IN 18 MINUTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27570, 12 December 1950, Page 8

IN 18 MINUTES

Stammering Cured WELLINGTON MAN'S EXPERIENCE NZPA Special Correspondent LONDON, Dec. 11. When Mr L. P. Lee, of 195 The Terrace, Wellington, read in a Jersey newspaper that Mr William C. Kerr, •M.A., of St. Helier, had discovered a cure for stammering, he decided to get a year’s leave of absence from the Lands and Survey Department and work his way to England. Mr Lee had been stammering all his life, and he felt that Mr Kerr could help him. He arrived in England oh November 13, and 18 minutes after seeing Mr Kerr on November 18 he was speaking normally. Mr Kerr took a recording of Mr Lee stammering and the date and time before instructing him. He took a second recording 18 minutes later, with Mr Lee now stating the date and time without stammering. Mr Lee stayed with Mr Kerr for a fortnight, and when he returned to London his brother, who had been most sceptical, was “ astounded ” at the change. Mr Lee’s tutor, Mr Kerr, told the New Zealand Press Association: “When I was a student at Glasgow University 16 years ago I had to write a thesis on philosophy. In doing so, I came across a psychological discovery. From this I discovered the cause and then the cure of stammering. It has taken me a long time and"T have had to contend with a good deal of scepticism and opposition. I have had a 90 per cent, success with 50 cases. I am not a doctor, but I believe I have a mission, and I am making this my life’s work. I charge a fee which I shall reduce as I get more patients,” Psychological Treatment PA WELLINGTON, Dec. 11. “With the Kerr method, any stammerer can be given the power to speak slowly without stammering in 30 minutes says Mr Lee in a letter to his mother. From that point, speed is gradually increased till normal fluency is attained within a fortnight. “The treatment is entriely psychological,” he adds. “ Such things as the mechanics of speech do not worry Mr Kerr in the least, as he claims —correctly—that they look after themselves. He has worked for a year in Jersey without a failure, only five per cent, of his cases taking longer than a fortnight. He thinks he now has enough evidence to convince the world at large and hopes to train teachers in his method and to retire from active part in the whole business.” Mr Lee adds that Mr Kerr-introduces his patients to talkative people to compel them to join in,the conversation. One of his previous cases has just been appointed a lecturer at Cambridge.