a drug store. An occasional return for 
 a short period to the primitive vocations toil, manual labor, hunt- 
 ing, and fishing in the places remote from the dust and noise of 
 the city exchanging the freedom of camp life, fresh air, and sun- 
 shine for the confinement of office and the responsibilities of busi- 
 ness, are being made every year by thousands of our American 
 physicians in the effort to maintain the highest degree of physical 
 resistance and mental efficiency, and we should never forget the 
 beneficence of such measures in prescribing for our patients.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 PERSONALITY AS A FACTOR IN THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 The personality of a physician is an important asset in the makeup 
 of his professional equipment. 
 
 The achievement of personality is the goal sought by every one 
 beginning the study of medicine, and everything pertaining to 
 inedical thought, colleges, books, hospitals, clinics, operations, 
 laboratories, dissecting rooms, class associates, quiz masters, in- 
 structors, and professors, all combined, furnish the environing 
 and educational factors which collectively go to convert the aspirant 
 into the type of genus 1/wmo known as a physician. 
 
 Aside from his scientific medical training, the personality of a 
 physician is the greatest factor in the makeup of his professional 
 armamentarium. So much so is this true that we often hear the 
 expression that "the physician is born, not made." Such an ex- 
 pression usually implies that there is an inner quality of person- 
 ality, which manifests itself in the dealing of a physician with his 
 patients, that does not exist equally in all men equally trained in 
 professional knowledge. There seems to be an inner spring or 
 quality of character that counts when such men are put to the test 
 in the office, or at the bedside, in daily intercourse with others, on 
 any and all occasions, which is a sine qua non to the successful 
 practice of medicine. 
 
 There is in every one a quality of personality that either attracts 
 or repels others. It is not necessarily an accompaniment of any 
 special type, or physique, or nervous organization. It is found in 
 men of small build and of neurotic type as well as in those that 
 are robust, phlegmatic, and heavy. Such men frequently make 
 serious blunders in their professional work, but still they hold the 
 people. 
 
 It has been a matter of personal experience, in my former work 
 among the medical profession, that I have frequently grasped the 
 
 352
 
 PERSONALITY AS A FACTOR IN THERAPEUTICS. 353 
 
 hand of a stranger and instantly felt that I had found a warm 
 personal friend before we had exchanged any more than a mere 
 formal greeting. On the other hand, I have frequently felt so 
 repulsed at the first glance of a physician that I refused to ac- 
 knowledge him as a man whom I wished to meet. 
 
 Upon one occasion I called upon a physician of high professional 
 attainment wht)se conduct, when I approached him, was discourte- 
 ous in the extreme. I looked him squarely in the face for a moment, 
 and extended my hand, saying, in a quiet monotone, "goodby, 
 Doctor." The effect of this upon him needs no comment. He 
 shook hands with me, but learned a lesson. In his reception room 
 he had but one patient, and that one appeared to be an old stand- 
 by. This was no surprise to me, for that physician had given me 
 a taste of his quality I never cared to see him again, and so it 
 was with his patients. 
 
 From this office I went to see another physician, in the same 
 specialty, who was courteous and human, really showing me more 
 deference than I felt that I deserved. He had won a high place 
 in the esteem of his colleagues by hard work in his home city, and 
 his office was full of patients. The treatment accorded a stranger 
 by that physician was a sample of the quality of the personality 
 of the man such a quality as the people liked and he is doing 
 a great work. 
 
 Invariably those of the medical profession who are competent 
 men, and who possess this happy streak of personality above illus- 
 trated, are making a success of their work. 
 
 A little display of those qualities typified by the great religious 
 reformer about two thousand years ago kindness, sincerity, sym- 
 pathy, earnestness, fearlessness, bravery, magnanimity, and al- 
 truism is an inestimable element in the personality of the physi- 
 cian. It helps to get control of people not by force and better 
 enables him to put them in possession of themselves. 
 
 Here is the clue to the explanation of that indefinable psychic 
 quality that the successful physician carries with him which 
 proves a power in therapeutics, and this is manifested all uncon- 
 sciously by him in every move of his life. It begets the confidence
 
 354 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 and trust of his patient, and the respect and co-operation that is a 
 most essential factor in the successful treatment of any disease. 
 
 Especially is this quality in the physician necessary in the treat- 
 ment of enlightened and self-respecting people. It begets a recipro- 
 cation of that respect which such people feel is due them. They 
 positively refuse to be driven, but it is only an evidence of their 
 high intelligence when they are willing to be led for their own good 
 by the skillful direction of a cultured, competent, conscientious 
 physician. 
 
 A sensible display of tact and diplomacy will often enable a 
 physician to win the confidence of a patient, and thus secure the 
 co-operation so essentially necessary for the best results, when being 
 too blunt and abrupt would render him utterly helpless. 
 
 To see one physician so manage a little fellow as to get him to 
 submit to the skillful dilatation and treatment of a suppurative 
 dacryocystitis with hardly a whimper by his firmness, and kindness, 
 and tactful persuasion, where another would become nervous and ex- 
 cited, and spend a much longer time in accomplishing this result, 
 his patient crying vehemently and suffering a needless amount of 
 pain on account of his resistance, is an illustration of what per- 
 sonality means in a certain class of work. 
 
 It is a great help to a physician to be able to get hold of people 
 and use them to help themselves to get well. We all help or 
 hinder the recovery of our patients, far more than many realize, by 
 the way we deal with them. "We unconsciously use suggestive thera- 
 peutics at every step in our routine work. 
 
 People buy goods of the merchant they like, the groceryman they 
 like, the dairyman they like. In all trades this personal factor 
 is taken into account. A dry goods clerk brings a better price be- 
 cause people like him he knows how to deal with people and to help 
 them to suit themselves in their purchases but more than in any 
 other department of life does the personality of the physician count 
 in helping people to get well. A patient can not get into your 
 office and walk out without your personality having made some 
 mark upon him. There are people in whose presence you are al- 
 ways at your very best, and for whom you can render the best pro- 
 fessional service.
 
 PERSONALITY AS A FACTOR IN THERAPEUTICS. 355 
 
 It is a recognized psychological law that we become like those 
 whom we habitually admire. Thus we become a part of all with 
 whom w r e have associated during our existence. In all of our ex- 
 perience with literature and personal association this law continu- 
 ally operates, so that all men are reproductions of other men. 
 
 In all sections of the country are neurologists who, from constant 
 association with a certain class of patients, seem to have become 
 the living embodiment of all the objectionable mental and phys- 
 ical characteristics of their patients. A patient who had twice 
 been to see a physician of that type remarked that he felt worse 
 after each visit, and did not care to return. 
 
 Another neurologist, who was himself the personification of 
 physical strength, mental vigor, and optimism, remarked to me that 
 he never felt as though he had done his duty unless he sent his 
 patient out of his office feeling better for having come to see him. 
 It is needless to remark that he is one of the most successful men 
 in his specialty in the profession today. 
 
 The reader will pardon me if I seem critical or personal in my 
 remarks in this chapter, but the importance of the subject at hand 
 is such that I should deem my effort futile did I not drive home 
 the point under consideration. Only my experience and the re- 
 sults obtained by careful observation of the personal factor in 
 therapeutics, and the encouragement of physicians who have also 
 personally tested these methods, give me the courage to express my 
 honest convictions at all hazards. 
 
 I fully realize that the hard knocks and criticism that may be 
 fired at me will only serve to educate the profession in the sane, 
 rational use of the measures advocated, and, if such be the case, 
 my efforts will not have been in vain. 
 
 It is a great thing to be able to make a hair-splitting diagnosis, 
 the correctness of which is infallible, and I shall unceasingly strive 
 to attain such proficiency. 
 
 It may also be a great satisfaction, and it is of unquestionable 
 benefit to the physician who can do it, to give a minute and de- 
 tailed delineation and description of the pathology of a disease to 
 the satisfaction of his professional associates, but such an elucida- 
 tion is never of value to the patient.
 
 356 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Physicians themselves become the easy victims of any disease as 
 soon as they become conscious of the seriousness and gravity of the 
 diagnosis rendered by their colleagues in attendance. Their very 
 knowledge of its etiology and pathology renders them unduly self- 
 conscious of their condition, and such a self -consciousness gives rise 
 to morbid mental states that inhibit the normal physiological proc- 
 esses, prevent sleep, and seriously retard recovery. 
 
 When I see a physician sick and a half dozen of his learned col- 
 leagues lined up around him, all rendering him more self-con- 
 scious of the seriousness of his condition, I wish that only one of 
 them had been called, and that he possessed those qualities of per- 
 sonality that, in spite of the physician's knowledge of pathology, 
 could drive back those existing morbid sense impressions, and sub- 
 stitute in their stead mental states that would enable him to put 
 up a more creditable fight. If the life of a physician is worth any- 
 thing, the end would justify the means. So, while giving due ap- 
 preciation to scientific professional knowledge and training in pa- 
 thology and diagnosis, what is of far greater importance is that we 
 so use our knowledge as to help our patients get well. 
 
 Every visit of the physician is an opportunity to help accomplish 
 such a result, and here is where the personality of the physician is 
 often detrimental or helpful to the recovery of the patient. The 
 very self-consciousness induced by a physician at his visits, and the 
 mental states which follow in consequence of such an induced self- 
 consciousness, are the deciding factors for the good or harm of the 
 patient. The influence of personality is contagious. We set up 
 mental states in others around our patients that prove helpful or 
 harmful in the sick-room. 
 
 Out in New Mexico a young man walked out of a physician's 
 office looking downcast and dejected, with lips tightly closed and 
 with jerky inspirations. "A lunger up against it good and hard," 
 is the way they refer to such patients out there. 
 
 That night I lectured to a class of physicians, and the next day 
 that patient went out of the same office with a smile on his face 
 and a bright, animated expression, having taken the first step to- 
 ward recovery, as the result of sense impressions or suggestions 
 strongly made upon his brain cortex by his physician. He ate
 
 PERSONALITY AS A FACTOR IN THERAPEUTICS. 357 
 
 more that day, slept well that night, and reported that he had 
 coughed but little, was not so nervous, had enjoyed his breakfast, 
 and felt stronger all because his physician had the personality to 
 exercise the egotism and altruism to look him squarely in the face 
 after his examination and say to him, "I have some good news to 
 tell you. You are much better today. Already a marked improve- 
 ment has taken place in your condition, but you will be very much 
 better by tomorrow. You will enjoy your food today, have a good 
 digestion, sleep well tonight, and improve every day from now on." 
 
 Physicians themselves frequently have invalid wives, whose in- 
 validism is maintained in consequence of the constant association 
 of a husband whose personality depresses them. The affection dis- 
 played by such men for their wives may be beautiful to contem- 
 plate, but the accompanying emotional, sentimental sympathy is 
 weakening in the extreme. 
 
 Reader, if you happen to be of that type of individual, get cured 
 of your miserable psychoneurotic disease, and don't live as a para- 
 site, infecting the lives of those with whom you associate. My pre- 
 scription for you is to associate and amalgamate with the wide- 
 awake element of the medical profession who constitute the upper 
 ten percent of our ranks. Sages, poets, and philosophers of all 
 ages have repeated this message to the world that men and women 
 make men and women. 
 
 If there be anything of value in these expressions, that I so 
 feebly echo here, they are but the reflex of impressions that as- 
 sociation with other personalities has left upon my cerebral cortex. 
 If the quality of my brain plasm were of higher standard, and my 
 previous environing and educational advantages had been more 
 propitious, my opportunities would have borne better fruit. 
 
 We all have our capacity, and, under equal opportunities, we 
 can react upon sense impressions or suggestions only in proportion 
 to our qualifications. 
 
 Whatever be our deficiencies as a result of heredity, environment, 
 and education, each of us can give our patients of our highest, 
 truest, and best self as an aid to their recovery. 
 
 Some men bring a reproach upon the profession on account of a 
 failure to exhibit those character qualities which alone constitute
 
 358 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 the highest type of professional personality and manhood. By the 
 correct use of your personality as a factor in therapeutics, you 
 help people to help themselves. 
 
 The fear that some physicians have that people will object to the 
 employment of these methods is a self-confessed weakness. They 
 are too proud to express a favorable opinion. Fear never ac- 
 complished anything for the good of the physician or his patient. 
 Some of the best friends I have in the world today are those made 
 in my efforts to get them to control themselves, who took my sug- 
 gestions given either consciously or subconsciously, and through 
 such aid learned to rely upon themselves. 
 
 In the employment of suggestion, both with and without hypno- 
 tism, you are only helping your patient to help himself. Yet, many 
 physicians will denounce and ridicule it, and go on filling neurotic 
 patients with such medicines as lessen in every way the patient's 
 self-reliance, making the patient absolutely dependent upon them. 
 
 A man who practices medicine in that way may make money, but 
 he also encourages the business of the undertaker. He can be ex- 
 cused only upon the ground of ignorance, and deserves to be placed 
 in the class of the quack and the charlatan.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 THE ABUSE OF PERSONALITY. 
 
 In order to make myself understood, I will give you an illustra- 
 tion of how personality is abused in the practice of medicine, and 
 the picture here presented is an apt illustration of the conduct of 
 many of the genera,! practitioners, who do not take into considera- 
 tion the psychological factor in therapeutics. 
 
 All observing individuals have noticed that in every locality 
 there are physicians who have more "very sick" patients in pro- 
 portion to their patronage than others. That the personality of 
 a physician is frequently the prime factor in producing these ' ' very 
 sick patients" is beyond question. 
 
 Here is an illustration of the usual conduct pursued by such men 
 in the treatment of an ordinary case of pneumonia, a disease in 
 which the correct use or abuse of the personality of the attending 
 physician, more than in any other acute disease, determines the 
 recovery or nonrecovery of a patient. 
 
 "Give this medicine very carefully, and watch her closely until 
 I see her again. I will call this evening." 
 
 True to his promise, he is punctual in fulfilling his appointment, 
 much to the satisfaction of the family, who anxiously await his 
 coming. During the day the sick mother has grown more nervous, 
 her temperature is higher, and her pulse rate is faster. She is 
 by this time overanxious about her condition, and this in turn has 
 made her family extremely anxious about her. 
 
 The physician has, by his conduct, demeanor, words, and action, 
 made a strong impression upon both patient and family, and the 
 fear that he has thus implanted into the minds of all in the house- 
 hold has kept up a depressing environing influence which has 
 got in its effective work upon the patient. 
 
 The lady in question is suffering with acute pneumonia. She 
 feels a decided pain upon breathing, experiences a sense of suffoca- 
 
 350
 
 360 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 tion, and the paroxysms of coughing have rendered her decidedly 
 conscious of her illness, and now the physician in whom she has 
 placed her trust has looked serious and given directions in a way 
 that speaks louder than words in unduly exciting her. Not one 
 word has he said to allay her anxiety, soothe her mind, assuage her 
 fears, or inspire hope. 
 
 Upon his second examination he finds his patient decidedly worse, 
 as might have been expected, and now he is serious sure enough. 
 His fatalities in the treatment of pneumonia have been particularly 
 , large, and he much dreads this disease ; and, seeing his patient 
 with a higher fever, a more rapid pulse, flushed face, more anxious 
 expression, and remembering his past record with such cases, he 
 makes no effort to conceal his gloomy forebodings. 
 
 Again giving directions for the night, he starts for his convey- 
 ance, and when out in the hall the members of the anxious family, 
 who have followed him, turn with pleading faces and inquire, 
 "Doctor, how is mother?" 
 
 "Very sick, very sick," is his reply. "Watch her carefully to- 
 night. Keep the house as quiet as possible, and, if she^ should get 
 worse before morning, be sure to call me." 
 
 Before the next day he has been called, for his patient has been 
 unable to sleep, and from his point of view a hypodermic of 
 morphin is decidedly indicated. 
 
 On and on this management goes, and if finally his patient re- 
 covers after two weeks of severe illness, which she might possibly 
 have done in spite of her physician, that family is grateful to God 
 and the doctor for having "pulled her through." 
 
 I remember once going to see a lady about fifty-five years old, 
 with acute pneumonia, a decided congestion of the lower lobe of 
 the right lung, and, after carefully making out my diagnosis and 
 prescribing for her medicinally, I turned to the patient and gave 
 her a talk about as follows: "You have pneumonia, Mrs. Blank, 
 but only a mild case ; temperature only 103.5 F., but a good pulse, 
 and everything is favorable to a nice recovery. You are in pain, 
 but a hot poultice I have ordered will relieve tha't very promptly. 
 You will soon get comfortable and will rest well tonight, and be 
 feeling much better tomorrow when I see you again. Now, be pa-
 
 THE ABUSE OF PERSONALITY. 361 
 
 tient, and in from seven to ten days you will be well. The medicine 
 prescribed for you will keep you comfortable, strengthen your heart, 
 keep your nerves quiet, steady, and strong, and all will be well with 
 you." 
 
 With tears of gratitude in her eyes, she answered, "Oh, Doctor, 
 you make me feel like I am well already. I feared that I had pneu- 
 monia and felt that I never would get well." 
 
 "You are going to get well all right," said I, "going along nicely 
 to recovery. Your daughter will have entire charge of your medi- 
 cines, and knows just what I want you to have in the way of 
 nourishment. After the hot poultice is applied you close your eyes 
 and go to sleep, you will rest nicely, and feel much better when I 
 see you tomorrow." 
 
 Upon my return the next day she smiled pleasantly as I entered 
 and bade her good-morning, and when I felt her pulse and remarked, 
 "You are better," she answered, "I feel much better, Doctor." 
 
 "Going right along to recovery, madam. Now, I shall see you day 
 after tomorrow." 
 
 ' ' See her every day if you think best, Doctor, ' ' exclaimed her son. 
 "We want mother to be well real soon." 
 
 "I can't trust everybody as I can you, so I will not come tomor- 
 row unless you call me. She is going to do well. Keep out all 
 visitors, continue all directions, and I will see her again day after 
 tomorrow. ' ' 
 
 I saw that patient only twice more, and at the last visit assured 
 her that it was a pleasure to come into her pleasant family, but 
 that I was going to turn her over to the entire charge of Mrs. 
 Blank, her daughter. 
 
 "If you feel it necessary to consult me again, just whistle and I 
 will come." 
 
 In about seven more days the son came to know if his mother had 
 better have a tonic ; he said she had had no fever for three or four 
 days and was entirely well. Her lung cleared up upon the ninth 
 day of her disease. 
 
 I do not mean to say that all pneumonia cases should be seen 
 only four times. In fact, a daily visit or two is indicated in most 
 cases, but the case in question serves to illustrate the part that the
 
 362 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 psychological factor plays in an ordinary case of illness. Many 
 people die who would get well if given a chance to allow their pro- 
 toplasmic energies to assert themselves. 
 
 Out in California I was invited by a physician to go with him on 
 his rounds through the county hospital. Six pneumonia patients 
 were in one of the wards, four of them old men. The majority of 
 these were chronic alcoholics, and only one was delirious or ap- 
 peared seriously ill. 
 
 "But one death from pneumonia in five years in this hospital," 
 was the physician's record up to that time. 
 
 ' ' How do you treat them ? " I inquired. 
 
 "Keep them comfortable, give them hospital tea (sweet milk), and 
 let them have Old Frank to keep them feeling good." "Old 
 Frank," as the hospital physician styled the genial German superin- 
 tendent, carried sunshine and good cheer into those wards at least 
 twice a day. He had then been in his place for seventeen years, 
 and the therapeutic value of his personality to that institution would 
 be hard to estimate. He knows how to get the confidence of men 
 and women, and how to keep them feeling good when they are sick. 
 Many a poor tramp, who has seen only the rough side of life, has 
 felt soothed by his kindness, and buoyed up to recovery by his opti- 
 mism, while being controlled by his firmness. 
 
 There is no other disease in which the influence brought to bear 
 upon the mind of the patient so determines the recovery or nonre- 
 covery as pneumonia. It is a self-limited disease, and those influ- 
 ences which soothe the mind and quiet the nervous system bring 
 about a complete re-establishment of the nervous equilibrium, allow- 
 ing the blood to circulate normally through the peripheral blood 
 vessels of the body, and thus relieve the tension or high pressure 
 upon the heart and inflamed lung, with its fatal termination to 
 pneumonia patients. 
 
 One of Old Frank 's characteristics is kindness, which is encourag- 
 ing in contradistinction to sympathy, which is depressing and weak- 
 ening. 
 
 There is more or less mental depression in all pneumonia patients, 
 as the individual is rendered painfully conscious of his helpless- 
 ness. This results in fear, and such sufferers enjoy sympathy as
 
 THE ABUSE OF PERSONALITY. 363 
 
 they enjoy morphin, which inhibits the normal physiological proc- 
 esses and stealthily lessens their resistive powers to the disease. 
 No worse influence can be exerted over the patient than the presence 
 of a highly emotional person, who lavishly pours out sympathy to 
 the destruction of all the optimistic and strengthening qualities of 
 mind and body. So great are the influences brought to bear by the 
 mind over the physiological processes of the body that a physician 
 who unconsciously uses the power of suggestion to the detriment of 
 his patient actually makes a very serious condition out of a trivial 
 disorder. On the other hand, by the intelligent and judicious use 
 of suggestion we can make a very trivial disorder out of a seem- 
 ingly serious pathological condition, so far as the results are con- 
 cerned. 
 
 The injury done to the unsuspecting public by physicians who 
 are ignorant of the use and power of suggestion is far greater than 
 is commonly supposed. Whole communities have become fear- 
 stricken by the exaggerated serious reports of this class of phy- 
 sicians, who frequently ride day and night to see the victims of 
 their perverted influence. Their very influence in the community 
 in which they live spreads like a contagious disease, emanating from 
 a focus, which stealthily moves among them, reaping financial re- 
 ward for their indiscretions. 
 
 "Very sick, very sick," is their watchword as they implant fear 
 in their trail. 
 
 While the laity are being properly educated in the necessity of 
 self-protection from the contagiousness of tuberculous disease, ma- 
 larial and yellow fever carriers, and other infections, for the safety 
 of their own lives they should also be protected from that pest to 
 any community the physician who unduly exaggerates the condi- 
 tion of his patients by reporting all cases as being seriously ill.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 ENVIRONMENT ITS INFLUENCE IN THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Only the practical aspects of this subject remain to be considered. 
 A physician in general practice must not only treat his patient, 
 but be in absolute control of the environing influence brought 
 to bear upon him as well, in order to secure the best results. 
 
 The sick-room, especially in the small towns and rural districts, 
 is often the meeting place for gossipers, who unconsciously exer- 
 cise a great influence upon the patient, frequently preventing re- 
 covery in an otherwise curable disease. 
 
 To say nothing of the value of quiet, rest, and sleep, which are 
 hindered by this procedure, the discussion of other cases of a simi- 
 lar kind that have terminated unfavorably and which had come 
 within the experience of the visitor, or remarks relating to the 
 procedures of another physician whose methods are different from 
 your own, all exercise an unconscious influence that makes the pa- 
 tient nervous, excites fear, and proves destructive to that confi- 
 dential relation which should exist between patient and physician. 
 
 The physician who is timid and allows this state of affairs to 
 exist, to the detriment of his patient, is jeopardizing his profes- 
 sional reputation. 
 
 A loud-mouthed, self-assertive woman, who is the unconscious 
 drummer for a competitor, is to be found in every locality. Seeing 
 the harmful influence of such an individual upon a patient with a 
 continued illness, the simple instruction to "admit no visitors" is 
 usually sufficient; but the madam in question is not always re- 
 pulsed so easily, as she unduly exaggerates the importance of her 
 presence to the welfare of the sufferer, and enforces her entrance 
 in spite of your injunction, which she considers does not apply to 
 her. 
 
 My own custom has been, under such conditions, to give my pa- 
 
 364
 
 ENVIRONMENT ITS INFLUENCE IN THERAPEUTICS. 365 
 
 tient or his family the choice between my services and those of this 
 unfriendly visitor. 
 
 Useless antagonism, however, never pays upon any occasion, but, 
 where the welfare of your patient is at stake, people will appre- 
 ciate any stand that you take in his behalf. "Do what's right, 
 come what may," is a safe rule under any and all circumstances, 
 and the self-respecting physician should exercise the courage and 
 self-assertiveness to face these problems and leave no stone un- 
 turned that might retard the recovery of his patients. The suc- 
 cessful men in the medical profession are those who have the 
 stamina to stand by their convictions and allow no intervening med- 
 dler to poison the environment of the sick-room. 
 
 In a large class of cases it is absolutely impossible to obtain suc- 
 cessful results in private practice on account of our inability to 
 secure the right environment, and here is where sanatorium and 
 hospital facilities give the physician a wonderful advantage. In 
 such places the environment is absolutely under his control and 
 direction. 
 
 We should, however, as far as possible, overrule any factor in 
 private practice that will in any way set up an undesirable mental 
 attitude on the part of the patient in regard to his own condition, 
 or that will create mental states that are injurious; for mental 
 states influence metabolism, and encourage or retard all the normal 
 physiological processes, and wonderfully help or woefully hinder the 
 recovery of your patient. 
 
 In all classes of professional work there is a fine art in adapt- 
 ing one's self to whatever environment one may be thrown into, 
 and in maintaining that prestige which the successful physician 
 must never surrender. When to be dictatorial, when to coerce, 
 when to be lenient and kind, and when even to soothe and palliate 
 by your presence, and at the same time be in absolute control of 
 the situation, are all important considerations in the successful 
 practice of medicine. 
 
 People sometimes need to be aroused and lifted out of mental 
 states which prove to be adverse to their recovery, and new ones 
 substituted in their place ; and this applies not only to the patient, 
 but to every one coming into his or her presence. It is our duty,
 
 366 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 as physicians, to create an environment wherever our patients are 
 to be found that will help to make them get well. 
 
 To illustrate, here is a patient sick with pneumonia, a disease 
 that frightens the majority of people. On my second visit I find 
 the family and others in attendance depressed and down-hearted, 
 which, of course, renders the patient morbidly conscious of his con- 
 dition. It is evident to me that I must alter that environment and 
 re-establish hope in my patient, or the outlook is very grave. Do 
 I send for a consultant? Not unless it is a baby less than two 
 years old. "What I do is to look every member of that family 
 squarely in the face, and kindly but positively tell them, and also 
 the patient, that he is going to get well. I have frequently em- 
 phasized that suggestion, and assured the patient that I had seen 
 a hundred people ten times sicker than he with pneumonia, and 
 every one of them recovered. 
 
 Then, getting close to him, with my hand on his head, I quietly 
 and calmly assure him that I have never treated a pneumonia pa- 
 tient above two years old who did not get well, with the single 
 exception of one old man who had a bilateral pleuropneumonia, 
 with an enormous effusion, and I tell the truth. 
 
 I leave that home with a newly created helpful environment as 
 a therapeutic resource, and under such conditions my patient is 
 
 
 
 enabled to relax and to proceed with a consciousness that gives rise 
 to mental states favorable to his recovery. 
 
 Do I depend alone upon the psychologic factors thus set in opera- 
 tion? No, I give my patient the benefit of every other possible 
 therapeutic adjunct, from the application of a brick heated to a 
 red heat and placed in boiling water, and allowed to remain therein 
 until all simmering ceases, wrapped in a woolen cloth, and the moist 
 heat confined by a blanket to the diseased lung, or a cornmeal and 
 mustard poultice, renewed and applied hot every hour or two, or 
 an icebag in their stead, to the use of all other measures, medicinal, 
 dietetic, and hygienic. 
 
 The hot brick, taken out of boiling water, has a weighty psycho- 
 logical significance aside from being an excellent vehicle to retain 
 heat and moisture, which it gradually liberates to the great comfort 
 of the sufferer. I do not hesitate to tell both my patient and his 

 
 ENVIRONMENT ITS INFLUENCE IN THERAPEUTICS. 367 
 
 family that this hot brick relieves the pain, relaxes the patient all 
 over, and causes the blood to circulate more freely to the periphery, 
 and thus relieves the lung of its congestion and inflammation, re- 
 duces his temperature, enables him to sleep, and helps to make him 
 a well man. I tell him in perfect candor and truthfulness that I 
 have never known a patient who has used the hot brick heated to a 
 white heat, and then taken out of boiling water and applied as in- 
 dicated, to fail to recover. 
 
 Is the point clear? I am using that hot brick as a means of 
 suggestion. Aside from the therapeutic value of heat and moisture, 
 this harmless palliative resource is used to substitute sense impres- 
 sions that are pleasant and comfortable in the place of existing 
 ones that are distressing. This enables my oral suggestion, strongly 
 and emphatically driven in upon his consciousness, to call myriads 
 of living cells in his organism into helpful, useful, and active 
 service. 
 
 In a crisis like this the entire picture of the disease is changed by 
 the personality of the physician.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 THE BRUTALITY OF FRANKNESS. 
 
 Honesty Imperative. A physician who fully appreciates the in- 
 fluence exerted by suggestion upon the mind, and the influence 
 exerted by the mind over the physiological processes of the body, 
 will habitually give a more favorable prognosis than the one who 
 does not appreciate the potency of such measures. 
 
 Every physician who has successfully practiced medicine for a 
 few years has observed instances where the family of a sick mem- 
 ber, upon becoming aware of the attending physician's grave prog- 
 nosis, has insisted upon having a consultant, who, upon his advent 
 in the sick-room, has taken a more hopeful view of the patient's 
 chances for recovery, and at once a marked improvement has be- 
 gun, which has not abated until complete restoration to health has 
 been secured. 
 
 A medical man in the West related this experience: He was 
 once called to see an Indian chief, seriously ill with an acute double 
 lobar pneumonia, with high fever and severe pain. After a careful 
 examination he frankly and honestly made it known to the family 
 of the sick warrior that in his opinion he could not get well and 
 would have to die. The brave old chief did not so easily take his 
 suggestion to die, and he refused to accept the physician 's services, 
 continuing to take a well-known Indian remedy to render him less 
 conscious of his suffering, and, while surrounded by weird noises 
 and dances, and other savage ceremonies, the recuperative powers 
 of the cells of his organism were allowed to assert themselves, and 
 he made a safe recovery. 
 
 To this day that tribe of Indians refuses to accept the services 
 of physicians, having had the strong conviction implanted that the 
 white man's medicine is unreliable. 
 
 A gentleman of my acquaintance was sick for many months with 
 chronic interstitial nephritis, probably of alcoholic origin, and a 
 
 368
 
 BRUTALITY OP FRANKNESS. 369 
 
 competent pathologist found large quantities of tube casts in his 
 urine, which bore a large percentage of albumin, and with his 
 report gave his opinion that the prognosis was grave. His attend- 
 ing physician and also a consultant gave him no encouragement 
 He was persuaded to take an infusion of some kind prepared by 
 an illiterate farmer who was strongly convinced that this would 
 effect a cure. 
 
 His physicians allowed the harmless experiment, to satisfy his 
 patient, who was eager to try anything that offered a possibility 
 of recovery. With every dose of the infusion, however, he became 
 more influenced by the farmer's conviction of his recovery, and he 
 began to improve from the time he commenced the remedy until 
 within a year was able to attend to business. All cases of degen- 
 erative kidney disease are not necessarily fatal, but he was steadily 
 growing weaker all the while until he began the farmer's prescrip- 
 tion, which probably benefited him more through its psychic influ- 
 ence than otherwise. 
 
 I was called some years ago in consultation to see a little boy 
 ten years of age, possibly infected with malaria at first, but he also 
 had a subacute gastroenterocolitis. He had been sick for nearly 
 two weeks, was still having frequent watery, mucous discharges 
 from his bowels, and had for thirty-six hours vomited everything 
 taken into his stomach. He had a pulse of 150; temperature, 
 100.5 F. ; pale, weak, and anemic. His physician had given him 
 the standard medicinal remedies, as recommended by our best au- 
 thorities on children's diseases, and the child was constantly grow- 
 ing weaker. He had notified the family that the outlook was grave, 
 and was quite willing to adopt any suggestions that I might offer. 
 
 I indorsed all his measures, but suggested that they be discon- 
 tinued on the grounds that the results did not warrant their further 
 use. He was anxious for me to share the responsibility of the 
 situation, and readily consented that only % grain of calomel be 
 given every hour while the patient was awake. 
 
 Sitting by the bedside, I dipped my fingers into a bowl of ice 
 water and began to gently stroke the little sufferer's forehead. I 
 was alone with him at the time, while the attending physician was 
 out of the room with his mother, giving orders for the day. By
 
 370 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 the time they returned to the sick-room I had suggested the patient 
 into a refreshing sleep, and had also given him other suggestions 
 appropriate to his condition. That he should be asleep was some- 
 what of a surprise to his mother, whose anxiety and nervousness 
 had served to keep him from doing as well as he would possibly 
 have done had she been more self-composed. 
 
 "Will you do me the favor, Mrs. Blank, to take that bowl away 
 from the bedside, and remove all towels from the bed also?" I 
 asked. 
 
 "Why, Doctor, the child would vomit all over his bed and also 
 on my floor," responded she. 
 
 "Madam, take the bowl away, and cover your floor and his bed 
 with newspapers, and, if he vomits one time, put them back. He 
 will rest well today and sleep most of the time. You will have 
 to awaken him to give the tablets, but that will quiet his stomach 
 and keep him from vomiting again. Keep the room absolutely 
 quiet, allowing no conversation at all to disturb him. Allow him 
 to drink all the water he wishes when you give the tablet, to quiet 
 his stomach and make him sleep. He will want some chicken and 
 barley broth tomorrow, and, if Doctor Blank says so, I think he will 
 enjoy it. ' ' 
 
 The mother looked queer, but removed the bowl and towels. I 
 also requested her to tell him to go to sleep when she gave the 
 tablets. 
 
 The little patient rested well that night, and when we returned 
 the next day his face brightened and he smiled as he bade us good- 
 morning. 
 
 "Oh, he is so much better," exclaimed his mother, "and he is 
 begging for something to eat." He improved every day and went 
 on to recovery in due time. 
 
 Every word spoken by me to that mother while the child was 
 asleep was a suggestion, an indirect suggestion, which is always the 
 most powerful kind. 
 
 Even a child four years old appreciates sense impressions, or 
 suggestions made upon his brain cortex, far more than is realized by 
 people and physicians in general. A little boy of my knowledge, 
 four years of age, was sick with an acute capillary bronchitis, and
 
 BRUTALITY OP FRANKNESS. 371 
 
 his father, who was a physician, felt very much concerned about 
 his condition. 
 
 His mother, as was her custom, at bedtime began to have him 
 recite his infant's prayer, and after her the child repeated: "Now 
 I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, if I 
 should ' there he began to have a paroxysm of coughing, and 
 when he could speak again he said, "Mamma, mamma, I don't 
 want to say any dying prayer I want to say a living prayer, like 
 that papa told you." 
 
 The substitute for the standard orthodox style of prayer had 
 been learned from one of the current journals, and went as follows : 
 
 "Now I lay me down to sleep, 
 I know the Lord my soul shall keep, 
 And I shall wake to see the light, 
 For God is with me all the night." 
 
 To satisfy the child and his mother, the father said, "Yes, my 
 boy, we don 't want a dying prayer at least not when we are sick, ' ' 
 and he repeated the substitute, the child saying it after him, and 
 then went quietly to sleep. 
 
 If an ignorant Indian chief, that child of the plains, and a little 
 four-year-old boy can appreciate a living prognosis and a living 
 prayer, so are all men and women influenced by sense impressions 
 or suggestions that a gloomy prognosis produces, with its weaken- 
 ing, paralyzing, inhibitory influence to all the nerve centers. 
 
 It is a physician's duty, first, last, and all the time, to do that 
 which will help the patient get well. 
 
 There are many instances where, in a case of extreme illness, the 
 only help that can be given a patient is to inspire him with hope, 
 encouragement, and optimism, allaying his fears, and bringing 
 about those conditions necessary for the physiological processes to 
 accomplish the work of restoring the patient to health. 
 
 By the influence exerted upon the mind we encourage all the 
 physiological processes, and thus, through them, convert potential 
 energy into dynamic energy. We help the cells of the body to 
 accomplish their work of fighting the etiological factors of disease, 
 whether due to pathogenic germs or to other factors. 
 
 Physicians have frequently reminded me, in discussing this phase
 
 372 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 of our subject, that they have repeatedly witnessed a rapid lessen^ 
 ing of the resistive powers and speedy death as soon as they ren- 
 dered an unfavorable prognosis, given frankly and honestly in 
 response to the question, "Doctor, do you think I am going to get 
 well?" 
 
 If a patient who is extremely ill has important business matters 
 in mind that are worrying him, let them be arranged to his satis- 
 faction upon the ground that it will help him get well. 
 
 To such questions as, "Am I going to die?" you can evade a 
 direct answer by giving one that will be perfectly satisfactory to 
 your patient, and at the same time will create sense impressions 
 that will set up a different line of thought. 
 
 I prefer to so impress my patient that such an idea will never 
 come into his mind, and also to engage the services of every mem- 
 ber of his family to help me to accomplish this result, while on the 
 outside I take them into my confidence and express my opinion to 
 them honestly and frankly. 
 
 Even in a case of acute multiple neuritis, with high fever, in- 
 tense pain, hyperesthesia, and great tenderness, in which the dis- 
 ease reached its height in ten or twelve days, I was enabled to 
 maintain a mental stoicism that was remarkable, and at the time 
 of the patient's most distressing symptoms he repeated to me the 
 suggestion that I had so often iterated to him. I had so often said 
 to him, "You will get better," that he began to ask for the sug- 
 gestion by saying, "I will get better, won't 1^ Doctor?" It was 
 some months before he was able to go about on crutches, but I 
 never let him get away from the conviction of recovery. 
 
 At the time of the Galveston flood an unfortunate man was 
 picked up perfectly helpless, in a half-drowned, wounded condi- 
 tion, and for six months lay in bed wearing a plaster cast for a 
 severe injury to his spine. Two years later he was hobbling on 
 crutches, which he had been using for many months, but he was 
 unable to get his hands to the floor and rise again without support. 
 He was in constant pain, had numerous functional disturbances, 
 insomnia, indigestion, frequent movements from his bowels, head- 
 aches, etc. 
 
 "When I saw him I felt that possibly his nervous system was
 
 BRUTALITY OF FRANKNESS. 373 
 
 retaining impressions after the results of the physical injury which 
 caused his pain, disturbances of locomotion, and other symptoms 
 had been removed ; and, at the request of his physician, I gave him 
 three suggestive treatments, using hypnotism as a means to secure 
 the most effective results. 
 
 All his symptoms were relieved, including his indigestion and 
 bowel complications, after three or four treatments; he put aside 
 his crutches, and a week after the last treatment was comfortable 
 and happy. 
 
 In all classes of practice the therapeutic value of suggestions, 
 strongly put into the brain plasm of your patient, will help him to 
 get well where recovery is possible. 
 
 In some classes of work all that a physician can accomplish for 
 the patient is to help him endure his physical disabilities. This 
 includes such cases as where the organic structure of the nerve cells 
 is involved, atrophic changes have taken place in the spinal cord 
 or any other parts of the motor nervous system, as well as inop- 
 erable pathological conditions, resulting from malignant disease, 
 tuberculosis, and all such cases as are beyond the pale of recovery. 
 
 Even in these cases, however, we can use suggestive measures to 
 enable the patient to better endure his sufferings, and do so with- 
 out the aid of hypnotism, much to the comfort of both the patient 
 and his family. 
 
 In two cases of malignant disease in one case of the uterus and 
 in another of the stomach occurring in two people above the age 
 of sixty, I kept them each so cheered by constantly holding before 
 their attention a contemplation of their past lives, which had been 
 filled with usefulness, of duty done and successful achievement in 
 their own humble way, and so pointed out the moral heroism that 
 they were displaying and the value of such an example of cheerful- 
 ness and optimism, that they were enabled to meet that sweetest 
 and most welcome of all relievers of pain and suffering under such 
 existing conditions, death, with hardly a word of complaint. 
 
 If our patients have sufficient recuperative powers to give even 
 the slightest hope of recovery, let us strengthen that hope and help 
 them get well. 
 
 If they are ill with incurable diseases, we should help them to
 
 374 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 endure their suffering, all the while working for their recovery 
 even without the slightest ray of hope to encourage us. Thousands 
 and thousands of such efforts have been rewarded by the recovery 
 of apparently incurable patients. 
 
 A million years of advancement and progress will not have ren- 
 dered our most expert diagnosticians sufficiently competent to prog- 
 nosticate with infallibility, in all cases, against the determined and 
 persistent effort of the truly alive physician who will stand up, 
 with all odds against him, and fight for the recovery of his patient 
 with every available therapeutic resource. 
 
 Absolute honesty and sincerity, under all circumstances, are im- 
 perative to the self-respecting physician, but the weakening, par- 
 alyzing, discouraging frankness of the pessimist is brutal.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 MORAL STAMINA A THERAPEUTIC POWER. 
 
 As we learn to discriminate between people of other classes pre- 
 sumably of like character and qualities, so do we also with phy- 
 sicians. There are among medical men some who, in the true sense 
 of the word, are not physicians at all. Here is a type of the latter 
 class. One day, in speaking of the importance of the psychological 
 factor in therapeutics with a physician, he said, "Well, there may 
 be something in that; for not long since I had a patient who lay 
 in bed a little over three months, and I could not find a thing the 
 matter with her, but I have never tried to exercise any influence 
 over my patients in any way. They expect medicine, and I give 
 it to them, and let them use their own minds to suit themselves. 
 I am not in the profession for my health, and a man is liable to 
 lose out with his patients by being too dictatorial." 
 
 ' ' How often did you see her, Doctor ? ' ' 
 
 "Twice a day." 
 
 "And you let her stay in bed three months, saw her twice a day, 
 and did not even tell her that there was no reason for her staying 
 in bed, and advise that she get up and move about, take exercise, 
 get fresh air, and take an interest in the affairs of life, both as a 
 means of happiness and for her physical well-being ? ' ' 
 
 "No; she was a very sensitive woman, and I hated to hurt her 
 feelings," he replied. 
 
 "What was your bill in that case, Doctor?" 
 
 "Four hundred and eighty dollars." 
 
 "And you are not afraid to hurt her feelings with that sized 
 bill?" 
 
 ' ' Oh, no ; she was quite well satisfied and paid it without a mur- 
 mur. ' ' 
 
 "Why, Doctor, if I saw no reason for that woman staying in 
 
 375
 
 376 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 bed and having me visit her twice a day, I would as lief take money 
 off a dead man 's eyes as receive pay for such work. ' ' 
 
 "That is just the difference between us," said he. 
 
 And it was. And this illustrates a type of men everywhere who 
 call themselves physicians. 
 
 Some physicians are actually convinced that they have done their 
 duty when they have been kind, sympathetic, and attentive to their 
 patients and prescribed for them medicinally. Since their patients 
 are satisfied, they seem to feel that they have done their whole duty. 
 So long as there is money in "the case, the recovery of the patient 
 does not seem to concern them. 
 
 The absolute lack of moral courage displayed by this class of 
 doctors, who upon the surface give the appearance of being honest 
 and conscientious professional gentlemen, is horrible to contemplate. 
 They use narcotics freely, even when contraindicated, inhibiting 
 the normal physiological processes, robbing their patients of self- 
 reliance, rendering them absolutely dependent upon the physician, 
 lessening in every way their resistive powers, and actually retard- 
 ing recovery. We all have seen such men, who, in the spirit of 
 cold commercialism, impress by word and conduct on their patients 
 that they are very sick, when this attitude on the physician's part 
 has proved to be a great causative factor in the case. Their pa- 
 tients, after a long illness, consider that their physician, in having 
 impressed on them that such would be the case, has only displayed 
 his knowledge and good judgment, whereas, in fact, this man in 
 whom they have trusted has really been the greatest causative 
 factor in the case. 
 
 Some physicians acquire a high reputation by giving a gloomy 
 prognosis, thereby instilling fear into the minds of both patients 
 and friends, bringing to bear upon them all the psychological con- 
 ditions possible to depress them and hypnotize them into a long 
 siege of illness. The power and efficacy of suggestion in the cause 
 and cure of disease are but faintly appreciated by one in a thou- 
 sand of the people of our time ; hence their easy gullibility by such 
 men. The student of psychotherapeutics can discern this class of 
 physicians everywhere, who often stand high in the medical pro- 
 fession.
 
 MORAL STAMINA A THERAPEUTIC POWER. 377 
 
 If I were to use the simile that I had in my employ a servant 
 ever able and willing to obey my directions to have everything in 
 the house just as I wanted it, you could form some idea of the 
 poweu of the great involuntary nervous system in its control over 
 the bodily functions. We influence this involuntary nervous sys- 
 tem by the sense impressions we make upon the brain plasm of 
 the patient whenever we come into his or her presence. 
 
 Fully nine-tenths of an individual's psychic powers or proto- 
 plasmic energies are subconscious that is, he, the intellectual man, 
 is unconscious of them. These we can influence for the good or 
 harm of our patient. The physician who shakes his head, and gives 
 a high-sounding name of the disease, often fastens the condition 
 stronger upon his patient by adding a psychoneurotic element when 
 there is no pathological basis for the condition named. 
 
 A lady of my acquaintance had been sick for several months, and 
 her physician took with him to see her a consultant who appre- 
 ciated the psychic element in therapeutics. Together in the con- 
 sulting room they discussed this case. 
 
 1 ' What is the matter with her, Doctor ? ' ' 
 
 "Just weak and nervous, can't sleep, does not eat, discouraged, 
 and getting worse every day." 
 
 The consulting physician quickly saw that the attending phy- 
 sician was the most aggravating causative factor in this case. 
 
 ' ' Why does not she get better ? ' ' said he to the consultant. 
 
 "Because you don't talk and act right." 
 
 "What must I do and how should I talk?" 
 
 "Why, give her a sleeping capsule, and tell her that you are 
 going to give her a good night's sleep. Then turn to the nurse 
 and say, 'Give one of these sleeping capsules at eight o'clock, and, 
 if she is not sleeping soundly by nine, give her another, but in no 
 event give her more than two she will sleep soundly all night.' 
 Say it as if you meant it. Say it as if you had not the slightest 
 doubt about it. Then, turning to the patient, say, 'You are 
 going to sleep well tonight and will feel much better in the morn- 
 ing.' 
 
 "When you come to see her tomorrow, smile pleasantly as you 
 walk into the room and, as you bid her good-morning, take her
 
 378 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 hand, and, feeling her pulse, affirm, 'You are better.' Tell her she 
 will improve every day now. Say to her, 'You will enjoy your 
 food today and not be nervous, and will feel much stronger; you 
 are going to get well; going right along to recovery.' Keep this 
 up as you see her at every visit. Getting in behind a neurasthenic 
 case like this, with all the bodily functions perverted, you can stir 
 latent energies and stimulate nervous centers into activity, and be 
 a factor for good." 
 
 The physician did so and his patient was soon well. 
 
 Too many physicians are nothing more than slaves to their own 
 desires. They see in their patient's illness a chance to make money. 
 They feel that they have done their duty when they have prescribed 
 for them in a perfunctory manner, and, putting their reliance solely 
 in drugs, they overlook entirely the psychologic factor in thera- 
 peutics. They even tell their patients that they are seriously sick, 
 purely for personal aggrandizement. 
 
 The result is undue nervousness, overanxiety, sleeplessness, per- 
 verted functions, and constant progress from bad to worse. These 
 symptoms they attempt to relieve by narcotics. They enter the sick 
 room in this indifferent, half-hearted, selfish manner, and their 
 efforts are worse than useless. 
 
 See in your patient potentialities that are susceptible to external 
 stimuli, and regard something besides the physical manifestation of 
 the individual. Treat the man himself, the intelligent organized 
 force call this mind, soul, or spirit that functionates in perfect 
 correlation with the neuron elements, and stir them to renew, ener- 
 gize, vitalize, and strengthen every part of his physical organism. 
 
 What do we stir ? Call it what you will let it be the ' ' vis medi- 
 catrix naturas," the "resident energy within," "neuric energy," 
 the "subconscious self," the "involuntary nervous system," the 
 "psychic man," "spirit," "mind," or "soul" the name matters 
 not. This fact is true man has within him reserve energy that 
 can be stirred into activity. By suggestion the physiological proc- 
 esses of the body can be influenced for his good. We can produce 
 such impressions upon his brain plasm as will quiet nervousness, 
 relieve pain, promote sleep, and, acting thus, we can conserve his 
 energy, resulting in a better appetite, better digestion, and im-
 
 MORAL STAMINA A THERAPEUTIC POWER. 379 
 
 proved nutrition. "We thus re-establish all the perverted physio- 
 logical processes. By this means you can get your patient well 
 when drugs and other remedial agents absolutely fail. If medi- 
 cine or surgery is indicated, by all means use it. 
 
 The great trouble is that many of the men in our profession are 
 ignorant of the potency of the psychologic factor as a therapeutic 
 adjunct. Some who have had a glimpse of these latent possibili- 
 ties lack the moral stamina to boldly take hold and do their part. 
 I know men who would face a cannon absolutely devoid of physical 
 fear, yet too timid and half-hearted in the sick-room to do more 
 than give drugs, nine-tenths of which are worse than useless in 
 this class of functional and neuropathic conditions. 
 
 Many of these sick people need a good, sound, intellectual flog- 
 ging. They need to be told that they alone are to blame for their 
 condition. Let them know that health is a natural condition and 
 comes to every one who conforms to nature's laws, which they are 
 continually violating every day of their lives. 
 
 Emerson has well said: "Man may boast that he can violate 
 the laws of nature and maintain health ; the lie is on his lips, the 
 conditions on his soul." 
 
 Let your patient know that to maintain health he must conform 
 to the laws of health. Get hold of him and put him in possession 
 of himself. Urge him to take into his system plenty of nature's 
 healthful beverage, pure water, to eliminate impurities from his 
 system and to encourage all functional activity. A man should 
 drink not less than four or five pints of water a day. Tell him or 
 her to exercise freely every muscle and hasten the blood to every 
 part of his system, to eliminate effete material as well as to build 
 up, nourish, and renew the life and strength of every cell in his 
 body. Advise him against becoming a slave to his appetites, over- 
 eating, sexual excess, etc. 
 
 Fully nine-tenths of the American people eat too much meat, 
 and keep their nervous systems overtaxed to dispose of the amount 
 of food in excess of what is actually necessary for nutrition. Get 
 such people, when nervous, to learn to relax and to practice deep 
 breathing as a resource of healthfulness. Impress upon them the 
 pleasure, beauty, and glory of work, and useful endeavor and
 
 380 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 achievement, as a means to invigorate and strengthen both mind and 
 body. Let them know that we are born into this beautiful world 
 surrounded by everything to make us happy and keep us well, but 
 that the world is ruled by law and we must conform to laws of 
 health, and that when we do that we shall be well and happy, which 
 is our highest privilege, and not before. 
 
 It is often the case that our patients need education and en- 
 couragement, knowledge and guidance other names for suggestion 
 and not medicine or sympathy, which only fixes them deeper in 
 the mire; but there are some who are called physicians who have 
 not the courage to attempt to make use of these therapeutic 
 measures. 
 
 Why let Christian scientists, osteopaths, and other species of 
 charlatanism thrive upon a large class of cases when, if we were 
 but equipped in this higher art in therapeutics, we could day by 
 day infuse health and happiness, joy and sunshine, into the lives of 
 weak, erring, miserable children of this world who are crying to 
 us for help. Our patients are not merely chemical laboratories, 
 but human beings, with intelligent faculties to comprehend our 
 suggestions that act upon every part of the body through the nerv- 
 ous centers. If properly presented, they will regulate all per- 
 verted functions in perfect accord with the physiological processes 
 of the body. 
 
 Man is not a machine, but a living organism. The unseen part of 
 man mind, spirit, or soul constitutes the dynamics of this human 
 organism, functionating in perfect correlation with the neuron ele- 
 ments, and they constitute the greatest therapeutic factor at our 
 command, ever present and ready for utilization.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 SUGGESTION IN EDUCATION. 
 
 The prime purpose of education is to equip the individual to 
 make the struggle for existence. More than ever before do we now 
 realize that this necessitates the development of the body as well 
 as the mind that body, mind, and character are all qualities of 
 the one individual, and that it is practically impossible to elevate 
 one quality while the others are weak or degraded. The problems 
 of health concern all that contributes to the evolution of the indi- 
 vidual physically, mentally, and morally. 
 
 The capacities and capabilities of the body should occupy more 
 consideration in our educational system than is done at the present 
 time. When education or religion interferes with the physical de- 
 velopment of children, it strikes a weakening blow at the quality 
 of brain plasm possessed by the child, and, to obtain the best results 
 in mental development, this should be kept at a high standard. 
 Moreover, any factor that retards physical growth amct development, 
 while education is enforced, seriously jeopardizes the life of the in- 
 dividual, and our American cities have thousands of physically 
 weak, neurasthenic boys and girls who have been maimed for life 
 under the strain of the existing educational methods. 
 
 Every one should be environed by those conditions that maintain 
 the highest standard of protoplasmic energy during the period of 
 childhood and adolescence. The impressions that are made upon 
 the brain through the senses from the cradle to the grave are the 
 suggestions that constitute the education of an individual. Here 
 those that are useful and good, or harmful and false, are alike re- 
 corded, to furnish foodstuff for the mind, which is manifested in 
 thought and conduct. 
 
 School training, after all, consists only in furnishing an environ- 
 ment in which certain suggestions, ideas, mental pictures, concepts, 
 or impressions can be photographed on the rapidly developing cere- 
 
 381
 
 382 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 bral cells. Here consciousness itself is evolved, habits are formed, 
 and a new world is opened to view as a child's perceptive powers 
 are strengthened and individuality begins to assert itself. 
 
 While a certain quality of physical traits and habit tendencies 
 are transmitted to the offspring, by far the most potent factors 
 in making children what they become are the inherited environ- 
 ing conditions which bring to bear upon the child their uncon- 
 scious suggestive influences. What we are is largely the result 
 of what we have experienced in life. Habits of thought, traits of 
 character, religious beliefs, moral convictions, etc., are all directly 
 the result of impressions that have been registered upon our cere- 
 bral cells. Environment contributes both to our physical and 
 mental constitutions. 
 
 In the slums of one of our great American cities I noticed a 
 little two-year-old child, without shoes, bareheaded, and dirty, in 
 ragged clothes that scarcely covered its poorly nourished body; 
 reared in filth and poverty, with a drunken father to abuse its 
 weak-faced mother, who tolerated her pitiable state of existence 
 because she did not know any better. Had she been taught to 
 work, and to think and do for herself, she could easily have extri- 
 cated herself from this miserable role. That a child born under 
 such conditions should become a prostitute, contract disease, and 
 die before she was scarcely out of her teens would be as natural 
 as the law of gravitation. 
 
 A girl whose father at the time of her birth was occupying the 
 position of president of a great college, and who was reared in the 
 lap of education and refinement, could have been nothing else than 
 the mathematical resultant of the parallelogram of the forces that 
 environed her. 
 
 A little child of my knowledge was taken at six months old by 
 a couple of kind-hearted people, who provided it with all the phys- 
 ical necessities of life. They saw in this little one latent possibili- 
 ties and potentialities that could be developed and trained into 
 active, useful service, and they enjoyed watching its growth. 
 They said she was beautiful, and the child smiled and cooed, and 
 grew more beautiful. They informed their friends that she was 
 smart, and every day reminded the little one of this belief in her,
 
 SUGGESTION IN EDUCATION. 383 
 
 and at an early age she did all sorts of useful service. They said 
 that she was good and obedient, and, true to the law of suggestion, 
 they molded those very qualities in her. They loved to listen to 
 her merry prattle, and she early acquired a vocabulary of words 
 to express her ideas. 
 
 Later, when she started to school, they believed that she would 
 excel in her classes, and she led in every study. They encouraged 
 her efforts to imitate her foster mother in cooking, and, though she 
 soiled her clothing and wasted material, they were pleased, and 
 she soon became an expert cook. They appreciated her efforts at 
 the piano, and she developed into a talented musician. Still later 
 in life she married, and was the pride and helper of her husband, 
 and an honored woman in her community. 
 
 Such was the culminating force of suggestion in the home life 
 in its influence upon the life and character of a motherless waif. 
 Who can dispute the saying that "men and women make men and 
 women ? ' ' 
 
 "You are a bad boy, just as bad as you can be, and I will never 
 let you come down town with me again," said a mother to her little 
 six-year-old, who was the impersonation of the character that his 
 mother had exhibited for him every day of his life. 
 
 Children are usually just what their parents make them. 
 
 A little four-year-old boy was playing upon the floor with his 
 fifteen-months-old baby sister. He impulsively jerked some of his 
 toys from her baby hands, and she in turn began to cry. The 
 mother, who was quietly sewing near by, witnessed the incident, 
 and, looking up serenely, in a subdued tone called young America 
 to her. He sulked up to her with a face that indicated that his 
 rights were being transgressed, and he was not disposed to stand 
 for it. 
 
 "Kiss me, my boy," said she, while she implanted a kiss upon 
 his forehead. She then good-naturedly placed her fingers under 
 his chin, and, with his face upturned to hers, quietly said to him, 
 "You are mamma's little man ; you are a good boy. Yes, you are; 
 you are a good boy, and I know you are going to be just as sweet 
 to your little sister as you can be. She is a little baby, but you 
 are a little man. Now, I am going to see if you aren't."
 
 384 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 In a few moments the mother looked up again, and her little 
 son had piled around his sister all the toys he could find. He sat 
 upon the floor, looking first at his sister and then at his mother, 
 trying in vain to suppress his delight in his mother's approval, 
 which he seemed sure he would get. "I told you so; come and kiss 
 me again," said she, making a quick move as if to catch him while 
 he dodged from the room with a joyous ha ! ha ! 
 
 The greatest factor in the education of a child, and the most im- 
 portant element in the development of character in children, is 
 the confidence that we show them; for the confidence reposed by 
 others in us determines the estimate that we place upon ourselves. 
 To believe in a child is to beget self-confidence in that child. 
 
 After we are older, and have had more experience in the world, 
 we are able to excuse ignorance, and we crave the confidence only 
 of the best people. By this we estimate ourselves, but in children 
 the love and confidence, and expressed appreciation, of those near- 
 est and most closely related is the most powerful factor in the 
 development and growth of all the latent elements of manhood and 
 womanhood. 
 
 Children easily enter into sympathy with those with whom they 
 are constantly associated, and the blighting influence of a home in 
 which violent displays of temper are made, or hysterical conduct 
 in any form is exhibited, is harmful to both the mental and physical 
 development of children. Here they unconsciously acquire habits 
 that frequently last them through life. 
 
 In the use of suggestion upon children for the correction of vice 
 and the cure of evil habits, moral perversions, etc., both with and 
 without hypnotism, no rule can be given that will apply to all 
 children alike. One must know children and deal with each one 
 according to his or her own individuality, first securing their con- 
 fidence. They are very suggestible without hypnotism, and easily 
 come under any influence by those who have their confidence. 
 
 In one of our large cities a revival meeting was conducted by 
 an advertising revivalist under the auspices of several of the lead- 
 ing orthodox churches, and his text for seven days was, "Hell, the 
 kind of place it is and who is going there." The physicians of that 
 city were more than ordinarily busy during this period on account
 
 SUGGESTION IN EDUCATION. 
 
 of the psychoneurotic condition induced by the fear that such 
 preaching had implanted in the minds of unthinking men and 
 women. 
 
 At one of their special services for children, held by the revivalist 
 during the latter part of his stay in that city, only "workers" 
 were invited besides the children, thus securing such an environ- 
 ment and suggestive influence that hundreds of children, who were 
 incapable of thinking and reasoning for themselves, were coerced 
 into joining the church. Under these circumstances children are 
 unconsciously molded into a particular line of religious belief which 
 reflects the opinions of their parents or the makers of their church 
 creed, and under this influence they are reared and educated. The 
 power of choice is denied them, and they grow into manhood and 
 womanhood stamped as if they were so many bricks. 
 
 We might as well expect to make a race horse out of a colt that 
 had been imprisoned in a stable all his life, as to expect children 
 reared under such an environment to become broad-minded, truth- 
 loving men and women. As self-conscious, independent entities, 
 they are not allowed to .think for themselves, and, failing to exercise 
 their intellectual faculties, their minds become dwarfed and useless. 
 How many people are born and reared under such an enforced en- 
 vironment, from which they are never able to extricate themselves ! 
 They acquire a one-sided way of seeing things, and such mental 
 processes, continuously indulged in, form habits, and such mental 
 habits form fixed psychophysiological complexes in the brain plasm 
 to the extent that it becomes impossible for the individual to think 
 or believe any other way. 
 
 Mental faculties are mainly acquired, and are the product of 
 environment and education. Chief among these are memory, 
 imagination, speech, knowledge, conception, judgment, will, and 
 reason. Reason is mankind's highest, truest, noblest faculty, but 
 it is able to draw conclusions only from the light of experience. 
 
 Many advanced thinkers believe that "the will is higher than 
 the mind, and that its rightful prerogative is to govern and direct 
 the mind just as it is the prerogative for the mind to govern and 
 direct the body." This seems to be true when we see an individ- 
 ual using his entire mental equipment at a given salary to promul-
 
 386 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 gate a fixed religious dogma, or when ' ' a lawyer receives a retainer 
 and commands his mind forthwith to busy itself with all its re- 
 sources of reasoning and persuasion for the party who pays him. 
 Even his emotions from the extremes of pathos to those of indig- 
 nation may he pressed into the service as well. ' ' * 
 
 There are others who deny that there is such a faculty as ' ' will, ? ' 
 who take the position that mankind is impelled to action by desire 
 and held in restraint by fear, and between desire and fear each 
 human being stands. 
 
 Yet even will, desire, and fear are only qualities of the individ- 
 ual body and mind, and they conform to the general law of evolu- 
 tion, being the outcome of heredity, environment, and education. 
 The logical conclusion, then, is that each human being is what he 
 is by the operation of the same infallible law that moves the earth 
 around the sun and that controls the stars. 
 
 People mean to do well. They are seeking happiness as best 
 they know how, according to their instinctive impulses inherent 
 within the protoplasmic mechanism of the physical organism, modi- 
 fied or guided by knowledge and experience. 
 
 Some of the greatest, noblest, truest characters that exist in the 
 world today are clergymen, who are so far in advance of the creed 
 of the church under whose jurisdiction they are laboring that they 
 have become a law unto themselves. They have been impelled by 
 desire to do that which is right, and useful, and true until they 
 are found standing in orthodox pulpits, fearlessly doing all within 
 their power to liberate men and women from the tyranny of creeds 
 and dogmas, ignorance and superstition, through which all creeds 
 have been evolved. They are interpreting the problems of life in 
 the light of present-day knowledge, and eagerly seeking the con- 
 tributions shed upon the pathway of human endeavor and achieve- 
 ment by the light of science. 
 
 "To live by science requires intelligence and faith, but not to 
 live by it is folly." Men stand where they are in the world today 
 held by the tyranny of fear and ignorance, unless liberated by 
 knowledge and experience. Frequently physicians who stand high 
 in the medical profession have said to me frankly and honestly 
 
 'Thompson: Brain and Personality.
 
 SUGGESTION IN EDUCATION. 387 
 
 that they felt the necessity of a more thorough knowledge of the 
 theories and methods of using psychotherapeutics, but they "were 
 afraid their practices would be ruined if the people should find it 
 out." When such men are teachers in our medical colleges, their 
 pupils bear the stamp of moral weakness upon their professional 
 characters. They are the legitimate product of weakness and fear 
 as manifested in the personality of a physician. 
 
 A most valuable part of education is the incentives and intel- 
 lectual ideals implanted through personal association.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 SELF-MASTERY AS A FINE ART. 
 
 "Man exists . . . not for what he can accomplish, but for what can be 
 accomplished of him." Gb'the. 
 
 By suggestion we can add a dynamic quality to the mental equip- 
 ment of an individual who is receptive. A new element is given 
 to his personality by the impression made upon his brain plasm, 
 which better equips him to meet the exigencies of life, and whereby 
 he can be educated into the art of self-mastery. 
 
 A little child, seven years old, was beginning her first day in 
 school, and appeared bewildered and confused as she anticipated 
 the new experiences that the day had in store for her. As she 
 started out of the home her father, who was awaiting the arrival of 
 the right psychological moment, called her to him. 
 
 "Papa, mamma says I must hurry, or I shall be late," responded 
 the child as she came up closer to find out what her father wanted. 
 
 ''You have plenty of time, my daughter," said he. "I have a 
 secret to tell you if you will promise not to tell anybody. Do you 
 know there is not a smarter child in this town than you are ? ' ' 
 
 ' ' No, papa, I did not know that. ' ' 
 
 ''Well, there is not, and I will show you. Who can run faster 
 than you among your little friends?" 
 
 ' ' None of them, ' ' was her answer. 
 
 "Who rides a wheel or plays dolls better than you?" 
 
 "None," she answered. 
 
 "Well, here is our secret. They can not learn faster in school 
 than you can. They are all smart, but they don 't know it. The 
 girl that does what her teacher tells her is the one that learns the 
 fastest. Now, that is our secret. You go and find out what your 
 lesson is, and come home and we will help you to study, and by the 
 end of the term you will be at the head of your class." 
 
 388
 
 SELF-MASTERY AS A FINE ART. :{,VJ 
 
 The child.'s answer was, "All right, papa ; if you will help me, yes 
 I will." 
 
 "Go to school now, you have plenty of time, but don't tell any- 
 body our secret." 
 
 The child walked away with a new element added to her con- 
 sciousness. She went with head erect, and a smile on her face that 
 indicated that she was going out to conquer. Of course, this was 
 followed by other similar suggestions, and during the eight years 
 since that time that little girl has stood at the head of her classes 
 and found in her school work a genuine pleasure. 
 
 In another instance a child, thirteen years of age, was competing 
 for a prize given in elocution. Her father had also offered her a 
 reward, and expressed a wish that she win that medal. She had 
 worked hard to succeed, and on the morning of the contest the 
 father called her into his den and handed her the promised reward 
 for winning the contest. 
 
 "But," said she, "I haven't won it yet." 
 
 "See here, daughter," was his response, "I know, and your 
 teacher knows, that you render that selection aright. Now, it 
 matters not one bit what the judges or the audience think of it. 
 Go, render your selection to suit yourself and to do credit to your 
 teacher, but forget all about the prize or the opinion of the judges." 
 
 She went away relieved of all apparent anxiety, and shared the 
 prize with an older contestant. 
 
 The question of self-mastery is one of education and self-de- 
 velopment. By suggestion we can plant ideas that give rise to 
 impulses or incentives within the individual to make effort at self- 
 development, self-education, and self-control. 
 
 Every one should be made to feel that he is born to be of use in 
 the world and should be taught how to exercise his capacity, for 
 it is only through the self-reliance gained by our own activities 
 that we can make a success in any vocation in life. The individual 
 who can be of most help to others is the one who sees the greatest 
 possibilities within them. 
 
 The problem of life for every individual is the one of self-mastery 
 how best to conserve and direct our energies into useful, whole-
 
 390 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 some lines of thought and action. To be of help to others, one 
 must at least in some degree have become master of one's self. 
 
 It has been a matter of observation to see a physician so utterly 
 lacking in self-control that he was incapacitated to use efficacious 
 suggestion upon an individual, even after the latter had assumed 
 an attitude of voluntary receptivity. In him the self-conscious ego 
 had not been evolved sufficiently to give him force of character to 
 be of influence. 
 
 It is for each one of us to decide whether we shall control and 
 govern ourselves in the light of reason, education, and experience, 
 or be held by the opinions of others. To do our best in life, we 
 must be independent, strong, capable, and free. 
 
 The leaders of -all professions in all ages have been men who have 
 overleaped the limitations of environment, of ignorance and super- 
 stition, and have dared to stand up for what they believed to be 
 right. 
 
 To have achieved self-mastery is to be guided by reason, im- 
 pelled by truth, and freed from the tyranny of fear, selfishness, 
 and ignorance. It denotes courage, humble service, magnanimity, 
 sympathy, friendliness, and a tenacious stand for the right. To 
 reach this high ideal of moral attainment, human evolution must 
 go on forever. We are as yet in the ameba and moneron stage of 
 our appreciation of this higher conception of ourselves and our 
 relation to others. 
 
 "With this poor life, with this mean world 
 
 I'd fain complete what in me lies; 
 I strive to perfect this my me; 
 My sole ambition's to be wise." 
 
 Fear is the natural consequence of weakness and ignorance. To 
 be masters of our bodies does not mean that the physical basis of 
 existence is to be ignored. Far from it. On the other hand, to 
 maintain a strong, healthy body is the first essential to develop- 
 ment. Will power and determination are natural accompaniments 
 of a healthy organism. 
 
 There is a peculiar psychic quality that is the heritage of some 
 individuals. They are content to drift with the crowd, and have 
 not the courage to dare to use their own reasoning faculties. The
 
 SELF-MASTERY AS A PINE ART. 391 
 
 problem of education is to deliver these individuals from such 
 tendencies and thus to prevent them from lapsing into physical 
 weaklings, mental nonentities, or moral cowards. 
 
 It is the inalienable birthright of every human being to manifest 
 the highest expression of individuality and selfhood to give the 
 world the very best that he can make of himself according to the 
 limitations of heredity, environment, and education. Fear and 
 selfishness are the greatest barriers to the progress of aspiring 
 humanity. 
 
 The "thou shalt" and "thou shalt not" of an irresponsible hier- 
 archy no longer fetters the spirit of the man who has obtained suf- 
 ficient self-mastery to live up to the light and knowledge of the 
 present age. 
 
 But not for ourselves alone must we live. We gain in strength 
 by helping others, by assuming responsibility, by work and useful 
 achievement. 
 
 A great deal of the hysteria and neurasthenia, and despondency 
 and weakness, of men and women is due to their failure to exer- 
 cise sufficient self-mastery to use the powers and capabilities in- 
 herent within the cells of their organism. Such people we can 
 wonderfully benefit by suggestion. 
 
 Medicine will ever have a place in our therapeutic armamen- 
 tarium, but it is a crime to use it to relieve nervousness and psycho- 
 neurotic and functional disturbances, by lulling and inhibiting the 
 normal physiological processes, where the individual should be 
 taught the art of self-mastery, self-control, self-activity, and con- 
 formity to such physiological methods of development as breathing, 
 relaxation, dietetics, water drinking, exercise, and work, with sun- 
 shine, fresh air, and cheerfulness. 
 
 The use of suggestion in therapeutics is nothing more or less 
 than getting an individual to exercise self-mastery and self-control. 
 
 Here I am. reminded of a stalwart man, six feet two inches high, 
 weighing one hundred and ninety-eight pounds, who had a wife 
 and two children in another portion of his state, while he was be- 
 ing supported by his brother, and all the while nursing and en- 
 couraging a psychoneurotic condition. His physician informed 
 me of this element of sloth and laziness that was a great factor
 
 392 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 in his case, besides his morbid self-consciousness, and sought my 
 aid to arouse him from such psychic incumbrances and put him in 
 possession of himself. 
 
 He came into the office walking with a cane, and, besides his 
 symptoms of indigestion and insomnia, lie complained of a con- 
 stantly painful and weak back. 
 
 My treatment was to give such suggestions as to drive back his 
 morbid existing sense impressions. To substitute a new con- 
 sciousness, he was placed with head on one chair and heels on an- 
 other, and made to sustain my weight of two hundred pounds upon 
 his body. Then, looking him in the face after he was awakened, 
 I informed him frankly and honestly of the test we had made and 
 assured him that a stronger man did not exist in his state, that all 
 he needed was exercise, and that the right thing for him to do was 
 to go to work. I met him upon his own plane that of a physical 
 laborer and used such methods as would most convince him that he 
 was a man, and he appreciated it. He did go to work and had no 
 further trouble. 
 
 Such harsh treatment is not applicable in private practice, but, 
 when I see people whining and complaining, and morbidly self- 
 conscious of their own life's battles, I can only wish that they 
 could be aroused in some way and be made to see the pleasure, and 
 beauty, and glory of work. 
 
 Upon the exercise of our own self-activity does the welfare of 
 the future race depend. The intellectual world brings life's great- 
 est pleasures, but, as we now understand it, the head and hands must 
 be educated together. Mental and physical development must go 
 hand in hand. 
 
 When wealth causes the individual to depend upon the physical 
 and mental efforts of others to do for him what he should do for 
 himself, it is a means of degeneration and weakness. 
 
 It is all a question of mental attitude. We must ever press on- 
 ward for the acquirement of more knowledge, the discovery of 
 new truths, and for facts revealed by new experiences. We must 
 never be willing to accept as a finality the imperfection of present 
 attainments. 
 
 To be glad to live for life's own sake, to love and to help others
 
 SELF-MASTERY AS A FINE AKT. 393 
 
 for the pleasure it gives us, and in our own humble way to crown 
 our lives with useful endeavor and achievement, leaves no excuse 
 for the question, Is life worth while? 
 
 It never becomes stale, flat, and unprofitable, save as it reflects 
 our own stupidity.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abnormal complex, 47 
 
 Abuse of personality of physician, 359 
 
 of suggestion, 59 
 Acquisitions, intellectual, 48 
 
 physiological, 48 
 
 Acute diseases, psychotherapy in, 140 
 Adenoids, example of hypnotism in 
 
 operation for, 195 
 Adjunct, suggestion as, to anesthesia, 
 
 228 
 Alcoholism, example of hypnotism in, 
 
 201, 224 
 
 Alteration, thought as factor in physi- 
 ological, 111 
 Amputation, example of hypnotism 
 
 in, 191 
 Amusement, hypnotism not used for, 
 
 224 
 
 suggestion not used for, 224 
 Anabolism, optimism conduces to, 97 
 Analysis of personality, 112 
 Anesthesia, cause of mortality in, 232 
 mortality from chloroform, 229 
 
 from ether, 229 
 produced by suggestion, 73 
 suggestion as adjunct to, 228 
 in chloroform, 238, 240 
 in surgical, 235 
 surgical, with ether and suggestion, 
 
 237 
 Anesthetics, physiological action of, 
 
 232 
 Anorexia, example of psychotherapy 
 
 in, 212 
 
 Anthropomorphic theism, 125 
 Appendicitis, neurasthenia as cause 
 
 of, 41 
 
 psychasthenia as cause of, 41 
 Applicability of psychotherapy in med- 
 ical practice, 28 
 
 Application of psychotherapy, require- 
 ments of, 326 
 
 psychotherapy of universal, 24 
 Arm, stiffening of, by suggestion^ V 
 Armamentarium of physician, 127 
 
 ra 
 
 Association method as affecting the 
 
 ego, 315 
 example of, 308 
 Jung's, 217, 305 
 philosophy of, 314 
 philosophy of Jung's, 308 
 of ideas, 47 
 Attendant, example of personality of, 
 
 360 
 
 Autosuggestion, basis for, 318 
 mental effect of, 319 
 philosophy of, 318 
 physical effect of, 321 
 Awakening interest in psychotherapy, 
 21 
 
 B 
 
 Basis for autosuggestion, 318 
 Beastiality in sexual instinct, 274 
 Bisexual elements of parents in child, 
 
 304 
 Bleeding, prevention of, by suggestion, 
 
 80, 93 
 
 Bodily function, suggestion stimu- 
 lates, 331 
 Body, evolution of, 121 
 
 mind and, in psychotherapy, 37 
 sticking pin in, by suggestion, 79, 
 
 81 
 
 stiffening of, by suggestion, 80 
 Bright's disease, psychotherapy in, 54 
 Broca's convolutions, 88 
 Bronchitis, example of hypnotism in, 
 
 189 
 Brutality of frankness, example of, 
 
 368 
 
 of physician, 368 
 Business, personality of person as 
 
 factor in, 354 
 
 Cat, example of dream analysis about, 
 
 313 
 
 Catabolism, effect of mind on, 66 
 pessimism conduces to, 97 
 
 397
 
 398 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Catheterization, example of hypno- 
 tism in, 184 
 
 Cause of mortality in anesthesia, 232 
 Cell function, psychotherapy as con- 
 trolling, 40 
 
 Cervix, example of suggestion in lac- 
 erated, 241 
 
 Character, effect of suggestion on, 60 
 Charlatan, occasion for, 110 
 Charlatanism, occasion for, 65 
 Child, bisexual elements of parents in, 
 
 304 
 
 influence of parent on, 382 
 of religious emotion on, 384 
 of suggestion on, 382 
 Chloroform anesthesia, mortality 
 
 from, 229 
 
 suggestion in, 238, 240 
 physiological action of, 231 
 Christian science, effect of suggestion 
 
 in, 62 
 
 effects of, 23 
 fallacy of, 328 
 mistakes of, 327 
 occasion for, 52 
 principle of, 319 
 psychotherapeutic value of, 135 
 source of membership of, 337 
 suggestion as factor in, 154 
 scientist, occasion for, 24 
 Chronic cases, psychotherapy in, 55 
 Circumcision, example of suggestion 
 
 in, 240 
 Circumstances form religious belief, 
 
 338 
 Clay pills, example of suggestion 
 
 with, 131 
 Commercialism of physicians, 375, 
 
 378 
 Complex, abnormal, 47 
 
 normal, 47 
 Confidence, self-suggestion requires, 
 
 145 
 Conscious, definition of, 52 
 
 mind amenable to suggestion, 91 
 definition of, 88 
 function of, 91 
 
 Consciousness as a factor, 119 
 Consent necessary for hypnotization, 
 
 63, 83, 117 
 Conservation of energy, 340 
 
 philosophy of, 340 
 Contentment as aid to health, 349 
 Convolutions, Broca's, 88 
 Co-operation of patient as factor in 
 
 therapeutics, 345 
 
 Correct diagnosis as safeguard, 326 
 Correctness of psychotherapeutic diag- 
 nosis, 218 
 Corset as factor in morbidity, 346 
 
 Cosmos as an organism, 113 
 
 compared with man, 113 
 Curative agent, psychotherapy as, 42 
 
 D 
 
 Definition of conscious, 52 
 
 of conscious mind, 88 
 
 of disease, 128 
 
 of fear, 125 
 
 of force in man, 117 
 
 of hypnotic suggestion, 62 
 
 of hypnotism, 89, 162 
 
 of hypnotized subject, 76 
 
 of knowledge, 112 
 
 of mind, 87 
 
 of personal magnetism, 102 
 
 of post-hypnotic suggestion, 104 
 
 of psychic trauma, 288 
 
 of psychoanalysis, 288 
 
 of psychotherapy, 21, 48", 54 
 
 of subconscious, 52 
 
 of subconscious mind, 90 
 
 of stimulus words, 306 
 
 of suggestion, 60, 130 
 
 of suggestive therapeutics, 110 
 Deleterious effect of religious emo- 
 tion, 335 
 
 hypnotism not, 224 
 Demonstration of hypnotism, 69 
 Demonstrator, efficacy of psychother- 
 apy depends on, 25 
 Dental surgery, example of hypnotism 
 
 in, 195 
 Dentistry, example of suggestion in, 
 
 228 
 Depressant, personality of physician 
 
 as, 142 
 
 Development of nervous system, 51 
 Diagnosis, correctness of psychother- 
 apeutic, 218 
 
 example of incorrect, 329, 330 
 Diet for mental development, 346 
 
 for physical development, 346 
 Diphtheria, improper use of sugges- 
 tion in, 327 
 Disease, definition of, 128 
 
 education as preventive of, 217 
 
 pessimism conduces to, 111 
 
 suggestion in incurable, 373 
 
 vis medicatrix naturae in, 40 
 Diseases of mental origin, 23 
 
 psychotherapy in acute, 140 
 
 in mental, 27 
 Dissociation of ideas, 48 
 
 of personality, 107 
 Divine healing, suggestion as factor 
 
 in, 154 
 Dogmas, evolution and, 125
 
 INDEX. 
 
 399 
 
 Dogmatism of medicine, 126 
 
 of theology, 126 
 
 Dream analysis as factor in psy- 
 choanalysis, 311 
 as factor in suggestion, 312 
 example of, about cat, 313 
 about parturition, 313 
 about snake, 312 
 
 E 
 
 Education as factor in physical de- 
 velopment, 381 
 
 as factor in sexual instinct, 269, 276 
 as preventive of disease, 277 
 instead of medicine, 380 
 suggestion in, 381 
 Educational measure, psychotherapy 
 
 as, 33 
 
 Effect of Christian science, 23 
 of emotion on organs, 108 
 of hypnotism on subject, 81 
 of mental attitude of patient, 143 
 of mental healing, 23 
 of mind on catabolism, 66 
 
 on metabolism, 66 
 of self-suggestion on physiognomy, 
 
 110 
 of suggestion in Christian science, 
 
 62 
 
 on character, 60 
 Efficacy of psychotherapy depends on 
 
 demonstrator, 25 
 doubted, 238 
 of suggestion, hypnotism as proof 
 
 of, 69 
 Ego, association method as affecting 
 
 the, 315 
 in man, 114 
 
 Emanuel movement, occasion for, 52 
 Emanuelists, psychotherapy as em- 
 ployed by, 136 
 
 Emotion, effect of, on organs, 108 
 religion as factor in hysterical, 302 
 religious, and sexual instinct, 123 
 subconscious mind the seat of, 108 
 Employment of psychotherapy with- 
 out knowledge, 131, 132, 133, 
 134 
 
 Energy, conservation of, 340 
 Environment as factor in neurosis, 
 
 293, 302 
 
 as factor in sexual instinct, 269 
 in therapeutics, 364 
 7iiind affected by, 89 
 physician as factor in, 366 
 Epilepsy, psychotherapy in, 213 
 
 symptoms mistaken for, 213 
 Erotic emotion, religious emotion as 
 factor in, 334 
 
 Essentials for the patient, 345 
 Ether and suggestion, surgical anes- 
 thesia with, 237 
 
 anesthesia, mortality from, 229 
 physiological action of, 231 
 Ethical consideration of sexual in- 
 stinct, 266 
 
 Etiologic factor, pessimism as, 97 
 Evolution and dogmas, 125 
 of body, 121 
 of mind, 121 
 
 psychotherapy the result of, 57 
 Example of association method, 308 
 of brutality of frankness, 368 
 of dream analysis about cat, 313 
 
 about parturition, 313 
 
 about snake, 312 
 of effect of mental relief, 160 
 of hypnotic suggestion, 74, 77, 78 
 of hypnotism in alcoholism, 201, 
 224 
 
 in amputation, 191 
 
 in bronchitis, 189 
 
 in catheterization, 184 
 
 in dental surgery, 195 
 
 in fibroid tumor, 183 
 
 in gonorrhea, 168 
 
 in hysteria, 192 
 
 in indigestion, 187 
 
 in insomnia, 197 
 
 in menorrhagia, 183 
 
 in migraine, 172 
 
 in morphin habit, 184 
 
 in nocturnal enuresis, 177 
 
 in obstetric anesthesia, 177 
 
 in operation for adenoids, 195 
 
 in psychical impotency, 196 
 
 in psycholepsy, 168 
 
 in psychoneurasthenia, 198 
 
 in psychoneurology, 176 
 
 in psychoneurotic indigestion, 175 
 
 in psychoneurotic paralysis, 173 
 
 in pulmonary tuberculosis, 203 
 
 in retention of urine, 184 
 
 in retroverted uterus, 178 
 
 in sciatica, 188 
 
 in supraorbital neuralgia, 200 
 
 in suprapubic cystotomy, 194 
 
 in urethritis, 182 
 
 in vomiting, 174 
 
 in vomiting of pregnancy, 199 
 of incorrect diagnosis, 329, 330 
 of lack of moral stamina, 375 
 
 of self-mastery, 391 
 of personality of attendant, 360 
 
 of physician, 356, 360 
 of pre-hypnotic suggestion, 73, 77 
 of psychotherapy in anorexia, 2! 2 
 
 in gastritis, 216 
 
 in grand mal, 213
 
 400 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Example of psychotherapy cont'd. 
 
 in insomnia, 223 
 
 in migraine, 209 
 
 in neurasthenia, 105, 214, 217 
 
 in obsessions, 210, 212, 226 
 
 in pain in head, 215 
 
 in paralysis, 215 
 
 in pneumonia, 141 
 
 in psychasthenia, 211 
 
 in sticking pin into skin, 221 
 
 in utero-ovarian disease, 211 
 of suggestion as soporific, 150 
 
 in affection of skin, 372 
 
 in bronchitis, 370 
 
 in circumcision, 240 
 
 in dentistry, 228 
 
 in exhaustion, 148 
 
 in gastroenterocolitis, 369 
 
 in lacerated cervix, 241 
 
 in mental development, 388 
 
 in morbid consciousness, 158 
 
 in nephritis, 368 
 
 in neurasthenia, 151 
 
 in neuritis, 372 
 
 in parturition, 249 
 
 in pleuritis, 151 
 
 in stiff arm, 143 
 
 in stiff body, 144 
 
 in stiff limb, 138 
 
 in surgery, 229 
 
 in warts, 145 
 
 on music band, 98 
 
 to hypnotized subject, 75 
 
 with clay pills, 131 
 
 with lemon, 98, 130 
 of telepathy, 100 
 of thought transference, 100 
 Exhaustion, example of suggestion in, 
 
 148 
 Expectant mother, psychotherapy in 
 
 relation to, 243 
 
 Experiences, memory reproduces, 50 
 nervous system reproduces, 38, 45, 
 
 117, 131 
 Extreme illness, psychotherapy in, 
 
 371 
 procedure in, 371 
 
 Faith cure, suggestion as factor in, 
 
 154 
 
 Fallacy of Christian science, 328 
 Fine art, self-mastery as, 388 
 Fear, definition of, 125 
 Fevers, suggestion in, 139 
 Fibroid tumor, example of hypnotism 
 
 in, 183 
 
 Field of psychotherapy, 112 
 Force, definition of, in man, 117 
 
 Foundation of rational therapeutics, 
 
 207, 218 
 
 of sexual instinct, 262 
 Frankness, brutality of, of physician, 
 
 368 
 Freud's psychoanalysis, technic of, 
 
 295 
 psychology, 288 
 
 philosophy of, 297 
 scientific psychotherapy, 290 
 sexual theories, 293 
 Function of conscious mind, 91 
 of psychotherapy, 46 
 of subconscious mind, 92 
 Functional activity, psychotherapy 
 
 increases, 43 
 disorders, premature orgasm cause 
 
 of, 262 
 stimulant, water as, 346 
 
 Q 
 
 Gallstones, improper use of suggestion 
 in, 328 
 
 Gastritis, example of psychotherapy 
 in, 216 
 
 Gastroenterocolitis, example of sug- 
 gestion in, 369 
 improper use of suggestion in, 328 
 
 General practitioner, psychotherapy 
 
 an ally of the, 41 
 utility of suggestion, 55 
 
 Gonorrhea, example of hypnotism in, 
 168 
 
 Grand mal, example of psychotherapy 
 in, 213 
 
 Guidance of sexual instinct, 255 
 
 H 
 
 Habit, overeating as, 342 
 religious emotion as, 342 
 use of tobacco as, 342 
 
 of whisky as, 342 
 Health, contentment as aid to, 349 
 medicine as aid to, 349 
 optimism conduces to, 111 
 relation of philosophy to, 332 
 
 of religion to, 332 
 relaxation as aid to, 351 
 religious training as impediment to, 
 
 337 
 
 roughing it as means of, 347 
 self-control as factor in, 346 
 self-reliance as factor in, 323 
 Heredity as factor in sexual instinct, 
 
 268 
 
 Hot brick as factor in suggestion, 366 
 Hypnoidization of Sidis, 313
 
 INDEX. 
 
 401 
 
 Hypnotic suggestion, definition of, 62 
 example of, 74, 77, 78 
 ignorance of, 69 
 philosophy of, 219 
 treatment, 166 
 effect of, 167 
 Hypnotism as proof of efficacy of 
 
 suggestion, 69 
 definition of, 89, 162 
 demonstration of, 69 
 effect of, on subject, 81 
 example of, in alcoholism, 201, 224 
 in amputation, 191 
 in bronchitis, 189 
 in catheterization. 184 
 in fibroid tumor, 183 
 in gonorrhea, 168" 
 in hysteria, 192 
 in dental surgery, 195 
 in indigestion, 187 
 in insomnia, 197 
 in menorrhagia, 183 
 in migraine, 172 
 in morphin habit, 184 
 in nocturnal enuresis, 177 
 in obstetric anesthesia, 177 
 ^_J1L operation for adenoids, 195 
 in psychical impotency, 196 
 in psyrholepsy, 168 
 in psychoneurasthenia, 198 
 in psychoneurology, 176 
 in psychoneurotic indigestion, 175 
 in psychoneurotic paralysis, 173 
 in pulmonary tuberculosis, 203 
 in retention of urine, 184 
 in retroverted uterus, 178 
 in sciatica, 188 
 in supraorbital neuralgia, 200 
 in suprapubic cystotomy, 194 
 in urethritis, 182 
 in vomiting, 174 
 in vomiting of pregnancy, 199 
 in insomnia, 165 
 in nausea, 246 
 in sleep, 54 
 in vomiting, 246 
 not deleterious, 224 
 not used for amusement, 224 
 therapeutically applied, 162 
 Hypnotization, consent necessary for, 
 
 63, 83, 117 
 method of, 117 
 
 Hypnotized subject, definition of, 76 
 example of suggestion to, 75 
 waking, 81 
 Hysteria, example of hvpnotism in, 
 
 192 
 
 symptoms mistaken for, 213 
 Hysterical emotion, religion as factor 
 in, 302 
 
 Ideal of man, woman's, 275 
 
 of woman, man's, 275 
 Ideals, persons assimilate, 355 
 Ideas, association of, 47 
 
 dissociation of, 48 
 Ignorance as factor in masturbation. 
 
 263 
 
 of hypnotic suggestion, 69 
 Impotency, masturbation as cause of, 
 
 263 
 example of hypnotism in psychical, 
 
 196 
 
 Improper use of suggestion in diph- 
 theria, 327 
 in gallstones, 328 
 in gastroenterocolitis, 328 
 in mastoiditis, 328 
 in rheumatism, 327 
 Incorrect diagnosis, example of, 329, 
 
 330 
 
 Increase of resistive power by sug- 
 gestion, 92 
 
 Incurable disease, suggestion in, 373 
 Indication for surgery, 137 
 Indigestion, example of hypnotism in, 
 
 187 
 
 Individual psychology, 22 
 Infallible, physicians not, 329 
 Infection prevented by suggestion, 92 
 Influence of parent on child, 382 
 of religious emotion on child, 384 
 of suggestion on child, 382 
 Inhibitor, psychotherapy as physical, 
 
 26 
 
 Injury of masturbation, 264 
 Insanity, suggestion in preventing, 
 
 107 
 
 theory of, 107 
 Insomnia, example of hypnotism in, 
 
 197 
 
 of psychotherapy in, 223 
 hypnotism in, 165 
 Instinct, religious emotion and sexual, 
 
 123 
 Intellectual acquisitions, 48 
 
 plane of man, 113 
 Intuition, subconscious mind perceives 
 
 by, 99 
 Invalid 'wife, personality of physician 
 
 as factor in, .'*.~>7 
 
 Investigation of psychotherapy, 28 
 Irritations, operations for reflex, 39 
 
 Jealousy of neurologists, 296 
 Jung's association method. -17. 
 philosophy of. 308
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Knowledge, definition of, 112 
 of psychotherapy, 28 
 
 Lacerated cervix, example of sugges- 
 tion in, 241 
 
 Lack of self-mastery, example of, 391 
 
 Lemon, example of suggestion with, 
 98, 130 
 
 Life, mental attitude as factor in, 
 393 
 
 Love as foundation of marriage, 273 
 
 M 
 
 Magnetic healer, occasion for, 24 
 
 healing, suggestion as factor in, 154 
 Magnetism, definition of personal, 102 
 Man, cosmos compared with, 113 
 definition of force in, 117 
 ego in, 114 
 
 intellectual plane of, 113 
 philosophy of, 87 
 physical plane of, 113 
 spiritual plane of, 113 
 woman's ideal of, 275 
 Man's ideal of woman, 275 
 Marriage, love as foundation of, 273 
 mistake of early, 274 
 sensual intoxication as factor in, 
 
 272 
 
 sexual instinct as incident in, 274 
 Mastoiditis, improper use of sugges- 
 tion in, 328 
 Masturbation as cause of impotency, 
 
 263 
 
 ignorance as factor in, 263 
 injury of, 264 
 
 religious emotion as factor in, 260 
 Measures, psychotherapeutic, 21 
 Medical colleges, psychotherapy in, 43 
 practice, applicability of psycho- 
 therapy in, 28 
 schools, physiological psychology in, 
 
 65 
 Medicaments, psychotherapy not to 
 
 supplant certain, 42 
 psychotherapy to supplant certain, 
 
 42 
 
 Medicine as aid to health, 349 
 dogmatism of, 126 
 education instead of, 380 
 relation of psychotherapy to gen- 
 eral practice of, 32 
 Memory reproduces experiences, 50 
 subconscious mind as storehouse of, 
 103 
 
 Menorrhagia, example of hypnotism 
 
 in, 183 
 Mental attitude as factor in life, 393 
 
 of patient, effect of, 143 
 causation and physical effects, 23 
 development, diet for, 346 
 
 example of suggestion in, 388 
 suggestion as factor in, 388 
 disease, neurasthenic symptom as 
 
 factor in, 281 
 psychotherapy in, 27 
 effect of autosuggestion, 319 
 equipment of physician, 127 
 function, suggestion stimulates, 331 
 healing, effects of, 23 
 origin, diseases of, 23 
 relief, example of effect of, 160 
 science, suggestion as factor in, 154 
 states, recurrent, 107 
 stimulus, psychotherapy as, 26 
 Metabolism, effect of mind on, 66 
 Method of employing suggestion, 72 
 
 of hypnotization, 117 
 Migraine, example of hypnotism in, 
 
 172 
 
 of psychotherapy in, 209 
 Mind affected by environment, 89 
 and body in psychotherapy, 37 
 conscious, amenable to suggestion, 
 
 91 
 
 definition of, 87 
 of conscious, 88 
 of subconscious, 90 
 effect of, on catabolism, 66 
 
 on metabolism, 66 
 evolution of, 121 
 function of conscious, 91 
 
 of subconscious, 92 
 subconscious, amenable to self-sug- 
 gestion, 110 
 
 amenable to suggestion, 91 
 as storehouse of memory, 103 
 perceives by intuition, 99 
 the seat of emotion, 108 
 Mission of physician, 207 
 Mistake of early marriage, 274 
 Mistakes of Christian science, 327 
 Monism in psychotherapy, 44 
 
 philosophy of, 112 
 Monogamy as factor in modifying 
 
 sexual excesses, 341 
 as ideal of sexual relation, 258 
 Monoideaism in religion, 334 
 Moral stamina as therapeutic power, 
 
 375 
 
 example of lack of, 375 
 Morbid condition, suggestion in alter- 
 ing, 104 
 
 consciousness, example of sugges- 
 tion in, 158
 
 INDEX. 
 
 403 
 
 Morb id cont'd . 
 
 suggestion, effect of, 138 
 Morbidity, corset as factor in, 346 
 
 worry as factor in, 344 
 Morphin habit, example of hypnotism 
 
 in, 184 
 
 Mortality, cause of, in anesthesia, 232 
 from chloroform anesthesia, 229 
 from ether anesthesia, 229 
 Mother, psychotherapy in relation to 
 
 expectant, 243 
 
 Music band, example of suggestion on, 
 98 
 
 N 
 
 Nature, psychotherapy as assistant 
 
 to, 36 
 
 Nausea, hypnotism in, 246 
 Neglect of psychotherapy, 30 
 
 of self-healing process of nature, 
 
 110 
 Nephritis, example of suggestion in, 
 
 368 
 
 Nervous system, development of, 51 
 reproduces experiences, 38, 45, 117, 
 
 131 
 Neurasthenia as cause of appendicitis, 
 
 41 
 
 of pneumonia, 41 
 of stomach trouble, 41 
 of tuberculosis, 41 
 of women's diseases, 41 
 example of psychotherapy hi, 105, 
 
 214, 217 
 
 of suggestion in, 151 
 sexual instinct as factor in, 147 
 Neurasthenic symptom as factor in 
 
 mental disease, 281 
 Neuritis, example of suggestion in, 
 
 372 
 
 Neurologists, jealousy of, 296 
 Neurosis and psychosis basis of psy- 
 chic action, 44 
 
 environment as factor in, 293, 302 
 psychotherapy as treatment in, 303 
 repressed personality as factor in, 
 
 293 
 
 sexuality as factor in, 293 
 suggestion as treatment in, 293 
 Nocturnal enuresis, example of hyp- 
 notism in, 177 
 
 Nonpharmaceutic therapeutics, 135 
 Normal complex, 47 
 
 
 
 Object of psychoanalysis, 312 
 Obsessions, 47 
 
 example of psychotherapy in, 210, 
 212. 226 
 
 Obstetric anesthesia, example of hyp- 
 notism in, 177 
 Obstetrics, psychotherapy in, 247 
 
 psychologic factor in, 247 
 Occasion for osteopath, 24 
 
 for charlatan, 110 
 
 for charlatanism, 65 
 
 for Christian science, 52 
 
 for Christian scientist, 24 
 
 for Emanuel movement, 52 
 
 for magnetic healer, 24 
 Operations for reflex irritations, 39 
 Optimism as therapeutic factor. 97 
 
 conduces to anabolism, 97 
 to health, 111 
 
 of tuberculosis patients, 109 
 Organism, cosmos as an, 113 
 Organs, effect of emotion on, 108 
 Osteopath, occasion for, 24 
 
 psychotherapy as employed by, 136 
 Osteopathy, suggestion as factor in, 
 
 154 
 Overeating as habit, 342 
 
 prevalence of, 379 
 
 Pain in head, example of psychother- 
 apy in, 215 
 Paquelin cautery in psychasthenia. 
 
 226 
 Paralysis, example of psychotherapy 
 
 in, 215 
 psychic, 138 
 Parents, bisexual elements of, in 
 
 child, 304 
 
 influence of, on child, 382 
 Parturition, example of dream analy- 
 sis about, 313 
 of suggestion in, 249 
 technic of suggestion in, 250 
 Patient, co-operation of, as factor in 
 
 therapeutics, 345 
 effect of mental attitude of, 143 
 essentials for the, 345 
 not to suggest kind of treatment, 
 
 223 
 
 Personal magnetism, definition of, K 
 Personality, analysis of, 112 
 as factor in suggestion, 70 
 dissociation of, 107 
 of attendant, example of, 360 
 of person as factor in business, 354 
 of physician, 227 
 abuse of, 359 
 as depressant, 142 
 as factor in invalid wife, 357 
 as factor in therapeutics, 352 
 example of, 356, 360 
 Persons assimilate ideals, 355
 
 404 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Persons cont'd. 
 
 not susceptible to psychotherapy, 
 
 223 
 
 susceptible to psychotherapy, 223 
 Pessimism as etiologic factor, 97 
 conduces to catabolism, 97 
 
 to disease, 111 
 
 Phagocytic resistance, theory of, 95 
 Phenomena, recognition of psychical, 
 
 49 
 
 Philosophy of association method, 314 
 of autosuggestion, 318 
 of conservation of energy, 340 
 of Freud's psychology, 297 
 of hypnotic suggestion, 219 
 of Jung's association method, 308 
 of man, 87 
 of monism, 112 
 of psychoanalysis, 310 
 of psychotherapy, 50, 84, 298, 219, 
 
 239 
 
 of religion, 333 
 of sexual instinct, 258 
 of stimulus words, 306 
 of suggestion, 83 
 of therapeutics, 207 
 of training subconscious self, 525 
 relation of, to health, 332 
 Physical development, diet for, 346 
 
 education as factor in, 381 
 effect of autosuggestion, 321 
 effects, mental causation and, 23 
 inhibitor, psychotherapy as, 26 
 plane of man, 113 
 therapeutics, psychotherapy in re- 
 lation to, 21 
 Physician, abuse of personality of, 
 
 359 
 
 armamentarium of, 127 
 as factor in environment, 366 
 as therapeutic factor, 95, 102 
 brutality of frankness of, 368 
 commercialism of, 375, 378 
 example of personality of, 356, 360 
 mental equipment of, 127 
 mission of, 207 
 personality of, 227 
 abuse of, 359 
 as depressant, 142 
 as factor in invalid wife, 357 
 as factor in therapeutics, 352 
 psychic duty of, 118, 120 
 psychotherapy as function of, 59 
 self-mastery as factor in, 390 
 Physicians not infallible, 329 
 Physiognomy, effect of self-suggestion 
 
 on, 110 
 
 Physiological acquisitions, 48 
 action of anesthetics, 232 
 of chloroform, 231 
 
 Physiological action cont'd. 
 
 of ether, 231 
 
 alteration, thought as factor in, 111 
 manifestation of sexual instinct, :>71 
 psychology, definition of, 4!) 
 
 in medical schools, 65 
 stimulus, psychotherapy as, 26 
 therapeutics, psychotherapy in re- 
 lation to, 21 
 Pleuritis, example of suggestion in, 
 
 151 
 Pneumonia, example of psychotherapy 
 
 in, 141 
 
 neurasthenia as cause of, 41 
 psychasthenia as cause of, 41 
 psychotherapy in, 362 
 Post-hypnotic suggestion, definition 
 
 of, 104 
 Potentialities, suggestion in develop- 
 
 ing, 116 
 Practical theoretical considerations, 
 
 87 
 Pre-hypnotic suggestion, example of, 
 
 73, 77 
 Premature orgasm cause of functional 
 
 disorders, 262 
 
 Prevalence of overeating, 379 
 Prevention of bleeding by suggestion, 
 
 80 
 Principle of Christian science, 319 
 
 of psychotherapy, 112 
 Problems of psychotherapy, 112 
 Progress, virility as factor in, 285 
 Prophylactic factor, psychotherapv as, 
 
 33 
 
 Psychasthenia as cause of appendi- 
 citis, 41 
 
 of pneumonia, 41 
 of stomach trouble, 41 
 of tuberculosis, 41 
 of women's diseases, 41 
 example of psychotherapy in, 211 
 Paquelin cautery in, 226 
 Psychic action, neurosis and psychosis 
 
 basis of, 44 
 
 duty of physician, 118, 120 
 force as factor in therapeutics, 380 
 paralysis, 138 
 stimulation, 53 
 trauma, definition of, 288 
 Psychical impotency, example of hyp- 
 notism in, 196 
 
 phenomena, recognition of, 49 
 Psychoanalysis, definition of, 288 
 dream analysis as factor in, 311 
 in treatment of psychoneurosis, 287 
 object of, 312 
 philosophy of, 310 
 psvchotherapy same principle as, 
 315
 
 INDEX. 
 
 405 
 
 I'.-\ choanalysis cont'd. 
 study of, 316 
 technic of Freud's, 295 
 Psychoanalytic psychotherapy. 27 
 Psycholepsy, example of hypnotism 
 
 in, 168 
 
 Psychologic factor in obstetrics, 247 
 Psychological manifestation of sexual 
 
 instinct, 271 
 
 Psychology, definition of physiolog- 
 ical, 49 
 Freud's, 288 
 individual, 22 
 philosophy of Freud's, 297 
 physiological, in medical schools, 65 
 Psychomotor states, recurrent, 107 
 Psy< honeurasthenia, example of hyp- 
 notism in, 198 
 
 Psychoneurology, example of hypno- 
 tism in, 176 
 
 Psychoneurosis as factor in sexual in- 
 stinct, 259 
 
 psychoanalysis in treatment of. 287 
 sexual instinct as cause of, 2.V> 
 Ps\ choneurotic indigestion, example 
 
 of hypnotism in, 175 
 paralysis, example of hypnotism in, 
 
 173 
 
 Psychosis, neurosis and, basis of psy- 
 chic action, 44 
 
 Psych otherapeutic diagnosis, correct- 
 ness of, 218 
 measures, 21 
 value of Christian science, 135 
 
 of suggestion, 130 
 Psychotherapy an ally of general 
 
 practitioner, 41 
 of surgeon, 41 
 applicability of, in medical practice, 
 
 28 
 as adjunct to therapeutics, 137, 140, 
 
 148 
 
 as assistant to nature, 36 
 as controlling cell function, 40 
 as curative agent, 42 
 as educational measure. 33 
 as employed by Christian scientists, 
 
 24 
 
 by Emanuelists, 136 
 by osteopaths, 136 
 by Weltmerites, 136 
 as function of physician, 59 
 as mental stimulus, 26 
 as physical inhibitor, 26 
 as physiological stimulus, 26 
 as prophylactic factor, 33 
 as therapeutic adjunct, 54 
 
 factor. 33 
 
 as treatment in neurosis, 303 
 awakening interest in. 21 
 
 Psychotherapy cont'd. 
 
 based on scientific principles, 24 
 definition of, 21, 48, -~>l 
 efficacy of, depends on demonstra- 
 tor, 25 
 
 doubted, 238 
 employment of, without knowledge, 
 
 131, 132, 133, 134 
 example of, in anorexia, 212 
 
 in gastritis, 216 
 
 in grand mal, 213 
 
 in insomnia, 223 
 
 in migraine, 209 
 
 in neurasthenia, 105, 214, 217 
 
 in obsessions, 210, 212, 22ti 
 
 in pain in head, 215 
 
 in paralysis, 215 
 
 in pneumonia, 141 
 
 in psychasthenia, 211 
 
 in sticking pin into skin, 221 
 
 in utero-ovarian disease, 211 
 field of, 112 
 Freud's scientific, 290 
 function of, 46 
 in acute diseases, 140 
 in Bright's disease, 54 
 in chronic cases, 55 
 in epilepsy, 213 
 in extreme illness, 371 
 in medical colleges, 43 
 in mental diseases, 27 
 in obstetrics, 247 
 in pneumonia, 362 
 in relation to expectant mother, 243 
 
 to physical therapeutics, 21 
 
 to physiological therapeutics, 21 
 in sexual instinct, 265 
 in tinnitus annum. 94 
 in tuberculosis, 36 
 in uterine fibroid, 146 
 increases functional activity, 43 
 investigation of, 28 
 knowledge of, 28 
 mind and body in, 37 
 monism in, 44 
 neglect of, 30 
 
 not to supplant certain medica- 
 ments. 42 
 
 of universal application, 24 
 persons not susceptible to, 22:5 
 persons susceptible to, 223 
 philosophy of, 50, 84 208, 219, 239 
 principles of, 112 
 problems of, 112 
 psychoanalytic. iT 
 rationale of, 207 
 relation of, to general practice of 
 
 medicine, 32 
 
 to general practice of surge), 
 requirements of application 01
 
 406 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Psychotherapy cont'd. 
 
 same principle as psychoanalysis, 
 315 
 
 scientific basis of, 44 
 
 special function of, 34 
 
 suggestion as tool of, 60 
 
 the result of evolution, 57 
 
 theory of, 46 
 
 to supplant certain medicaments, 42 
 
 value of, 218, 227 
 
 work as factor in, 343 
 Pulmonary tuberculosis, example of 
 hypnotism in, 203 
 
 R 
 
 Rational therapeutics, 207 
 foundation of, 207, 218 
 Rationale of psychotherapy, 207 
 Reason as a factor, 119 
 Recognition of psychical phenomena, 
 
 49 
 Recurrent mental states, 107 
 
 psychomotor states, 107 
 Reflex irritations, operations for, 39 
 Relation of philosophy to health, 332 
 of psychotherapy to general practice 
 
 of medicine, 32 
 
 to general practice of surgery, 32 
 of religion to health, 332 
 Relaxation as aid to health, 351 
 Religion as factor in hysterical emo- 
 tion, 302 
 
 monoideaism in, 334 
 philosophy of, 333 
 suggestion as factor in, 157, 284 
 science as factor in, 333 
 relation of, to health, 332 
 Religious belief, circumstances form, 
 
 338 
 
 emotion and sexual instinct, 123 
 as factor in erotic emotion, 334 
 as factor in masturbation, 260 
 as factor in sexual instinct, 259 
 as habit, 342 
 deleterious effect of, 335 
 effect of, same as excessive sen- 
 suality, 335 
 
 influence of, on child, 384 
 training as impediment to health, 
 
 337 
 Repressed personality as factor in 
 
 neurosis, 293 
 
 sexuality as factor in neurosis, 293 
 Requirements of application of, 326 
 Resistance, theory of phagocytic, 95 
 Resistive power, increase of, by sug- 
 gestion, 92 
 venereal diseases lessen, 256 
 
 Retention of urine, example of hypno- 
 tism in, 184 
 
 Retroverted uterus, example of hypno- 
 tism in, 178 
 
 Rheumatism, improper use of sugges- 
 tion in, 327 
 
 Roughing it as means of health, 347 
 
 Safeguard, correct diagnosis as, 326 
 Sciatica, example of hypnotism in, 188 
 Science as factor in religion, 333 
 Scientific basis of psychotherapy, 44 
 principles, psychotherapy based on, 
 
 24 
 
 Self-control as factor in health, 346 
 Self-healing process of nature, neglect 
 
 of, 110 
 Self-mastery as factor in physician, 
 
 390 
 
 in suggestion, 391 
 as fine art, 388 
 example of lack of, 391 
 Self-preservation instinct, sexual in- 
 stinct second to, 341 
 Self-reliance as factor in health, 323 
 Self-suggestion, effect of, on physiog- 
 nomy, 110 
 
 requires confidence, 145 
 subconscious mind amenable to, 110 
 Sensual intoxication as factor in mar- 
 riage, 272 
 Sensuality, effect of religious emotion 
 
 same as excessive, 335 
 Sexual excesses, monogamy as factor 
 
 in modifying, 341 
 instinct as cause of psychoneurosis, 
 
 255 
 
 as factor in neurasthenia, 147 
 as factor in trauma, 289 
 as incident in marriage, 273 
 beastiality in, 274 
 education as factor in, 269, 276 
 environment as factor in, 269 
 ethical consideration of, 266 
 foundation of, 262 
 guidance of, 255 
 heredity as factor in, 268. 
 philosophy of, 258 
 psychological manifestation of, 
 
 271 
 
 psychoneurosis as-4actor in, 259 
 psychotherapy in, 265 i 
 religious emotion^ad, 123 
 religious emotion as factor in, 259 
 second to self-preservation in- 
 stinct, 341 
 
 relation, monogamy as ideal of, 258 
 theories, Freud's, 293
 
 INDEX. 
 
 407 
 
 Sidis, hypnoidization of, 313 
 Sleep, hypnotism in, 54 
 
 suggestion in, 54 
 Snake, example of dream analysis 
 
 about, 312 
 Soporific, example of suggestion as, 
 
 150 
 
 Source of membership of Christian sci- 
 ence, 337 
 
 Special function of psychotherapy, 34 
 Spine, example of suggestion in affec- 
 tion of, 372 
 
 Spiritual plane of man, 113 
 Static machine in suggestion, 227 
 Sticking pin in body by suggestion, 79, 
 
 81 
 
 into skin, example of psychother- 
 apy in, 221 
 Stiff body, example of suggestion in, 
 
 144 
 
 arm, example of suggestion in, 143 
 limb, example of suggestion in, 138 
 Stiffening of arm by suggestion, 79 
 
 of body by suggestion, 80 
 Stimulation, psychic, 53 
 Stimulus, psychotherapy as mental, 26 
 
 as physiological, 26 
 'words, definition of, 306 
 
 philosophy of, 306 
 Stomach trouble, neurasthenia as 
 
 cause of, 41 
 
 psychasthenia as cause of, 41 
 Study of psychoanalysis, 316 
 Subconscious, definition of, 52 
 
 mind amenable to self-suggestion, 
 
 110 
 
 amenable to suggestion, 91 
 as storehouse of memory, 103 
 definition of, 90 
 function of, 92 
 perceives by intuition, 99 
 the seat of emotion, 108 
 self, philosophy of training, 325 
 
 training, 318 
 Suggestion, abuse of, 59 
 anesthesia produced by, 73 
 as adjunct to anesthesia, 228 
 as factor, 120 
 
 in Christian science, 154 
 in divine healing, 154 
 in faith cure, 154 
 in magnetic healing, 154 
 in mental development, 388 
 in mental science, 154 
 in osteopathy, 154 
 in religion, 157, 284 
 as tool of psychotherapy, 60 
 as treatment in neurosis, 293 
 bleeding prevented by, 93 
 conscious mind amenable to, 91 
 
 Suggestion cont'd. 
 definition of, 60, 130 
 
 of hypnotic, 62 
 
 of post-hypnotic, 104 
 dream analysis as factor in, 312 
 effect of, in Christian science, 62 
 
 morbid, 138 
 
 on character, 60 
 employed in theology, 60 
 example of, as soporific, 150 
 
 hypnotic, 74, 77, 78 
 
 in affection of spine, 372 
 
 in circumcision, 240 
 
 in dentistry, 228 
 
 in exhaustion, 148 
 
 in gastroenterocolitis, 369 
 
 in lacerated cervix, 241 
 
 in mental development, 388 
 
 in morbid consciousness, 158 
 
 in nephritis, 368 
 
 in neurasthenia, 151 
 
 in neuritis, 372 
 
 in parturition, 249 
 
 in pleuritis, 151 
 
 in stiff arm, 143 
 
 in stiff body, 144 
 
 in stiff limb, 138 
 
 in surgery, 229 
 
 in warts, 145 
 
 on music band, 98 
 
 pre-hypnotic, 73, 77 
 
 to hypnotized subject, 75 
 
 with clay pills, 131 
 
 with lemon, 130 
 general utility of, 55 
 hot brick as factor in, 366 
 hypnotism as proof of efficacy of, 69 
 ignorance of hypnotic, 69 
 improper use of, in diphtheria, 327 
 
 in gallstones, 328 
 
 in gastroenterocolitis, 328 
 
 in mastoiditis, 328 
 
 in rheumatism, 327 
 in altering morbid condition, 104 
 in chloroform anesthesia, 238", 240 
 in incurable disease, 373 
 in developing potentialities, 116 
 in education, 381 
 in fevers, 139 
 
 in preventing insanity, 107 
 in sleep, 54 
 
 in surgical anesthesia, 235 
 in syphiology, 139 
 increase of resistive power b\ 
 infection prevented by, 92 
 influence of, on child, 382 
 method of employing, 72 
 not used for amusement, 224 
 philosophy of, 83 
 
 of hypnotic, 219
 
 408 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Suggestion cont'd. 
 personality as factor in, 70 
 prevention of bleeding by, 80 
 psychotherapeutic value of, 130 
 self-mastery as factor in, 391 
 static machine in, 227 
 sticking pin in body by, 79, 81 
 stiffening of arm by, 79 
 
 of body by, 80 
 stimulates bodily function, 331 
 
 mental function, 331 
 subconscious mind amenable to, 91 
 technic of, in parturition, 250 
 therapeutic effect of, 109 
 therapeutics in conjunction with, 
 
 253 
 Suggestive therapeutics, definition of, 
 
 110 
 Supraorbital neuralgia, example of 
 
 hypnotism in, 200 
 Suprapubic cystotomy, example of 
 
 hypnotism in, 194 
 Surgeon, psychotherapy an ally of the, 
 
 41 
 
 Surgery, example of suggestion in, 229 
 indication for, 137 
 relation of psychotherapy to gen- 
 eral practice of, 32 
 Surgical anesthesia, suggestipn in, 235 
 
 with ether and suggestion, 237 
 Symptoms mistaken for epilepsy, 213 
 
 for hysteria, 213 
 Syphiology, suggestion in, 139 
 
 Technic of Freud's psychoanalysis, 
 
 295 
 
 of suggestion in parturition, 250 
 Telepathy, example of, 100 
 
 theory of, 99 
 
 Theism, anthropomorphic, 125 
 Theology, dogmatism of, 126 
 suggestion employed in, 60 
 Theoretical considerations, practical, 
 
 87 
 Theory of insanity, 107 
 
 of phagocytic resistance, 95 
 of psychotherapy, 46 
 of telepathy, 99 
 of thought transference, 99 
 Therapeutic adjunct, psychotherapy 
 
 as, 54 
 
 application of hypnotism, 162 
 effect of suggestion, 109 
 factor, optimism as, 97 
 physician as, 95, 102 
 psychotherapy as, 33 
 power, moral stamina as, 375 
 
 Therapeutics, co-operation of patient 
 
 as factor in, 345 
 definition of suggestive, 110 
 environment in, 364 
 foundation of rational, 207, 218 
 in conjunction with suggestion, 253 
 nonpharmaceutic, 135 
 personality of physician as factor 
 
 in, 352 
 
 philosophy of, 207 
 psychic force as factor in, 380 
 psychotherapy as adjunct to, 137, 
 
 140, 148 
 
 in relation to physical, 21 
 in relation to physiological, 21 
 rational, 207 
 Thought as factor in physiological 
 
 alteration, 111 
 transference, example of, 100 
 
 theory of, 99 
 
 Tinnitus aurium, psychotherapy in, 94 
 Tobacco, use of, as habit, 342 
 Training subconscious self, 318* 
 Trauma, definition of psychic, 288 
 sexual instinct as factor in, 289 
 Treatment, hypnotic, 166 
 
 patient not to suggest kind of, 223 
 Tuberculosis, example of hypnotism 
 
 in pulmonary, 203 
 neurasthenia as cause of, 41 
 psychasthenia as cause of, 41 
 psychotherapy in, 36 
 patients, optimism of, 109 
 
 r 
 
 Urethritis, example of hypnotism in, 
 182 
 
 Urine, example of hypnotism in re- 
 tention of, 184 
 
 Use of tobacco as habit, 342 
 of whisky as habit, 342 
 
 Uterine fibroid, psychotherapy in, 146 
 
 Utero-ovariari disease, example of 
 psychotherapy in, 211 
 
 Value of psychotherapy, 218, 227 
 
 in epilepsy, 213 
 Venereal diseases lessen resistive 
 
 power, 256 
 
 Virility as factor in progress, 285 
 Vis medicatrix naturae in disease, 40 
 Vomiting, example of hypnotism in, 
 
 174 
 
 hypnotism in, 246 
 of pregnancy, example of hypno- 
 tism in, 199
 
 INDEX. 
 
 409 
 
 w 
 
 Waking a hypnotized subject, 81 
 Warts, example of suggestion in, 145 
 Water as functional stimulant, 346 
 Weltrnerites, psychotherapy as em- 
 ployed by,' 136 
 Whisky, use of, as habit, 342 
 
 Will as factor, 119 
 Woman, man's ideal of, 275 
 Woman's ideal of man, 275 
 Women's diseases, neurasthenia as 
 
 cause of, 41 
 
 psychasthenia as cause of, 41 
 Work as factor in psychotherapy, 343 
 Worry as factor in morbidity, 344

 
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