On common neuroses, or, The neurotic element in disease and its rational treatment : three lectures delivered before the Harveian Society of London, November-December, 1891 / by James Frederic Goodhart.

  • Goodhart, James Frederic, Sir, 1845-1916.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On common neuroses, or, The neurotic element in disease and its rational treatment : three lectures delivered before the Harveian Society of London, November-December, 1891 / by James Frederic Goodhart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the individual, but in doing so to insist (i) that they are always transitory, (2) that they are purely sub- jective and not perceptible to others, and (3) that they never do any real harm or mean any organic disease. As I have said, unconcern at their approach and during their course is the certain cure ; but, alas ! I must add, even so, that the remedy is easy to preach, but difficult to put into practice. Remember, though, that this difficulty does not alter the certainty of the facts. Next there comes a large group of cases where the morbid sensation is chiefly confined to the head ; there is either headache or a clawing inside the head. Some will say their brains feel as if their top stories were converted into wool; others, again, suffer from what, according to their own description.s, appears to be a species of mild explosive sensation within the skull; and then there is a very large group of cases that complain of noises in the ears. It is perhaps seldom that one sees a typical case of Meniere's disease, but regarding Meniere's description of audi- tory vertigo, as I do, as a type, in the same way as I shall by-and-by insist that Raynaud's disease and exophthalmic goitre are also, of a large group of symptoms, the tinnitus aurium and deafness form the very commonest of the neurotic ailments which come before the physician in his daily work. But some one will perhaps say. Why call this a neurosis ? It is a definite affection due to an irrita- 2
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