DEAN AND PROFESSOR OF FUNCTIONAL NERVOUS DISEASE AND OF THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE AT FORDHAM UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, AND OF PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY AT CATHEDRAL COLLEGE, NEW YORK; FELLOW OF NEW YORK ACADEMY OF MEDICINE; MEMBER A.M.A., A.A.A.S., NEW YORK STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY, GERMAN SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE AND THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES, NEW ORLEANS PARISH MEDICAL SOCIETY, ST. LOUIS MEDICAL HISTORY CLUB, ETC. NEW YORK AND LONDON D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1912 COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY Printed in New York, U. S. A. TO THE JESUITS TO WHOM THE AUTHOR OWES A HAPPY INTRODUCTION TO THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE AND CONSTANTLY RENEWED INSPIRATION IN HIS WORK THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED {vii} PREFACE "Prefaces are a great waste of time," said Francis Bacon, "and, though they seem to proceed of modesty, they are bravery." In spite of this deterring expression of the Lord Chancellor, the author ventures to write a short _apologia pro libro suo_. Five years ago he began at Fordham University School of Medicine a series of lectures on Psychotherapy. This book consists of material gathered for these lectures. It will be found in many ways to partake more of the nature of a course of lectures than a true text-book. In this it follows French rather than English or American precedent. Its relation to lectures makes it more diffuse than the author would have wished, but this is offered as an explanation, not an excuse. Addressed to medical students and not specialists the language employed is as untechnical as possible, and, indeed, was meant as a rule to be such as young physicians might use to their patients for suggestion purposes. The historical portion is probably longer than some may deem necessary. The place of psychotherapy in the past seemed so important, however, and psychotherapeutics masqueraded under so many forms that an historical resume of its many phases appeared the best kind of an introduction to a book which pleads for more extensive and more deliberate use of psychotherapy in our time. The historical portion was developed for the lectures on the history of medicine at Fordham and perhaps that fact helps to account for the space allotted to this section of the book.