and Pavlov have insisted, a series of
conditioned reflexes becomes established, it will assist us to
understand how such stimuli can give rise to mental disturbances, to
mental illnesses. We shall see that there may be something of real
importance underlying such remarks as "I felt I was a changed child"; or
"It is because of the treatment I received from my father that I have
taken life so seriously." "I have never imagined that what I went
through in my childhood could so influence me now"; or "I have never had
confidence in myself and often when I have appeared vivacious and
interested I have had an awful feeling of incapacity and dread within
myself."

The outward and obvious manifestations, therefore, are not necessarily a
true index of our mental and emotional conditions. This is true of all
mental illnesses, even the most severe.

One patient who had been in an asylum more than ten years illustrated
this in a most striking manner. His outward manifestations led one to
feel that he thought he possessed the institution in which he was
confined and also the surrounding property and that the authorities were
a set of usurpers and thieves who kept him incarcerated in order that
they might enjoy what was really his money and his property. On one
occasion I said to him, "George, what is that incident in your life
which you cannot forget and which has troubled you so seriously?" The
reply was a flood of abuse. I put the question to him several times
without getting any further answer, but when I came to leave the ward,
George came up behind me and whispered over my shoulder, "Who told you
about it?" No abuse, no shouting as usually occurred, but a whisper,
"Who told you about it?" Was not George running away from a memory with
its emotion which was unbearable to an idea which allowed him to be
angry with others instead of with himself? Many examples of this might
be given and really might be found by us in our own experience. It is
the mental content which is important, a mental content which can be
recalled by various stimuli, and which will be more persistently with us
the more intense is the emotion associated with it.

But the basis of the condition is not completely understood when we have
apparently arrived at the psychic cause of the disturbance.

It is recognized that the emotions are accompanied by physical changes,
changes which are specific for each emotional state. The physical
changes which normally are