TO CURE MIND SICKNESS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1650, 6 January 1914, Page 3

TO CURE MIND SICKNESS.

SOME MODERN COMPLAINTS. There are many to-day who still cannot understand that there is such a thing as mind sickness, or that a person may show pains and aches as a result of painful mental conflict," says "M.N." in tho "British Weekly.' , "There are many who do not grasp that almost all the symptoms of grose nervous diseases may bo faithfully mirrored for tho hysteric', 'and not becauso Iμ wishes it, but becauso ho cannot help it. The vulnerability of tho human mind to suggestion of a bad typo demands, treatmont by. suggestion of a good type. The- jjsychasthonic who , becomes so because of torturing conflict, and finds relief from tho conflict by tho 6uddon appearance of & symptom, physical or menta', demand , ! a trained mind to discover tho conflict and readjust the mental attitude." '.

A meeting has \mt been held in London to found a medico-psycholoßical clinic "for the treatment of varous mental maladies that do not como under tho heading of insanity. Nowadays a great many , people suffer from mental disabilities, essentially functional in their n;ituro—that is, not duo to demonstrable organic brain disease—wliieh are not catered for by the hosptala, and are not sufficiently gross to need asylum supervision. Their troubles lie'in the realm of ideas, and require handling on psychic, lines.

"Within tho last century considerable advances bavo boon niade in tho treatmont of sucli maladies. It lias been fcund that certain typical functional diseases, such as obsessive thoughts, pathological fears of every description, come forms of insomnia, asthma, stammering, and compulsive actions, ami the manifold varieties of hysteria, whether paralytic, anaesthetic or convulsive, iaay yield to proper psychic treatment. ''There is probably'no branch of medicine that makes such demands on the intelligence and patience of the physician. But the results aro promising, and the, names of Dr. Hart, Dr. Long, and Dr. Craig should bo a sufficient guaranteeof the sincerity and efficiency lying behind tho movement. The clinic will requiro funds to carry out its work amongst tho poor, and tho secretary, Miss Tumor, of 14 Endsloitsh Street, Tavistock Square, W.C., will give any information that is required."