Article June 25, 1910 Issue

It has been recently reported in the daily papers that...

Alfred Farlow

Boston Post

It has been recently reported in the daily papers that Dr. F. H. Packard in an address before the Harvard Medical College said that "numbers of individuals, probably naturally of somewhat unstable mental make-up," are totally upset mentally through their efforts to understand and practise "Christian Science and other unscientific things." I am glad the gentleman qualified his remarks by the term "and other unscientific things." I have watched the effect of Christian Science for many years, during which time I have come in contact with many persons more or less "unstable" mentally, who have been entirely healed by Christian Science and who are well and happy today; but in all that time I have not known of a single instance where it could be said that the derangement of the individual had been produced or precipitated by Christian Science.

It is not at all unlikely that some persons in weak mental condition, who have turned to Christian Science, as is intimated by Dr. Packard, have not been faithful to Christian Science, but have mixed it up with "other" and with "unscientific" things. Knowing the wholesome influence of Christian Science, and the danger of those mental methods of treatment which are more or less hypnotic and more or less dependent upon human will, I have unbounded confidence in Christian Science as a remedy for insanity, although I would not be willing to vouch for the safety of those who have a mixture of mental theories. I am glad that Dr. Packard qualified his statement concerning the cases which have come under his observation by the phrase "probably naturally of somewhat unstable mental make-up." It is decidedly unfair to credit the growing dementia of persons who have been partially insane for years to Christian Science, simply because in their extremity some of them have turned to Christian Science and in their insane moments have talked about it. It is not unusual for an insane person to talk on the newest or latest thing that possesses his mind.

One might make too hard work of anything, but it is not the problem over which he wrestles, nor is it necessarily the wrestling; it is the needless worry of the student which burdens him. A patient of a Christian Scientist is usually instructed how to keep out of worry, and usually makes rapid recovery from his strained mental condition. I dare say that if Dr. Packard had a patient who grew worse under his treatment, he would be loath to say that his treatment had caused it. There are thousands of insane persons who have grown worse, and many of them "precipitately" worse, under medical treatment. To be consistent Dr. Packard should attribute such insanity to medical treatment, in order to show the comparative value of Christian Science. There is no more evidence to prove that insane folks who have experimented with Christian Science have been made insane thereby than there is to prove that the growing disease of a person under medical care has been precipitated by medicine. One is not justified in drawing such illogical conclusions.

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