GOLFER'S NEUROSIS AND ITS CURE.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 1866, 10 March 1913, Page 2

GOLFER'S NEUROSIS AND ITS CURE.

A STRANGE COMPLAINT WITH A HYPNOTIC REMEDY.

Golf as a popular game has brought with it a golfing complaint (says the Daily News). It is called goffer's neurosis, and the cure, as carried out at Guy's Hospital, is hypnotism. The experiment—the first of its kind for a conplaint which is alno believed to be the first of its kindtook place in a large hall at Guy's before an assembly of medical students and doctors. It was carried out by a well-known Harley-street specialist, aided by an equally well known Harley-street hypnotist. The victim of the new complaint was an amateur golfer who, up to the time that he broke down, was a plus player. UNABLE TO SWING A CLUB. For a long time his complaint puzzled the doctors. Instead of hitting the ball with his old force and accuracy, lie found himself absolutely incapable of even swinging a golf club when the ball was in front of him.

Physically he was in perfect condition, and nerve specialists diagnosed that his absolute helplessness was due to over concentration on the game, with the lesult that the nerves had struck work so far as golf was concerned. It was to coax fchem back to their job that a course of hypnotism was decided on. The experiment aroused enormous curiosity in the medical world by reason of its novelty and the novelty of the complaint. AN INSTANTANEOUS CURE.

The patient was put under hypnotic influence and simply told that he could hit a golf ball and could play the game, and that he was to go away and try. The result was seen later in the day, when the patient who was quite cheerful, turned up at his golf club and, without the slightest difficulty or hesitation, drove a long and accurate ball from the first tee—the first that he had been capable of driving for some months.

Tlie result was reported to the specialist in charge of the hypnotic experiment, who expressed himself thoroughly satisfied with the result.