66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



related to or responsible for the one afflicted. On the contrary, every 

 attempt on the part of these latter to assume or restrict his proper 

 functions, or to cover up that which should be told, or to interpose 

 with their own cross purposes and perverting schemes, will only serve 

 to embarrass him, and to hinder his patient's recovery. This needs to 

 be said everywhere and repeatedly ; for it has not even yet come to pass 

 that such a necessary harmony of opinion and action is always to be 

 relied upon. In general, it should always be remembered that the 

 problem presented by instances of a mind diseased is really so complex, 

 and often so unresolvable at best, that the intuitions, the careful watch- 

 ing, the knowledge and the devoted skill of every one concerned, are none 

 too much for obtaining the best possible results. 



With respect to all the " newer " and promisingly better methods 



of management of a mind diseased, with respect to its own especial 



needs — those that have been devised by more recent investigators — it 



may be said, in a word, that they all seek to be based upon strictly 



scientific methods, and so to become more and more reliable and 



eventually trustworthy to an extent heretofore unknown. The first 



thing one notes is that it seems settled beyond question that in all these 



cases there shall be secured at once a most complete and searching, yet 



of course judicious, " scientific confession," or more properly scientific 



riddance through confession, of all the deeply hidden harmful feelings, 



thoughts and habits, that so often are really the basis of the painful 



mental superstructure which has supervened. In almost all this class 



of sufferers some such kind of revealing of the underlying sinful, or 



shocking, or stressful life, is found to be the best method of preparing 



the way for the subsequent, constructive measures which may then seem 



necessary. Hence, for this purpose, much attention is now given, for 



instance, to invoking the recollection of all the startling and harassing 



dreams which so often give darkness and pain to the easily impressed 



mind, and then to their true interpretation as affecting the waking life. 



Likewise, even though it be through hypnotic and allied means, it is 



often sought thoroughly to recall and expunge from the uttermost 



depths of being any and every other sort of earlier experience, whether 



these may have been sinful, accidentally shocking, or freighted with 



some kind of awful stress, in order that the sufferer shall no longer 



remain the unconscious victim of these " subliminal," most vicious 



enemies, as sorely as before. In fact, the " new method " implies that 



most of these cases have, to begin with, profound need of what may 



well be termed a " drastic psychical catharsis " ; and considerable 



experience shows that, once having secured this, such people are, at 



least for the time being, very apt to be relieved from their pain, begin 



to be noticeably ambitious and vigorous, beget new hopes and enter- 



