Neurasthenia / by Gilbert Ballet ; translated from the third French edition by P. Campbell Smith.

Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Neurasthenia / by Gilbert Ballet ; translated from the third French edition by P. Campbell Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    always valuable—see pp. 181, 196, and 200 to 207 of this work—and in mild cases it may be made from the outset; but, surely, one of the earliest practical lessons that one learns in treating cases of the psychoses of any degree of severity, whether there be intellectual derangement or not, is the futility of appealing to the higher mental levels before the general condition has con- siderably improved. This, indeed, follows from the pathogeny of the complaints. The question is discussed in Part VI, ch. 2, of the present work, which gives an admirable account of the psychical treatment of neurasthenia, in all its branches. One additional point, however, a point of value in many cases, is well brought out by Dr. Drummond: he shows that it is necessary not only to cheer and reassure the patient, but also to stimulate him to depart from his self-involvement, to widen his interests and sympathies, and to strengthen his sense of duty. It must be remem- bered, however, that this applies to cases with a strong element of hypochondriasis; it would be incorrect and unjust to suppose that every neurasthenic is selfish and self-centred. The author seems to have been unfortunate in his experience of boarding-schools in his native land. Fortunately for us, things are better in that respect in England, though in many schools the hours of sleep are still too short. The question whether a neurotic boy should go to a boarding-