Common mind troubles / by J. Mortimer Granville.

  • Joseph Mortimer Granville
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Common mind troubles / by J. Mortimer Granville. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    worried, can make, to turn a troublesome thought into grotesque imagery; but this is easier than to call up a wholly new and incongruous idea. It may be worth while to try the connecting and monotonous imagining method familiar to every- body ; but when that fails, as it generally does, recourse should be had to the artifice we have sug- gested ; and as a rule it will be found to succeed, although at first, if the mind be possessed by un- pleasant broodings or bodings, the effort to think grotesquely will be grim and resentful. For in- stance, a man plagued with distressing circum- stances, and dreading ruin, should force his mind to pursue the same train of thought until the comic side of a reverse of fortune becomes apparent—fol- lowing out the straits to which he may be reduced, some new phase of life upon which he may be compelled to enter, the strange acquaintances he will form, the wonderful scenes he may witness and the places he may visit. The element of pro- bability must be disregarded, and the mind allowed, or rather compelled, to work out the idea. The effort will, at the outset, be laborious and uncon- genial, but except the mind be wholly devoid of humour, the severity will relax, and with relief will come sleep. Meanwhile, “sleeplessness from thought” is not
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