Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-11-30
HOW BREADS BEGIN
By H. Addington Bruce

To English Bagby of Yale University I am
indebted for knowledge of two typical cases
Of phobias, irrational breads, illustratin 6
most impressively the curious way in which
such breads are linked with long-forgotten
| experiences of a distressing sort. Also these
cases go to emphasize the benefcent results
frequently obtained through nothing more
than the recall of the experiences to consci-
Gus remembrance.
In the first of the two instances related by
Mr.. Bagby young woman of 20 was subject
to phobia for running water. The sound
and the sight of running water equally dis
turbed her. When water was drawn for a
bath she had to be in part of the house
where she could not hear it filling the tub
When she travelled by train or automobile
the curtains had to be drawn to spare her
from seeing rivers and brooks and waterfalls.
So greatly was she affected by that which
she abnormally dreaded that the unexpected
I sight or sound of running water precipitated
attacks almost convulsive in character. On
several occasions she tainted outright. Nor,
! although she appreciated how irrational her
dread was, could she overcome it, exercise
her will power as she might.
Such was the situation until an aunt,
whom the phobiac had not seen for many
wears. CHANGED to visit her home. Converse
ton with the aunt brought back WILDLY to
her recollection a fear-inspiring episode OF
| her childhood connected with running water.
AS a. girl of z she had wandered away from
! a picnic party, had stumbled into brook,
and had become wedged among rocks, with
water streaming over her face. She was not
seriously hurt, but she was terribly fright
ened," as her aunt reminded her in recalling
the incident, which had almost completely
faded from the phobiac's memory.
Now both the latter and the aunt had
good laugh over it. From that day, for no
apparent reason, the dread of running water
lessened, finally to disappear altogether.
In the second case the fear which aftl1ct-
ed middle-aged man was of being grasped
from behind. This caused him, whenever
he went outdoors, to keep looking back over
his shoulder in the oldest way imaginable.
Indoors he felt impelled always to seat him
self with the back of his chair against a
wall. To go among crowds was agony to
him.
All efforts to conquer this dread failed,
and the unfortunate man seemed fated to be
harassed by it to the day of his death. But
it left him of it's own accord when, during
a visit to the village of his boyhood, he met
an old man who formerly had kept the vii
lage general store.
'Well I remember you the old man told
him. ''You used to plague me by stealing ap-
pies and peanuts from the front of the store.
But I cured you of it when I crept up behind
and seized you one day. You were so fright
ened you screamed and tainted"
The youthful delinquency and the fright to
which it led had been long since forgotten.
But clearly this fright had been the starting
point of the dread of being grasped from be-
hind For now the dread departed, never
to return.
In both these cases, it will be noted chance
alone afforded means of cure, through re-
vealng the forgotten origins of the singular
phobias. Fortunately, phobiacs as class do
not have to depend chance for their re-
covery. Modern medical psychology posses
ses means for reviving experiences that have
| been forgotten, and to medical psychologists,
accordingly all afflicted with irrational
/ breads may hopefully turn in the event OF
| failure to Danish the breads unaided.