A man, thirty-eight years old, married, highly sensitive, suffers from migraine; he is irritable and restless. When about eight years old, he wandered in the woods near his house. An Italian ran after him, flourishing a big knife. The boy ran away in terror. When he reached home he dropped from exhaustion and fear. Once or twice, on account of the fear of sharp objects, he actually hurt himself while handling knives. This increased his terror and fixed his fear. The instinct of fear was still further developed and stimulated by a series of events, such as falling into a river, from which he was saved. He does not like to take baths, he is afraid to enter a river, and he is in terror of sharp objects, such as knives and razors. The patient is extremely selfish. He insists on playing games which he likes much, irrespective of the pleasure of his friends and acquaintances. All he cares for is to have a good time, to neglect his duties to his family. In his business he is exacting of others, although he himself is rather slovenly in his work, and slow in the performance of his obligations. He always insists on having his own way. Other people’s rights do not trouble him, provided his rights are carefully and scrupulously observed. He always demands services from others, especially from his friends. The patient’s mind is occupied with his health, his fears, and his ailments. The interest he takes in his friends and acquaintances is how far they may serve his purposes of pleasure, game, health, and avoidance of fear of disease. His wife and child are regarded from a personal standpoint of his own good, otherwise they are totally ignored. When they interfere with him, or arouse his fears, he becomes impatient, angry, and furious. He claims to be the most considerate and kindest of men, brimful of humanitarian ideals. He thinks that he can accomplish more than anyone else in his circumstances. Nothing is too good for him, nobody is superior to him. As a rule things are badly conducted, he finds fault with everybody and with everything. He is driven by psychopathic furies,--discord, fear, and maddening egotism. CHAPTER XIX HYPNOIDAL TREATMENT _Psychopathic or neurotic maladies do not depend on the abnormal action of some one organ or function, but on a general condition common to all bodily and mental functions,--the fundamental primitive fear instinct which relates to life in general._ The deranged functions, cardiac, respiratory, or sexual,--fatigue, conflict, shock, repression and others are only the _occasions_. To regard any of these occasions as the sources of psychopathic maladies is like regarding the weather-cock as the cause of the wind. _Self-preservation and the fear instinct alone form the source of all psychopathic maladies._ I adduce here a few cases which may be taken as typical: