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A lot of the theories floated by progressive thinkers at the turn of the 20th century have today been consigned to the dust bin of history. Some have, however, entered the mainstream. For instance, the 'Mind Cure,' is not so far off from what is now termed mind-body medicine. The book acknowledges the active role that the patient's mental state can take in resolving health problems, while not disregarding orthodox western medicine. Much of the advice in this book would today probably be regarded by many medical professionals as sensible, and at the very least, not harmful.
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A COMMON-SENSE VIEW OF THE MIND-CURE
by
LAURA M. WESTALL
Index
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I. THE MIND
CHAPTER II. THE BRAIN
CHAPTER III. THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
CHAPTER IV. THE EMOTIONS
CHAPTER V. THE IMAGINATION
CHAPTER VI. THE ATTENTION
CHAPTER VII. THE NATURE OF PAIN
CHAPTER VIII. THE ENVIRONMENT
CHAPTER IX. CONCLUSION
CHAPTER X. A FEW PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
INTRODUCTION
Out of the night that covers me, Dark as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever Gods may be For my unconquerable soul.
It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul!
HENLEY
THE Western world has been slow to recognize the power of the mind over the body by reason of the fact that our philosophers from very early times regarded the mind as an independent entity, a something to be considered quite apart from the body.
“Mind cannot move matter,” they contended, because an impassable gulf exists between the two; and therefore, a mental fact cannot possibly be represented by a corresponding physical fact. The body, in their thought, was simply the chosen tenement of the soul, and operated independently of it. And this view in a modified form is maintained even to the present day by the adherents of the old psychology or metaphysical school.
But with the striking of the shackles from the insane by Dr. Pinel in France, with the work of Dr. Tuke in England and Dr. Rush in America, toward the latter half of the eighteenth century there sprang into being a new psychology, based upon the study of nerve-tissue and brain-action. The old psychology was speculative; the new is scientific. It has exchanged theory for the microscope.
By this method, it was soon demonstrated that the brain is the organ of mind, and that the nervous system is the channel of communication between the mind and the external world, or the means by which man is put into relation with his environment.
The early phrenologists, in their attempts to localize brain function, popularized the former idea, while the brain-physiologists proved conclusively the indissoluble connection between the mind and the nervous system. Meanwhile the histologists, by their discovery of the nerve-cell and its processes, discovered the physical basis of association of ideas and memory.
Toward the middle of the nineteenth century German scientists took up the problem; and Weber, with his law of variation, Fechner, with his psychophysical law, and Wundt, by his researches in physiological psychology, demonstrated the physical basis of mind. Henceforth psychology was to be reckoned among the natural sciences.
As was to be expected, the charge of materialism has been flung at the new by the adherents of the old school. With them, to deny the independent existence of the soul was to “rule God out of the universe.” To affirm that mind and body are a unit is to negative the doctrine of immortality.
While admitting the justice of the criticism of those extremists who assert that “thought is a function of the brain” or that “the brain secretes thought as the liver secretes bile,” it is unjust to that large body of monists who hold that, tho mind and body must be regarded as a unit, the soul-principle is the real ego or being, and the physical organism the vehicle of its expression or embodiment. As Dr. Carus puts it, “Modern psychology does not destroy the soul, but merely a false view of the ego.”
Accepting the position that the brain is the immediate organ of mind, and that by means of his nervous system man gets into relation with his environment, our inquiry as to the influence which mind may exert upon matter may be conducted upon both rational and scientific lines.
CHAPTER I. THE MIND
WE feel before we think; but this is merely another way of saying that mind is developed by means of sensations.
Each one of us is possest of five senses, sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell; and if it were not for these we could acquire no knowledge. But by their operation we not only become self-conscious beings, but come into conscious relation with the world outside ourselves.
A moment’s reflection will show this to be true. If, for instance, you could neither see nor hear nor touch your friend, could you form any idea of his character or personality? Would you even know that you had a friend? Or if you could neither see nor smell nor touch a rose, would not a thistle be just as acceptable?
It is unnecessary to multiply examples. The simple fact is that if it were not for the activity of the senses, each one of us would live in a world of darkness and ignorance. We would have no fuller measure of life than a jellyfish.
This is essentially the modern view. It was formerly held that each member of the human species entered upon life endowed with certain ideas, innate ideas, so-called, and hence the purpose of education, as the word implies, was to “draw out” of the mind what was already in it.
But since modern science has studied the human brain with the microscope, we have learned that this was a wrong conception, and that the mind is really a growth or development from small and poor beginnings.
