"An insufficiency of control" was exactly the problem that Vittoz' therapy was designed to correct. Under Vittoz therapeutic system, Eliot would have been reass

"An insufficiency of control" was exactly the problem that Vittoz' therapy was designed to correct. Under Vittoz therapeutic system, Eliot would have been reassured that his brain was healthy, but that his "brain control" needed training. He would have learned, in other words, that his problem was functional rather than structural and could be fixed. He was neither insane nor hysterical - he merely had neurasthenia [an ill-defined medical condition characterized by lassitude, fatigue, headache, and irritability, associated chiefly with emotional disturbance. - Oxford], an illness that Vittoz promised to cure. The Expert Hand and the Obedient Heart: Dr. Vittoz, T.S. Eliot, and the Therapeutic Possibilities of The WasteLand http://mkgold.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/mkgold-jml.pdf http://mkgold.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/mkgold-jml.pdf I went through a course in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for anxiety and depression. I call what happened in that course "reestablishing executive function" or taking charge of my thoughts and feelings by getting some distance from them and examining them to see if they are based on something real. Don't believe everything you think - saying in Alcoholics Anonymous Just 'cause you feel it Doesn't mean it's there There's always a siren Singing you to shipwreck - Radiohead, There There Doing this is also consistent with Buddhist thought and the practice of meditation. We are not our thoughts or feelings. Quiet them and the still surface will reveal the deeper waters