316 Science Religion and Reality 



be a situation akin to that summed up in Coue's law of reversed 

 effort ; on the one side, the will to walk alone, on the other 

 side, the imagination, the fear, that he will not succeed ; and 

 in this conflict imagination wins. But, on looking more closely 

 into the situation, one realises that there is no complete volition 

 here. The patient is ill, his mental processes do not enable 

 him to will completely in this particular situation. Why, is 

 a matter to be discovered in other ways, through deep analysis — 

 deep analysis will show why he is unable to will to cross the street. 

 In his attempt to will to walk along or to cross the street, the 

 feeling of effort becomes more vivid and more intense, but it 

 remains a mere wish or suggestion. Opposed to this effortful 

 wish to cross the street, one finds the idea or suggestion of failure 

 accompanied by the fear of failure. In this conflict the 

 suggestion of failure accompanied by the emotion of fear ob- 

 viously will win, as against the suggestion, unaccompanied by any 

 strong emotion, that he will cross the street. This so-called law 

 of reversed effort is thus merely a simple illustration of conflict 

 between one suggestion and another, or between one " imagina- 

 tion " and another. If this is so, what do we mean by will ? We 

 mean a wish or desire, accompanied by the judgement, affirmation, 

 or belief that we shall fulfil the desire from our own resources, so 

 far as in us lies, — that we shall realise the desire because we desire 

 it. In cases like that of agoraphobia^ the object of the psycho- 

 therapist is to train the patient's will, go that one disagrees with 

 Coue, and, instead of saying that a re-education of the will is 

 useless, one rather points out that the patient has not achieved 

 complete volition in this situation, and that he has to learn to will, 

 after first discovering the cause of his incomplete volition by self- 

 analysis or (much more effectively) by deep analysis carried out by 

 the physician. In these cases mere suggestion as a passive thing is 

 extremely ineffective. One may produce temporary alleviation 

 by calming the patient's mind, and discouraging spasmodic effort 

 and diminishing the tendency to intensify the symptoms by effort ; 

 but the patient quickly falls back to the original state, because the 

 cause is still there. The truth is, he has no faith in that particular 

 treatment, nor in his power to cross the street, and there is reason 

 for this lack of faith. In some cases one finds deep down in the 



^ So far as the agoraphobia is a manifestation of " anxiety neurosis " it is 

 physically caused, and is to be treated by advice on sex-hygiene. 



