or and that it persists in the disease while
the ideas to which it clings may change. Central is the emotion of fear;
nearest to it that of worry, but any emotion may give color to the
particular case. Again any number of methods may be applied and a few
illustrations with quite different ways of treatment may indicate more
fully the character of the trouble. There is no doctor in the city and
none in the remotest village who may not find such cases in his near
neighborhood. Of course slight degrees are easily hidden by the
patient's own inhibition of external expression. If such suppression by
the own will secures a real overcoming of the unjustified emotion, this
is surely better than to begin any medical treatment. But as the
suppression usually means simply lack of discharge and thus offers all
the conditions for an unhealthy inner growth of the trouble, the neglect
of such disturbances is most regrettable, and frankness of the patient
must be encouraged. Such situation demands a careful observation of the
whole case and a subtle adjustment of the treatment to the individual
needs. It may perhaps be helpful at first simply to indicate the
varieties of the more frequent disturbances of this kind by quoting from
various letters. Each case belongs to a type which can easily be removed
by psychotherapeutic influence, generally even by a skillfully directed
autosuggestion.

The writer is a young man.

"I have always, as long as I can remember, been very nervous and
sensitive. When about seven years of age, I was attacked by St.
Vitus' Dance. Before that I cannot say whether I was particularly
nervous or not. Afterward it was impressed upon me by the remarks
of relatives that I was nervous, so that I soon took note of this
condition myself. The manner in which this weakness has been
especially troublesome is that it has caused me to be very shy. I
shrank from new acquaintances and disliked being observed. Often in
walking along on the street, I imagined myself closely noticed by
the passerby and I always felt uncomfortable.

"About three years ago I suffered from typhoid fever and after
recovering, a new form of the old trouble showed itself. This time
I imagined that when eating I chewed my food in a manner that was
ridiculous and which made people hardly keep from laughter in
observing me. Often I had to leave the table when half through