SOME CURIOSITIES OF THINKING. 733 



time and watcTied it. If she tried to stop tliinking, she became 

 anxious and distressed and had to continue. Finally, this condi- 

 tion passed away as suddenly as it came. 



This, then, is an example of a fear relating to a simple physi- 

 ological act, which calls the attention to the act, and gives rise to 

 great distress of mind, I have seen persons who were unable to 

 talk or to move a hand, or to walk, because of such a fear that 

 they could not move ; the fear appearing to suspend the power of 

 volition. When the fear was quieted, and assurance regained, 

 the power returned. In other cases, an imperative desire to do 

 some absurd or useless thing seems to take possession of the mind. 

 Thus, a little girl of delicate nervous organization, and who had 

 been studying rather too earnestly in school, was suddenly seized 

 with the impulse to count everything. If she enters a room she 

 counts the chairs, the objects on a table, the bric-a-brac, or the 

 pattern in a carpet. If she begins to talk, she has to count the 

 words she says, or the words spoken by any one else, so that she is 

 obliged to talk slowly, and is often so occupied in counting that 

 she forgets what she is going to say before it is done. If she is 

 made to stop, she feels great distress and a sense of anxiety which 

 is painful. 



Such fears may extend to higher mental acts involving voli- 

 tion. 



One of the postmen whose duty it is to collect letters from the 

 corner boxes in New York was recently discharged because he was 

 always behind time on his rounds. He was much distressed at 

 this, and finally revealed the reason : As he went about he would 

 empty a box and lock it, but after going a few steps he would be 

 seized with a fear that he had not locked the box, so he would go 

 back and feel of it and assure himself that it was locked, and then 

 start on again, but only to be again seized with this fear, which 

 led to the impulse to return and try the box again. Thus, he 

 would often return three or four times to each box emptied, and, 

 of course, the delay made him so late on his rounds that he lost his 

 place. He could not control the fear, or reason against it. The 

 anxiety overcame him each time, and it was impossible to avoid 



the return. 



A middle-aged lady, of much intellectual force and a keen 

 power of analysis, had suffered from distressing mental tenden- 

 cies ever since a child. These became very intense about her 

 fortieth year, and remained for five years. She is abnormally 

 conscientious constantly imagines things which she ought to 

 have done, and reproaches herself with not having done ; or 

 thinks of things which are wrong which she might do, and then 

 reproaches herself for the thought. She once thought that she 

 might thrust a needle into the eye of a person whom she loved; 



