William SARGANT -2- Unquiet Mind & Mind Possessed

William SARGANT #2: The Unquiet Mind & The Mind Possessed

Two more, but less well-known, books from William Sargant, author of The Battle for the Mind

The Unquiet Mind (1967, 2nd ed. of 1971)

Autobiography in which he traces also developments in treatment of mental illness. Some encounters with celebrities narrated, including President Roosevelt.

Sargant is occasionally cited in negative pieces on New Age, mind control, Tavistock Institute etc etc, as if he were the prime practitioner of chemicalised mind control; but in this book at least outwardly he indicates a genuine concern to improve techniques for relieving mental illness resulting from unusual environmental stressors, not with 'reshaping' beliefs.

Had his deconstruction of the basis of religious conversion (including Wesleyanism, his own family religious background) turned against him the forces of the Church?

CONTENTS

Foreword 7
Introduction 11
1 Hanwell and Sussex 21
2 Early Years 35
3 From Nottingham to the Maudsley 53
4 The Maudsley Hospital 58
5 The Advent of New Treatments 73
6 Boston: 1938-1939 81
7 Travels in America 94
8 Outbreak of War 101
9 Psychiatric Treatments in World War II 106
10 Dunkirk and After 113
11 More about World War 11 127
12 Pavlov's Impact on Modern Psychiatry 140
13 The Post-War Dilemma 150
14 A Second Year in America 155
15 Religious Revivals 164
16 The National Health Service 171
17 False Trails 187
18 Hospital and Private Practice 196
19 A Second Bout of Tuberculosis 204
20 Psychiatrists and Lawyers 214
21 Modern Treatments 236
Postscript 255
Appendix 256
References 275
Index 279

Page 168:
"As the point of hysterical suggestibility was reached, the parson would remind his audience how much they had to thank God for, how merciful He was, and how they must accept their sufferings in His name and thank Him for His great mercies. I now realized how Wesley had helped to save England from political revolutions that swept over the rest of Europe; for these downtrodden coloured folk, living in abominable shanty conditions, would every week work themselves into a state of collapse, and thus rid themselves of all tensions and frustrations while being reminded constantly by the preacher how good God was to them. It would enable them to face one more hard week. Wesley had on occasions himself also been invited by the Army authorities to address the troops, and perhaps try to revive the Cromwellian religious fervour; and fifty years after his death in 1791, the Wesleyan behaviour pattern of political humility had prevented the People's Charter from proving more than a damp squib."

Page 186:
"I now remembered that sudden conversions are most likely to occur when the subject is in a very poor physical condition - as certainly happened with the Rev Charles Wesley - also those priests of ancient Greek and Egyptian mystery cults made a habit of 'purging' their candidates by means of heavy laxatives and emetics, before indoctrinating them with the assistance of arranged hallucinatory visions. . . . . I then suggested to the house physician that if he kept on arguing with her while breaking her down physically and wearing her down emotionally, she might in the end admit that she had been mistaken. After two days of four-hourly injections and arguments he came to me. 'I wonder, Dr Sargant,' he said, 'if we have been wrong, and the patient really is pregnant?' He suggested further tests to make absolutely sure. And it soon grew clear that the patient with her strongly held fixed beliefs, instead of being converted, had put the intelligent, normal, sympathetic, now exhausted, therefore more suggestible young doctor into so vulnerable a state that he had fallen for her own impossible obsession. . . ."

The Mind Possessed: From Ecstasy To Exorcism (1973)

"A riveting investigation into possession - by demons, gods, drugs, sex or religion - which gives an enthralling insight into the human mind."

Contents

List of Illustrations 6
Preface 9

Part One
1 The mind under stress 13
2 Mesmerism and increased suggestibility 31
3 Hypnosis and possession 48
4 States of possession 61
5 More about possession 77
6 Mystical possession 93
7 Sex and possession 109
8 Drugs, magic and possession 123

Part Two
9 African experiences 139
10 Tribal Sudan 148
11 Expelling spirits 152
12 Experiences in Zambia 161
13 'Zar' possession 166
14 Casting out devils 171
15 Nigeria and Dahomey 176
16 Macumba in Brazil 182
17 Experiences in Trinidad 190
18 Experiences in Jamaica and Barbados 201
19 Voodoo in Haiti 208
20 Revivals in the United States of America 220
21 General conclusions 234
Bibliography 242
Index 246