"Doctor Donley, I hear you have been very successful in handling people troubled with foolish notions. I'm bothered with as foolish a notion as any one could possibly imagine. I simply can't bear to ride in a street-car with an odd number. Even-numbered cars give me no trouble at all, but if an odd-numbered car comes along, I've got to let it pass, no matter how great my hurry. My friends laugh at me, but I tell you it's no laughing matter. The thing has got on my nerves so that it is unbearable." "How long have you been suffering in this way?" asked Doctor Donley. "For years. Just when it began I can't remember. "Is it only odd-numbered cars that affect you? How about odd-numbered houses, for instance?" "No, no," answered the young man, "it isn't odd numbers in general. That doesn't bother me a bit. It's just when they're painted on street-cars." "H'm," said Doctor Donley. "Ever been in a street-car accident?" "Never." "Ever seen one?" "Not that I remember." "You are quite sure as to that?" "Quite." "Have you any objection to my hypnotizing you?" "Not in the least, if it is likely to do me any good." In another ten minutes the problem was solved. Doctor Donley from the outset had felt confident that the young man's phobia must be connected in some way with a street-car accident, and so it proved. Fourteen years earlier, when walking along the street, he had seen a car strike and seriously injure a child who unexpectedly came from behind a wagon. He had noticed at the time that the car bore the number two hundred and thirteen, and he remembered thinking to himself: "There is always bad luck in thirteen." The sight of the accident gave him a marked emotional shock, which, he said, upset him for several days. All of this had long since passed from his waking memory, but was distinctly recalled during hypnosis. It was clear to Doctor Donley that the case was one of dissociation, and that the exciting cause of the young man's unreasonable dread of odd-numbered cars was based on a painfully vivid subconscious memory image of the consciously forgotten tragedy. Also, it was evident that before the dread could be overcome the distressing memory image would have to be eradicated. To accomplish this, Doctor Donley resorted to the method of substitution, suggesting to the patient, while still under hypnotic influence, that he was quite mistaken in supposing that the street-car had seriously injured the little girl; that, on the contrary, it had scarcely touched her. The result, after only eight days' treatment, was effectually to replace the painful memory image with one free from distressing associations. As by magic, the young man shook off his absurd phobia. No longer, when he had to take a car, did he stand on street corners, sometimes for an hour at a time, waiting anxiously for a car with an even number to appear.[40]