PSYCHO-THERAPEUTICS (_continued_).
Methods classified in Two Divisions.--Mental and Oral
Suggestions.--Absent Treatment.--Christian Scientists
handicapped by Absurd Theories.--They claim too much.--The Use
of Drugs.--Dangers arising from too Radical Change.--Importance
of Favorable Mental Environment.--Mental Healing requires
Mental Conditions.--Treatment by Hypnotism.--Bernheim's
Methods.--Illustrative Cases.--The Practical Value of the
System.--The Illogical Limitations of the Theory.--Potency of
Telepathic Suggestion.--Researches of the Society for Psychical
Research.--Mr. Gurney's Experiments.--They demonstrate the Theory
of Effluent Emanations.--Diagnosis by Intuition.--Potency of
Mesmerism.--Permanency of Cures.--Conditions necessary.--The
Example of Jesus.--Self-healing by Auto-suggestion.
The science of mental therapeutics may be classed in two general
divisions, which are distinguished by the different methods of
operation. The same general principle underlies both, but the results
are attained by different modes of procedure.
The first method is by passivity on the part of the patient, and mental
suggestion by the healer.
The second is by passivity on the part of the patient, and oral
suggestion by the healer.
In ordinary practice both methods are used; that is to say, the oral
suggestionist often unconsciously telepaths a mental suggestion to the
subjective mind of the patient. If he thoroughly believes the truth
of his own suggestions, the telepathic effect is sure to follow, and
always to the manifest advantage of the patient. This is why it is that
in all works on hypnotism and mesmerism the value and importance of
self-confidence on the part of the healer, or, in other words, belief
in his own suggestions, is so strenuously insisted upon. Practice and
experience have demonstrated the fact, but no writer on the subject
attempts to give a scientific explanation of it. But when it is known
that telepathy is the normal method of communication between subjective
minds, and that in healing by mental processes it is constantly
employed, consciously or unconsciously to the persons, the explanation
is obvious.
Again, where mental suggestion is chiefly relied upon, the healer
usually begins operations by making oral suggestions. Thus, the
Christian scientist begins by carefully educating his patient in the
fundamental doctrines of the school, and explaining the effects which
are expected to follow the treatment. The mind is thus prepared by
oral suggestions to receive the necessary mental impressions when the
treatment proper begins. The most effective method of healing employed
by that school consists in what it denominates "absent treatment."
This is effected by purely telepathic means. The patient is absent,
and often knows nothing, objectively, of what is being done for him.
The healer sits alone and becomes passive; or, in other words, becomes
partially self-hypnotized, and addresses the patient mentally, and
proceeds to argue the question with him. The condition of health is
strongly asserted and insisted upon, and the possibility of disease
as strenuously denied. The advantages of this means of treatment are
obvious. The telepathic suggestions are made solely to the subjective
mind of the patient, and do not rise above the threshold of his
consciousness. The subjective mind, being constantly amenable to
control by the power of suggestion, accepts the suggestions offered,
and, having in its turn perfect control of the functions and conditions
of the body, it proceeds to re-establish the condition of health.
In other words, it abandons the abnormal idea of disease; and, in
obedience to the telepathic suggestions of the healer, it seizes upon
the normal idea of health. It will readily be seen that by this method
of treatment the patient is placed in the best possible condition for
the reception of healthful suggestions. He is necessarily in a passive
condition. That is, being unconscious, objectively, of the mental
suggestions which are being made to his subjective mind, he is not
handicapped by antagonistic auto-suggestions arising from objective
doubt of the power of the healer, or of the correctness of his
theories. The latter is the most serious obstacle which the Christian
scientist has to contend with; and it is safe to say that if his school
had not been handicapped by a theory which shocks the common-sense of
the average man, its sphere of usefulness would have been much larger
than it is now. The school is doing a great and noble work as it is,
but it is chiefly among those who are credulous enough to disbelieve
the evidence of their own senses. There is, however, a large and
growing class of people, calling themselves Christian scientists, who
ignore the fundamental absurdities of the theory of the founder of
the sect, and content themselves with the knowledge that the practice
produces good results. Each one of these formulates a theory of his
own, and each one finds that, measured by the standard of results, his
theory is correct. The obvious conclusion is that one theory is as good
as another, provided always that the mode of operation under it does
not depart, in any essential particular, from the standard, and that
the operator has the requisite faith in his own theory and practice.
Another circumstance which handicaps the enthusiastic votaries of
each of the schools consists in the tendency of all reformers to
claim too much for their systems. Forgetting that they have to deal
with a generation of people with a hereditary belief in the power of
medicines to cure disease, a people whose habits of life and thought
are materialistic to the last degree, they expect to change that
belief instantaneously, and cause the new method to take the place
of the old in all cases and under all circumstances. In other words,
they expect to cure all diseases by mental methods alone, and they
seek to prohibit their patients from employing any other physician
or using any medicines whatever. This is wrong in theory and often
dangerous in practice. It may be true, and doubtless is, that one
great source of the power of drugs to heal disease is attributable
to the mental impression created upon the mind of the patient at
the time the drug is administered. This being true, it follows that
when a patient believes in drugs, drugs should be administered. If
Christian science or any other mental method of healing can then be
made available as an auxiliary, it should be employed. But this is just
what the ultra-reformers refuse to do. They insist upon the discharge
of the family physician, and the destruction of all the medicines
in the house, before they will undertake to effect a cure by mental
processes. It frequently happens that the patient is not sufficiently
well grounded in the new faith, or is afflicted with some disease not
readily reached by mental processes, and dies on their hands, when
perhaps he might have been saved by the combined efforts of the family
doctor and the Christian scientist. Be that as it may, when the patient
dies under such circumstances, the Christian scientist must needs bear
the brunt of popular condemnation. It goes without saying that one
such case does more to retard the progress of mental therapeutics in
popular estimation than a thousand miraculous cures can do to promote
it. Again, much harm is done to the cause of mental healing by claiming
for it too wide a field of usefulness. Theoretically, all the diseases
which flesh is heir to are curable by mental processes. Practically,
the range of its usefulness is comparatively limited. The lines of its
field are not clearly defined, however, for the reason that so much
depends on the idiosyncrasies of each individual patient. A disease
which can be cured in one case refuses to yield in another, the mental
attitudes of the patients not being the same. Besides, the mental
environment of the patient has much to do with his amenability to
control by mental processes. In an atmosphere of incredulity, doubt,
and prejudice, a patient stands little chance of being benefited,
however strong may be his own faith in mental therapeutics. Every
doubt existing in the minds of those surrounding him is inevitably
conveyed telepathically to his subjective mind, and operates as an
adverse suggestion of irresistible potentiality. It requires a very
strong will, perfect faith, and constant affirmative auto-suggestion
on the part of the patient to overcome the adverse influence of an
environment of incredulity and doubt, even though no word of that doubt
is expressed in presence of the patient. It goes without saying that
it is next to impossible for a sick person to possess the necessary
mental force to overcome such adverse conditions. Obviously, the mental
healer who undertakes a case under such circumstances, procures the
discharge of the family physician, and prohibits the patient from using
medicines, assumes a very grave responsibility, and does so at the risk
of the patient's life and his own reputation.
Success in mental healing depends upon proper mental conditions, just
as success in healing by physical agencies depends upon proper physical
conditions. This is a self-evident proposition, which the average
mental healer is slow to understand and appreciate.
The success of the physician depends as largely upon his knowledge
of the idiosyncrasies of his patient, his personal habits, his mode
of living, his susceptibility to the influence of medicines, etc.,
as upon a correct diagnosis and medicinal treatment of the disease.
In like manner the success of the mental healer depends largely upon
his knowledge of his patient's habits of thought, his beliefs, his
prejudices, and, above all, his mental environment.
These remarks apply to all methods of mental healing; and, for
the purposes of this book, Christian science may be taken as a
representative of all systems of healing by mental suggestion, as
distinguished from oral suggestion.
Hypnotism, as practised by the Nancy school, may stand as the
representative of mental treatment of disease by purely oral
suggestion. The following extract from Professor Bernheim's able work
on "Suggestive Therapeutics" (chapter i.) embraces the essential
features of the methods of inducing sleep practised by that school:
"I begin by saying to the patient that I believe benefit is to
be derived from the use of suggestive therapeutics; that it is
possible to cure or to relieve him by hypnotism; that there is
nothing either hurtful or strange about it; that it is an _ordinary
sleep_, or torpor, which can be induced in every one, and that this
quiet, beneficial condition restores the equilibrium of the nervous
system, etc. If necessary, I hypnotize one or two subjects in his
presence, in order to show him that there is nothing painful in
this condition, and that it is not accompanied with any unusual
sensation. When I have thus banished from his mind the idea of
magnetism and the somewhat mysterious fear that attaches to that
unknown condition, above all when he has seen patients cured or
benefited by the means in question, he is no longer suspicious, but
gives himself up. Then I say, 'Look at me, and think of nothing
but sleep. Your eyelids begin to feel heavy, your eyes tired. They
begin to wink, they are getting moist, you cannot see distinctly.
They are closed.' Some patients close their eyes and are asleep
immediately. With others, I have to repeat, lay more stress on
what I say, and even make gestures. It makes little difference
what sort of gesture is made. I hold two fingers of my right hand
before the patient's eyes and ask him to look at them, or pass both
hands several times before his eyes, or persuade him to fix his
eyes upon mine, endeavoring, at the same time, to concentrate his
attention upon the idea of sleep. I say, 'Your lids are closing,
you cannot open them again. Your arms feel heavy, so do your
legs. You cannot feel anything. Your hands are motionless. You
see nothing, you are going to sleep.' And I add, in a commanding
tone, 'Sleep.' This word often turns the balance. The eyes close,
and the patient sleeps, or is at least influenced. I use the word
'sleep,' in order to obtain as far as possible over the patients
a suggestive influence which shall bring about sleep, or a state
closely approaching it; for sleep, properly so called, does not
always occur. If the patients have no inclination to sleep, and
show no drowsiness, I take care to say that sleep is not essential;
that the hypnotic influence, whence comes the benefit, may exist
without sleep; that many patients are hypnotized, although they do
not sleep.
"If the patient does not shut his eyes or keep them shut, I do
not require them to be fixed on mine, or on my fingers, for any
length of time, for it sometimes happens that they remain wide open
indefinitely, and instead of the idea of sleep being conceived,
only a rigid fixation of the eyes results. In this case, closure
of the eyes by the operator succeeds better. After keeping them
fixed one or two minutes, I push the eyelids down, or stretch them
slowly over the eyes, gradually closing them more and more, and
so imitating the process of natural sleep. Finally, I keep them
closed, repeating the suggestion, 'Your lids are stuck together,
you cannot open them. The need of sleep becomes greater and
greater, you can no longer resist.' I lower my voice gradually,
repeating the command, 'Sleep,' and it is very seldom that more
than three minutes pass before sleep or some degree of hypnotic
influence is obtained. It is sleep by suggestion,--a type of sleep
which I insinuate into the brain.
"Passes or gazing at the eyes or fingers of the operator are only
useful in concentrating the attention; they are not absolutely
essential.
"As soon as they are able to pay attention and understand, children
are, as a rule, very quickly and very easily hypnotized. It often
suffices to close their eyes, to hold them shut a few moments, to
tell them to sleep, and then to state that they are asleep.
"Some adults go to sleep just as readily by simple closure of the
eyes. I often proceed immediately, without making use of passes
or fixation, by shutting the eyelids, gently holding them closed,
asking the patient to keep them together, and suggesting at the
same time the phenomena of sleep. Some of them fall rapidly into a
more or less deep sleep. Others offer more resistance. I sometimes
succeed by keeping the eyes closed for some time, commanding
silence and quiet, talking continuously, and repeating the same
formulas: 'You feel a sort of drowsiness, a torpor; your arms and
legs are motionless. Your eyelids are warm. Your nervous system is
quiet; you have no will. Your eyes remain closed. Sleep is coming.'
etc. After keeping up this auditory suggestion for several minutes,
I remove my fingers. The eyes remain closed. I raise the patient's
arms; they remain uplifted. We have induced cataleptic sleep."
Having succeeded in inducing sleep, or getting the patient in a passive
and receptive condition, the operator then proceeds to suggest the
idea of recovery from the disease with which he is afflicted. On this
subject the author speaks as follows:--
"_The patient is put to sleep by means of suggestion_; that is, by
making the idea of sleep penetrate the mind. He is _treated by
means of suggestion_; that is, by making the idea of cure penetrate
the mind. The subject being hypnotized, M. Liébault's method
consists in _affirming in a loud voice the disappearance of his
symptoms_.
"We try to make him believe that these symptoms no longer exist,
or that they will disappear, the pain will vanish; that the
feeling will come back to his limbs; that the muscular strength
will increase; and that his appetite will come back. We profit
by the special psychical receptivity created by the hypnosis, by
the cerebral docility, by the exalted ideo-motor, ideo-sensitive,
ideo-sensorial reflex activity, in order to provoke useful
reflexes, to persuade the brain to do what it can to transform the
accepted idea into reality.
"Such is the method of therapeutic-suggestion of which M. Liébault
is the founder. He was the first clearly to establish that the
cures obtained by the old magnetizers, and even by Braid's hypnotic
operations, are not the work either of a mysterious fluid or of
physiological modifications due to special manipulations, but the
work of suggestion alone. The whole system of magnetic medicine is
only the medicine of the imagination; the imagination is put into
such a condition by the hypnosis that it cannot escape from the
suggestion.
"M. Liébault's method was ignored a long time, even by the
physicians at Nancy. In 1884 Charles Richet was satisfied to
say that magnetism often has advantages, that it calms nervous
agitation, and that it may cure or benefit certain insomnias.
"Since 1882 I have experimented with the suggestive method which I
have seen used by M. Liébault, though timidly at first, and without
any confidence. To-day it is daily used in my clinic; I practise it
before my students; perhaps no day passes in which I do not show
them some functional trouble, pain, paresis, uneasiness, insomnia,
either moderated or instantly suppressed by suggestion.
"For example: a child is brought to me with a pain like muscular
rheumatism in its arm, dating back four or five days. The arm is
painful to pressure; the child cannot lift it to its head. I say
to him, 'Shut your eyes, my child, and go to sleep.' I hold his
eyelids closed, and go on talking to him. 'You are asleep, and you
will keep on sleeping until I tell you to wake up. You are sleeping
very well, as if you were in your bed. You are perfectly well and
comfortable; your arms and legs and your whole body are asleep,
and you cannot move.' I take my fingers off his eyelids, and
they remain closed; I put his arms up, and they remain so. Then,
touching the painful arm, I say, 'The pain has gone away. You have
no more pain anywhere; you can move your arm without any pain; and
when you wake up you will not feel any more pain. It will not come
back any more.' In order to increase the force of the suggestion by
embodying it, so to speak, in a material sensation, following M.
Liébault's example I suggest a feeling of warmth _loco dolente_.
The heat takes the place of the pain. I say to the child, 'You feel
that your arm is warm; the warmth increases, and you have no more
pain.'
"I wake the child in a few minutes; he remembers nothing; the sleep
has been profound. The pain has almost completely disappeared; the
child lifts the arm easily to his head. I see the father on the
days following: he is the postman who brings my letters. He tells
me that the pain has disappeared completely, and there has been no
return of it.
"Here, again, is a man twenty-six years old, a workman in the
foundries. For a year he has experienced a painful feeling of
constriction over the epigastrium, also a pain in the corresponding
region of the back, which was the result of an effort made in
bending an iron bar. The sensation is continuous, and increases
when he has worked for some hours. For six months he has been
able to sleep only by pressing his epigastrium with his hand.
I hypnotize him. In the first séance I can induce only simple
drowsiness; he wakes spontaneously; the pain continues. I hypnotize
him a second time, telling him that he will sleep more deeply,
and that he will remember nothing when he wakes. Catalepsy is not
present. I wake him in a few minutes; he does not remember that I
spoke to him, that I assured him that the pain had disappeared. It
has completely disappeared; he no longer feels any constriction. I
do not know whether it has reappeared."[29]
The foregoing extracts present the gist of the methods employed by the
Nancy school of hypnotism. The hypnotic condition is induced solely by
oral suggestion, and the disease is removed by the same means. There
can be no doubt of the efficacy of the method, thousands of successful
experiments having been made by the author and his colleagues. These
experiments have demonstrated the existence of a power in man to
control by purely mental processes,--the functions and conditions of
the human body. They have thus laid the foundation of a system of
mental therapeutics which must eventually prove of great value to
mankind. But they have done more. They have demonstrated a principle
which reaches out far beyond the realm of therapeutics, and covers all
the vast field of psychological research. They have demonstrated the
constant amenability of the subjective mind to control by the power
of suggestion. It is not surprising that those who have discovered
this great principle should insist upon its applicability to every
phenomenon within the range of their investigations; but it is strange
that they should fail to recognize a co-ordinate power governed by
the same law, within the same field of operations. Yet this is true
of the modern scientific school of hypnotism to-day. The Nancy school
believes in the power of suggestion, but confines its faith to oral
suggestion. Having demonstrated that _oral_ suggestion is efficacious
in the production of psychic phenomena, they hold that _mental_
suggestion has no power in the same direction. Having demonstrated that
certain phenomena can be induced independently of any so-called fluidic
emanation or effluence from the hypnotist, they hold that no fluidic
emanation is possible. These conclusions are not only illogical, they
are demonstrably incorrect. The Christian scientists are constantly
demonstrating the potency of purely telepathic suggestion by what
they denominate "absent treatment;" _i.e._, treatment of sick persons
without the knowledge of the patients. That there is a power emanating
from the operator who hypnotizes by means of mesmeric passes, seems
to be very well authenticated by the experiments recorded by the
old mesmerists. It must be admitted, however, that many of their
experiments do not conclusively prove anything, for the reason that
they were made before suggestion as a constant factor in hypnotism had
been demonstrated. Recent experiments by members of the London Society
for Psychical Research have, however, now placed that question beyond
a doubt. Their methods of investigation are purely scientific, and
were made with a full knowledge and appreciation of the principle of
suggestion, and of the distinction between mesmerism and hypnotism.
In an account of some experiments in mesmerism, written by Mr. Edmund
Gurney, and recorded in vol. ii. pp. 201-205, of the Proceedings of the
Society referred to, a very interesting experiment is mentioned, which
demonstrates the fact that there is an effluence emanating from the
mesmerizer which is capable of producing very marked physical effects
upon the subject. In this case the subject was blindfolded and allowed
to remain in his normal condition during the whole of the experiment.
His hands were then spread out upon a table before him, his fingers
wide apart. The mesmerizer then made passes over one of the fingers,
taking care not to move his hand near enough to the subject's finger
to cause a perceptible movement of the atmosphere, or to give any
indication in any other way which finger was being mesmerized. The
result was, in every instance, the production of local anæsthesia in
the finger operated upon, and in no other.
Oral suggestion, or any other form of physical suggestion, was here out
of the question; and telepathic suggestion was extremely improbable,
in view of the fact that the subject was in his normal condition, and
consequently not in subjective rapport with the operator. A further
experiment was then tried, with a view of ascertaining whether it was
necessary for the mesmerist to know which finger he was operating upon.
To that end, the operator's hand was guided by the hand of a third
party while the passes were being made; and it was found that the
selected finger was unaffected, when the operator did not know which
one it was.
The first of these experiments demonstrates the fact that there is an
effluence emanating from the mesmerist; and the second demonstrates the
fact that this effluence is directed by his will.
What this effluence is, man may never know. That it is a vital fact in
psychic phenomena is certain. Like many other subtle forces of nature,
it defies analysis. That it exists, and that under certain conditions
not yet very clearly defined it can be controlled by the conscious
intelligence of man, is as certain as the existence of electricity. Its
source is undoubtedly the subjective mind, and it is identical with
that force which, under other conditions, reappears in the form of
so-called spirit-rappings, table-tipping, etc.
Space will not permit the reproduction of further account of the
experiments of the Society for Psychical Research and the reader is
referred to their Proceedings for fuller information. It must suffice
to say that the experiments referred to are completely demonstrative,
not only of the fact that an effluence does emanate from the mesmeric
operator, but that under mesmeric conditions telepathic suggestion is
as potent as are the oral suggestions of the hypnotists.
These facts are beginning to be recognized even by the scientists of
Europe, thanks to the carefully conducted experiments of the Society
for Psychical Research. Professor Liébault himself, the discoverer
of the law of suggestion, now freely admits the fact that a specific
influence is sometimes exerted by the mesmerizer upon his subject,
which does not arise from oral suggestion. In fact, this doctrine must
soon be, if it is not now, one of the recognized principles of psychic
science.
It will thus be seen that healing by mesmerism is a process clearly
distinct from healing by hypnotism. The latter depends for its
effects wholly upon oral suggestion and the unaided power of the
subjective mind of the patient over the functions and conditions of
his body; whereas the mesmeric healer exerts a positive force of great
potentiality upon the body of the patient, filling it with vitality, in
addition to the oral suggestion of the hypnotist. Not only so, but when
purely mesmeric methods are employed,--that is, when the mesmerist is
in subjective rapport with his patient, as fully explained in a former
chapter,--he is in a condition to convey suggestions telepathically
with as much certainty and potency as he could orally. In point of
fact, telepathic suggestions by a genuine mesmerist are often far more
efficacious than the oral suggestions of a hypnotist, for the simple
reason that the mesmerist, being in a partially subjective condition
himself, is able to perceive by intuition the true condition of the
patient. In other words, the intuitive, or subjective, diagnosis of an
intelligent mesmerist, supposing always the true mesmeric conditions
to be present, is far more likely to be correct than the objective
diagnosis of the hypnotist. For, be it known, it is just as necessary
for the mental healer, whatever may be his processes or his theory,
to be able to make a correct diagnosis of a case as it is for the
allopathic physician. The reason is the same in both cases. The efforts
of the healer must necessarily be exerted in the right direction, or
they will be futile. Hence it is that, other things being equal, the
most intelligent mental healer is always the most successful.
Taking it for granted, then, that there is a fluidic emanation, or
effluence, proceeding from the mesmerist and impinging upon the
patient, it follows that there is a positive dynamic force exerted
upon the patient, either for good or evil, by the employment of
mesmeric methods. That its effects are salutary when properly used for
therapeutic purposes is proved by the concurrent testimony of all who
have intelligently made the experiment, from the days of Paracelsus
down to the present time.
From this it would appear that mesmerism must be the most powerful, in
its immediate effects, of any of the known methods of mental healing.
It combines oral suggestion with mental suggestion, and employs in
addition that mysterious psycho-physical force, or effluence, popularly
known as animal magnetism.
Before leaving this branch of the subject, a few remarks will be in
order regarding the relative value of the different systems of mental
healing now in vogue. It has frequently been charged that healing
by hypnotism and mesmerism is not lasting in its effects,--that no
permanent cure is ever made by these methods. It must be admitted that
there is some ground for these statements, although so sweeping a
charge is by no means justifiable. It is true that in many instances
patients who have been cured by hypnotism and mesmerism have suffered
a relapse, and in some cases the relapse has been worse than was the
original sickness. This of itself constitutes no valid objection to
the means of cure; for it must be admitted that under no system of
treatment is a patient free from the danger of a relapse or of a
recurrence of the disease at some future time. There is, however, this
to be said in regard to hypnotic or mesmeric treatment which does not
apply with the same force to healing by medicines. The success of
mental methods of treatment depending, as it does, upon the mental
condition of the patient and upon the mental impressions made upon
him, it follows that if the mental impressions are not permanent, the
cure may not be permanent. Hence it often happens that a patient,
elated by the success of hypnotic treatment in his case, relates the
circumstances to his friends, especially to his sceptical associates,
only to meet with a storm of ridicule, or at least with expressions
of incredulity or doubt. In such a mental environment his subjective
mind inevitably takes hold of the adverse suggestions, and without
being objectively conscious of it, he has lost faith, the citadel of
his defence is broken down, and if his disease had a mental origin,
he is open to another attack more severe and serious perhaps than the
first. That Christ was fully alive to this danger is shown by the fact
that when he healed a person in private, he rarely failed to place the
solemn injunction upon him, "See thou tell no man." No recorded words
that the Master ever uttered display a more profound knowledge of the
underlying principles of mental healing than these. Modern healers
are not so modest, nor do they seem to understand the prime necessity
for seeing to it that their patients are kept in a proper frame of
mind in reference to their disease and the means employed to cure
them. The general principle of auto-suggestion is recognized by all
scientific hypnotists of the present day; but they fail to recognize
its extreme importance as a therapeutic agent. Properly understood
and applied, auto-suggestion supplies a means of enabling every one
to heal himself, or at least to hold himself in the proper mental
attitude to make permanent the good effects of hypnotic treatment by
others. Many of the pains and ills to which the average man is subject
can be cured by this means, and it should be the first care of every
hypnotist to instruct his patients in this branch of the science.
In this respect the Christian scientists are far in advance of the
hypnotists and mesmerists. They teach their patients how to help
themselves. They organize them into classes, deliver lectures, and give
minute instructions how to treat themselves, as well as how to treat
others. Without knowing it, they in effect teach their patients the
methods of auto-suggestion. Without having the remotest conception of
the real principles which underlie their so-called "science," they have
somehow stumbled upon the machinery of mental therapeutics. To do them
full justice, it must be said that they employ the machinery to good
purpose. They do much good and little harm, and the little harm they
do, generally arises from over confidence in the universal efficacy of
their methods.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 29: Suggestive Therapeutics, p. 206.]
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