Primitive Psycho-Therapy and Quackery | Page 5

ill all over, or know not what they ail, have been cured more by a fancy to the physician than by his prescription. Quacks again, according to their boldness and way of addressing, command success by striking the fancies of an audience."
Edward Berdoe, in the "Origin and Growth of the Healing Art," comments on the universality of amuletic symbols and talismans. They are peculiar to no age or region, and unite in one bond of superstitious brotherhood the savage and the philosopher, the Sumatran and the Egyptian, the Briton and the native of Borneo. When a medical written charm is wholly unintelligible, its curative virtue is thereby much enhanced. The Anglo-Saxon document known as the Vercelli manuscript by some means found its way to Lombardy. Its text being undecipherable, the precious pages of the manuscript were cut up, to serve as amulets.
Apropos of this subject, Charles M. Barrows, in "Facts and Fictions of Mental Healing," remarks that whatever acts upon a patient in such a way as to persuade him to yield himself to the therapeutic force constantly operative in Nature, is a means of healing. It may be an amulet, a cabalistic symbol, an incantation, a bread-pill, or even sudden fright. It may be a drug prescribed by a physician, imposition of hands, mesmeric passes, the touch of a relic, or visiting a sacred shrine.
Dr. Samuel McComb, in "Religion and Medicine,"[16:1] remarks that the efficacy of the amulets and charms of savages depends upon the fact that they are symbols of an inner mental state, the objects to which the desire or yearning could attach itself--in a word, they are auto-suggestions, done into wood and stone.
Professor Hugo Münsterberg has said that the less a patient knows about the nature of suggestion, the more benefit he is likely to experience therefrom; but that, on the contrary, a physician may obtain the better results, the more clearly he understands the working of this therapeutic agent.
It is also doubtless true that much good may result from the employment of suggestion by a charlatan, in the form of a written medical charm, both parties being alike profoundly ignorant of the healing influence involved.
In the Talmud, two kinds of medical amulets are specified, viz: the "approved" and the "disapproved." An approved amulet is one which has cured three persons, or which has been made by a man who has cured three persons by means of other amulets.[17:1] A belief in the healing power of amulets was very general among the Hebrews in the later periods of their history. No people in the whole world were more addicted to the use of medicinal spells, exorcisms, and various enchantments. The simpler amulets consisted of pieces of paper, with a few words written upon them, and their use was quite general. Only one of the approved kind was permitted to be worn abroad on the Sabbath.[17:2]
The Talmud therefore permits the use of superstitious modes of healing, the end sought justifying the means, and the power of mental influence being tacitly recognized. This principle is faithfully carried out to-day, says a writer in the "Journal of Biblical Literature,"[18:1] in all rural communities throughout the world. The Hebrew law-makers did not make a concession to a lower form of religion by endorsing magical remedies, but merely shared the contemporary belief in the demoniac origin of disease. The patient was regarded as being in a condition of enchantment or fascination,--under a spell, to use the popular phrase. To dissolve such a spell, recourse was had to amulets, written charms, or the spoken word of command.
FOOTNOTES:
[4:1] Carolus Christianus Krause, De Amuletis Medicis Cogitata Nonnulla, vol. iii, p. 4. Lipsia, 1758.
[4:2] Jo. Christianus Teutscherus, De Usu et Abusu Amuletorum. Lipsiensis, 1720.
[4:3] Century Dictionary.
[5:1] John William Draper, History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, vol. i, p. 392.
[6:1] Chambers's Journal, vol. xvi, p. 57; 1861.
[6:2] George F. Fort, Medical Economy during the Middle Ages, p. 78.
[7:1] The Reliquary, vol. vii, p. 162; 1893.
[7:2] James Townley, The Reasons of the Law of Moses, vol. ii, p. 944.
[7:3] Exercitationum Anatomico-Chirurgicarum Decades Du?. De Amuletis. Lugd: Batavorum, 1708.
[7:4] Encyclopédie des Gens du Monde, art. "Amulette."
[8:1] The Catholic Encyclop?dia.
[8:2] Elwood Worcester, D.D., Religion and Medicine.
[9:1] C. J. S. Thompson, The Mystery and Romance of Alchemy and Pharmacy, p. 124.
[9:2] Encyclop?dia Biblica, art. "Medicine."
[10:1] William George Black, Folk-Medicine.
[13:1] Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland.
[14:1] George Roberts, The Social History of the People of the Southern Counties of England.
[16:1] New York, 1908, p. 94.
[17:1] Joseph Barclay, The Talmud.
[17:2] John Kitto, A Cyclop?dia of Biblical Literature.
[18:1] Vol. xxiii, 1904.
CHAPTER II
TALISMANS
A talisman may be described as an emblematical object or image, accredited with magical powers, by whose means its possessor is enabled to enlist the aid of supernatural beings. Frequently it is a precious stone, sometimes a piece of metal