HYPNOTISM CURES IN WAR.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 223, 3 November 1916, Page 8 (Supplement)

HYPNOTISM CURES IN WAR.

TREATMENT THAT HA« RESTORED MANY BROKEN FIGHTERS. By ONE WHO HAS SEEN IT. B.forc the war few subjects had been f-o contemptuously dismissed by men of science as the phenomena of Vvpnotism. Hypnotism!-' A black art. \ thing to shun. A stage conjuring trick. > weapon of beetle-browed villain-. "Something that robs you of your willpower." Modical science treads cautiously. I'ntil recent years it viewed with scop-tic-ism one of the oldest cures in the world, hypnotism, a sconce practised by the ancients, that manv believe to have heen the basis of the miracles recorded in the Bible. It is onlv s : nce the war that hypnotic-suggestion has become universally acknow. edged by thinking people as the best cure tor functional disorders, mental strain and nervous injuries, such as "shc.l shock,'' causing loss of sight, speech, hearing, or the use of limbs. What is hypnotism .* It may be termed the science I curative sleep the medicine that indues healthy thoughts, that can

"Minister to o mind disease), Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow."

dumbness, deafness — when no physcal injury lias been sustainedloss of memory, all manner of nervous disorders siu'h a* insomnia, liMdache, stammering, hysteria, etc.. alcoholism and abnormalities can be eurcd completely by "doses" of suggest/on.

SHELL-SHOCK

j Although to practise it mount risk f dishonour to u doctor not so very Ion.; ! ago. hypnotism, or psycho-therapy, no v i that it is used extensively m military ! and private hospitals, lias r-stored to health many a broken fighter 'absolutely beaten out of lfe by shell-, hock,'' to quote one doctor's expression. One could fill page* with accounts ol marvellous cures accomplished by psychotherapeutic methods. Captain C. H. Myers, K.A.M.C., analysing the physical results of "shell-shock," has told of throe soldiers near whom a largo shell burst. Their sense of hearing wan practically unaffected, but the senses of I sight, smell and taste were temporarily ' absent or greatly reduced. Badly ; blurred vision, an inability to tasto j salty and acid substances, and loss of j memory (in two cases out of thre») j were characteristic symptom* Alter I treatment by hypnot : c suggestion gradi ual improvement took place in cac.i | cas:>. Some of the typical "shell-shock" ! patients being treated by hypuotic sngi ges-tion can hardly walk, some can oniv j shuffle sidow.-.ys; others suffer from i ! contraction of'the field o! vis, on, bein-j j abb to see only straight ahead of them, like a horse wearing blinkers; some have difficulty m speaking; fibers sutler from terrible lVgntmares. In one c: se the soldier remembered nothing •>' i his family, and failed to answer the i simplest tjiicilions auout himself and Im ! past. He was place:! ; n a state of hy,i- ---! i>.< -is, and immediately he was able t.i : :!•<-,-.'. i- tleirly all manner ef questions. Ten operat-r'rhen suggest 1 Li this paj tieiit that i'li waking h - memory would I n turn. After the man Irtd been h>pi notised about a dozen times n tii: ! ce-.trse of il'ir ■ weeks hi> in ir.ory was j nsl'.'.'l and i'.e was able to leave th? j M--nir:.l. As to the nn thod oi treatment, ait. r j the patient is seated comfortably in r. '- chair and s:nt bv the operator into .; slight degree of h'ypnos's. be is t( Id nor | to worry, to think only of his cure, to ! concentrate solely on the desire to Ik? ! we!!. If it his hearing that is affectel j the operator will suggost to him—sugI gost firmly, calmly, insistently—that h • | his been' cured, * that he car. hear as ! we ! ! !•, ever before, that he will lrt> cured on awakening. It sometimes happens that the patient is cured after j the first seance; with others the sugI gi'slious have to be repeated several I times.

THE QUESTION OF WILL

It nuist not bo imagined that treatment l>y hypnotic suggestion is "hypnotism" of the stage "professor," ■whoso experiments have contributed so largely towards the discredit in which the science lias been Held, hornetine s it s not necessary to .send the patient to sleep in order to render him susceptible to health-giving suggestions, it while he is awake or partly conscious, ho can bo :nduced to put away from him for the time being all distracting thoughts and concentrate his will suflieicntly on the determination to Dc well, and so take no notcc of outward or inward sensations, then that is all thcA is required in most (a-cs for therapeutic purposes. This treatment does not deprive the patient of wll-povver: it restores self-control. A patient contributes materially towards his own cure; lie cannot be hypnotised against his w 11. A weak-wibed individual ••« tho most difficult of subjects, for he lacks the power of concentration. Now that this long-neglected curative agent is universally recognised and accepted, tho tune would seem to be ripj lor the pract'sing of hypnotism to f.<prohibited by law to all but fully-quaii-fied oporators. Its exploitation on the stage* siioudl be ioroidden : so-called "shools" of hypnotism slum. 1 be abolished. We do not permit an unqualified person in meddle n surgery; whv, then, should we not con Tine the use ol hvpnoti-m solely to qualified practitioners ?