Ship blown up by mine: Stereotyped explosion dream by survivor: Cure by hypnosis (also of antebellum habitual headache).
Case 541. (Riggall, April, 1917.)
A survivor of H.M.S. T.B. II, blown up by a mine off Harwich, was admitted to the naval hospital at Chatham, March 3, 1916, a well-nourished, nervous looking lad, aged 20. After the accident, he began to dream, always the same dream, of the explosion, waking up with the cry of the ship mates, and then unable to sleep the rest of the night. The knee and ankle-jerks were somewhat exaggerated.
April 15, when there had been no improvement, he was hypnotized. The patient was told to lie back in an arm chair, make himself comfortable and allow muscles to relax. He was told to fix his eyes and concentrate his attention on an electric lamp. The suggestion of sleep was made, and he was repeatedly told in a monotonous voice that he was becoming more and more sleepy. Then in an emphatic voice he was told that the treatment would completely cure him. He had no more dreams after this first sitting.
Hypnosis was continued every other day until April 20, when he was discharged cured. After the first sitting hypnosis was induced by simply telling the patient to go to sleep, which he would immediately do on entering the room, while still standing up. At subsequent sittings, he was made to write twenty times such phrases as: “I feel much better”; “I shall have no more bad dreams.”
Once when a tooth was to be pulled a post-hypnotic suggestion that no more pain would be felt was given, nor was any pain felt. Headache persisted after the first two or three sittings. Accordingly, during hypnosis a pencil was pressed to the forehead with the suggestion that it would burn and that after waking there would be an itching pain for half an hour, followed by recovery from headache. Curiously enough, a distinct erythema of the skin was observed over the point of pressure. Toothache and headache vanished.