James Walsh - Psychotherapy

Often men do not realize how much their personal influence counts for. They think it is their method of treatment, or some new discovery in drugs or remedial measures, or some new phase of psychology they have hit upon, that is producing results. This makes it difficult to determine, in given cases, just what are the actual influences at work. Many men supposing themselves to be discoverers of some novel force, are merely exploiting that old-time influence of one mind over another that can be observed all down the centuries.

It is interesting to study the careers of men who thought they were employing on their patients some new psychological method, when all they were exploiting was the old-fashioned influence of suggestion from a stronger personality to a weaker. A dozen times in history hypnotism has been announced as a wonderful curative agent. At present no one thinks it so, but, on the contrary, if used frequently, we think that it is much more likely to do harm than good. We went through a phase of interest in hypnotism a quarter of a century ago and there are now signs of the possibility of its return in another form. In recent years we have heard much of psycho-analysis, of dominant ideas, of the auto-suggestion that comes from this, and how much benefit can be conferred on the patient by removing such ideas or revealing their unfavorable influence and so neutralizing them.

The patients that come for treatment and to whom psychotherapy is of special benefit, are not, as a rule, those suffering from acute diseases or injuries, though even in these cases the attitude of mind is always an important therapeutic factor. The patients are mainly those suffering from chronic ailments, and from minor affections which, while they do not confine them to bed, often prove the source of such serious disturbance as makes them very miserable. The suffering in the world is out of all proportion to the actual disease. Many people who have little disease suffer a great deal, partly from over-sensitiveness, partly from concentration of mind on their ailments, and partly from such ignorance of whatever pathological condition is present that they grow discouraged and morbid over it. The rôle of psychotherapy is particularly to help patients of this kind. This does not mean that its main purpose is to treat imaginary disease, or disease which exists only in the mind of patients, for in nearly all of these cases there is a definite physical element in the affection. Even where the disease is quite imaginary, though that term has been so sadly abused that it is perhaps better to speak of affections as purely mental in origin, psychotherapy is important. As has been well said, a patient not having something physical the matter who thinks that there is something the matter, is in a worse state than one who really has something the matter. There are a great many such cases. If the principles of psychotherapy can relieve them and cure many of them, then it has a large place in human life.

In order that the individual patient may be benefited, a thorough understanding must be established between physician and patient. This must take on the character of a personal relationship. The patient must feel that the physician has a personal interest in him—that there are certain individual features in his ailment which make his case mean something much more than ordinary to his physician. Some physicians have the power to make their patients feel this personal relationship to a marked degree. They are the eminently successful practitioners of medicine. Their patients sound their praises, and even though they may not be distinguished scientists, they acquire a large practice. Some of them are thoroughly scientific men. All of us know them and, while we may not be able to understand just how it is done, we recognize their power.

The series of phenomena that may be grouped under the term "faith cures" represent the oldest, the most frequent, universal, and constantly recurring examples of the influence of the mind over the body for the healing of ills. Whenever men have believed deeply and with conviction that some other being was able to help them, many of their ills, or at least the conditions from which they suffered severely, have dropped from them and their complaints, real or imaginary have disappeared. This was true whether it was the touch of another human being supposed to have some wonderful power that was the agent, or some persuasion of the interference of the supernatural that appealed to them. Religions of all kinds have always had their cures, and one of the main reasons why men have accepted the various religions has nearly always been because of the weight of these healing phenomena. Apparently it does not matter how debased the form of religion may be, whether it is exercised by the medicine man of a savage tribe with methods that appeal only to barbarous instincts, or by a highly cultured priest of a form of religion appealing to the loftiest feeling and the profoundest intellectuality, cures take place whenever devotees have complete and absolute faith in the possibility of divine or supernatural interference in their behalf. The very earliest history that we have tells us of such cures, and the daily papers bring us reports of them from all quarters among the high and the low, the educated and the uneducated.

The phenomenon is universal and we come logically to the belief that the Supreme Being intended that confidence in Him, and above all recognition of the fact that somehow the world with all its ills has a meaning for good, should be rewarded. The argument that religion is a natural revelation should then apparently be extended to include also the thought of a healing power in connection with it. Many of the founders of religions that have meant much for uplift to mankind, have made healing a principal portion of their message to man—the proof of their missions. Indeed, there actually seems to be an extension of power, above what is natural, to those who in profound confidence in Divinity, turn to this source of strength for relief from the ills that flesh is heir to. In any of these cases, definite inquiry as to the significance of the particular incident is needed, and not any general principle of either acceptance or rejection. Faith healing is a fact, its meaning is of the greatest importance for psychotherapy and its phenomena deserve that specific study which alone can give any certainty in the matter.

Accessories of Faith Cures.—From the earliest dawn of history we have definite records of faith cures. It is true that they were usually associated with certain physical factors besides the mere act of the mind. In ancient Egypt the physicians were also priests, and while they administered various remedies, these had the added advantage of being supposed to be the result of divine inspiration, or suggestion, or to be in some way connected with religion. Among these men there were many strong personalities, contact with whom brought healing. Dreams and premonitions and hallucinations all had a definite place in their therapeutics because of their supposed connection with religion, or at least with the beings of another world. Spiritualism, itself a form of religion, is very old, and communications from spirits, real or supposed, were easily thought to have therapeutic significance.

Miracles.—In most cases of faith healing, faith acts through the definite conviction that there is to be a direct interference with the ordinary course of nature in the patient's behalf. Some of the evidence for such direct interference on the part of Providence is so strong as to carry conviction even to serious and judicious and judicial minds. When the circumstances are such that an exception to the laws of nature would not involve an absurdity, there is no good reason why its occurrence should be absolutely put out of the question. It may well be urged that we know so little about the laws of nature that we cannot determine absolutely what are and what are not exceptions to those laws. There is in itself, however, no absurdity in what is called a miracle, and unless one is ready to reject Christianity entirely, or to declare it absolutely impossible that the God who made the universe should have any personal care for it, or above all any interest in particular individuals in it, their possibility must be admitted. The attitude of utter negation and incredulity often assumed at the present day is only a reflection of a certain ignorance of philosophy, and too great dependence on a superficial knowledge of physical science, so characteristic of narrowly trained minds. After a visit to Lourdes and careful study of "La clinique de Lourdes," I am convinced that miracles happen there. There is more than natural power manifest.