a state of elation which might or might not become more pronounced.  They had advised that I be persuaded to submit voluntarily to treatment in a hospital, or that I be, if necessary, forcibly committed.  On this advice my brother had proceeded to act.  And it was well so; for, though I appreciated the fact that I was by no means in a normal state of mind, I had not a clear enough insight into my condition to realize that treatment and a restricted degree of liberty were what I needed, since continued freedom might further inflame an imagination already overwrought.

A few simple statements by my brother convinced me that it was for my own good and the peace of mind of my relatives that I should temporarily surrender my freedom.  This I agreed to do.  Perhaps the presence of two hundred pounds of brawn and muscle, representing the law, lent persuasiveness to my brother’s words.  In fact, I did assent the more readily because I admired the thorough, sane, fair, almost artistic manner in which my brother had brought me to bay.  I am inclined to believe that, had I suspected that a recommitment was imminent, I should have fled to a neighboring State during the preceding night.  Fortunately, however, the right thing was done in the right way at the right time.  Though I had been the victim of a clever stratagem, not for one moment thereafter, in any particular, was I deceived.  I was frankly told that several doctors had pronounced me elated, and that for my own good I must submit to treatment.  I was allowed to choose between a probate court commitment which would have “admitted me” to the State Hospital, or a “voluntary commitment” which would enable me to enter the large private hospital where I had previously passed from depression to elation, and had later suffered tortures.  I naturally chose the more desirable of the two disguised blessings, and agreed to start at once for the private hospital, the one in which I had been when depression gave way to elation.  It was not that I feared again to enter the State Hospital.  I simply wished to avoid the publicity which necessarily would have followed, for at that time the statutes of Connecticut did not provide for voluntary commitment to the state hospitals.  Then, too, there were certain privileges which I knew I could not enjoy in a public institution.  Having re-established myself in society and business I did not wish to forfeit that gain; and as the doctors believed that my period of elation would be short, it would have been sheer folly to advertise the fact that my mental health had again fallen under suspicion.