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Dr. Morton Prince's report of the analysis and cure of a remarkable case of phobia for the sound of bells2 must, it seems to me, impress the reader with two things: on the one hand, with the skill with which the analysis and cure were completed; and on the other hand, with the difficulty in handling such cases. In other words, one is led to conjecture what the patient's chances would have been had she fallen into less competent hands. Although the real expert goes quickly and certainly to the foundations of such cases, such experts are after all rare, and if these cases require the discovery of the actual troublesome association, a sadly large proportion will never be cured.
The apparent success of those practitioners who proceed in such cases on the basis of the conventionalized sexual interpretation of Freud's school suggests the possibility that cures may be effected without the discovery of the real causes of the disturbance. It is quite probable that the sole need in such a case is to break off the association (or neural habit). Certainly, complete psycho-analysis can supply means for breaking it off: but it may also be possible to disrupt it in another way. If you are confronting a strongly entrenched enemy, you may perhaps dis