PSYCHOANALYSIS AND LOVE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 7 January 1926, Page 3

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND LOVE.

YOUNG BARRISTER'S FATE. CORONER’S CRITICISMS. LONDON, Dec. 28. A story of disappointed _ love, culminating in the lover’s suicide after treatment by a psycho-analyst, i\ as told to-day in the Coroner s Court. Raymond Arm it age, a barrister, a ’cd 2.'3 years, was madly attached to a” girl. 'When she left him tl) e depression into which he was thrown became so acute that lie visited a psychoanalyst for treatment, with the result that lie became morbid and introspective, and finally committed suicide by jumping from his bedroom window. The coroner, Dr. Cohen, said that the psycho-analytical treatment, though administered by a recognised authority, had produced a diseased mental condition in Armitage’s sensitive mind. The laying bare of his subconscious self had had a harmful and debasing influence. The phycho-analytie method seeks to cure hysteria, mental depression, or nervous breakdown by revealing the subconscious fears and wishes which, through being repressed by the conscious self, are said to cause the trouble. The method proceeds either by analysing the patient’s dreams or by giving him “word association tests’’ to discover how he will respond to certain ideas.

The medical profession is divided as to the value of the method; there is evidence that in some cases practitioners are unqua’ified or irresponsible persons who take advantage of the patient’s confidence, especially in the case of young prople. In a recently reported instance a mental “healer” was convicted on a charge of obtaining money by false pretences. 'The eviil'iice sliowod that young girls came to his rooms a'oiq. for discussions on sex subjects.