Psychotherapy: Including the History of the Use of Mental Influence, Directly and Indirectly, in Healing and the Principles for the Application of Energies Derived from the Mind to the Treatment of DiseaseWalsh, James J. (James Joseph)
Science
Psychotherapy: Including the History of the Use of Mental Influence, Directly and Indirectly, in Healing and the Principles for the Application of Energies Derived from the Mind to the Treatment of Disease
Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)
Mental healing
Home Keeping Women.--For those who really have homes, the morning
duties are usually sufficient to rouse their activities and make them
begin the day well. For those who live in apartment-hotels, however,
and for those who have the luxury of many servants, the morning hours
are often a serious problem. Madame does not get up, or if she does,
it is only to lie around in dressing gown for most of the morning.
Breakfast is easily neglected or may be eaten hurriedly because the
head of the house is rushing to business. The lack of an incentive
requiring them to rise, and get outside for a time every morning, is
probably at the root of more feminine symptoms among leisure class
patients than anything else. As we grow older all of us are likely to
note the lowered physiological cycle of the morning hours, so that
unless there is some sharp reason to compel action, we are rather
prone to persuade ourselves that it is better to lie abed, or at least
to loll around. This leads to a concentration of attention on self and
on one's feelings that easily gives rise to neurotic conditions.
Interest in life.--In my special clientele I have often found that
going to church in the early morning hours was an excellent remedy for
many of these patients. It gives them a definite reason for rising
promptly, the service provides motives to rouse them to activity, they
are likely to think during it of how they shall make their life a
little bit more livable for others as the result of their trying to be
better, and so the apathy that is so fruitful of ill feeling is shaken
off. This can only serve for those who have faith in the service. For
others, the old-fashioned going out to market, or the making of
appointments at morning hours that will tempt them to regular activity
early in the day, is of special significance. It is always ominous for
health when a woman can look forward to a whole long day without any
particular duties {170} in it until the late afternoon or evening
hours. This has become so frequently the case for the women of our
large cities, particularly those who live in apartment hotels, it is
no wonder that neuroses and psychoneuroses of various kinds have grown
in frequency. The best prophylaxis for them is occupation of mind. The
cure for them is the securing of many interests and such diversion of
mind as will prevent concentration of attention on self.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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