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THE MIND IN D I S E A S E SOME CONDITIONS CURED BY SUGGESTION BY M. P. LEAHY, B.A.Dub., M.B. FOURTH IMPRESSION LONDON W I L L I A M H E I N E M A N N (MEDICAL B O O K S ) L T D . 1938 First published, September, 1 9 2 6 Second Impression, July, 1 9 2 8 Third Impression, July, 1 9 3 4 Fourth Impression, December, London : William Heinemann 1938 {Medical Books) Ltd. THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO M Y WIFE, KATHLEEN, W H O HAS BEEN OF T H E GREATEST ASSISTANCE T O ME IN T H E COMPILING OF IT FOREWORD I DO not claim that the mind is omnipotent. Nor do I claim that suggestion will cure every disease. I do not even claim that it will always cure the same condition occurring in difFerent types of patients. But I do claim that, given average intelligence and a desire to co-operate on the part of the patient, suggestion can help in a vast number of diseased conditions. When we realise that a multitude of diseases originate in the mind alone, it is easy to understand my contention here. Fear states, anxiety states, obsessions, worry and depression, are all mental products. Many physical states such as nervous dyspepsia, nervous diarrhoea, nervous vomiting, blushing, frequency of micturition, psychical impotence and various (functional) paralyses, may likewise be mental in origin. Obviously then if you alter the mental state you may cure the condition here. And it is also recognised that in many cases of long-continued physical diseases the mind of the patient plays a part. He becomes obsessed with the idea that his condition is incurable, and the hope lessness of his mental outlook retards his physical recovery. The idea " I can't get well " prevents him 8 FOREWORD from putting forth his best efforts. That idea exists in his mind, and if // works—and it does—surely the inculcation of the opposite idea should produce the opposite result. In practice I have found that such an idea can be inculcated and does work. Get into his mind the idea " I can get well," and his physical body functions better. There is a popular conception that if a patient responds to suggestion he cannot have a strong mind, he must be lacking in will-power. The very reverse is the case. Weak or strong, given average intelli gence, the patient can be helped ; but I have found that the stronger the mentality of the patient, the better the response to the suggestions of cure. And so, as the result of twenty-two years' experi ence, I have come to the following conclusions :— (1) The mind is a factor in disease. (2) It acts sometimes by virtue of will-power, at other times by virtue of the imagination. (3) By combining these two factors, imagination and will-power, many diseases can be cured. (4) Both the imagination and the will-power can be developed by suggestion. My views are put before you in the following order :— CHAPTER I.—The mind in disease—^The relationship between patient and doctor in suggestion— Treatment—Mental pain, e,g,, worry—Physical pain and how suggestion acts in the relief of it. CHAPTER II.—Conditions I cured in myself, physical and mental. FOREWORD 9 CHAPTER III.—Cases in which the mental state was obviously responsible for the condition. CHAPTER IV.—Cases in which relief was obtained, when the predominant factor producing the patient's discomfort was obviously the existing physical condition. CHAPTER V.—Cases in which it was difficult to decide whether the mental or physical condition was the chief factor. M. 45, Clarges Street, London, W. i. P. LEAHY. INTRODUCTION T H E object of this book is to show that a hopeful mental outlook can do much to improve the patient's condition in disease, whether the disease itself is physical or mental.