Elementary text book of mental therapeutics / by W.J. Colville.

  • W. J. Colville
Date:
[1900]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Elementary text book of mental therapeutics / by W.J. Colville. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    her in subjection to his masterful desires; not knowing the hidden potency of her own spirit, she fears him and yields unwillingly, and it may be unconsciously to his thought, which would never attract her except through the fascination which power always holds over weakness. Such a woman is psychologised by the simple fact that her husband knows his power far better than she knows hers; he claims strength and exercises it, she confesses to fear and weakness and yields in unequal combat. It is for the healer to arouse the dormant energies of this slumbering woman, and get her to see that weakness of will is the cause of her distress. When first appealed to, she will doubtless declare that she dare not awaken her husband’s wrath by asserting her own individuality; she will whine over the prospect of a domestic rupture and talk nonsense about “ keeping peace ” when peace is the very thing she stands in need of and of which she has none at all. Stagnation is not peace, it is death; and surely slavery is not the ideal of those who love peace and pursue it. True and false peace are vividly contrasted in the sayings of Jesus. False, stagnant, misnamed peace is to be slain with the sword of truth, which divides asunder and severs the parasite from the plant at any cost of temporary upheaval. True peace makes its abode in the temple after all dishonest traders have been cast out; but until the purging is effected, mortification is often misnamed peace. No compromise with error must be our battle-cry. Better separation than death, and though we claim that it is the province of truth to unite all its disciples, still we must not be astonished or dismayed if errors sometimes fight vigorously and die hard. A serpent wounded at daybreak does not die till sunset; the most luxuriant expression cf vegetation often occurs at the very moment before the plant expires. So we must not be terrified or disheartened if we find our seeming conditions growing worse, while, in reality, an important and eveii rapid forward move is being made. False belief says, speaking through the married woman, “ it is my duty to obey my husband,” or if she be not bound by that belief, a graver error presents itself and says, *' I dare not disobey him.” Every human being has a right to his or her true and entire individual expression, and under no circum- stances is it any more lawful to allow yourself to be imposed upon than it is to impose on others. If we allow a wrong to be done to us, we patronise injustice by tame submission. To stand for richt is never to tyrannise, but tyranny being wrong, the weak-willed slave is the servant of error in common with the lawless tyrant. Principle must be earned out in all things, great and small; nothing is too ordinary to exhibit it, and when we acknowledge our allegiance to universal right in all things we shall break all our bonds and become complete conquerors over fate. Patients ought not to be driven •