ill also be specific and if intense
will dominate the patient. "Why is it I can never feel joy as I used to
do?" was the pathetic inquiry of the patient dominated by a feeling of
misery and fear. Was it not for the reason that being dominated by
misery and fear, joy could find no place? The emotion of misery because
of its intensity could more or less inhibit the feeling of joy, but joy
could not inhibit the misery.

No repetition of the memory of the unpleasant experiences with their
associated emotion of misery and fear led to the formation of a habit of
mind and feeling. And when once such a habit of mind is established it
is remarkable by what a host of stimuli received in ordinary daily life
the cause of the disturbance can be recalled.

This question of stimuli deserves further notice. It is not so difficult
to realize the mechanism by which a stimulus which clearly crosses the
threshold of consciousness can lead to a given reaction. But it is
perhaps difficult to imagine how so many stimuli which do not cross the
threshold of consciousness or which, if they do, are not recognized by
the patient at the time as having any reference whatever to the special
memory can yet set the memory mechanism into action. The result may not
be seen till after the relapse of some considerable period of time, as
in the case of a man who for years had been disturbed by terrific
nightmares, based on the idea of snakes coming out of the ground and
attacking him. He complained one day that he was much worse, that three
nights before he had had the worst nightmare of his life. On being
questioned as to what could have suggested snakes to him he could not
tell. A few minutes later he said: "I think I know the cause now. I
spent the evening before I had that nightmare with a sergeant who had
returned from the service in India." This friend amongst other things
had mentioned that whenever they were about to bivouac they had to
search every hole under a stone and every tuft of grass to see that
there were no snakes there. This, which had been received as an ordinary
item of information, had been the stimulus which had set his memory
mechanism into action and the nightmare between two and three o'clock in
the morning had been the result.

The result in many instances is evidenced by an emotional state alone
and the actual memory of the original experience may not come into
consciousness. Many examples of this might be given. The sound of a