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Show Family, WeeklyIDecember 6, 196i " "We try' he says "to create an environment like that suitable for a sick child in a nursery rather than a sick adult in a hospital. The patient regresses to an infantile state, where he feels secure and insulated from the threats of a hostile world. Because sleep is a.natural process, he can accept this without loss of In this state, while the organic lesion is healing, psychological healing also seems to take place." The subconscious return to childhood is real. While asleep, one man reached up and called out in a boyish voice: ac"Hold me, Mom, hold me!" A. 27-- y ear-ol- d countant, under narcosis, burst out with: "Help me! Nobody cares if I die! Save me!" the cries of an anguished youngster. The teacher who was put to sleep for his skin affliction remarked : "I felt . the way our baby f eelsTrShe seems to havean acute sense of hearing", and so did I. When she is uncomfortable, she simply weeps, and so did I." While much of what happens when we sleep remains a mystery,. Dr. Harper believes that through regression the patient practically starts life all over again. In the process, his physical g gradually improves. "Even more significant," Dr. Harper pointedly observes, "are definite psychological changes in self-estee- m. star-tling- ly 38-year-- old . well-bein- these patients. They seem to turn an emotional corner, acquiring the strength to deal with everyday problems." In many cases the reversal of symptoms has been dramatic: Moreover, follow-u- p reports indi- cate that results are lasting. One housewife, whose colitis had kept her virtually a prisoner in her home for 13 years, underwent narcosis and later was able to travel freely wherever she liked. Recalling her experience when she emerged from the long sleep, she said: "Suddenly it seemed like a different world." patient was a pretty, 21-year-- old AnotherShe was afflicted with anorexia nervosa and was so emotionally disturbed that she could not swallow food. Down to 66 pounds, she looked like a walking skeleton and had to leave college. But during narcosis, she gained eighty pounc and started back on the road to health. Returning to school, she was graduated last June. Another woman suffered from severe bronchial asthma. During attacks, her lungs would fill up, and she would collapse in paroxysms of gasping. In 10 years she was admitted to hospitals at least 40 times. Finally she took the sleep treatment. e After that, she was able to hold down a job for the first time in years. full-tim- Much remains to be learned about why and how the narcosis procedure works. Originally T)r. Harper became intrigued with the idea when he witnessed its effect on patients in a Pennsylvania when psychiatric hospital During World War-IIhe was an Army psychiatrist, he tried it on some GIs witli emotional difficulties. When he returned to civilian practice, he applied the technique to patients with severe psychosomatic diseases. In Cleveland he has been using narcosis to- treat more and more ailments during the past few years. The sleep treatment, however, is complicated. Dr. Harper cautions that it should be undertaken only at a hospital .where the patient can have care. expert around-the-cloc- k He is convinced that narcosis potentially can be extended to patients with peptic ulcers, acute rheumatoid arthritis, and high blood pressure in which emotional distress is involved, After all, the healing power of slumber was recognized centuries ago by Shakespeare, when, he wrote that sleep is the J'balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, chief nourisher in , - - life's feast" Today, Shakespeare's insight is being firmed by Cleveland's trouble-shootin- g, . con- percep- tive psychiatrist, Dr. Harper. If' 0 I "C "III . i fA Y'.i;.. V |