Suggestion and psychotherapy / by George W. Jacoby.

  • Jacoby, George W., 1856-1940.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Suggestion and psychotherapy / by George W. Jacoby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    145/388 (page 119)
    ject to sense deception. In such cases, however, hallucinations are much less frequent than illusions. Here again we must lay stress on the fact that sensory deceptions in persons of healthy mentality are of little significance inasmuch as they are sus¬ ceptible of correction, while in the mentally dis¬ ordered they usually obtain an irresistible influ¬ ence over not only all the thought processes but also the emotional tones and the impulses of the will. If such sensory deceptions remain uncor¬ rected in the healthy person, if they obtain a firm hold and, together with the dependent conclusions and opinions, acquire permanent dominance of the mind, they may become dangerous to the victim. The possibility of mental health even in per¬ sons of defective sensory perceptions is eloquently proved by the fact that many people congenitally blind or deaf can develop in an entirely normal manner, although they have no idea of color or of tones, and by the fact that Helen Keller, despite her lack of both those senses, which bring about the chief connection with the outer world, went successfully through a well-planned academic course and now occupies herself ably in literature. Such development of defective sensory perception,