The effect of idleness upon the will, of a discouraging and unlovely health resort on the spirits, of an empty outlook for the future—all these have been largely disregarded. Put him in the open air, and fatten him up, we say,—so far, so good. But he has a mind, as well as a body; a future, as well as a present—and neither element can be neglected.”
Then, too, the study of the treatment and means of prevention of the infections and degenerations, and the brilliancy of its results, have tended to make us impatient with the less prompt response of the neurotic. We medical men have been tempted to speak sternly, as did the King in Alice in Wonderland, who told the poor hatter, who was trembling before the throne: “Don't be nervous, or I'll have you executed on the spot.” So we have been tempted to say to the unduly nervous patient: “You are not sick; don't be nervous, or you'll make yourself sick”—good advice, but, like much that we have to listen to, badly given.
We must look deeper into the causes of the nervousness, and suggest something to take their place. The profession is already awakening to this defect in its practise, and one of the benefits of christian science and the later movement is the stimulus which it has given the medical profession, to take up again, in its new light, a work which it always used to do, and which still is a part of its duty; a part of its very raison d'être.
A recent editorial in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal says:
That the profession at large needs instruction in the practise of psychotherapy we are willing to admit; we believe that such instruction should be given at medical schools, to the end that the limitations as well as the possibilities of mental treatment should be laid down, so far as our present knowledge permits.
The University of Wisconsin has already established a chair of psychology and medicine; the Phipps fund of $500,000 will soon be available for a similar course in the Johns Hopkins University, and Dr. Morton Prince offers a course in psychotherapy this winter at the Tufts Medical School. In the great field of hospital and dispensary practise much has been accomplished in the same direction by the introduction of the social-service department, as at the Johns Hopkins, the New York Post-graduate and the Massachusetts General Hospitals.
From these considerations I think there can be no doubt but that the doctor has, can and ought to do this work; the next question is, in how far it can and ought to be done by the church. We all agree that the underlying causes in very many of these functional nervous disorders are moral causes. We all recognize the strong religious side in human nature. We have all seen in our own experience, or that of some of our friends, the peace and satisfaction of mind to be derived from a strong religious faith.
It is a powerful force for the uplifting of man, mentally and morally.
