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The preface of this book probably indicates better the mental attitude of the writers than any other part. Madame Pascal, in speaking of shocks, says "It is in truth in the vast field of miracles that therapeutic shock was born and in which it made its first efforts toward cure. It arises from the profound and mysterious forces of life and appears in the 'concrete and tangible' as a chance phenomenon. It is the unpredictable jet which arises from these fluid sources where the psyche is in perpetual agitation. Capricious in its manifestations, contradictory, often paradoxical, it is the driving force of life which seeks its equilibrium. It pertains to mystery and to the inexplicable by its numerous facets and by its reversibility. Pathogenic, preventive and curative, it encloses in itself both good and evil."
In order to rationalize this shock treatment of the psyche, the author has erected a