stutterer,
however, should overlook the value of such diagnosis, for the reason
that there are so many forms of speech disorders that it is totally
impossible as well as unsafe for the sufferer himself to try to
determine the exact nature of his trouble.

I recall the case of a certain young man who had depended upon his own
knowledge to determine the identity of his speech defect and the nature
of his trouble. When a boy, he had swallowed a small program pencil
with a metal tip, injuring his vocal cords, so he said, and causing him
to become a stammerer. An examination of his condition and a careful
diagnosis of his case revealed the fact that his vocal organs were as
normal as those of any person who had never stammered. The diagnosis
also revealed the fact that his stammering was not originally caused by
any organic defect or any injury to the vocal organs, but that, on the
other hand, he had, in the first place, inherited a predisposition to
stammer, his father and his grandfather both having been stammerers
whose trouble had never been remedied. The diagnosis showed that the
onset of the trouble immediately after swallowing the pencil was due
chiefly to the nervous shock and fright caused by the accident, which,
in conjunction, with the inherited predisposition toward stammering,
was too much for the boy's mental control and he immediately developed
into a stammerer. The young man had believed for many years that his
defective utterance was totally incurable, that it was due to an
organic defect which could not be remedied. The diagnosis quickly
revealed, however, that a very different condition was responsible for
his trouble and as a consequence, he found himself able to be cured
where, without expert diagnosis, he had resigned himself to a life as a
stammerer.

Another case which also shows the stammerer's inability to diagnose his
own trouble accurately was that of a woman who persistently refused to
allow her son to have his case diagnosed, because of her belief that he
was incurable and that the diagnosis would be a waste of time and money.

After months of coaxing, however, he succeeded in getting her to
consent and I gave him a thorough diagnosis and report on his
condition. This mother had been unduly alarmed--the boy was still in a
curable stage and in fact completed the necessary work in much less
than the usual time. This is but another case that shows the loss which
comes from not knowing the truth.