I decided therefore
to work on the basis of that hypothesis, to accept that
physiological complex as existing, but to switch it off by linking
it with appropriate associations, thus setting it right in the
whole system of her thoughts.

For that purpose I brought her into a hypnoid state, bending her
head backwards and speaking to her with slow voice until I saw that
a slight drowsy state was reached. In this state I asked her to
think back as vividly as she could of that experience of her youth,
to fancy herself meeting that pretty girl, her neighbor, once more.
She is to imagine that she speaks with her. Now I make her talk
with me and she assures me that she sees the scene distinctly. She
believes she sees the girl on the street. I ask her to tell the
girl how indignant she feels over her behavior; she is to tell her
that she understands now all which she did not understand in her
childhood, that she knows now that she must have lived an immoral
life; that she must have had a friend and that a pure girl like
herself could never under any circumstances come into such a
situation, that no pure girl could suddenly have a child. She is to
express to the other girl her deepest disapproval of such conduct
and her own feeling of happiness that anything like that could
never happen to her. In accordance with my demands, she worked
herself entirely into the scene: without using audible voice, she
internally spoke with great vividness to her neighbor. When I awoke
her from her drowsy state, she was quite exhausted from the
excitement. I repeated that scene with her four times. She assured
me that she felt it every time more dramatically. The power of the
obsession weakened from the first day. After the fourth time, it
had disappeared. The subcortical complex had evidently found its
normal channels of discharge.

In discussing this method of side-tracking the complex, we mentioned
that in other cases the result is reached by bringing the memory of that
first experience to a vivid motor discharge, without substituting any
other ideas. For that purpose no direct personal influence is necessary.
Treatment might just as well be performed "by correspondence," provided
that the right starting point is discovered and that right suggestions
are given. As an illustration, I may choose a case w