Patient attributes this condition to an automobile accident which happened
to him on June 2, 1908. Even before this accident he had been a trifle
nervous on account of overwork. In the automobile accident he had been
thrown out, and had been thrown a distance of ten or fifteen yards. The
automobile, which was at high speed, had also plunged down the decline, but
luckily the patient was not caught directly under the machine. He did not
lose consciousness, and escaped with some scratches and a bad fright; it was
a marvel that he and the chauffeur escaped with their lives. He plainly
recalls thinking, during the fall, that his last hour had come, and even yet
is amazed how extremely untroubled he had been by that thought. The days
following the accident he felt as if his face were burning, and he was
inwardly agitated whenever he thought of an automobile. On June 30, 1908, he
was obliged to take a business journey. While seated in the station
restaurant it suddenly grew dark before his eyes. He could breathe only with
difficulty, his heartbeats were irregular and he had a strange sensation of
fear. This condition lasted the whole day. On the return journey his train
ran into an automobile truck. The patient was thrown to the floor of the
coupe by the shock. This incident made a great impression upon him;
nevertheless, for eight days he was free from the uneasiness already
described. After that an attack of fear again set in, continuing at
intervals, with periods of greater or lesser violence, until the present.
December 7, 1908. A first attempt to induce hypnosis was successful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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