You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
That disease of every kind is susceptible to psychotherapeutic treatment cannot be proved; it can only be a matter for trial and experiment. My only aim in making these communications is to induce as many physicians as possible make the trial.
The first case I shall deal with is that of a lady who came under my care in 1921 suffering from general oedema, the result of non-compensation in heart disease. The first three weeks of combined physical and mental treatment produced good results, but things came to a stop in the fourth week, and then there was a serious relapse. I therefore decided to take certain action which I had often found beneficial, though only when taken at the right juncture in any treatment. I explained matters to the patient as follows: ‘You know you have been up and about and have had no pain these many years, although the condition of the heart has been the same. That you are now ill and have oedema cannot therefore be due to the heart trouble, but to some disturbance between the action of the heart and the opposition of your organism to this action. The attempt to strengthen the power of the heart has failed, as you know. The attempt we have made during the first three weeks to diminish the resistance against the heart's action led to improvement, yet during the last eight days, although apparently the treatment has not changed, we have first come to a standstill and then lost ground. That shows, if we like to understand the message, that something in the treatment has changed so that it no longer is effectual. All treatment includes two factors: First, what is prescribed, and second, the personal influence of the doctor. Since no change has been made in the regimen prescribed for you, the