Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Disease, Mental Illness, Psychology, Medical Treatment, Supernaturalism

People mentioned:

William Cullen , William Gregory

    Upholding the efficacy of 'mental remedies' for physical pain, describes a case of a 'complete though temporary cure performed on a young lady' by the effect of mental agency. The author explains that 'mental medicine' failed to cure his own bout of quartan fever. (164) Describes a failed attempt to treat a 'mental malady'—a man's vision of a phantom form of his sister—by 'corporeal means', namely, by inviting the man's sister to masquerade as the phantom. (165) Concludes with a similarly disastrous attempt to cure a woman suffering from catalepsy by introducing her to the husband she mistakenly believed to be dead. Warns people against the 'incautious use of the means to which we are accustomed to attribute less power than they really possess' (166).