the personality--instincts
and their accompanying emotions--which ought to work harmoniously,
having become tangled up with some erroneous ideas, have lost their
power of cooeperation and are working at cross purposes, leaving the
individual mis-adapted to his environment, the prey of all sorts of
mental and physical disturbances.

The fact that the cause is mental while the result is often physical,
should cause no surprise. In the physiological realm we are used to
the idea that cause and effect are often widely separated. A headache
may be caused by faulty eyes, or it may result from trouble in the
intestines. In the same way, we should not be too much surprised if
the cause of nervous troubles is found to be even more remote,
provided there is some connecting link between cause and effect. The
difficulty in this case is the apparent gulf between the realm of the
spirit and the realm of the body. It is hard to see how an intangible
thing like a thought can produce a pain in the arm or nausea in the
stomach. Philosophers are still arguing concerning the nature of the
relation between mind and body, but no one denies that the closest
relation does exist. Every year science is learning that ideas count
and that they count physically, as well as spiritually.

=Such Stuff as "Nerves" are Made Of.= Dr. Tom A. Williams in the
little composite volume "Psychotherapeutics" says that the neuroses
are based not on inherently weak nervous constitutions but on
ignorance and on false ideas. What, then, are some of these erroneous
ideas, these misconceptions, that cause so much trouble? We shall want
to examine them more carefully in later chapters, but we might glance
now at a few examples of these popular bugaboos that need to be slain
by the sword of cold, hard fact.

=Popular Misconceptions about the Body.=

1 "Eight hours' sleep is essential to health. All insomnia is
dangerous and is incompatible with health. Nervous insomnia leads to
shattered nerves and ultimately to insanity."

2 "Overwork leads to nervous breakdown. Fatigue accumulates from day
to day and necessitates a long rest for recuperation."

3 "A carefully planned diet is essential to health, especially for the
nervous person. A variety of food, eaten at the same time, is harmful.
Acid and milk--for example, oranges and milk--are difficult to digest.
Sour stomach is a sign of indigestion."

4 "Modern life is so strenuous that our nerves cannot stand the
s