Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1936-03-12
H~a1AL
41enutY
A PHYSICIAN SHOULD BE A PSY-
CHOLOGIST

There is a class of patients who are
classed as neurotcs, or neuroSthenics.
These poor unfortunates are a trial to
their family, to their friends, and also
to the physicians. Medicine as a sci
ence usually includes the advances in
knowledge of diseases hat have come
about through laboratory investiga-
tons. Medicine as an art generally re-
fers to the skill with which the seas
oned practitioner handles his patients.
1t might be much better and more sci
entifically defined as the physicians
ability to understand and use to good
purpose the psychology of his patient.
In studying the disease of an indiv-
idual it is necessary to take into con-
sideration his heredity, his environ
ment, the class to which he belongs,
and his personality. The environment
past and present are of special import
ance.
Many diseases had their inception
far back in childhood. Children who
were pampered and spoiled by unwise
and indulgent parents often become
neurotics. Such children never learn
that they are not SO important in other
peoples estimation as they are to their
doting and foolish parents. They are
accustomed from infancy to gain their
ends by teasing, coaxing, whining, OF
fiinging themselves upon the floor and
the child, about the age of adolescence,
will begin to fancy that he is sick. By
protesting to have aches and pains he
can still hold the center of the field,
and receive a great deal of attention.
The writer once knew a woman who
had heart attacks in order to gain her
ends. To prevent herself from being
thwarted she would work up a spell.
Plaintively exclaiming "Oh, my heart
she would fall upon a bed or couch.
Never upon a hard floor. If angry or
excited, naturally her heart became
very rapid and she could imagine her
self quite i'll. She succeeded so well in
her attacks, that the entire family was
afraid to cross her and she generally
succeeded in carrying her point and
getting her own way. Now this woman
really thought herself a delicate per-
son, and who must not be subjected to
inconvenience or disappointment, and
yet she always had strength to do
what she liked.
There are many baffled and disap-
pointed people who take refuge from
responsibility by getting sick. They
have a breakdown, or nervous
Indigestion, or something else. They
are unconscious Of the real reasons for
their sickness. They themselves do not
know that they are not adjusted to life
as it is. They do not know that they
become sick in order to escape the
responsibilities that confront them.
A great many people are i'll because
of emotional disturbances. The major
ity of these patients are born of par
ents who were not we'll balanced ner-
vously. Such parents are seldom adj
apted to the task of training children.
Sometimes they pet and pamper them,
and again they are harsh in their
methods. The children never know
what to expect. They lack a sense OF
security in the home. They are not
amount of intelligence and determine
ton, he in such an environment is
very apt to develop a neurotic ten
dency. Later on, disappointments may
incapacitate him through illness.
Sometimes these patients battle the
skill of the wisest physicians who can
find nothing whatever physically
wrong with them. l knew a young
woman who was treated for various
ills for years. She thought that she
was sick, in reality all of her woes re-
suited from her disappointment in a
love affair.
Hawthorne said "a bodily disease
may after all be but a symptom of an
illness in the spiritual part of u ma
ture."