tures and books. Many persons tend to develop all
the symptoms they hear of, from pains and aches to mental failure. Even
in the medical schools this is so, and every medical teacher is
consulted each year by students who feel sure they have the diseases he
has described.

So in presenting the following cases symptoms will be largely omitted.
What will be presented is history and to a certain extent treatment.
That part of treatment which is strictly medical can only be indicated.

It may be said that in obtaining the intimate history of a woman a
difficulty is met with in the natural reluctance to telling what often
seems to the patient painful and unnecessary details. To some people it
seems inconceivable that fears, pains and aches, sleeplessness, etc.,
can arise out of difficulties like the monotony of housework,
temperament, or troubles with the husband. Furthermore, though some
women understand well enough the source of their conflicts, they are
ashamed to tell and rest mainly on the surface of their symptoms. To
obtain the truth it is necessary to see the patient over and over again,
to get somewhat closer to her. This is especially easy to do after the
physician has to a certain extent relieved the patient. In other words,
except in the cases where the woman is quite prepared to tell of her
intimate difficulties, it is best to go slowly from the medical to the
social-psychological point of view.

Case I. The overworked, under-rested type of housewife.

Mrs. A.J., thirty years old, is a woman of American birth and ancestry.
Her parents were poor, her father being a mechanic in a factory town of
Massachusetts. She had several brothers and sisters, all of whom reached
maturity and most of whom married.

Before marriage she was a salesgirl in a department store, worked fairly
hard for rather small pay, but was strong, jolly, liked dancing and
amusements, liked men and had her girl friends.

At the age of twenty-two she married a mechanic of twenty-four, a good,
sober, steady man, devoted to her and very domestic. Unfortunately he
was not very well for some time following a pneumonia in the third year
of their marriage. They drew upon all their savings and fell seriously
in debt. This meant borrowing and scrimping for several years,--a fact
which had great bearing on the wife's illness later.

They had three children, born the twelfth month, the third year, and
the fourth year after marriage. After the first c