The second point that stands out clearly to any one acquainted with these inner histories is the conviction that in each case the trouble was related in some way to the unsatisfied love-life, to the insistent and thwarted instinct of reproduction.  In some cases no search was made for the cause.  The simple explanation that there was no lack of power was sufficient to release inhibited energy.  But in every case where the cause was sought, it was found to be some outer lack of satisfaction, or some inner repression of the love-force.

=From Prostration to Tennis.= One young woman, Miss A., had suffered for ten years from the extremest kind of fatigue.  She could not walk a block without support and without the feeling of great exhaustion.  Before her illness she had had a sweetheart.  Not understanding her normal physical sensations when he was near, she had felt them extremely wicked and had repressed them with all her strength.  Later, she broke off the engagement, and a little while after developed the neurosis.  Within a week after coming to my house, she was playing tennis, walking three miles to church, and generally living the life of a normal person.

=Making Her Own Discoveries.= Then there was Miss B. who for four years had been “exhausted.”  She had such severe pains in her legs that she was almost helpless.  If she sewed for half an hour on the sewing machine, she would be in bed for two weeks.  Although she was engaged to be married, she could not possibly shop for her trousseau.  Two years before, a very able surgeon had been of the opinion that the pain in the legs was caused by an ovarian tumor.  He removed the tumor, assuring the patient that she would be cured.  However, despite the operation and the force of the suggestion, the pains persisted.

After she had been with me for a few days, she sewed for an hour on the machine.  In a day or so she took a four-mile walk in a canon near the house and, on returning in the afternoon, walked two and a half miles down town to do some shopping.  I did not make an analysis in her case because she recovered so quickly,—­going home well within two weeks.  But she declared that she had found the cause while reading in one of the books on psychology.  I had my suspicions that the long-drawn-out engagement had something to do with the trouble, but I did not confirm my opinion.  A long engagement, by continually stimulating desire without satisfying it, only too often leads to nervous illness.

=Afraid of Heat.= Professor X., of a large Eastern college, had been incapacitated for four years with a severe fatigue neurosis and an intense fear of heat.  Constantly watching the weather reports, he was in the habit of fleeing to the Maine coast whenever the weather-prophet predicted warm weather.  After a short reeducation, he discovered that his fatigue was symbolic of an inner feeling of inadequacy, and that it bore no relation to his body.  Discarding his weariness and throwing all his energies into the Liberty Loan Campaign, he found himself speaking almost continuously throughout one of the hottest days in the history of California, with the thermometer standing at 107 degrees.  After that he had no doubt as to his cure.