The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-11-07
MIND PICTURES By TELEPHONE.
The Mistake One Mon Made as tn An
Others Appearance and the Result.

The Mistake One Mon Made as to An
Others Appearance and the Result.
did o ever notice tina when an
idea becomes fixed in the mind IL is
very difficult to change IL. especially i'm
the case of extremely sensitive and
highly nervous ~persons?" asked a
Brooklyn expert on nerves. mot long
ago ] had a visit from a man who was
afraid he was losing his reason because
OF "a very simple persistence OF a GER
tain thought or idea which he could
not shake off. The history of the case
is one often foun in cases of hypo-
chondriasis' developed from using the
telephone. My patient for about a years
time had occasion to telephone every
day to a trade customer i'm New York
Manhattan IL you like. The New
Yorker had "A peculiar high tenor
squeak To his voice, and somehow my
friend got to picturing him as a little
chap with n hin face. This habit grew
day after day until the customer took
"A real shape N form in the mind of
my patient, all based. OF course, upon
his voice. As he talked over the tele-
phone there always was mentally pic
tured that little chap with the thin
face and squeaky voice. Well, one day
my patient called at the office of his
New York customer, and as he walked
into the place and saw "A tall. fat man
weighing nearly 800 pounds he could
scarcely believe his eyes. When the fat
man opened his mouth and talked. my
patient says. the squeaky voice with
which he VAS familiar sounded strange
and unnatural. He told the owner OF
the absurd voice. In view of his size,
about having pictured him as a little
thin person. and there was a god laugh
over the odd difference of the reality.
But the next day when my friend
Nall NhA
voice came to him. he had To struggle
TO get away from thinking Of his fat
patron as being little and thin. He
talked the matter over with his wife
and laughed about IL, but soon there
came "A time when he forgot all about
the actual existence of his customer.
and the little thin-faced chap was
again talking to him over the wire.
Then IL was that he came TO me. lie
feared. he said. that his mind was Civ
ing way. because of the persistence Of
the odd picture of the thin man. I
thought the case was easily disposed
of. and told my friend to go To New
York every day for a week and visit his
fat customer. This he did. but every
time he telephoned the squeaky voice
would bring up the mental picture
formed before he had set eyes on its
owner.
Il was in despair and my patient was
growing gray from worrying when l hit
upon the happy expedient OF placing "A
photograph OF the fat nan on the tele-
phone, where the eye of the patient
could rest upon II az q -alked. The
result was the disappearance forever
Of the thin chap. My patient. in look
ing at the picture OF the owner OF the
squeaky voice. got. his mind working
upon the same lines that would have
been followed had he met the fat man
face To face the first time he heard the
voice. These cases are common every
day. We form queeriy opposite pic
lures OF men and women we hear over
the telephone and never see. but In the
great majority OF instances the i'm
preston is "A momentary one. and IL is
seldom that the mistake is ever forced
upon us I'm the startling way described
by the patient l told of.
The telephone. by the way. has pro-
duced very many queer cases of neu-
rasthenia that remain unaccountablc
excepting on the hypothesis that the
new habit brings them into existence. 1
have had very many patients who had
TO give up the use OF the phone alto
gether where IL had been used to a
great extent before."-New York sun.