Article September 16, 1972 Issue

Healing the Chronic Condition

JOANNE SHRIVER LEEDOM

The little white mouse, responding to a conditioned reflex, hears the tinkling bell and enters into his maze. The cheese at the end of the maze has so often been his reward that he now automatically responds to the stimulus of the bell.

Do we recoil a little from the familiar illustration? Even a mouse, we are beginning to discover, has his dignity in the scheme of things. Then how much less should a human being permit himself to run the maze of a chronic abnormal condition!

Chronic conditions of recurrent distress are usually stimulated by fears deeply embedded in thought. Because of the nature of latent fear, the individual often is not aware that this is the prime cause of his suffering. A familiar physical symptom appears, and, like the mouse, he jumps into his maze of educated reactions. To heal himself he must learn not to jump when mortal mind rings the bell.

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