Omaha daily bee., 1910-03-05
Some Things You Want to Know
Curing the Insane.

The cure OF mental arrangement by the
sudden pronunciation OF a single word is
the achievement Of DIT. Shepherd Ivory
Franz, who is IN charge Of the psycholo-
gical laboratory of the government hos
pital for the insane at Washington. He
succeeds by working on the theory that
there are thousands OF cases OF insanity
which can be successfully treated II the
cause OF the mental disease can be ascer-
talned, and the explanation made TO the
patients that their unhealthy thoughts have
no foundation in fact.
There was sent to him recently a young
man who had an overpowering fear OF
open places, the outdoors or any unen-
closed place, and who was under the domi-
nation Of this terror to such an extent that
he could be made to cave his bedroom
only by physical compulsion. DR.. Franz
took him into the treatment room" of
the laboratory, where there is very little
light and nc noise. Seating the patient In
a comfortable easy chair, the doctor told
him to relax himself and try not to think
Of anything. After a dead silence Of sew
'eral minutes the doctor began to pronounce
with sudden emphasis single words which
he thought might produce in the mans
mind some idea having a bearing on the
cause Of his decisions. Every time he
pronounced a word he leaned over and
struck the patient sharply on the knee.
He went through more than 100 words
without getting any results. Finally, when
he said hole" the man paused a moment
before making an irrelevant answer. That
pause encouraged Franz. His next word,
accompanied by the tap on the knee, was
trench" From this he got results. and
gradually, with infin te patience, he brought
out the story of what has unseated the
patients mind 1t was this: One morning
he had been running at the top OF his
speed to overtake a moving street car.
and the chase had carried him halfway
down tho next block. Just as he was about
to grasp the handle bar of the car and
swing himself aboard, he looked down and
saw yawning at his feet q freshly dug
W trench. One more step and he would
have had a fall of eight feet. but he man
aged to bring himself up short.
At the first experience had had no appre-
ciable effect, but such shocks to the brain
work gradually. In a few weeks he felt
an aversion to walking in open fields. Next
he disliked to cross the street, and this
went so far that he could not be prevailed
to do so unless he was accompanied by a
guide. After a while longer he refused to
walk across the yard from his house to
that of his next-door neighbor, and the
final stage OF the disease was thai he
was afraid to leave his room. DR.. Franz.
having established all this by his theory
Of suggesting to the patient tho real trouble
by the use Of words calculated to bring the
800 LN- l. IL " -.
paratively little difficulty in explaining
that the dread was founded on fiction and
that there was really nothing to fear. The
mans complete recovery followed, and he
again occupies a prominent place in the
business world.
These peculiar cases Of insanity are
classed under the general title of "phobias."
The man who feared the open places was
an agoraphobiac. Another case DR.. Franz
had was that of a. pyrophobia-the fear
of fire. This was a woman who dreaded
fire, and at various periods in the day
imagined tina she was enveloped in flames.
At such time she suffered as much as If
she had been actually on fire. On very
bright, sunny days, the ~brilliance Of the
sun persuaded her that the world was burn
Ing up. The doctor was successful with
her on the third word, which was
matches" That reminded her dimly of
her baby having been burned to death as
the result of playing with matches. Gradu-
ally, he made her understand that the
child's death was no reason for her to
think she was on fire or to believe that fire
was to be dreaded all the time.
It is difficult to trace there "phoblas'' to
their true causes because, as was pointed
out in the case Of the a~goraphobiac, the
effects Of the shock to the brain do not
appear at once, but come out long after
wards. The families OF the patients are
often unable to assign any reasons for the
mental breakdown.
The asylum had one amusing case. This
was a m~ysophobiac, a man who feared dirt
as ordinary people fall away from pesti-
lence. His mania for washing his hands
was never satisfied, and the hospital at.
tendants finally agreed to let him &c
through these additions eight times a day
On one occasion he was allowed to go into
the lavatory unmatched, and when he was
found forty minutes later, he had used
seventy towels. 1t was later discovered
that his trouble had come from his seeing
on the street a man who appeared to bt
particularly unkempt and dirty looking
At the time this patients companion haC
been a physician, who had pointed out the
probabilities Of the tramp spreading dis.
ease. Through some peculiaE kink in hi.
brain, the patient had dwelt on that re.