ou uncover those trouble-making parts of your personality which
you cannot find for yourself. It is the purpose of this book to
summarize the facts which most need to be known. Let us now consider
those methods which the psychopathologist finds most useful in helping
his patients to self-knowledge and readjustment.

=Various Methods.= As there are a number of schools of medicine, so
there are a number of distinct methods of psychotherapy, each with its
own theories and methods of procedure, and each with its ardent
supporters. These methods may be classified into two groups. The first
group includes those methods, hypnosis and psycho-analysis, which make
a thorough search through the subconscious mind for the buried
complexes causing the trouble, and might, therefore, be called
"re-education with subconscious exploration." The other group,
includes so-called explanation and suggestion, or methods of
"re-education without subconscious exploration," which content
themselves with making a general survey and building up new complexes
without going to the trouble of uncovering the buried past. Although
the theory and the technique vary greatly, the aim of all these
methods is the same,--the readjustment of the individual to life.

RE-EDUCATION WITH SUBCONSCIOUS EXPLORATION

=Hypnosis.= The method by which most of the important early
discoveries were made is hypnosis, or artificial sleep, a method by
which the conscious mind is dissociated and the subconscious brought
to the fore. It was through hypnosis that Freud, Janet, Prince, and
Sidis made their first investigations into the nature of nervousness
and worked their first cures. With the conscious mind asleep and its
inhibitions out of the way, a hypnotized patient is often able to
remember and to disclose to the physician hidden complexes of which he
is unaware when awake. Hypnosis may thus be a valuable aid to
diagnosis, enabling the physician to determine the cause of
troublesome symptoms. He may then begin to make suggestions calculated
to break up the old complexes and to build new ones, made up of more
healthful ideas, desirable emotions and happy feeling-tones. As we
have seen, a hypnotized subject is highly suggestible. His
counter-suggestions inactivated, he believes almost anything told him
and is extremely susceptible to the doctor's influence.

The dangers of hypnosis have been much exaggerated. Indeed, as an
instrument in the hands of a competent physician