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The idea of chronic organic disease resulting from emotional disturbances is not new to many of us; but to others it still seems such an exaggerated idea that it may be well before beginning a discussion of the results obtained from the analysis and follow—up of the fifty tuberculous women I studied to take up some of the factors involved in the production of chronic organic disease from psychogenic forces or conflicts.
We know through the works of Cannon, Crile, Pottenger, Kempf and others that the vegetative nervous system with its divisions into sympathetic and parasympathetic groups is the system through which we maintain our existence; the system which controls metabolism and the processes necessary to life; and the system through which the emotions, recognized or submerged, express themselves. It is further, the system through continued unfavorable stimulation of which, the various glands and viscera become irritated. These structres in turn send messages of complaint centralward in the guise of sensory afferent impulses and if the path travelled is over the sympathetics then a reflex expression may result via the spinal nerves with resulting sensory, motor and trophic changes in the skin, subcutaneous tissues and muscles; if, however, the sensory afferent impulse goes over the parasympathetics then there may be a reflex expression in a functional disturbance of other internal viscera. This suggests the complexity of the disease picture which may develop as a result of prolonged emotional conflict.
If this were all, it would be fairly simple at that, but we must keep in mind the fact that the body is a great colloid system made up of fluids of certain concentrations and trillions of cells whose constituent elements are basic protoplasmic substances and acid nuclear substances all surrounded by semipermeable membranes and controlled by chemical and nerve energy. Anything which interferes with the normal concentration of body fluids is going to produce a medium wh