A Practical Guide to Self-Hypnosis | Page 9

this
type of help in your own community? It is only when the individual is
destitute that the state provides whatever help it can. However, at this
point it's a long hard struggle back to good emotional health.
The National Association for Mental Health and its affiliates issue

about 10 million copies of 200 different pamphlets on various aspects
of mental health. To assess the value of these pamphlets, 47 mental
hygiene experts held a conference at Cornell University. A report on
this outstanding conference has been published. It is called "Mental
Health Education: A Critique." A feature by Ernest Havemann in the
August 8, 1960 issue of Life contains a very worthwhile article on this
conference called "Who's Normal? Nobody, But We All Keep On
Trying. In Dissent From 'Mental Health' Approach, Experts Decry
Futile Search For An Unreal Goal." The following paragraph is taken
from the Life article:
"What about psychiatry and psychoanalysis? This is a different matter.
Many unhappy and problem-ridden people, though by no means all
who have tried it, have profited from psychotherapy. Indeed, all the
mental health pamphlets, as a postscript to the self-help methods they
advocate, wind up by advising the reader to seek professional care if his
problems are serious enough. But the skeptics at Cornell cited statistics
which to them show that psychiatric treatment is as remote for the
average person as a trip to the moon. Aside from the expense, which
most people would find prohibitive, there simply are not enough
therapists to go around. The U. S. has around 11,000 psychiatrists and
10,000 clinical psychologists--in all, about one for every 8,500 citizens.
If everybody with emotional problems decided to see a psychiatrist, the
lines at the doctors' offices would stretch for miles."
I assume that most readers of this book know that state hospitals are
understaffed and unable to provide proper care for the mentally ill.
Mike Gorman, executive director of the National Mental Health
Committee, has written a crusading report on this very theme called
Every Other Bed. In this book he tells us that every other hospital bed
in the United States is occupied by a mental case. Mental illness costs
the country two and a half billion dollars a year besides the more
important untold human suffering that can never be equated in dollars.
The book is a shocking story of how we have let this happen; are still
letting it happen; and of how little, for the most part, we, the general
public as well as the medical and psychological professions, are doing
to correct this deplorable situation.

It is time that we re-examined the dictums that say a symptom can
never be removed unless the cause is understood and the unconscious
background of symptom-complexes must be made conscious and
understood before a cure is effected.
There are many positive thinking groups functioning in the religious
field. Many of these religious groups are in existence primarily because
of the dynamic philosophy or psychology they offer for every day
living. Couple this with a strong faith in God, and you have a
combination which approaches infallibility. Recently we have had a
series of best-selling books which expound this very theme. Does it
work? Of course it does when used properly.
You can be sure that there has been criticism of this religious
psychology. The criticism is that the basic causes of the problem are
never dealt with and the unconscious conflict is not resolved. It's the
same argument over and over again. What about the people helped?
They seem to have made tremendous strides and are leading lives as
well adjusted as anyone else. Once imbued with this spirit or feeling of
well-being, it permeates every phase of their relationships in a
constructive manner. The only reason that there isn't more criticism is
that this type of psychotherapy is incorporated into the religious tenets
of these groups, and criticizing another man's religion makes the
detractor's entire philosophy unacceptable. I am strongly in favor of
these groups because I would prefer having a religion that keeps
pointing out the positive side of life and that "life can be beautiful" if
you put your faith in God and practice positive thinking. It is certainly
better than the cynical philosophy of its detractors or the grim religions
which stress punishment. Think of the guilt feelings involved in the
latter. No one can live up to such a formidable creed.
Of course, if you suggest to positive thinking, religious individuals that
they are using a form of self-hypnosis, they will emphatically deny and
debate the issue. Since we are primarily interested in mental hygiene
and not in winning a debate, it is well to leave the matter as it stands.
The point to keep in mind is that so long as a