Handicaps of ChildhoodBruce, H. Addington (Henry Addington)
Science
Handicaps of Childhood
Bruce, H. Addington (Henry Addington)
Child development; Education
To the neurologist the cause of his patient's bashfulness was now evident.
The fear, the anxiety, the over-conscientiousness engendered by the
employer's attitude, working in the mind of an ultra-impressionable boy,
were quite enough to initiate a habit of abnormal diffidence. Tactfully,
the physician made this clear to the patient; earnestly he impressed on
him the idea that the unpleasant experience of which he spoke was a thing
of the past, and was nothing of which he now need stand in dread; and
tirelessly he reiterated the suggestion that the patient had it in his
own power to exorcise the demon of bashfulness created by the painful
subconscious memory-image of those early days. In the end he had the
satisfaction of sending him on his way rejoicing in a perfect cure.
Strikingly different in its inception is a case that came under the
observation of Doctor Bechterew. In this instance the patient was a young
woman of excellent family and most attractive appearance. The symptom
of which she chiefly complained was an abnormal blushing. When with the
members of her own family, no less than with strangers, she would, at
the least provocation, feel the blood suffusing her face and would turn
distressingly red. To avoid this, she kept much to herself, and led a
lonely, miserable life.
Questioned by Doctor Bechterew as to the length of time she had been thus
afflicted, and any prior occurrences which might have given her a real and
urgent reason for embarrassment and blushing, her answers at first were
wholly unenlightening. But little by little, probing with the skill of the
trained psychological cross-examiner, he drew from her the details of a
pathetic experience.
At the age of seventeen, it appeared, she had been thrown much into the
company of a married man old enough to be her father. A friendship had
sprung up between them, but, on her part, there had certainly been no
thought of anything beyond friendship, until one evening at a garden party
he asked her to walk with him in a secluded part of the grounds.
"While we were talking together," she confided to Doctor Bechterew, "he
suddenly asked me if I cared for him--if I cared enough to leave home
and spend the rest of my life with him. His avowal of love shocked and
shamed me. I hastily left him and, with burning cheeks, rejoined the other
guests.
"As soon as possible, I made my excuses and went home. It seemed to me
that my face betrayed my secret. Afterwards I could not speak to or even
think of that man without blushing. Now that you have made me recall
the circumstance, I feel sure that out of that terrible experience has
gradually been developed the habit of bashfulness and blushing which has
made life almost unbearable to me."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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