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A Hypnotist’s Case Book – Professor Alexander Erskine

Perhaps I may add the testimony of a gin-drinking patient I had about two years ago. She went abroad even before I felt I had cured her, and after a lapse of a year or so I received a letter from her in March last year:

Since my return here, she wrote, - I have not touched a drop of "mother's ruin". I give you all the credit. Somehow I feel I simply can't take it. The thought nauseates me.

Her condition when she came to me was so low that I advised her to take a glass of wine for lunch, and even, if necessary, a little brandy, when the need of a stimulant was urgent. And I knew that in so doing I was not paving the way for another drink habit, because her subconscious mind had accepted the proposition that drink was not good for her except as medicine, and that she would not abuse the exception.

After stating that she takes the wine at dinner only, and takes a little brandy only in extreme emergency, she continues :

I am, hoping for great results, and in time hope to be able to tell, you that I don't take a thing to drink at all, I only regret that I left London so soon. I feel, that you would have made me into a new woman had I been able to remain.

By what other method of drink-cure can one allow the patient to drink without supervision, and yet be sure that he or she will not slip back into a worse state than before ?