brought
herself vividly into the whole situation. Then I asked her to tell
me the whole story once more and to express strongly her innocence
and the wrongness of the punishment, and when she had completed her
account, brought out with fullest indignation, I had her tell the
whole thing once more and then a third and a fourth time, until she
was quite tired out from it. That was all I did. Very soon after,
the husband reported that there was a great improvement in every
respect, no hysteric attacks, only slight discomfort. Most of the
stimuli which had previously produced strong reactions now passed
without any disturbance and even thunderstorms were experienced
with relative ease. A year later they came once more to Cambridge,
and she simply passed once more through the same process of
discharge which seems now to have removed the symptoms still
further.

By far more reliable, however, is the method of side-tracking the
starting experience into a new associational track.

A gentleman with a decidedly psychasthenic constitution developed a
tendency to hesitate in walking on the street. It was not a
complete stumbling but a disturbing inhibition, which set in when
he was walking alone and his attention was not absorbed by
something on the street. He believed that it came on most strongly
when he looked down at the pavement. He suffered from it vehemently
and avoided going on the street alone. He was unable to connect it
with any starting point. He interpreted it as merely a symptom of
overwork. But going with him through all kinds of experiences which
he had had on the street in previous years, we finally found that
once he was running to catch a street car, when he suddenly saw
almost immediately before him a big hole dug out for laying gas
pipes. He was able to stop himself quickly enough not to fall into
the hole but he got a strong emotional shock from the experience.
He, himself, did not think that his walking troubles set in
immediately after this shock. Yet the hypothesis seemed to me
sufficiently justified that there existed a connection, even though
some weeks lay between that first experience and the first
observation of the abnormal inhibition in walking. On that basis I
tried to train a new associative connection. I made him drowsy and