The Man with an Elephant’s Nose | Hacker News Reader

The Man with an Elephant’s Nose

earlymodernmedicine.com

42 pointssergeant312 comments

This reminds me a bit of Alejandro Jodorowsky's approach to psychotherapy[1], in which trauma and neurosis are resolved by performing an act related to them. For example, if conflict was left unresolved with someone who has passed away, he instructs talking over the problem at the grave, and then painting "peace" with honey over the tombstone. Most of his suggestions are quite outlandish I recall his cure for agoraphobia was having your friends carry you inside a sleeping bag to a plaza where they would simulate your "birth into the world".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alejandro_Jodorowsky#Psychomag...

I thought of course it couldn't've been that Jodorowsky. I checked the link and realised of course it had to be that Jodorowsky. Imagine living The Holy Mountain.

What a fascinating write-up!

The discussion seems to hint at something I've seen effective working with several family members succumbing to Alzheimers/dementia: when possible, play into the world as they see it. Something causes these folks to disconnect from a full reality, and being told you're wrong and being constantly corrected irritates/aggravates. There are limits to this, certainly, but I've found it easier to lean into it overall.

Yes! My dad had Alzheimers and got OBSESSED with his kindle somehow being broken. No reasoning could convince him it was working fine -- which it clearly was. I ended up just faking a call to "amazon kindle support" and two minutes later he was fine thereafter.

Shutter Island explores this approach marvelously.

> a fourth case described ‘a certaine Gentleman’ in a ‘fooles paradise’ who was so utterly convinced that he was dead that he refused to eat or drink. His ‘frends and ‘acquaintaunce’, after a week were worried that he might starve to death, so they arranged for some people dressed as shrouded corpses to eat in front of him, and persuade him to join them in their posthumous feast. The gentleman happily ate his fill and they managed to slip him a sleeping draft, the sleep being credited with his subsequent cure.

Sounds like Cotard's delusion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotard_delusion

Seems a bit like the mirror boxes they use to help phantom limb pain for amputees. I suppose, though, maybe the mirror boxes aren't purely psychology, but something to do with nueral pathways?

Sounds like a case of Trombipulation to me.

https://youtu.be/WaVzajICS-w

The combination of the font color and weight makes the article difficult for me to read. It could be my monitor so YMMV.

Can we call this form of treatment "placebo therapy"? If not, how is it different than using placebo substances?

Why not? That would be in line with what these physicians were doing which was benign actions whose intent was to alleviate suffering.

It seems that the greater point is that instead of reacting to mental illness by telling people,"you are sick and mentally unfit", they are trying to alleviate stress and suffering in that moment and then getting people to rest. Many mental disorders can be aggravated by stress and lack of sleep so it may not be surprising that this provided tangible benefits to the individuals being treated in this manner.

Early medicine stories are always great!

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