ese circumstances, it seemed to me the most logical
conclusion that the counter idea with its antagonistic reactions
might be reenforced by direct perception. The abnormal tactual
sensation forced on consciousness the idea of the cutting of the
wrist. The necessary counter action would be to force to
consciousness the idea of the uninjured wrist and the corresponding
reactions. As the wrist can be easily made accessible to sight and
as I anticipated that the visual sensations would be more forceful
than the tactual ones, I told him to look straight at his own
wrists for ten minutes three times a day after waking, after
luncheon, and before going to bed. He had to hold his two forearms
close in front of his eyes and stare at them, giving his full
attention to the visual impression of the smooth, uninjured skin of
the wrist. If during this process, the tactual counter-sensations
were vivid, he had to go on with the staring at both arms, both
held near together until the perception had crowded out the rival
touch sensation. When this performance had been carried out six
times, he did not notice the coming up of the tactual sensation
with vividness any longer. From the third day it had disappeared
entirely. I told him to go on with the process still every morning
for some weeks. The physician himself considered the cure as
complete.

Our first case dealt with hypnosis, our second case removed the
intruding idea by a perception in a waking state. To point at once to
the variety of methods which we sketched, we may turn again to a case of
emotionless idea removed by the method of switching off and
side-tracking the originating and physiological "complex."

The patient is a school-teacher in the Middle West, a nervous,
thin-looking woman of about twenty-five. Her only complaint is a
persistent idea that she may at any time get a child. She has had
this idea "as long as she can remember," according to her first
expression. She never had any intimate acquaintance with any man,
she was never engaged, she hated bitterly every thought of
immorality, she knows and has assured herself by much reading that
it is entirely impossible that she might get a child without sexual
contact. Yet this thought recurs to her all the time, even when she
is talking with other people. It embarrass