Stammering, its cause and cureBogue, Benjamin Nathaniel
Science
Stammering, its cause and cure
Bogue, Benjamin Nathaniel
Stuttering
I diagnosed his case as Combined Stammering and Stuttering, and
explained to him that he represented a type of stammering that might be
called the "Prefix Stammerer" because of their habit of prefixing every
hard sound with an easy word or an easy sound, even to the extent of
losing the sense of the sentence--so great is the "Prefix Stammerer's"
fear of failure.
He placed himself for treatment, and although his trouble was
complicated by this prefixing habit, seven weeks put him in good shape.
He forgot his fear of failure, found every word an easy word and every
sound an easy sound. He learned to talk fluently again and returned to
his home, both physically and mentally improved.
Case No. 98.656--This was the case of a rather arrogant young man from
a good family, who was too proud to admit that he was a stammerer.
Rather it should be said, he was too foolish to admit it. He was
well-educated and with the store of words at his command, succeeded for
some years in concealing the fact that he stammered. This he
accomplished by the substitution of words. That is, words beginning
with those letters that he could not utter were not used. If his
sentence included such a word, he quickly substituted another word of
somewhat similar meaning, but beginning with a letter that he could
pronounce correctly. This substitution of words was so well done that
for some time it was scarcely noticeable to the average listener. Often
he found himself incorrectly understood, because of his inability to
use the right word in the right place, but nevertheless he was
successful in concealing his speech defect from many of his friends.
This case is of a type known as the "Synonym Stammerer" because
synonyms are used to avoid stammering. The mental strain of trying
always to substitute easy words for hard ones, was very great, however,
and after a few years' practice, the strain began to tell on the young
man. It affected his health and made him nervous and irritable.
It was at this time that he came to me. Genuine Stammering was his
trouble, and so it was diagnosed. He refused to admit that he had a
severe case, although the truth of the matter was, he did stammer badly
and the mental power which had sustained him in his attempts to speak,
was being steadily weakened by what we might term misuse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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