DREAM SYMPTOMS

Dominion, 14 August 1919, Page 6

DREAM SYMPTOMS

$■ NEW CURE FOR DEPRESSION. (Bv a Medical Curvespondent of the "Daily ■ Jluw.") It is generally admitted that the days of peaco ""ill be strenuous. Every day vc tiro warned by eminent authorities upon finance and industry that we must work liarder than ever, and "speed up" iji all kinds of production. The strain of tho war years luis left a largo number of otherv."is£> healthy parsons in a nervous ■and menial condition i'avounablo to the development of minor psychopathic symptoms.

■ The case of a friend of mine is typical. Hβ ia strong and athletic and has led a regular life. His Army record shows that he was an intrepid fighter and a distinguished sniper, who enjoyed danger. But too loss tit n dear comrade, who was shot at his side, and the ilong strain of the war, havo contributed to the stale commonly described as "shock" or "nervous, breakdown."

Ho is anxious to reconstruct his business and to work as hard in peace as lie did 'during the war. "Unfortunately lie has become depressed, apprehensive, and sleepless. He foresees trouble in his factory, and had a constant ungrounded dread that "something is going to hapl)eii." For some undefined reason he dreads every Wednesday, and feels worse on that day. He still looks physically lit. but hi-; mental condition causes him «nd hia reijitives aeutß nxietj'. _Nto\v, in all bodily uvn Indies the physician endeavours to discover a cnusn. The ordinary general practitioner rarely professes that he is experienced in the treatment of psyelrosis. He recommends a change of scena, tonics, rest, "feedingiip/* and often doses of bromide to "quiet the uerves." But my friend showed no improvement under this.treatment, Ho to grow nioro anxious when ho was tojd that lie must banish all thoughts of business from his mind and take a long holiday.

At my suggestion my friend consulted one of the new school of mental therapists who practise psycho-analjsis. This specialist knew that war strain and emotionai'J disturbance were not the primary causes of the psychic state, any more than lying on wet gross is tho "cause" of rheumatism.

'Shook is the liberating stimulus for latent, or partly active, morbid fears or impulsion.;. The source of the trouble is hi tho unconscious mind, and entirely hiddon from the sufferer. Consciousness" is a mere film on the surface of the enormously deep pool of the unconscious. The real you or me lives and works mostly m tho depths of the uncoil- tious mind, n.nd we. do not oven suspect the continual conflict between a host of repressed longings and the inhibitiiii; forces. Psycho-analysis is a process of dqlvins into tho unconsciousness, ond it can be justly claimed that the psycho-analytic method has worked marvels, of mental nettling, and revealed tho (rue source of naffling psychic manifeslations hitherto classed (is "noiirnslhenin," or as positive insanity. It is hardly too much to say that tho exponents and iiractitioners of this scienco have rediscovered fho human mind. So much is known now of the unconscious that, as a psycho-analyst expressed it the other day, "we are' really beginning to Inow more about the unconscious than the conscious mind."

,A strange depressing phobin, or a persistent longing to escape from the terrors or the realities of life, is an indication of a submersed mental complex, or an unreycaled "fixation" of nn infantile longing in the adult unconscious mind.

Iho psycho-analyst has no material aids to t a euro. He knows that neither bromide nor quinine will expel a deepseated delusion nor remove Hie cause of He converses doily with ■.is patient, who relates his fears mid records his dratme; and out of the dream fantasies, in which the true you and me exhibit themselves more or'less boldly and shamelessly, (hi, psycho-nnnlyst disentangles tho clue to the bewildering obsession or tho ever-haunting anxiety. Gradually tho psychic sufferer undergoes a re-education, not from any direct counsel from the physician, but throiHi llu> now light that is shed upon the Miurce o{ his conscious distress or deep dcjoction.

It may be siiirl that psycho-analysis provides now minds for old. 'J'lic method Ims re-tored a multitude of minds perplexed nml depressed, saved many on tho brink or insanity, inspired confidence in the fearful, and hanish'e'd tho doubt and eolf-depreeiiilion that hinder the fulfilnienfc of innnto capucitics. It has tnuglit many persons with criminal or vieiou,* propensities that the very impulses ilmt urge to crime or vice can be romnletely gratified nnd maiio lo serve n valuable purpose by transferenco lo other outlets