h as dementia,
the variations are almost entirely absent, because of the lack of
emotional reactions. It has thus been found that this form of insanity
is largely a disease of the emotional life. On the other hand, when the
emotions are strong, the fluctuations of the needle are very marked and
prolonged. We have thus another most valuable method of testing the
emotional life--always largely subconscious--by means of purely
mechanical instruments.

Finally, we have hypnotism, the skilled employment of which has been
found of inestimable value in laying bare the secrets of the
subconscious life. By its aid it has been found possible to disclose the
secrets of being, to tap the subconscious mind at will, to explore the
hidden regions of Self, which would otherwise have remained for ever
inaccessible to the experimenter. For, by placing the patient in the
hypnotic condition, the subconscious mind is exposed to view, as it
were, and its secrets made manifest. The wounds and scars are thus
rendered visible to the mental eye of the physician, and he is enabled
to treat his case accordingly.

Yes, hypnotism has been found one of the chief means of cure as well as
of diagnosis. By its aid the tangled skein of the mental life may be
unravelled, the mental knots may be untied, and the threads may be woven
and plaited together again into one normal, healthy chain of being. This
may be accomplished by means of suggestion rightly applied. When once
the hidden complex has been brought to the surface, when its story is
told, its secrets laid bare, it seems incapable of doing more damage, of
again influencing the mental life detrimentally. Its life, its vitality,
seems to have gone; its ammunition has been stolen, it has "shot its
bolt," it is incapable of doing more injury to the normal self. Many
hidden fears, depressions, and obsessions have been removed in this
manner, simply by bringing these hidden fears and thoughts to the
surface and disposing of them by means of suggestion. Many seemingly
miraculous cures have been effected in this manner. The "demons" have
been expelled, the brooding thoughts have vanished. This method of
dispelling them is technically known as the cathartic method, and
consists simply in a frank and full confession. When this has been
brought about, when the brooding thoughts have been brought to
light--confessed and discharged, as it were, from the mind--then a cure
will be found to have been wrought; the