The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-09
MENTAL THERAPEUTICS
 AND MODERN SCIENCE

1 regulate the decision. In no case does the mental science theory figure in ihe
 discussion or the fact that all the family and the physician projected the thought
 of sudden death In the good mans at mosphere continually have the remotest notice in the argument, although it ap
 pears that the anxious relatives almost
 forced it to take lodgment in his brain
 by their insistent cautions that he should | take the greatest care of himself and
 minimize his work. Now when this prom inent man suddenly died according to the
 fate mentally adiudged for him, does it
 or does it not argue anything touching
 the tremendous theories of thought force
 which the different psychic cults put for
 ward? Tn short does the controlling
 thought in the minds of physicians rea-
 tives and attendants operate by the power of suggestion upon the patients mind and nerve forces in Way to help or hinder
 his last chances of recovery? This really sums the vital point in the whole problem
 of how to deal with the verdict which medical science holls concerning apnar- ently fatal cases, especially when it comes l to augmenting the power of suggestion by tmplanting the depressing death thought in the mind of the patient himself through
 
 verse sentence.
 Now that the psychfcal method has be- come so generally recognized, a part of | therapeutics that even Dr. =Osler speaks
 for it, this phase of it is certainly one | that should bear upon the old old lLes-
 tion, recently revived in prominent case ] before the country. Should the appar- ently death-doomed patient be told of his condition?' If it be true, as Dr. Oser | hot stoutest constitution almost to deaths door," what must it do for the shattered constitution of he poor invalid who lies almost at deaths door struggling for the strength that shall bear him away from it. It seems singular that, while the con- trol of the mind over health and disease is attested by hundreds of scientific ex- periments, recognized by physicians ! themselves so little account is made of it in the extreme cases where it is most | in demand -a4~
 War Against Hope
 There are even instances where the de- l spondent mind of the physician seems to war against the hopeful mind of the pa tient, honest and earnest as may be his desire to save that patient. In recent | case talented woman full of the joy | and zest of life, was stricken down by I an illness which her physician contem- | plated with grave and undisguised fears | from the first But she insisted that she | was sure of recovery and maintained so brave and courageous and cheerful | spirit in the hope of life which was so | dear to her. that, to the amazement of all | the physicians called to her case, she | lived on month after month when her 1 physical condition led them to expect l death at any moment. Instead of help | ing in this mental outreach for life and hoo xt-lat tol, he hrot da
 they still pitted their mental strength of | conviction against 1t. and frankly com | municated to her their fixed belief that l she must die. And after a long struggle | she grew too weak to continue 1t, and went the way the stronger mental forces marked out and who shall say did rot in some measure bring about. If the teachings of the psychologists are cor rect, 1t is a possibility at any rate, that should be taken into the reckoning where the attitude of physicians to patients in critical cases is considered.
 It undoubtedly Is. with many physicians who recognize the crushing despair which. like a sense of doom settles down upon feeble patient when told by the one he | looks to save him that there is no hope But many others, through some sense of duty or idea of helping the patient to put his affairs in order. utterly disregard | what great psychologists and scientists in their own world declare, of the power of mind to baffle disease and ward of death. If not robbed of it's power by some stronger mind, and so unresitatingly pro- nounce the death sentence upon their stricken patients. And this Is done even where, as in the case of the happy Chris | tion woman mentioned all affairs and in- terests, material and spiritual, are known to be in perfect order.
 Practice of Physicians
 | A London journal recently discussing I the relative attitude of men and women in | the face of death, incidentally admits the common practice of physicians in the case. as well as the injurious effect of 1t. | How do men and women face death when | the sentence is pronounced by the doctor :? | asks the writer. and he adds: "A med | ical man tells me his experience. Tell @ woman that she Is going to die, and she | lies back and gives up the struggle, and | so 1t is with many men. But tell the man of higher type and greater intelli- gence that he is facing death, and he begins to fight. grows excited, demands consultation, and fights to the finish" 1t may be that other than the psychologists will come to see the mistake in such last aids to the injured, but 1t remains for the triumph of such faith as Dr. Elisha | Kane showed in the power of the soul over the body to bring all physicians to q saving sense of 1t. It Is an old story, told by his biographer which relates that | when asked for the best proved instance he knew of the soul power over the body he answered. as with spring, why, the soul can lift the body out of It's boots. sir When our captain was dying-I say l dying; I have seen scurvy enough to
 know-every old scar in his body an ulcer there was trouble aboard, he said there
 might be mutiny as soon as the breath was out of his body. l felt that he owed the repose of dying to the service. went down to his bunk and shuoted in his
 ear, 'Mutiny. captain. mutiny. He shook 0A fha caAavarns1a atuvor-