Clinical: John B. Morgan. Hypnosis will direct Psycho-Analytic Statement and Suggestion in the Treatment of a Psycho-Neurotic of Low Intelligence. Journal of Abnormal Psychology and Social Psychology, Vol. XIX, p. 160.

A case diagnosed as a conversion hysteria with low intelligence is presented as having been cured by the use of hypnosis in bringing about the acceptance of psycho-analytical statements.

The patient proved resistant to hypnotic influence but was finally hypnotised and in this state expressed her resistance to sexual situations. The method employed to deal with these resistances was not explanatory but 'dogmatic'. The authority of the hypnotist was used to contradict

the authority of those who had given her the false ideals which had caused her undoing. She was told that she was wrong in her ideas of sex. She was told that she was a woman, and as a woman had the feelings and desires of a woman, etc., etc. It was made plain to her that she had been a coward, etc., etc. 'This was repeated over and over until its weight overbalanced the idea of sex impurity. She was then told her love must progress from love of self to the love of another, finally finding outlet in the love of a husband. This was also repeated and she was made to say it until it became part of her. The whole thing was summed up in two sentences which she was made to repeat over and over: "I will look forward and not backward"; "I will love others more than myself". The first was to counteract the tendency to regression and the latter the tendency towards narcissism.'

These excerpts are quoted to illustrate the extraordinary naiveté with which some psychotherapists approach their clinical problems. No one could possibly quarrel with the employment of any technique whatsoever which brought about the amelioration claimed in this case, but it is difficult to conceive that any one with any insight into the dynamics of a narcissistic regression could believe in its rectification by means of a verbal formula and at the same time ignore the dynamics of the 'dogmatic method' employed; i.e. of the transference. Finally the psycho-analytical statements alleged to have been made to the patient turn out