Here is a good review of the new film, The King's Speech" - http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-11-29/the-kings-speech-true-historical-story/
The part I like the best is this paragraph:
The duke had already seen his fill of “experts,” but no one had been able to cure him. He was persuaded to have one last try by his glamorous young wife, Elizabeth, better remembered today as the queen mother (played in the film by Helena Bonham Carter). "I can cure you," Logue declared after they had spent an hour and a half together. "But it will need a tremendous effort by you. Without that effort, it can't be done."
This reminds me of what one uncle told his brothers when he sent them a copy of "Self Therapy for the Stutterer" by the Stuttering Foundation of America. I found this in an old letter. (Nice thing about letters that can last for years in an attic.) "This won't help you if you just read it. You have to work through it step by step."
I have talked with or read about so many people who have "seen [their] fill of experts" and were disappointed that they were never "cured." Perhaps, it would be better if they had the attitude of talking better instead of being "cured." The part where Logue says he can "cure" King VI, should read "help you" as every stutterer that I have met has always had occasions when he stutters or blocks even after he thought he had stopped stuttering for good.
Needing "a tremendous effort by you" is the important part. Everyone who has any type of affliction wants an easy and fast fix. Most of the time, unless it is having surgery to correct a faulty heart valve for instance, a person has to put some effort into practice. People who have had a knee replacement have to go through physical therapy that involves working with physical therapists, doing exercises, having pain, taking time, etc. Likewise, people who stutter need to go through speech therapy that involves working with a well-trained therapist, learning the techniques, practising the techniques, having setbacks, learning what makes their stuttering worse, and restructuring their lives with enough sleep and relaxation, etc.
