=In Bed from Fear.= Miss C. was carried into my house rolled in a blanket.  She had been confined to her bed except for fifteen minutes a day, during which time she was able to lie in a hammock!  It seems that her illness was the result of fear, an over-reaction to early teaching about self-abuse.  Her mother had frightened her terribly by giving her the false idea that this practice often leads to insanity.  Having indulged in self-abuse, she believed herself going insane, and very naturally succumbed to the effects of such a fear.  After a few days of re-education, she was as strong as any average person.  Having no clothing but for a sick-room, she borrowed hat, skirt, and shoes, and walked to church, a three-mile walk.

=Empty Hands.= Miss Y., a fine woman of middle age, suffering from extreme fatigue could neither sleep nor eat.  She could only weep.  She had spent her life taking care of an invalid girl who had recently died.  Now her hands were empty.  Like many a mother whose family has grown up, she had no outlet for her mothering instinct, and her sense of impotency expressed itself in the only way it knew how,—­through her body.  As there is never any lack of unselfish work to be done, or of people who need mothering, she soon found herself and learned how to sublimate her energy in useful activities.

=Defying Nature.= One young man from Wyoming had felt himself obliged to give up his business because he could neither work nor eat.  It soon cropped out that he and his wife had decided that they must not have any children.  With a better understanding of the great forces which they were defying, his strength and his appetite came back and he went back to work, rejoicing.

=Left-over Habits.= Often a state of fatigue is the result of a carried-over habit.  One of my patients, a young girl, had several years before been operated on for exophthalmic goiter.  This is a disease of the thyroid gland, and is characterized by rapid heart, extreme fatigue, and numerous other symptoms.  Although this girl’s goiter had been removed, the symptoms still persisted.  She could not walk nor do even a little work, like wiping a few dishes.  I took her down on the beach, let her feel her own pulse and mine and then ran with her on the sand.  Again I let her feel our pulses and discover for herself that hers had quickened no more than was normal and had slowed down as soon as mine.  After a few such lessons, she was convinced that her symptoms were reverberations for which there was no longer any physical cause.

Another young girl, Miss L., had had a similar operation for goiter six years before.  Since that time she had been virtually bedridden.  During the first meal she had at my house her sister sat by her couch because she must not be left alone.  By the second meal the sister had gone, and Miss L. ate at the table with the other guests.  That night she managed to crawl upstairs, with a good deal of assistance and with great terror at the probable results of such an effort.  After that, she walked up-stairs alone whenever she had occasion to go to her room.  Her heart will always be a little rapid and her body will never be very strong, but she now lives a helpful happy life at home and among her friends.