The patient, a man with fifteen diopters of myopia, was so much disturbed by what he saw when his vision had been improved by the memory of a period that he was directed to look away from the Snellen test card, or whatever object he was regarding, when he found the letters or other details coming out; and for about a week he went around persistently dodging his improved sight. As his memory improved, it became more and more difficult for him to do this, and at the end of the week it was impossible. When he looked at the bottom line at a distance of twenty feet he remembered the period perfectly, and when asked if he could see the letters, he replied:
"I cannot help but see them."
The period he's talking about doesn't mean a period of time, but an actual dot.
So what does Bates mean when he says, "dodging his improved vision" does it literally mean to dodge any improved vision you see?
I tend to get anxious when I get improved vision too. Last night I finally managed to get sleepy (I've got insomnia) and I got anxious about losing the sleepiness and from the stress I created it went away. Probably some characteristic of the human mind... you have to have mind control to recover your vision.
