In the foregoing I have had occasion to refer to psychoanalysis. Owing to the profound influence that Freud and his followers have had on abnormal psychology and the justified interest that the public has taken in the popularization of his works, the relationship between this most important study of the human mind and alcoholism should be made clear.

When the large number of inebriates seeking help is contrasted with the relatively small amount of space that the psychoanalysts have devoted in their works to this phase of abnormal psychology, the thought occurs that possibly psychoanalytic procedure in this direction has not been as productive as it has been with hysteria, anxiety, and obsessional neuroses.

In Dr. William Healy's recent publication, The Structure and Meaning of Psychoanalysis, which Dr. Wittels of Vienna has referred to as a "Bible of Psychoanalysis," less than two pages out of 480 are devoted to alcoholism.

Nevertheless since psychoanalysis has done more than anything else to illuminate for me the abnormal processes of the human mind, this form of treatment at the hands of an expert is most sincerely recommended when stringent methods seem necessary.

I do not question the fact that the fundamental motivating cause of alcoholism may often be a conflict buried in the unconscious, but experience has shown in others besides myself that methods more or less similar to those set forth in this book are in general adequate for cure without more intricate psychoanalytical investigation.

Of course I do not mean in the least to imply that exploration is neglected. The patient, as I have described, is encouraged to talk at length on every conceivable topic that interests him from his earliest childhood to the present time, and past as well as present problems are given special attention from the point of view of "confession" or catharsis.
This, to many psychiatrists who are by no means inimical to psychoanalysis, constitutes sufficient analysis.

Let me here refer to The Human Mind.

"One very useful method," (of treating nervous disorders) says Dr. Menninger, "is a combination of expression (analysis) and suppression (persuasion). Sometimes it is called reeducation. It amounts to this. The physician learns as much as he can about his patient, in all the ways he can, but chiefly by as much mental catharsis and as much environmental investigation as possible. These he puts together, consults his knowledge of the principles of mental functioning and mental disease, and his experience with other cases, and on this basis he gives advice, adjuration, enlightenment, encouragement."