But so thoroughly tainted with fraud was it found to be, in the extravagant and unwarranted claims of its practitioners, that it soon fell into the hands of charlatans and traveling showmen, and thus into general discredit.
It had, however, a great influence in the development of spiritualism and also of hypnotism, although the latter did not obtain its first scientific recognition until many years later, through the work of the eminent French neurologist, Charcot.
This same doctrine of the susceptibility of the individual will to the influence of suggestion or authority is the very foundation of christian science. It underlies the time-honored and well-nigh universal use of the placebo by the medical profession, like the historical brown-bread pill of Dr. Jacob Bigelow, and is the curative agent in most of the well-known proprietary medicines. It is reflected in that old French saying that medicine sometimes cures, often relieves and always comforts.
Physicians have always made use of it, and especially the now much-neglected family doctor. His intimate knowledge of the heredity, habits, social and domestic life of his patients gave him a peculiar advantage in discriminating between their mental and their physical ailments; while the confidence, nay, almost reverence with which his families regarded him gave an authority to his counsel that was seldom questioned.
"His father was here before him," Mrs. Macfadyen used to explain, "atween them, they've had the countyside for weel on tae a century; if MacLure disna understand oor constitutions, wha dis a'wud like tae ask?"
And this simple faith has given the country doctor his one opportunity through all the world, and for many hundreds of years, to practise what we now call psychotherapy. Perhaps he did it unconsciously and in an amateurish sort of way, as Dr. Cabot says, but he did it, is doing it and has done it with great success.
The use of psychotherapy, or mind cure, in a purely scientific way, in the practise of medicine has been tried with conspicuous success for many years by Dubois, in Berne, and Bramwell, in England. "Our endeavor," says the former, "is to raise up these patients, to give them confidence in themselves, and to dissipate their fears and autosuggestions." They do this by making a direct appeal to the patient's reason, by trying to train his will, by trying to make the dominating idea of his ego one of health and strength, not of weakness.
Another factor in the development of this new movement is the renewed interest in the old command, to love thy neighbor as thyself; the awakening of a sense of responsibility of the more fortunate for the less fortunate, in the world they both live in.
