hen in his
professional work. There was always an interval of three days. The
fourth time he declared himself that the hypnotic influence was
unnecessary, as he felt that he was again in the midst of his work.

As a rule the effect is a much slower one, but if all personal factors
are well considered and especially physical disturbances are excluded,
the result is usually satisfactory.

Very different from such neurasthenics, of course, is the lack of
attention in the feeble-minded, and suggestion of the ordinary type is
hardly advisable, but it is surprising how much can be reached by a
systematic psychical regime. I give one typical instance, representative
of many.

A boy of twelve years when he was brought to me showed the mental
powers of a stupid child of four. In a silly way he repeated every
question which he heard without answering it; he talked steadily to
himself in a nonsensical manner, mostly repeating nursery rhymes
without end, never holding his attention to anything in the room,
giving the impression that there was no attention whatever. The boy
was a child of rich parents; he had his own teachers, but was for a
large part of the year under the influence of the parents only, who
very naturally yielded to every desire of the unfortunate child. I
insisted on a complete change of the education. It was my effort to
build up the mind by a rigorous training and by development of the
power of inhibition. I absolutely forbade any meaningless material
like the nursery rhymes, insisted that the child should never be
allowed to talk to himself, and whenever he began to speak to
himself he was to be addressed sharply, and if he yet went on, to
be slapped on his hands. In the same way he was not allowed to
repeat a question, but the question was repeated until he answered
it, the question always formulated in simple words. He was forced
to go through simple reading and writing without being allowed to
make his silly diversions. His whole life was brought under strict
discipline and no parental indulgence was permitted. Six months
later the child was completely changed. It seemed as if he had gone
through an improvement of three years. I regulated the whole of
his elementary studies in accordance with the successful principle.
The training of inhibition stood in the foreground a