The experiments by reaction—time instruments and the science of psycho-physics
on which they are based were used in normal mental conditions. Since the beginning of the war some psychologists have been very active in employing psycho- analysis—after the schools of Freud and Jung—in mental pathology, and especially in the large class of eases known as "shell-shock," and in consequence claim, by these empirical methods, to have solved hitherto obscure mental problems. Psycho-analysis, no matter what system is used, is prose- cuted under conditions which induce a greater or lesser hypnotic influence on the person subjected to the analysis. The hysterical or suggestive phenomena, so commonly asso- ciated with " shell-shock," proceed from a mental state pecu- liarly amenable to command, and under analysis automatic and purposeful action manifests itself. " Repressed memo- ries " is the name given by the psychologist to the experiences he has called up from the depth of mind, and he assigns to these repressed memories all the ills that the shell-shock sufferer is heir to. The repressed memories may have some bearing on the subject's personality; but when this is so it is only an incidental phenomenon and needs no psycho-analysis to elicit it—if the subject is willing to tell. Is not suppres- sion in these circumstances the proper course? Take the frequent occurrence of a married soldier, who, having borne an exemplary character, has been unfaithful when he was abroad. This man refuses to disclose to the physician the cause of his mental anxiety. Is it right that, having spoken of it when under the influence of psycho-analysis, it should be used against him? The man knows only too well what is worrying him, and I submit that the suppressed memory is not the concern of the psycho-analyst or the physician.
" Tu to ne porti di costui l'eterno, Per una lagrimetta, the it mi toglie."
Only the laving by tears of repentance and confession to those whose trust and affections have been injured can cast out such " repressed memories."
The realm of dreams is still more unfruitful of results by psycho-analysis. It is a question • whether dreams occur in normal sleep; there is no question that there is an abnormal physical basis for the recurring and horrifying dreams cf the "shell-shocked." And if this physical basis is diagnosed, the dream state is easily cured by means of natural therapy. The problems of mental disease are the most complicated in medicine. They cannot be solved by a beginner, nor by a psychologist, who, in the attempt to elucidate them, neglects an exhaustive physical examination of the body, particularly of the nervous system and special sense organs.
The brain is the seat of mind, and while mind influences the body through fleeting and permanent forms of expression, it is true that bodily diseases produce mental disorders, and, so far as the experience of many years of study of mental disease goes, it is my belief that, given a sound mind, all subsequent mental abnormality has a physical basis, and is amenable, i.e., functional, to ordinary therapeutic treatment. Those who have had this experience are the last to give dogmatic statements on mind, its origin and nature. They are only servants of nature, neither talking, like Humboldt's Etru- rian parrot, "the language of an extinct tribe to a people that knows it not," nor desirous of lording it over another man's mind lest they stumble and fall, and in the process bring their subject with them.—I am, Sir, Arc., ALIENIST.
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