19 FEBRUARY 1954, Page 13

SIR,—If some psychiatrists ever came to realise the probable reason

for the success of shock treatment, they might themselves receive as great a shock as any they administer to their patients and Dr. Weatherhead would have less cause to worry.

Did not Christ believe and teach that insanity was due in many cases to possession or attack by evil spirits or entities ? For a Christian not to accept this view appears to be presumption. If Christ was the Son of God, he knew better than any of us and would not be guilty of false teaching. It is not enough to say that he used the idiom of his day: the evidence tells that he literally' drove out the spirits.

LAYMAN [Name and address supplied.]