The Cure of Imperfect Sight by Treatment Without Glasses

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 edition. Excerpt: ...curved, or open, as the case may be, they become able to imagine the sides and top, while still holding the period on the bottom. But even after they have done this, they may still not be able to imagine the whole letter without losing the period. One may have to coax them along by bringing the card up a little closer, then moving it farther away; for when looking at a surface where there is anything to see, the imagination improves in proportion as one approaches the point where the sight is best, because at that point the eyes are most relaxed. When there is nothing particular to see, the distance makes no difference, because no effort is being made tc see. To encourage patients to imagine they see the letter it seems helpful to keep saying to them over and over again: "Of course you do not see the letter. I am not asking you to see it. I am just asking you to imagine that you see it perfectly black and perfectly distinct." When patients become able to see a known letter by the aid of their imagination, they become able to apply the same method to an unknown letter; for just as soon as any part of a letter, such as an area equal to a period, can be imagined to be perfectly black, the whole letter is seen to be black, although the visual perception of this fact may not, at first, last long enough for the patient to become conscious of it. In trying to distinguish unknown letters, the patient discovers that it is impossible to imagine perfectly unless one imagines the truth; for if a letter, or any part ONE WAY OF IMAGINING PERFECTLY 165 of a letter, is imagined to be other than it is, the mental picture is foggy and inconstant, just like a letter which is seen imperfectly. The ways in which the imagination can be interfered...