Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-06-23
CURED BY AN IDEA.
Continued from page .

either additional or different treat.
ment
The recovery of a lost faculty re.
calls similar cases. many of which
have been utilized as the bases oi
short stories and moving picture plots
Many picture goers were disgusted Al
the climax Of picture which enjoyed
much popularity a few months age
Uiumoresauel because the crippled
hero OF the film suddenly found the
use of his limbs when his sweetheart
was in danger. These critics thought
they were being asked to grant Gre
denca "a something a little unreason
able.
other Cases.
But Public Health Service doctors
cite many such cases ~ recovery
especially where there is present in
the individual no fundamental or or
ganic impairment Following an &C
cident persons sometimes believe that
their arms pr legs are not capable OF
performing their usual functions The
belief the physicians state, grows
stronEeras the limbs grow weaker
stronger as the limbs grow weaker
can be successfully treated. this be-
lief must be uprooted.
Fright often provokea the hasty
bsnishment of negative belief. and
permits the positive II Can" thought
to gain predominance. Slight fright.
such az that accompanying an orii-
narily insignificant fall. the slamming
of door a near accident, or per-
haps a repetition of the very cause Of
the voice loss. viii often prove the
only medicine TO effect recovery. The
patient. however. is not scared" into
recovery. but rather suddenly permits
the positive belief to gain rightful
rule.
This may or may not b. a form
OF Christian Science. out il is prac-
tised in many cases in which doctors
have first. proven 10 their own salts
faction that no organic wrong exists
in the patient.
Prevalence OF such mis-b-liefs Is
noticeable in many overseas vatcr-
ans. Unconsciousiy the men will
nuree some imagined injury which
provides them with compensation. At
heart they have no thought OF de-
frauding the Government They
would be sorely insulted if ii were
suggested that they were playing
make believe merely to gain the
checks Uncle Sam has provided for
them in lieu of perfect health. II
were suddenly removed
and they were thrown on their own
their faculties might sud
denly return. 1t is all a sub-conscious
process over which the individual has
no control. Gradually the doctors are
helping these men to believe posi-
lively, and are thereby adding to the
list OF recoveries.
One of the Public Health Service
doctors engaged in treating these
patients tells of a
accident. She complained that she
could no longer use her arm. though
doctors failed to find an injury. Sew
eral months later the woman obtained
a settlement from the traction COM
pany, and shortly afterward her arm
readily functioned in pre-accident
style. The doctors explained that
sub-consciously the woman had an
ticirated a financial settlement for
the supposed injury, and that one,
settlement had been accomplished
there existed no longer the belief that
such impairment was an advantage.
A fraud? No, say the doctors, for
the woman was 50 situated that the
use of her arm would have meant
much more 10 her than the sum she
collected. 1t was merely a sub-con-
scious belief that wouI0 not be ban
shed until al chance for future fin
lncial gain was removed.
1t would be easy, Of course, to ex-
lggerate this idea into a superstition.
What these cases really show is that
person can be functionally injured |
~ al idea, and that the injury can
Dc cured by substituting another idea
or the damaging one. IL the vocal |
.hords of REM had been actually |
the doctors say. airpiane
lights would have done nothing for
him.
But this power of ideas to iuIsn-e /
md aid US is interesting. There are
few Of us who are not being /