Case 5. Hysterical aphonia

X., at. 17, is a member of a nervous family and has suffered from aphonia for four months. He cannot speak out loud, only in a whisper. The history of the case mentions catarrh of the larynx, but examination determines the diagnosis hysterical aphonia. The patient could be hypnotized into the first stage, and although simple suggestion proved ineffectual good results were obtained by combining suggestion with forced expiration. Four days later the patient was able to articulate simple syllables distinctly, and six days later his speech could be pronounced normal. There was no recurrence for a year, and even then the trouble yielded to hypnotic treatment.

As far as hysterical aphonia is concerned I could recount many cases in which loss of voice has been cured by hypnotic suggestion.

Case 6. Nervous sickness

The patient, a pale young girl aged 18, and a member of a healthy family, has suffered occasionally from headache. Her chief trouble is sickness, which frequently comes on when she has eaten anything. Retching and vomiting often occur within a minute of swallowing even a drop of water. When she came under treatment the trouble had lasted more than a year. The patient was very much run down, and it was almost impossible to stop the vomiting without narcotics. All kinds of treatment were tried, and it was sometimes found possible to suppress, or at least delay, the usual sickness by taking energetic measures to distract the patient's attention when she had had a morsel to eat. Nervertheless it was not often possible to distract the patient's attention sufficiently, which shows how much the patient's mental condition affected the vomiting. I then tried hypnotic suggestion and found that the patient could be easily hypnotized to a deep stage. She was very much exhausted by the first hypnosis, but this discomfort disappeared as the hypnosis was persevered with, and she was finally able to eat and drink with only occasional attacks of vomiting.

Post-hypnotic suggestion gradually made this improvement perceptible in the patient's waking life, and in fourteen days time she was able to take food without vomiting. There has been no alteration in her condition for a year and a half.

Case 7. Somnambulism

This patient, 18 years of age, is the son of a violent father and an epileptic mother. It was noticed that from his childhood he talked aloud in his sleep, and sometimes got up and wandered about his bedroom, but he had no recollection of these occurrences. His parents were afraid to speak to him when he was walking in his sleep, because of the popular notion that it would be dangerous to do so. His somnambulism sometimes led him from the upper story in which his bedroom was situated to his grandparents' apartment on the ground floor. This occurred on an average once a fortnight. No convulsions were ever observed, and I think this case must be considered one of somnambulism, although a nice distinction from mentally produced epilepsy was not quite possible. The suggestibility of the patient was very marked during hypnosis, and the attacks of somnambulism were easily suppressed. There have been no attacks for eight months. The patient often talks at night; but he never gets out of his bed, although he has not been hypnotized for six months.

Case 8. Narcolepsy

The patient is eighteen years of age and suffers from attacks of somnolence. His father was also similarly afflicted. The patient has observed that close reading makes him quickly tired and fall asleep. This occurs almost daily, so that he has hardly the courage to read. The trouble has lasted for nine months, and electric treatment has proved unsuccessful. But hypnotic treatment has not only stopped the tendency to fall asleep when reading, but has also suppressed the tired feeling otherwise experienced. I was able to follow this improvement long after the patient had ceased to be treated.

Case 9. Asthma of mental origin

Mrs. X., at, 48; formerly a heavy drinker; has suffered from attacks of dyspnoea for eight years, especially in the afternoon. The attacks have often been so severe that the patient has been compelled to get up and open doors and windows so as to get fresh air. The attacks are almost of daily occurrence. The lungs are healthy; but the first mitral tone is not quite pure but somewhat broken. Otherwise there is nothing abnormal - no bronchial catarrh and no emphysema. The patient was subjected to all kinds of hydro-therapeutic treatment; electric treatment was employed; her nose was examined and given local treatment, but all to no purpose. The patient was then treated hypnotically; the first experiment produced the second stage of hypnosis and almost complete anaesthesia. From the first day there was no attack of asthma. The patient was first of all hypnotized daily for a fortnight, then every second day, and finally once a month. In the end it was possible to do without hypnosis as the attacks did not recur, and after many years of observation I am satisfied that the cure is complete.

Case 10. Chronic constipation

Mrs. X., at. 38, a somewhat corpulent member of a healthy family; suffered from chlorosis when she was fifteen years of age, but had not apparently suffered from any other trouble. At present she is occasionally troubled with a sense of numbness in the head but no direct pain; also some minor troubles such as lassitude and heaviness of the limbs. As a rule she only has a motion every third or fourth day, and then it is very hard. She has taken Carlsbad salts in increasing doses, also aloes pills, and other such medicaments. She was obliged to take such large doses that she finally agreed to undergo hypnotic treatment, especially as weeks of massage had done her no good. At the first attempt she fell into deep hypnosis, and a copious evacuation on the following morning was successfully suggested. She was hypnotized on ten successive occasions, and then at longer intervals, and when I last saw her two years after she had stopped the treatment, her motions were normal - a copious evacuation every morning without the use of drugs.