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them subject to degenerative K hoses. The same author also thinks that "emotional
ss" has its significance. As a matter of
fact, if we are to satisfy the indicatio causalis when treating
progressive paralysis we must insist on absolute mental rest from the moment
premonitory symptoms of the disease appear, not merely because the diseased
organ requires rest, but because mental influences may have helped to cause
the disease. As already pointed out, psycho-therapeusis is specially indicated
for treating the symptoms of organic disease. But we have further to consider
how such diseases react on the patient's mental life. We must endeavour to minimize
the feeling of ill-health—for example, by recommending a tabetic patient
to engage in some congenial occupation, not merely because that is desirable
from a domestic point of view. And mental treatment is all the more indicated
when we have to
320 HYPNOTISM.
deal with such concomitant troubles as sleeplessness, loss of appetite, and
an unhappy frame of mind.
Having thus thoroughly discussed the indications for hypnotic treatment, I must
now add a few words on the contra-indications. In some cases the treatment may
be contra-indicated if auto-suggestion produces unpleasant results which cannot
be counteracted, and which outweigh the benefits to be expected from hypnosis.
Fear of hypnosis often prevents hypnosis, or puts it off until the fear has
subsided. As we have already seen, a patient who is afraid of being hypnotized
often exhibits unpleasant symptoms. In the same way care should be exercised
when hypnotizing excited or weak-minded patients, and we should even desist
when the subject is hysterical and has a tendency to morbid auto-suggestion.
Of course I do not profess that any unimportant disturbance of auto-suggestive
origin should prevent us from employing hypnosis. On the contrary, the good
results which we expect from hypnosis must be compared with the possible evils
of auto-suggestion, and a definite conclusion thereby arrived at in the manner
customary in medical practice. It should be evident from what I have already
said, that such contretemps as a feeling of vertigo caused by auto-suggestion,
or an occasional attack of hysteria, should not lead us to abstain from hypnotic
treatment. But it is only the medical specialist who can appreciate the significance
of such concomitant symptoms and draw a correct conclusion from them. The fact
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