War Shock and Hypnotism.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 10 November 1917, Page 4

War Shock and Hypnotism.

+ SOME REMARKABLE CASES. PARALYSIS AND BLINDNESS CURED. In an appeal case beforo the Auckland Military Service 6oard on Friday last, reference was made to tho value of hypnotism in' cases' of war shock. Some interesting facts relating to this subject arc given in a book by M. D. Eder, B.Sc., Lond., M.E.C.S., L.E.C.P., Lond. recently published by Heincnianii Dr. Eder, a properly qualified doctor, who has given years to the study of tho subject, carried out his treatment in tho presence of his medical colleagues with the approval and interest of his commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Scanlan, and his confreres, Colonel Purves Stewart and Surgeon-General Whitehead, to whose cnlightment and broadmindedncss the public are greatly indebted. The eases treated were soldiers who had fought in the Gallipoli campaign, and 'who were conveyed to the hospital at Malta. It is strenuously insisted that the sufferer for war shock must not be regarded as a feeble person or a degenerate, and is, of course, not a "skrimshanker.'' On the contrary, the disease is likely to attack the bravest and most conscientious. CASE or AN IRISH "V.C." Thus, one of the patients was recommended for the V.C. in the very light that brought him with a paralysed hand to the doctor. He was a young Irishman who was in a trench with a few men which was attacked by 300 Turks. He leapt out of the trench, and engaged in a hand-to-hand fight, during which ho received fifteen bayonet wounds, fortunately none of them dangerous. Fourteen of the wounds were on the right side of the body, the most exposed part, because he was a left-hand-ed man. After the wounds were all healed he was found by Colonel Purvis Stewart, the distinguished nerve specialist, to be suffering from paralysis of the right hand; he had no feeling on the right half of the body, and could not feel when a pin was pricked into him. These symptoms were proved to have no connection with the wounds, and to have no physical cause at all. He was placed under Dr. Eder, who gives the following explanation of the condition: — "The hand was paralysed in the exact position in which it was held during the glorious bayonet fight. There was an inner self, 'the unconscious mind' which wanted to continue the good fight, and symbolised this desire in the bent hand. The absence of sensation on the exposed side of the body is made equally Iritelligible. He was a highly strung, sensitive young Irish- ! man. Had he felt p&in on the battlefield, he would either have had to give I up the light or let go his rifle and to killed. The motive was the same as Nelson's conscious motive in putting up his telescope to his blind eye at the battle of the Sound. Nelson wanted to go on fighting. So did this soldier; he was not to be put off by feeling pain from ever so many wounds; he would not allow himself to feel pain. The patient was hypnotised, and on suggesting to him that the fight was over, and he could let go the rifle, his hand immediately relaxed. The normal feeling in the skin was restored at tho same time." 1

Another striking case was that of an Australian who had been blind for sixweeks in the right eye. He had been seen by Colonel Stewart and the eye specialist, who agreed there was nothing the matter with the eye itself. This patient was sniping when an enemy bullet knocked a piece off the stock of his rifle, but he continued at his post. A little later ho could not see the rifle "sights," and in a few hours later his right eye was quite blind. He was a lad of strong courage, with the soldier's instinct strongly developed; he did not give up his post despite the danger; but when his eye went blind ho was able without loss of self-respect to retire. By "suggestion" sight was regained in a few minutes. A similar striking result is given of a soldier dumb and paralysed on one side of the body. Treatment restored speech, and the nest day he was walking about. HOW IT IS DONE. The rule was for a patient to be seen first by the physicians, who decided that there was no physical cause for the illness. Dr. Eder then made a close pschological investigation. It was explained to the patient that ho was suffering from a mental trouble; he was encouraged to talk freely about himself and his illness. This enabled the doctor to get the clue he was seeking for and ultimately to make the appropriate suggestion, usually under hypnosis, which had often to be repeated till the desired result was obtained and the patient had reassumed control. If the case is neglected, more prolonged treatment is often necessary. One niore case to raise the spirits of those similarly affected. A clerk suffering from shell shock remained in hospital and camp for nearly ten months without any improvement. He was then discharged from the Army with a gratuity of £20. The poor fellow now, believing himself incurable and that he would never get work, became more and more despondent, and filially got so bad that he could not read or write a few lines or add a couple of figures. He was being supported by relatives. "A few weeks' treatment restored him to the normal and put him in a position to earn a livelihood.'' Dr. Eder claims that the larger number of these cases can be cured in an extraordinary short time. He asks that the treatment should be carried out as soon as possible before a vicious habit is set up, and that no nerve ease should bo discharged from the Army till cured. Those who have seen the pitiable discharged wrecks, deaf, dumb, blind and paralysed, and even more those who have to stand by helplessly and see the agony and despair that overtake their menfolk finding themselves every day becoming worse, will see in this treatment a promise of new and most blessed hope. The London "Daily Mail," in its review of Dr. Eder V book, says: The writer makes it clear that modern mental science is not helpless in the presence of this often terrible suffering. And one cannot close the book without feeling that such treatment ought to be available to the numerous men now going from doctor to doctor without result, and finally sinking into all the miseries of a b««kdaivn of nerves and functions that by a stroke of unusual luck is sometimes thrown off or healed by time, but that is more likely to land the unhappy victim in a condition of hopeless and helpless melancholia.