Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-01-08
HOW BREADS ARISE
By H. Addington Bruce


TN case recently reported to the New
York Medical Journal by the English
H. psychologist Rivers is found striking
confirmation of the modern psycho-medical
doctrine that morbid breads usually, il
not always, have their roots in forgotten
emotional shocks of childhood. Rivers re-
port has to do with young man suffer-
ing from the common dread known as
claustrophobia, or irrational fear of closed
places.
"For as long as he could remember
Rivers states, this patient had been sub
ject to a dread of confined places SO Sc
we're that he was debarred from taking part
in many of the ordinary occupations OF
life, or could do so only at the risk of
suffering and discomfort.
''When he went to the ~theater or other
crowded place he was always troubled un-
less he was near the door, and he was
never happy unless he could see a clear
and speedy mode of exit. He would not
travel by the tube railway, and wildly re-
members his horror when on one occasion
he had to do So"
Questioning the young man closely
DR.. Rivers succeeded in tracing the begin
nings Of the phobia, so far as conscious
recollection was concerned to a time when,
at the age of six, the patient slept with
his brother in box-bed, placed in re-
cess with doors that could be closed. He
remembered that it was an agony for him
to sleep in the bed, but he could not re-
member why the thought of sleeping there
filled him with fear.
This suggested that the real origin of
his dread dated from some still earlier ex-
perience which he had completely forgot
ten. Knowing that in dreams the forgotten
often energies into conscious awarehess,
DR.. Rivers now began to analyze his pa
TENTS dreams. Eventually this led to a
sudden flashing into memory of an incident
that had occurred when the patient was a
child of four.
Near his home, he related, there lived
rag and bone dealer named Mccain,
who bought odds and ends from the chill
dren Of the neighboThood. One day, hav-
ing found something valuable, the future
strophobia-visited McCann's house to
dispose of his treasure trove.
Having received his reward the child
came out alone, to find the hall door shut.
He was too small to open the door, and
dog at the other end of the passage be-
gan to growl. The child was terrified.
His state of terror came back to him vivid
ly as the incident returned to his mind
after all the years Of oblivion in which it
had lain
From the patients parents DR.. Rivers
obtained confederation OF the statement
that ragman named Mccain had lived in
the neighborhood at the period in question.
And in confederation of the art played by
this long-forgotten incident in causing the
morbid fear of closed places was the fact
that the dread ceased once the incident
was recalled.
''The patient has since travelled in the
tube railway with no discomfort whatever
He has even been down coal mine, which
was especially the object Of his former
dread"
Surely here is a helpful hint for all
other victims of morbid breads. Other
means of cure failing, the logical procedure
would seem to be to assume that some
memory image, buried in the subconscious,
is responsible for the dread, and to seek
the aid Of a medical psychologist in eff
fecting the recall which may mean instant
freedom from a haunting fear.
Copyright, 1921, by the Associated News
@ papers.)