The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1915-08-19
Mental Healing.

"Chl<h IISdilhS.
The familiar saying that there is
nothing new under the sun is strik-
ingly exemplified by mental hygiene
and mental healing.
Great emphasis is rightly being
laid on both of these nowadays. But
the widespread impression that they
are sudden outgrowths in medicine
is quite mistaken.
On the contrary, they have re-
markable historical background, and
known and practiced in various ways
by ancient peoples.
Even hypnotism, that extremely up
to-date therapeutic agent, was en-
ployed as long ago as the time of the
Pharaohs. There is evidence that
wise Egyptians sometimes put their
patients into a hypnotic sleep, dur
ing which they gave them curative
suggestions much in the modern
manner.
The treatment of nervous invalids
by rest cure" methods was prac-
ticed both in Egypt and in Greece.
The shrines of Aesculapius were es-
sentially what we would call .sani-
tariums. A medical historian thus
describes them:
They were spacious buildings,
pleasantly situated. The hours OF
rising and of rest were definitely
regulated. The patients minds were
kept occupied with the details Of the
cure, they met pleasant companions
from distant places, they had all the
advantages of diversion of mind, sim
pie diet, long hours in the open air,
and abundance of rest away from the
ordinary worries of life.
mo wonder that these institutions
acquired a reputation FOR cures OF
symptoms which the physician had
been unable to accomplish while the
patient was at home in the midst of
his daily cares and worries"
Sanitariums Of the same sort were
established in Egypt and in Assyria.
I'M both places, as in Greece, how
ever, the physicians who conducted
them were priests and, probably in all
sincerity, they sedulously cultivat-
ed in their patients minds the idea
that the cures wrought were effected
by supernatural means.
Thus, although mental hygiene and
mental healing were Systematically
practiced, there was no general rec
ognition of the factors that really
brought about the often curative re-
suits.
But there are records of individual
physicians who did recognize them.
Erasistratos (about 800 B. c. was
one, and another was the famous Hip
pocrates. At a later day Avicenna.
the great Arabian physician, express
" taught that the ''imagination' OF
men can and does affect their bodies.
Still, even Avicenna had mystic
al. occult strain in his teachings.
This tendency persisted throughout
the middle ages.
For that matter. it is in evidence
among some mental healers of our
own day.
And it was because the ancients
and their medieval successors blindly
adopted the easy explanation of "su-
pernatural aid" that correct under
standing of the mental cures was de-
layed until modern times.
This it is that forms basis for the
seeming newness Of mental hygiene
and mental healing.
More is heard of them today than
ever before because more is known
about them.
The development of medical psy-
cbologv-which, as a science, is not
more than a half century old-has
opened ND vistas of medical possi-
bilities until now only crudely uti!-
ized
Naturally this has caused unpre-
cedented discussion and out of this
discussion has arisen the widespread
hut mistaken notion of the absolute
newness of mental hygiene.-H. Ad-