“Exactly. It doesn’t want to be put to a test, where it knows it will be unsuccessful.”
“You’ve sure expressed it, doctor.”
“And now, Mr. Stalton,” said Adamson, leaning back in his chair and fixing his patient with his keen, grey eyes, “would you believe me if I told you that your body is merely working in harmony with a wrong idea in your mind?”
“Well, I’d believe anything you say, doctor,” said Stalton, slowly, but with evident surprise.
“Good. I appreciate your confidence very much. You have a wrong thought complex. In some way or other you have acquired a wrong mental attitude toward work. It’s not your fault. I do not blame you in the least. But I want to remove that thought complex, because in so doing I will remove your disease, and if you will but believe me now, you will be immediately cured. You have for the past few years actually feared work.”
“I know it, doctor, but I—”
“This fear of work has been a real disease, Mr. Stalton. You feared work. You mentally rebelled against work. Your body took its cue from your mind and rebelled also. Your body rebelled so much that it instituted pains and aches, so as to avoid the thing your brain feared. In other words, your whole trouble has been a mental and physical rebellion against work. Do you believe me or not?”
“Well, doctor, I’ve got to believe you,” said Stalton slowly. “But what am I to do?”
“First, you are going to remind yourself that work is really a blessing—nothing to be feared—but rather something to be desired. It will not hurt you. I give my word. You need not have this old timidity any longer. In the second place, you are going to get a job somewhere at once and begin to work steadily at it. Have you any trade?”
“I learned electric wiring years ago.”