er their childish attitudes toward the sex-life, the nausea
disappeared.

=Loss of Appetite.= A nervous patient with a good appetite is "the
exception that proves the rule." The neurotic is usually under weight
and often complains that he feels satiated almost as soon as he begins
to eat. Loss of appetite may, of course, mean that the body is busy
combating toxins in the blood, but in a nervous person it usually
means a symbolic loss of appetite for something in life, a struggle of
the personality against something for which he has "no stomach."
Psycho-analysis often reveals the source of the trouble, and a little
bullying helps along the good work. By simply taking away a harmful
means of expression, we may often force the subconscious mind to find
a better language.

SUMMARY

Since the stomach seems to be an organ which is much better fitted to
care for food than to care for a depressing emotion or a false idea,
it seems far more sensible to change our minds than to keep enlarging
our list of eatables which are taboo.

And since most indigestion is in very truth nothing more nor less than
an emotional disturbance, worked up by fear, anger, discontent, worry,
ignorance, suggestion, attention to bodily functions which are meant
to be ignored, love of notice and the conversion of moral distress
into physical distress, the best diet list which can be furnished to
Mr. Everyman in search of health must read something like this:

MENU

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
Sunday

A Calm Spirit Plenty of Good Cheer
A Varied Diet Commonsense
Good Cooking
Judicious Neglect of Symptoms
Forgetfulness of the Digestive Process
A Little Accurate Knowledge
A Determination to
BE LIKE FOLKS

CHAPTER XI

_In which we relearn an old trick_

THE BUGABOO OF CONSTIPATION

POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS

In line with the taboos connected with the taking of food are the
ceremonials attendant upon its elimination. Taking anxious thought
about functions well established by nature is a feature of
conversion-hysteria, the displacement of emotional desire from its
psychic realm into symbolic physical expression. Whatever other
symptoms nervous people may manifest, th