the weak must use different weapons than the
strong. Doubtless the women of another day, trained otherwise than our
present-day women and having a different relationship to men, will
abandon, at least in larger part, the weapons of weakness. Wherever
women work with men on a plane of equality they ask no favors and resort
to no tears. They play the game as men do, as "good sports." But where
the relationship is the one-sided affair of matrimony, a certain type
uses her tears, her aches and pains, her moods, and her failings to gain
her point.

CHAPTER X

HISTORIES OF SOME SEVERE CASES

The cases that follow represent mainly the severe types of nervousness
in the housewife. To every case that comes to the neurologist there are
a hundred that explain their symptoms as "stomach trouble", "backache",
etc., who remain well enough to carry on, and who think their pains and
aches inevitably wrapped with the lot of woman.

It will be seen, upon reading these cases, that a rather pessimistic
attitude is taken toward some of them. It would be nice to present a
series of cases all of which recovered, and it would be easy to do that
by picking the cases. Such a series would be optimistic in its trend; it
would however have the small demerit of being false to life. Though the
majority of women suffering from nervousness may be relieved or cured, a
number cannot be essentially benefited. Some of them have temperaments
utterly incompatible with matrimony, others have husbands of the
incorrigible type, others have life situations to change which would
make it necessary to change society. Therefore in these cases all a
doctor can do is to _relieve symptoms_, relieve some of the distress and
rest content with that.

I am essentially neither pessimist nor optimist in the presentation of
these cases, nor do I seek to present the man or woman's case with
prejudice. In life a realistic attitude is the best, for if we were to
remove much of the sentimental self-deception at present so prevalent,
huge reforms would occur almost overnight. Sentimentality decorates and
disguises all kinds of horridness and makes us feel kindly toward evil.
Strip it away, and we would immediately break down the evil.

There is always this danger in presenting "cases" to a lay public, that
symptoms are suggested to a great many people. How deeply suggestible
the mass of people can be is only appreciated when one sees the result
of public health lec