slightest desire for it. Instead of a systematic development of
suggestions, I confined myself therefore to a mere repetition of
the treatment of the first day and as every morning the same
assurance came forth, there seemed to be no need for any
variation. It was not before the fifth day that I discovered that
he had taken from the start a pint of whiskey every day. When he
first arrived he had bribed a laundress of the hotel to bring to
his room every day the whiskey hidden in the laundry and he drank
it during the night. Then I declined any further participation.

The danger of deceit is of course less imminent when not the family but
the patient himself takes the initiative. Yet even here distrust is
wise. The patient has sometimes the most sincere intention to be cured,
but under pressure of his craving he admits compromises which he hides
from the physician. Having reduced the large quantity of alcohol to
which he was accustomed, he hides the fact that he yet takes a few
drinks, which he thinks cannot prevent the cure. Yet inasmuch as a
complete cure has to rely on psychical factors, this consciousness of
deceiving even with small transgressions interferes badly with progress
and, inasmuch as the cunningness of the patient is itself a symptom of
the disturbance, the strongest possible precaution is advisable at the
beginning. For that reason it is also not best to begin at once with
complete prohibition, but to lead to a total abstinence in about one
week. But certainly in the case of every drunkard, total abstinence is
the only desirable goal. A pronounced drinker ought never to be
transformed simply into a moderate one. The return to intemperance would
result rapidly. On the other hand it would be unfair to deny that
psychotherapy has cured the symptom if the desire really once
disappeared completely, even if, after years, new temptations develop a
new desire. I myself had diphtheria three times in my life; my
constitution is thus probably especially favorable to that disease but I
do not estimate less the fact that I was perfectly cured the second
time, in spite of the fact that I caught it a few years later a third
time. To be sure, such experiences of relapse cannot be spared any
psychotherapist. I may give a typical instance.

A well-known professional man of fifty years, through a long
bachelorhood, was accustomed to close his work at four o'clock and