C ONTE N TS

C H APTER Et a!
’
I CAR IN G FOR TH E CH ILD S M IND

II MILD F ORM S OF DI S TURB ED E ! UILIBRIUM 47

III DAN GER S IG NALS

IV N OURI S H IN G TH E MIN D

S TABI LI! IN G TH E F A CULTI ES

VI TH E PROB LEM OF A NC ES T RY AN D EN V I
RON M EN T

I N CREAS IN G OUR NATION AL E FFIC IEN CY 1 75

V III A NATION AL M OV EM ENT To I M PROVE

MENTAL E FFICI ENCY
 I LLUS T R A T I O N S

Heredity and Ment al Defect Fron tispiece

FACI N G PAG E

The Old the New

vs .

Hogarth s
’
Bedlam
Patients T ea Party in a S tate Hospital
’
66

S tructural Changes in Mental Diseases

Pati ent s Playing Croquet at S t L awrence

.

S tate Hospital
 IN TRODUCTION

T education
HE care of the mind involve s development ,
and train ing The terms are by
,
.

no mean s synonymous A highly develope d min d

.
,

f or example is not always a well balanced one

,
-
.

If not it o ff ers proof that too many years and to o

,

much energy have been devoted to mental develop

ment at the expense of proper training in correct
introspective judgment .

That the number of badly balanced persons is

increasing is shown by hospital records I t i s an .

open secret that insanity is steadily making head

way—increas ing at a rate ou t of prop ortion to
the growth of ou r p opulation An d this at a time
.

when Education is the watchword of every com

munity and when illiteracy is steadily decreasing
,

in all portion s of the civilized world .

But actual insanity is simply the more tan gible

form of distu rbed mental balance ; and for each
~

person who exemplifies this extreme degree of

aberration there are scores who sn fi er from purely
mental maladie s far less patent to the casual
obse rver but neverthele ss just as surely the result
of disturbed mental balance The vast army of
.

neurasthenics —a horde that has been stea di ly

8 I n trodu ct ion

increasing sin ce the days of ou r grandfathers

O ff ers evidence that mental hygiene is not keeping
pace with hygiene of the body An d the existence .

of that still larger army—those p eculiarly endowed

persons who are able to cure th eir ima gina ry ills
by the s imple proces s of believing t h at the ills
a re imaginary—demonstrate s that a v a st number

of persons are su ff ering f rom malad j ustment of

their mental balance wheels -
.

For we must always bear in m ind this fact

The diseased conditions of the mind which per
vert the judgment in one individual to make him
a lun atic in another to produce hyst eria or neu
,

rasth enia and in a third the plastic medium of

, ,

the faith healer are dangerously close of kin I n

,
.

most instances the ailment represents a di ff er

ence in degree rather than a di fference in kind .

An d one condition lapse s into the other so imper

ceptibly that not even the wi se st physician can

say where on e ends and the other be gins .

When therefore the p sychiatrist warn s u s that

, ,

we are showing grave symptoms of a nation

afl
”
iicted with nerve s he is simply telling us
,

metaphorically that ou r minds are n ot being well

cared f or and are showing the e ff ects of misuse
, .

Professor Dubois recently expre ssed this in

more direct and unmistakable terms There are .

some individuals whose reason is disturbed and

whose actions are guided by strange sentiments ,

says Dubois When the mental disorder is very

.
 I n trodu ct ion 9

pronounced we confine these patients as madmen

‘

or lu n atics The y are numerous f or according

.
, ,

to stati stics it is neces sary to consign nearly ten

,

person s ou t of a thousand to the asylum I n .

slighter degree the disease permits of the sub

,

j cet living still in society though his actions may ,

be peculiar and O ften culpable ; we speak then of

the s emi-ins an e or u n balan ced and endeavor to ,

e stablish the degree of their responsibility .

Finally when the mentality of the patient ap

,

p roach es the normal , and somatic functional symp

toms seem predominant the patholo gical condi ,

tion is termed a n eu rosis These ne rvou s cases .

constitute the great bulk of the client ele of the

neurologist while the psychose s properly so
,

called belong to the domain of the alienist .

There are only difieren ces of degree between the se

conditions I n all of them we fin d abnormal states
.

”
of mind .

In other words this ever increasing a rmy o ff ers

,

proof that we have over exerted ourselves in the -

direction of mental development at the expen se

of mental p oise At the same time it suggests
.

that it is high time to consider the balancing as ,

well a s the developmental process T o do this we .

must raise mental hygiene to the level of physical

hygi ene , so that soun dn ess of mind wi ll be con
comit an t with sou ndnes s of body .
 Caring f or th e Ch ild s Mind
’

HE THER a person becomes nervous or

”
not , says P rofessor Lewellys F B a rker.
,

depends upon two great facto rs ( a ) th e consti ‘

tu tion he inherits from hi s parents and through

them from hi s ancestors generally ; ( b ) the infl u

en ces to whi ch his body, especially his ne rv ou s

s ystem , is exposed du ring life, and p a rticu larly

du ring childhood.

The italics are my own For I believe that it

.

is a lmo st impos sible to overestimate th e impor

tance of the first few years of life in determining
,

the physical and mental c ondition of the adult .

I t i s p ossible to wreck th e physique of the man

by a f ew years of impr oper feeding an d hygi ene
in chi ldh ood Th e di sto rted little figure of the
.
‘

hunchback o ff ers convincing evidence Yet tho se

.

fami liar wi th psychic abno rm alities know tha t

the proportion of mental dwarfs and hun chbacks
is far greate r than tho se showing physical defects
—indivi duals whose minds have been distorted by
bad mental pabulu m adm i nistered in childhood .

The two conditions often go togethe r But as a.

12 I n creasin g Y ou r M ent al E fficiency
rule improper nou rishment is the penalty O f
,

poverty whi le bad mental train ing is observe d

,

more frequently in the upper walks of lif e .

But in any station in lif e it is possible to pro

duce one or both conditions by imprope r n ouri sh ,

ment and care during childhood I mproper care .

of the chi ld s physical condition is frequently the

’

first direct stepp ing stone to a regime of bad -

mental train ing Thus the mother w h o allows th e

.

caprice of the child to influence her in selecting

its diet is courting two dangers—physica l deteri
,

oration and mental pe rve rsion Once the child .

learns that it s capriciousness about diet may be

grati fied through wilfulne ss it has entered th e
m
,

highway lea di ng to im oper nouris hment The .

re sult is in evitably a puny sickly chi ld stu nted , ,

intellectually and often morally depraved

, .

The remedy for food caprice s is obvious : th e -

child should be taught to eat what we kn ow it

should eat regardless of its likes and dislikes
, ,

whi ch after all are not strongly developed in

, ,

childhood The child that learns t o eat and

.

”
digest all wholesome foods s ays Professo r Bar ,

ker , and who is not permitted to cultivate little

f ood antipathies make s a good start and avoids
,

on e of the worst pit f alls of li f e with which medi

-

cal men are very f amiliar n amely a finical a nxiety ,

concerning the e ffects of variou s f oods all to o ,

likely to develop into a hypochondriacal state .

I n the days of our grandparents it was cus

 C aring f or th e Ch ild s M in d
’
I 3

tomary to allow the child a wide latitude in kinds

of food even very youn g chi ldren eating the same
,

food s a s their elders Later came the f ad of

.

giving children measured po rtions and greatly ,

restricting the variety in diet But the accepted .

modern method i s a more rational intermediate

course between the se two extremes Give the chi ld .

a liberal variety of simple foods such as meat , ,

vegetables and fruits avoiding such thin gs a s rich

, ,

pastries and s u ch beverages as tea cofi ee and

, , ,

a lcohol
.

For it has been foun d by practical experiment ,

and laboratory observati ons that a variety of ,

foods tends to increa se digestive powers ; and that

even indiscretion s of diet although temp ora rily
,

distressing tend to make the child hardy Pam

, .

pered children are likely to have weak digestive

t racts- largely be cause those tracts have never
been called upo n to resist imp roper foods The .

little u rchin who mun ches green apple s green ,

cucu mbers an d almost anything else that gets

,

within reach , i s flirting with colic and oth er di s

tres se s But the colic is seldom of ve ry serious
.

n ature ; and it is a matte r of common obse rvation

that thes e sam e children rarely have digestive

troubles late r in l ife .

Of course no on e would advis e feedin g green

apples or cucumbers to youngsters althou gh they ,

will surely eat them occasion ally without help o r

kn owledge of their elders But , nevertheless there
.
,
I 4 I n creas in g Y ou r M ent al E fficiency

is a measure of compensation f or such in discre

tions in the fact t h at the occasional e at ing O f
,

improper food is un likely to ha v e a delete ri ou s

e ff ect upon a stomach accustomed to a great v a
ri ety in diet—a dige stive tract that is a ble
to
meet all comers so to speak The child that has
,
.

devel oped that kind of a fighting stomach wi ll not

be found later in lif e measuring his por tions in
deadly grams and cubic centimeters or choosing ,
”
his ration s f or the calorie s they rep resent ,

fie tch eriz in g or dabbling in

,
health fo od fatui -

tie s which are the highways to dypep sia and the

,

dispensa ry .

Giving the child a variety of Simple foods then , ,

is simply a practical system of hardening his ih

ternal organ s and preparing them f or the battle
,

of life A somewhat analogou s system of harden

.

ing the nervous and muscular systems S hould be

pursued at the same time I ndeed one system .

should supplement th e other .

B u ilding u p Re sis t an ce

Most mothers dre ss thei r children too heavily ,

particularly in in f ancy before the little ones hav e

,

reached an age at which they can expre s s thei r

f eelings intelligently But durin g the first few
.

months of life this is of little con se quence if

practiced con sistently When t h e child begins t o
.

run abou t however a gradu al course of j udiciou s

, ,
 Carin g f or th e Ch ild
’
s M ind 1 5

hardening of the body is mo st desirable t o ,

stren gthen the resistance to colds and other dis

eases ; and to insure an indi fference to climatic
changes later in life An active child requires
.

less clothing than an adult and , unle ss it is of the

,

n on reacting feebl e typ e should be clothed much

-
, ,

lighter I n this way the skin becomes hardened

.

to ordinary change s of temperature sometimes to ,

an astonishin g degree , and this condition will per

sist through life and be a gre at s ource of comfort
,

in ou r changeful climates .

A robust child should be given a cool bath eve ry

morning and S hould of course be encouraged to be
,

ou t of doors taking bodil y exercise most of it s

waking hours regardle ss of weather I t is as

, .

tonishin g how immune to colds and common child

hood complaints such children become—sturdy
littl e citizens well equipped to battl e successfully
,
-

with the great problems of life the most impo rtant ,

of which is health .

S trengthening th e con stitution if we may so ,

call it increa ses the re sistance to pain An d this

,
.

resistanc e produces an in sen sibility or in diff er ,

ence , particularly in children who play with other

youngst ers of their own age unhampered by the ,

solicitou s supervision of a doting parent For .

children make light of the bumps and trifl ing hurt s

of their companions an d learn to regard their
,

own injuries with indi f ference Thu s an obtuse .

nes s to trifling in jurie s lays a secure foundation

1 6 I n creas in g Y ou r M e nt al E ffi cie n cy
for resisting with proper fortitude those greater
, ,

in j uries both physical and mental that wi ll surely

, ,

come later in li f e I n this manner a most bene

.

fici al psychic and physical hardening process is

accomplished .

A child whose physical training has been along

the lines just outlined until its tenth year let u s ,

say has taken a tremendou s stride toward sound

,

physical adult life I f its mental training has

.

been correspondingly good we may predict wi th ,

greatest certainty that barring some extra ,

n eou s ca lamity such a child will round into

,

full manhood or womanhood with considerably

, ,

more than even chance s for a long, vigorous

life .

I t is obvious therefore that the prin ciple s of

, ,

mental hygiene should be applied at quite a s early

an age as those of physical hygi ene They should .
,

indeed begin in earliest infancy F or the task is

, .

most important and requires far greater in telli

,

gence and persistence on the part of the in structor ,

than mere physical training The kind of mental .

training that the child receive s during the first six

or seven years of it s lif e may taint or tarnish its
entire f uture Obviou sly then the common typ e
.
, ,

of nursemaid is quite as incompetent to direct the

c hild s mind as to supervise the later or fin i sh

’
, ,

ing school
-
stage I ndeed an ignorant nurs e
.
,

maid would do f ar less harm in a boarding scho ol -

than in the nursery .

 Caring f or the Child s Mind
’
I 7

H armf u l E arly I mpressions

It is impossible to overestimat e the e ffect of

early impres sion s upon the mi nd of a sensitive
child If you will think back over your own child
.

hood f or a moment I venture t o predict that you

,

will recall some early ( and probably fal se ) impres

sion that you still remember vividly to bear ou t ,

my as sertion It i s n ot merely the baleful e ff ect

.

of momentary mental tortures that children su ffer

from such impres sions a s fear of the dark fear ,

of goblins and fantastic animals , that is impor

,

tant bu t suppre ssed fears that may cause actual

,

in sanity later in life The child that is instructed

.

properly is unli k ely to become a prey to these

haunting fears , because it develops a rational in
stead Of a superstitious trend of mind—an atti
,

tude that tends t o keep the ship of mentality on

an even keel , even in the roughest waters .

Children with bad heredity requi re more care

ful inst ruction than tho se with a good heritage .

But unfortunately these delicately balanced chil

dren u sually live in a tainted atmosphe re even ,

when th eir actual instruction is excellent sin ce ,

on e or both of their p arents are neuroti c

,
Chil .

dren learn quite a s much from observati on of the

department in their associates as by any cours e,

of didactic in struction I ndeed , it sti ll remains

.

an open que stion as to just how much inh e rite d

in stincts are respon sible f or the peculiarities in
1 8 I n creas in g Y ou r M ent al fl
E i cie n cy

the children of neurotic parents or to what extent ,

environment influences the child Both condition s .

play an imp ortant part and undoubtedly envi ron

,

ment tends to develop the inherited tendency to

instability .

There can be no doubt however that even a , ,

nervous child with a bad heredity may have it s

mental balance firmly centered by proper en v iron
ment We see examples of thi s in orphan asylums
.
.

On the other hand the bad example of p arents

,

may produce distress ing ne rvous conditions even

in children of stable organi z ation and g oo d
heredity .

I n this domain of ne rvous diseases it is easy

”
to prov e the contagion of ex ample says Dubois ,
.

We see little girls imitate their nervou s fa ther

or hyste rical mother throwing themselves upon
,

the sofa at the slightest fatigue and compla inin g

of backache and headache They are sen sible to
.

all exte ri or influences cannot take food which they

,

do not like and become unne rved like their

,

mother They play so well the part of little ne rv

.

ou s women that they are caught in the snare and

become s o really Nervou s parent s think of thi s

.
,

danger of moral contagion .

What is to be done with a nervous child placed

in such surroundings ? The remedy that sugge sts
itsel f is removal to other surroundings But thi s .

is u sually imp racticable and for several reas on s

,

is not desirable if such a change implie s denyi ng

 C arin g f or th e Child s M ind
’
1 9

the child parent al care We could indeed corr ect

.
, ,

many of the tendencie s to n e rvous ou tbreaks in

the child by mak ing its surroundi ngs similar to
“
those of the institution children reared in
children s home s But while such surroundings
’
.

stabilize the nervou s system they also stifle the ,

higher p sychic centers becaus e in such places the

,

subtle mother s influence’

is wantin g In a .

phra se the institution reared chi ld tends to be

,

stable stoical— and stupid An d stupidity is a

,
.

p oor substitute for individuality even though that ,

in di vi duality be neurotic .

The only practical method at our command is

to impress upon parents the importance of tea ch
ing by exampl e particularly in little and appar
, ,

ently incon sequential things One of the se ap .

p arently unimportant things is the use of the

word nervou s by many neurotic parents .

Thes e pers on s use the term to express their own

wave ring condition o r to excuse wilfulnes s in a
,

child ; but in either case the u se of the word is

pernicious and cannot be condemned too severely
,
.

I t is a word that should be eliminated from con

versation with or in the presence of children
, ,
.

Parents who constantly speak of bein g ne rv

ou s or of certain things making them nerv
ou s or who excuse their own actions or thos e ,

of the child on the groun d of

,
ne rvousness
are prepar ing fertile soil for nervous outbreaks in
the child later in life .
20 I ncreasin g Y ou r M ent al E fficiency

N othin g can be more demoralizing to n ervou s

stability than constant re f erence to the opposite
condition The impressible child seize s up on the
.

fact that there is such a condition a s ne rvous

nes s —a thing that no normal and healthy child
should realize—and make s thi s an excuse f or ce r
tain actions that are simply the re sult of wi lful
ness or selfishnes s One exhibition of childi sh
.

temper that is excused or condoned on the ground

of nervousness leads to another , and still
another .

If the word must be u sed at all it shou l d be ,

“
given the same interpretation as naughty , or
s omething reprehen sible A bove all things do not
.

let the child of nervou s temperament , if it mu st

be pampered or favored in certain ways , know
that it is so favored on account of its delicate
ne rvou s organi z ation For these children are
.

quick to seiz e upon this excuse for e xhibition s of

lack of self-control o r other errati c action s , which
,

lay the foundation for mental in stability .

A nother greatly abused term , one that should

be stricken from the lexicon of the nervous child
”
and it s parents is , temperament Many per .

son s use thi s term to explain a peculiarity or

defect or condone a f ault
, Others seem to.

regard the expression he is temperamental ”

, ,

syn onymou s with he is a geniu s ”

Bu t .

p sychiatrists give a very difi eren t, and much

les s flattering interpretation To these the .
 C arin g f or th e Child s
’
M ind 21

”
temperamental person is a very unstable
on e .

But whatever the intent—whether the word is

in tended to convey the impression that a ce rtain
p erson is unusually bright unbalanced has ex , ,

ce ssiv e nervous energy , or is S imply a degenerate

—it is a bad word to use in the presence of chil
dren For it is used far too often as a cloak
.

to screen eccentricitie s An d whether these .

eccentricities be the early manifestations of

geniu s or what i s far more likely abnormality
, , , ,

it is bad mental hygiene t o gloss over peculiarities

by the use of such an ambiguous term .

Th e fact that a child shows great precocity is

n o valid reason for giving it a S pecial train ing

that di ff ers materially from that of le ss brilliant

children There is little danger that such train ing
.

may stifle a buddin g geni us For genius will not .

be suppres sed by disciplin e intended to correct

eccentricities On the contrary an attempt to
.
,

hold the precociou s child s mind to the no rmal ’

channels of childhood will be far more beneficial ,

than encouraging it to run off on peculiar tan

gents Moreover one can never be certain tha t
.
,

the child s apparent genius may not be simply

’

eccentricity or abnormality ,
Most precocious .

children fail t o rise to a height even approaching

the realm of genius An d therefore it is doubly .

important that these children be schooled in nor

mal trends of thought A race horse that cannot .
-
22 I n creasin g You r M ent al fl
E i cie n cy

ru n, but which has b een trained for n o other pur

p ose , is in deed a worthless creature .

Th e D an g ers f rom M oral C on t ag ion

reason why thes e highly organi z ed in

A nother ,

telligen t and sensitive children require more

, ,

careful train ing th an the phle gmatic ones is the ,

fact that such children are more susceptible to

moral contagio n f rom the actions of their
parents I t behoov es the parents of such chi l
.

dren there f ore to encourage them to in dulge in

, ,

the occupations and amusements of n ormal child

hood supplementing such training by good ex
,

ampl e The companion ship of other robust chil

.

dren has a healthful stabili z ing e ff ect , .

The practice of frightening young children or ,

a rousing their apprehensions unneces sarily is ,

mos t reprehensible This is e specially true as .

regards the kin d of f right that appeal s to the

moral nature such as superstitious fears of nu
,

n atural things re f erred t o a moment ago

,
There .

appears to be a great di fference in ult imate e ffect

upon the nervous system between ordinary physi ,

cal frights such a s a n arro w escape f rom falling

,

while at play or a passing a u tomobile and th e

, ,

kind of psyc hi c terro r produced by the fear of

goblins or ghosts Fright s caus e d by physical
.

d anger are quickly f orgotten ; bu t superstitiou s

fear is persistent and its evil e ffects c an hardly
,
 C arin g f or th e Child s M in d
’
23

be overestimated We are just beginning to ap

.

p re ciate that som e of the most incura ble fo rms

of insanity lik e many of the intractable nervous
,

diseases such as stuttering are the direct result

, ,

of childhood frights E v ery ugly thin g told to

.

”
the child says Mosso
, ev ery shock every , ,

f right given him will remain like a minute splin

,
”
ter in the flesh to torture him all his life long .

The foolish mother or ignorant servant girl , ,

who frightens a child into obedienc e by tales of

ogre s bogey men or anything mysterious is pre
,
-
, ,

pa ri ng fertile soil f or the development of mental

instability We may go f arther and say that the
.
,

teaching of any superstition whatever is likely ,

to give the child an entirely perverted attitude of

mind F or the mind of a child is above all things
.

lo gical— much mor e so indeed at this period of , ,

life before habits of thought have stifled logicality ,

than the mind of the average adult I t does not .

distinguish between one kind of superstition and

an othe r S imply because no logical distinction
,

exists An d for this reason the thoughtless or

.

ignorant teaching of a single ha rmless su persti

tion may pave the way to a belief in innumerable
harmful ones .

P o ss ible Con sequ ences of Litt le D e cept ion s

Let us consider for example the most common

, ,

form of deception pra cticed upon young children ,

24 I n creas in g Y ou r M e nt al E fficiency

that of the belief in S anta Claus To the maj ority .

of people there appears n o possible harm in de

ceivin g the child during it s early years abou t

the j olly reindeer driver and later correcting the

,

deception A n d u ndoubtedly this in itself is on e

.

of the most harmless of foolish deception s be ,

cause it lacks t h e f ear producing element The

- .

tales about good f airies are likewise relatively

harmless in themselves and f or t h e same reason
,
.

But even these seemingly harmless myths may lay

the foundation in the child s mind for a belief in ’

all manner of supernatural beings I f there is a .

mysteriou s person who can fly through the air

and drop down chimneys as M other and Father ,

h ave taught what is there inconsistent in s ome

,

ignorant servant girl s tales of goblin s or

’
,

ghosts ? T o the child s min d one is quite as

’

reasonable as the othe r And so the foundatio n

.

is laid f or a superstitious trend of mind that is

not consonant to practical twen tieth century en -

ligh tenmen t .

On the other hand if the child has been told

,

that S anta Claus is a purely imagina ry person ,

it will be less ready to believe storie s about

goblins or other imaginary monsters To state .

the case frankly then children should not

, ,

be deceived about S anta Claus or any oth er ,

myth .

But it is objected by doing away with S anta

, ,

Claus you are robbing childho od of on e of it s

 Carin g f or th e Child
’
s M in d 25

greatest plea sures—ki ll ing what little romance

is left in this all t oo prosaic life ! N ot at all my ,

dear reader I hav e among my acquain tances

.

several children now almost grown wh o were

, ,

n ever taught to believe in the existence of S anta

C lau s . They were told as littl e children that
, ,

Old Kris Kringle was purely a mythical person ,

and that the hangings of stockings for him to fill

wa s simply a pretty cu stom Never for one mo .

ment did any of tho se children believe that there

was really a S anta Claus A nd yet I have never
.

seen children take greater delight in hangin g u p

their stockings on Christmas eve or in planning ,

f or the mysterious visits of this purely imaginary

character .

The good e ffect of this training was shown

in an incident that happened when one of these
children was six years old This child had bee n
.

informed about the chimerical nature of all

mysterious beings as well as S ant a Claus .

On e day while playing with a little neighbor she ,

heard a harrowing ghost story told by a super

stitiou s maid The child at once expressed her
.

doubts about the truth of the story s ince her ,

father had told her that ghosts were l ike S ant a

”
Clau s , just imaginary things Nor could the
.

maid shake he r skepticism : her father s word ’

was in her mind the highest court

, ,
.

A c hi ld with that attitude of m ind is not likely ,

later in life to stumble on the roc k of su persti

,
26 I n creasing Y ou r M ent al E fficie ncy
tion —a rock that fills ou r asylums and sani
tariu ms .

E arly Relig iou s Train in g

In this connection the question ari se s a s t o the

age at which the religious training of the child
should begin I am fully aware that in this field
.

each parent i s likely to be guided by h is own

particular reli gi ous bias an d ready to ch allenge
,

th e wisdom of all others I t i s the on e depart

.

me n t of education in which the standards and

methods of ou r par ents and grandparents are
l ikely to be considered all su fficien t f or our chil
-

dren But nevertheless th e practicalitie s of re

.
,

ligi ou s beliefs like most other fields of thought

, ,

have changed and progressed in the last century .

A n d our attitude toward th e teaching of reli gious

subj ects to children should h ave changed cor
r e sp on din gly .

Fortunately the tendency of reli gi ous teaching

,

to d ay is to exalt the beautiful side of reli gion ,

and suppress th e terrifying doctrine of eternal

punishment But for tho se who accept the literal
.

interpretation of this ancient belie f ( if indeed , ,

there be any such person s ) the warning gi ven a

moment ago against the dangers attending psychic
frights in childhood s h ould be repe ated and em
ph a siz ed Terrifyi ng th e child at this receptive
.

age with stories of eternal punishment is laying ,

 C arin g f or t h e Child s M ind
’
27

a p owde r mi ne for a future explosion I f the

.
.

child is th e nervou s sensitive type this explo sio n

, ,

will come almo st inevitably in one f o rm or another

s ooner or late r .

I ts worst form of course is some type of re

, ,

ligiou s mania—an all too common form of mental

aberration which shows the e ffect of the exploded
p owder mine But besides this most terrible dis
.

aster there are les s pronounced affl iction s tha t

will remain like minute splinters in the flesh
just as in the case of any other childhood fright .

Keep ou t all f ear of the brutal things men

”
have taugh t children about the future says ,

Luther Burbank the lo v er of plants and children

, ,

in his book Th e Train ing of th e H u man Plan t

, .

I believ e emphatically in religion God made .

religion and man made theology j ust as God made

, ,

the country and man made the town I hav e th e

, .

largest sympathy for religion and the largest con ,

tempt I am capable of f or a misleading theology

D o n ot feed children on maudlin sentimentalism or
do gmatic religion ; give them nature Let their .

souls drink in all that is pure and sweet .

Rear them if pos sible amid plea sant sur

, ,

roundings I f they come into the world w ith souls

.

gropi n g in darkn ess let them se e and feel the

,

light Do n ot terri f y them in early lif e with the

.

fear of an after world Never was a child made .

more noble and good by the fear of a hell Let .

nature teach them the lesson of good and proper

28 I n creasin g Y ou r M ent al E fficiency

living combined with an abundance of well -bal

,

an ce d nourishment Those childre n will grow to

.

be the best men and women Put the best in them .

by contact with the best outside They wi ll ab .

sorb it a s a plant absorbs the sun shine and dew .

Th e P ers is t in g of E arly I mpre s sions

An y who doubts the persistency throughout

on e
li f e of childhood impressions will fin d food for
thought by observ ing the acquired habits that per
sist even in tho se whose minds are completely
wrecked I t would be possible to cite specific in
.

stances by hundreds .

A mi ddle aged man who was under my care fo r

-

some time had become so completely unbalanced ,

a f ew years be f ore that it was necessary to confin e

,

him in an asylum He was indeed considered .

, ,

dangerous showed violent fits of temper and had

, ,

to be watched constantly night and day Event .

u ally however he became les s agitated although

, , ,

still greatly confused and much demented His , .

disease wa s incurable bu t his condition had im ,

proved su fl i cien tly s o that with proper su pervi ,

sion he could be given many liberties and was

, ,

able to enjoy many of the pleasures of life .

When the hunting season arrived this patient

asked his medical adviser to be allowed to go
shooting The request seemed prepo sterous com
.
,

ing from an irresponsible man who was subj ec t

 Carin g f or th e Ch ild s M in d
’
29

t o violent fits of temper But the physician had

.

had a wide experience with similar case s ; and he

had learned moreover that thi s patient as a boy
, ,

had been given unusually careful in struction abou t

handling a gun while hun ting Thus it had become .

instin ctive with him to carry his weapon wi th the

mu z zle always pointing away from his companion ,

and n ever in any circumstances to point a gu n at

a person .

Feeling confident that his patient s early train ’

in g would dominate his action s the physician de ,

cided t o grant his request to go shooting M ore .

over the docto r decided to j o in him in the hun t

, ,

althou gh fully aware that the p atient di sl iked him

thoroughly and had threatened him repeatedly
,
.

The physician s decision will strike most per

’

son s as foolhardy But subsequent events p roved

.

the s ou ndness of his j udgment For although the .

patient wa s at times violently angry with the doc

tor during their hunting trip s the thought of using ,

his gun as a weapon never suggested itsel f Or .

,

if suggested was at once rej ected The early

,
.

training in the u s e of wea pons still domin ated a

’
certain portio n of this demented man s mental
mechanism although most of that mechanis mwas
,

s o badly a skew .

S ince habits of thought established in childh ood

undoubtedly lay the foundations for future mental
attitudes it is obvious that certain habits should
,

be encouraged while other tendencies S houl d be

,
30 I n creasin g Y ou r M ent al Efficie ncy
diplomatically but persistently suppres sed I n .

du stry either in work o r play should be stimu

, ,

lated to become a habit ; f or idleness in children ,

as in adults breeds all manner of mental and phys

,

ical disorders Once the habit of industry is ac

.

qui red it tends to persist through lif e .

Pro f essor Ernst H aeckel whose life has been an ,

almost continuous series of great achievement s ,

attributes his activity to his early train ing My .

mother ” he says ,
would never permit me to be
,

idle f or a moment I f I stood at th e window day.

dreaming she would always u rge me to be up and

,

d oing .Work or play she would urge but do ,

’
,

not stan d idle Thro u gh thi s reiterated admoni

.
’

tion p hysical activity became a lif e long habit

,
-

with me and work almost a necessity of my being

,
.

I f I have been abl e to accomplish my f ull share of

labors this is the reason I am never idle and I
, .
,
”
scarcely kn ow the me aning of en n u i .

I dleness is the handmaiden of another fault in ,

decision I nd eed the habit of idleness generates

.
,

indecision The child that shows this tendency to

.

waverin g should be taught tactfully to make de

ci si on s and abide by them
, I t is good mental dis .

ciplin e to acquire th e habit of making s ome deci

sion even though it be a bad one

, .

D idact ic Train in g V ers u s M u scu lar D e velopmen t

It
should not be understood that encouragi ng
activity in children implies urgin g the child to
 C aring f or th e Child s M ind
’
31

ma k e unu sual e ff orts in its school work The .

b ri ght , nervou s child frequently needs restrain t

,

rather than ur ging in this particular field of ao

tivity Our modern school curriculums tend to
.

hur ry the little ones on much too fast in the lower

grades for the welfare of their nervou s systems ;
and err in the opposite extreme in the higher
grade s , and colleges .

Instead of sending precocious children to school

early and holding them to the task it is far better
, ,

to devote more t ime to the development O f their

muscle s , and strengthening their nervou s systems
( a p sychic hardening for a few years For .

if the child is below standard physically as is f re ,

quently the case this driving proces s tends to

,

rest rict in stead of develop its natural capaci

, ,

tie s A nd even in the exceptional cases where

.
,

the mind develops at the expense of the mu scu

lar system this brilliancy of intellect is scant
,

compensation f or the halting unstable physica l ,

mechanism .

On the other hand hard study is not injuriou s

,

to the normal , healthy boy or girl I t is good for .

them I t teaches them to use their faculties , even

.

though the studies themselves may be of little

actual value later in life I ndeed the real test of
.
,

value in a school or college course is its e fficiency

in teaching students how to acquire kn owledge,
rather than in the amount of kn owledge actually ,

imparted The college graduate i s often singu

.
32 I n creasing Y ou r M en t al E fii cie ncy

larly lacking in useful info rmation But if he ha s .

learned the knack of acquiring knowledge during

his college course his training may be considered
,

successful Failure to acquire this, however, is

.

indeed utter failure .

Highly organi z ed sensitive children should not,

,

as a rule be permitted to indulge in strenuou s

,

mental contests such as strivi n g for p rize s at

,

school But if such contests are permitted , the

.

parent should note v ery care f ully the e ff ect upon

the child s mind and ne rvous system Children
’
.

present two types of mental attitude in thes e con

tests I n one the pleasure of succe ss predomi
.
,

nates ; in the other it is rather the fear of defeat

,
.

“ ”
In other words , one love s to win the other ,
”
hates to lose An d psychologi cally these atti
.

tudes of min d may be very di ff erent There are .

types of person s who gloat over winning, but who

feel li ttle or n o humiliation in defeat ; there are
others who feel relatively little elation at succe ss ,
but who are absolutely de j ected by failure If
your child is of thi s latter typ e—and no one can
.

determin e this as well a s the parent—do n ot let

him enter contests which require prolonged pre
liminary efi ort C ontents brought about on the
.

spu r of the moment have a far les s deleterious

mental e ff ect .
 Carin g f or th e Child
’
s M ind 33

B eneficial In fl
u e nce of t h e Playgrou nd

Nervous children are greatly bene fited by play

groun d contests with other children of their own
age If denied the companionship of other chil
.

dren , or kept in the pre sence of older people the ,

ne rvous systems of such children su ffer f rom over

protection S uch children are greatly benefited by
.

attendance at public schools Even large private .

s chools at least in America do not serve the same

, ,

purpo se For the bene ficial as sociation with

.

mixed classes of children is wanting in such

schools , since the pupils are almost without ex ,

ception the children of well to do parents

,
This - -
.

ha s its advantages of course ; but these are out

,

weighed by the disadvantages For eve ry child .

,

when it reaches maturity will be thrown in con ,

tact with person s from all walks of li f e ; and its

future success may depend largely upon its ability
to interpret the mental attitudes of persons in
every class In other words to understand huma n
.
,

nature .

N 0 amount of exp erience in adult life will gi v e

the peculiar intuitive capacity to est imate char
acter that the child acquires by association wi th

heterogeneous playmates Moreover this min.

,

gling tends to stabili z e the equilibrium of the

nervous child .

Persons of either sex who ha v e been denied

,

these playgrou nd a ssociations lack a well roun ded ,

-
34 I ncreasing Y ou r M ent al E fficiency
education , even though the didactic part of their
teaching may hav e been most complete For th e .

playgrou nd rather than the classroom , is the

,

builder of character Here the child finds himself

.

placed in a niche consonant to his ability, physical

and mental Paternal wealth or p osition count s
.
, ,

for nothing, only inherent worth as judged by the

peculiarly accurate standards of playfellows .

Thus the child learns by contact with its play

,

mate s to gauge its own abilities ve ry a ccurately

,
.

The conceited only child obsessed with self-impo r

,

tance , soon learns his own shortcomings It is a .

helpful “ leveling proces s fo r the bumptiou s

youn gster , and equally helpful to the intelligent
but timid child by teaching confidence and self
,

assurance .

S ome mothers hesitate to send their children

to a public school for f ear of the coarsening
eff ec of contac t with such heterogeneou s com
panion s Children of such mothers are usually
mollycoddles—the very children wh o would be
.

bene fited by contact and competition wi th all

classes of children A proper home influen ce wil l
.

counteract any coarsenin g efi ect whi le the pl ay ,

ground ofi ers a kind of useful education that n o

home supplies .

Many a dotin g mothe r has shed bitter tears at

the sight of her usually carefully pressed and
creased boy, returning f rom school bruised an d ,

bespattered after a set to with some schoolmate

-
.
 Carin g f or th e Child s M in d
’
35

But her tears might be spared : this same en cou n

ter may be the making of her boy No singl e .

event in a child s life is likely to have such positiv e

’

and permanent—and in the end , beneficial—e ff ect

as a square -toed fight .

Most mothers will take radical exception to this

statement But mothers are n ot competent
.

judges : they lack practical experience Most .

fathers I feel sure will concur in th e assertion

, , ,

if they will recall the sensation s produced by their

first youthful encounter This sensation cannot be.

produced by any other expe rience I n such con .

test the boy for the first time finds him self
, ,

thro wn upon his own resources—a test of wit ,

strength and courage A nd win or lose a new

sen sation—one that the child will never quite for
,
.
, ,

get—is born forthwith I t is a practical manif e s

tation of the primal fighting instinct—an instinc t
.

which every suc ce ssful man must possess A nd .

thus just a s the companionship of girls has a r e

,

fin ing in fluence on the boy s mental fibre contests ’

,

with boys develop that other , and equally essenti al

quality
An d so I believe that any boy who is reared in
seclu sion from boys of his own age and grows ,

up without having at least one good square toed -

fight has been deprived of a most important part

,

of his education And being deprived of it will

.
,

always retain a somewhat perverted outlo ok on

life ,—a defective in sight into human n ature
'

.
36 I n creasin g Y ou r M en t al E fficie ncy
Moreover the boy who is a good fighter is far
, ,

less likely to be quarrelsome than the coddled

nursery boy .

On e mu st not confuse the petul ant child , who

flies into a passion and strikes his smaller play
mates or larger companion s knowin g that there
will be n o retali atory blow wit h the sturdy play ,

ground fighter There is a wide gulf between the

.

type s Yet the playground itself is one of the

.

best remedies f or petulancy .

On t h e other hand pent u p emotion s are danger

,
-

ou s elements in the developing ch ild The child .

who sulks needs j ust as positive discipline as the

one that strikes E special care should be ex er
.

cis e d to prevent disagreeable feelings and emo

tions becoming tran sformed into the more persist

”
ent moods says Professor B arker
,
I t is often
better for an emotion to discharge itself in the
f orm of some de fin ite act and thus bring it to an
end rather than through the partial suppres sion of
it have it last in the form of a disagreeable mood
, ,

f or a considerable length of time Poutin g sulki .

,

nes s harboring a grudge or bearing malice should

, , ,

be regarded as symptoms seriou sly to be con sid

ered and corrected For if they are tolerated in
.

the child habits may be begun which will prepare

,

t h e soil f or the development later in life of the , ,

seeds of enmity and suspici on ; the full grown -

plants are the persecutory ideas of the paranoiac

states .
 C arin g f or the Child s M ind
’

37

Th e Remedy f or Pet u lan cy

How to manage a child in a fit of temper ha s

been discus sed When possible it is desirable to
.

cut it short at the beginning S ome parents re

.

j oice to see their children reveal violent temper ,

and are glad that they can fly into a pas sion tu rn ,

red as a beet clench the fists and attack the in

, ,

dividual with whom they are angry S uch att acks .

if frequently repeated are very delete rious to the

nervous system S om e parents try to stop them
.

by petting and indulging the child a kind of liceu s ,

ing of irritability which rarely if ever pays ; , ,

others threaten the child or c orp oreally punish

him ; a mistake usually in the oth er direction A s
, ,
.

a rule mo st may be accomplished by purposefully

ignor ing the attack perhaps isolating the child
,

f or a short period ; in some cases a warm bath and

the bed may be the best remedie s .

I n older children the habit of giving way to

temper may sometimes be broken by inculcating
the conviction that one wh o lose s his temper makes
a fool of himself , loses his dignity and excites the
disdain and contempt of his fellows : the horror of
looking ridiculous of makin g a donkey of on e s
,
’

self may be a mo st powerful lever in conquering a

,

tendency to attacks of fury .

Let n o on e think , however, that lack of feel

ing or a nature impoverished on the emotional
,

side is desirable or that it protects against nervou s

38 I n creasin g Y ou r M ent al fl
E i cie ncy

disease The elevating emotions , hop e j oy ex

—
.
, ,

p e ctati on lov e are constructive and are judi

,

ciou sly to be cultivated ; the depressing emotions

despair sorrow regret and f ear—are damaging

, , ,

to the nervous system if long maintained The

‘

highest f eelings of all including the reli gious th e

, ,

ethical and the aesthetic—in spire noble and useful

,

conduct and in the education of ne rvous children

,

these sent iments are to be f avored in their de

v elopm
”
en t in due degree at a suitable a ge
, ,
.

Defective eyesight when it exists is frequently

, ,

overlooked in young children This defect ao .

counts for quite a high percentage of apparent

backwardnes s in school children and may give rise ,

to temperamental peculiarities Parents should .

,

therefore have their c h ildren s eyesight tested at

,
’

an early age if there is any reason to su spect de

feet They can indeed make te sts at home tha t
.
, ,

will d etermine with sufficient accuracy whether

the child is near sighted—the mo st frequent con
-

genital defect .

A very s imple method of doing this is to select

pictures of objects with which the child is familiar ,

such as the domestic animals from the A B C

B ook ”
. By placing these one at a time at a dis
tance at which their outl ines are just discernible
with certainty by the parent s eyes ( supposin g of ’
,

cou rse that the parent s vision is no rmal ) and ask

’
,

in g the child to desi gnate each the vision of a ,

child can be readily determined For the normal .

 Caring f or th e Child s M in d
’

39

length of vi sion , even of a you ng chi ld , is the same

as that of the adult .

S pecial symptoms that should arouse suspicion ,

particularly in school children old enough to read

-
,

are headaches , and nausea that is produced b v

scrutinizing the p rinted page Here the defect is

.

probably astigmatism—an irregu larity in the

shape of the lens , or eyeball—which requires the
attenti on of an oculist and should be co rrected
,

by properly fitted glasses .

Every parent is confronted sooner or later , ,

with the problem of choosing an occupation for

his child or acting upon the chi ld s own selection
,
’
.

The general consideration of the question a s to

ju st what part of th e determin ation should rest
with the parent rather than the child is much too
, ,

complicated for discussion here But there are .

certa in element s in the general p re p osition that

present themselve s in the case of every child and ,

should not be evaded The two most vital ones

.

are ( 1 ) the child s adaptation to the calling se

’

lected—that is , its ability to perform its part suc

,

ce s sf u lly ; and , ( 2) the parents ability to perform

’

their p art , which is , in the last analysis u sually ,

the pecuniary item To thi s should be added the

.

parental influence in guiding the child in making a

selection best adapted to its abilities and condition .

Even when the fin ancial part need n ot be con

sidere d it i s frequently mo st difficult to make th e

child s choice and it s natural ability coincide

’
.
40 I n creasing Y ou r M e nt al E fficie ncy

Moreover it is quite impossible to determine dur

,

ing the early years of childhood for what calling ,

the child will be best adapt ed For those who are .

u n hampered fin ancially this is of course th e , , ,

great item for serious consideration A nd this .

sugge sts the reason for the general rule that it is

better not to make any de finite selection during
the child s early li f e
’
For the wi sest per son
.

in the world is unable to predict with certainty

what the incl inations and ability of a child of six
will be at sixteen or twenty ,
.

There are well advertised men wh o make a

-

specialty of fitting round pegs into round

”
holes. Were these Charlatans actually able to
do e v en a tithe of what they claim they would be ,

the greatest benefactors of mankind For a very .

large proportion of unhappine ss and discontent

in this world is caused by misfitted pegs ”
But .

no single element can be determinative in this peg

fittin g problem Circumstances temperament in
.
, ,

clination and natural adaptation mu st each be

,

taken into account and the opinions of the child

, ,

parents and teachers must all be con sidered And

, .

finally the child s capacity to carry ou t his par t

’
,

of the compact and the parents ability to per

,
’

f orm their part mu st be largely determinant

, ,

after all th e other elements have been con sidered .

To attempt to determine in infancy what the

grown u p child shall f ollow as a vocation is cou rt
-
,

ing disaster S uch early selection is and should

.
,
 Carin g f or th e Child s M in d
’

41

be , the privilege of Royalty only But most of u s .

doubt the wisdom of this practice even in king ,

making For although there have been great kings

.

who were the sons of kings we cannot forget the

,

numberless exceptions None of the fiv e greatest

.

rulers of Rome who reigned in succession were

hereditary monarchs .

Find out what each child is capable of doing

that is t o say hi s actual apti tudes ; and teach him
,
”
to succeed in these says a modern philos opher
,
.

A nd thi s is but an echo of the philosophical Wi s ~

dom of all ages .

S ex H y g ien e

One cannot consider the question of mental

hygiene for the child without specific reference to
the s ubj ect of sex hygiene which has recently be
come a popular fad Yet it should be evident to
.

every one that there i s no real reason or ju stifica ,

tion in this sudden activity about a subj ect tha t

,

is a s ancient and as immutable as civiliz ation ,

itself .

An y subj ect is fraught with grave dangers when

it is promulgated a s a fad Likewise any vice .

which is in herently attractive is likely to be dis

seminated rather than restricted by p rOpaganda
, , .

Certainly the practice of giving great publicity to

the sex problem—treating the subj ect openly in
the pre sence of chi ldren—will do much more ha rm
42 I ncreasin g Y ou r M ent al fl
E i cie ncy

’
than good For it is likely to direct th e child s
.

min d into channels of investigation that should

not be explored until a later period in life .

The fact that such channels should and do , ,

eventually become open highways , suggests the

only ground upon which the child may lo gically

be inst ru cted I t i s worse than futile to attempt

.

to f ri ghten the child into believing that a thin g

must be wholly bad , when this child wi ll discover
very shortly ( much quicker than most parents
reali z e ) that grown up person s do n ot con sider
the subject with any such degree of condemnati on .

But it is pos sible to impre ss upon it the fact that

what may be a natural attitude of mind fo r adults ,

is ha rmful for children .

I f presented on any other ground the natural

logicality of the child will prick the bubble of de
cep tion . But by impressing upon its mind the fact
that children should shu n certain things ju st as it ,

is better fo r them to avoid the use of tobacco ,

alcohol tea or co ffee in their early years in order

, , ,

to reach full development the desired e ff ect may

,

be accomplished But do not under any circum

.
,

stances attempt to instruct the child by frighten

,

ing it ; for such a course is l ikely to have exactly

the opposite e f f ect from the one intended More .

over such a course may re sult in produc

ing an abnormal suppression of a natural in stinct ,

wi th vitally disastrous consequences later in

life .
 C aring f or th e Ch ild s M ind
’
43

Pope may have had this particul ar vice in mind

when he wrote

V ice is a mons ter of s o frightfu l mien

As to be hated n eeds bu t to be s een ,
Yet s een too of t, familiar wi th h er face,
‘

We firs t endu re, then pity, then e mbrace .

In any event the statement of the poe t-philoso

,

pher applie s just as surely to the proble m of sex

hygiene and just a s definitely to condition s to day
,
-
,

as it did to conditions existin g a hun dred years

ago .

The proper person and the only person to in

, ,

struct the child in matters of sex hygiene is the ,

parent A n d in the case of very youn g chi ldren

.
,

the mother can do this much more tactfully a s a ,

rule than the father The con fidential relation

,
.

existing between mother and chil d is the logical

reason for this For the sub j ect is on e that should
.

be treated only in strictest confiden ce An d if the .

mother doe s not feel herself competent she should ,

seek advice from the family physician and trans ,

mi t her info rmation to the child in her own way

and as the proper opportunity presents itself .

Teachers ministers or doctors should n ot be

, , ,

selected for this delicate task For the instru o

.

tions of such person s do n ot carry the same weight

a s tho se of the mother, and are less likely to be
heeded Moreover , the statements of an outsider
.
44 I n creas in g Y ou r M en t al E fficie ncy
—the fact that any other person may broach th e
topi c—detract from the sacred secrecy of the su b
ject which Mother may re f er to without arousing
curiosity or apprehen sion just a s she may giv e
,

in structions about other necessary bodily fun c

tions.

Determining the age at which the child should

receiv e this es sential instruction is important .

Most parents decei v e th emselve s in the belief tha t

their little ones remain utterly unsophi sticated u n
til the age of puberty at least But this is not true
,
.

in a majority of instance s and should not be so

,
.

For the period of puberty is the most important

of the child s li f e ; and if the little girl is ignorant
’

of the natural and normal physical change that

takes place at this time she may recei v e a p sychi c
,

shock or be careless or indiscreet in the necessary

,

phy sical precautions that may have di sastrous

,

consequences .

We may make it a rule therefore that children

, ,

should be instructed before the age of puberty .

But this instruction should be of the most general

character avoiding all but abs olutely essential
,

details about natural biological f unction s and ,

cleanliness M oreover the subj ect should be care

.
,

f ully avoided a f ter the initial instruction For .

the child will remember every word that i s told it

in this connection and f requent re f erence to th e
,

subject robs it of its confidential nature and may ,

result in unnatural and morbid curiosity .

 Carin g f or Child s M ind
’
th e 45

Every father S hould warn his son again st the

pernicious medical advertisements published
so widely for the purpose of frightening young
men and brin ging them into the merciless toil s of
un scrupulous quacks These advertisements play
.

upon the ignorance and credulity of the young men ‘

who may have committed some youthful and

harmles s indiscre tion by de scribin g chimerical
,

dangers and profe ssing to cure diseased condi

,

tions that do not exist .

Few person s except physicians realize the

, ,

amount of positive harm and protracted unhappi

ness produced by this pernicious literature The .

lives and usefulnes s of thousands of youn g men

have been permanently blighted by the se adver
ti sements t o say nothin g of the severe depletion
,

of thei r pocket books .

The deplorable thing about the whole obnoxi ous

subj ect is that the claims and insinuations of these
,

criminal Charlatans which so many boys read and

believe are unmitig ated lies They play upon the
, .

boy s credulity by leading him to believe that a

’

very common boyhood indi scretion—one that is s o

common that it may be considered almost a normal
trait of youth—has blighted his life or will do so ,

un less he patron ize s the perpetrators of the ad

vertis em ent Wherea s physicians know that little
.

harm comes from such indiscretion which in any , ,

event is self corrective

,
- .

Fathers should expla in the nature of these ad

46 I n creasing You r M ent al E fficie ncy
vertisements their boys Or if they feel that
to .
,

their word will not carr y su fl

i cient weight in this
medical subject, they should arrange wi th the
family physician to do so I n this way the boy
.

will be given a co rrect understandin g of many

seemi ng mysteri es and rendered immune to the
,

seductive literature of these discounten anced :

medical sharks .

Failing in this the boy may go through life

carrying a most oppressive burden—a cl oset skele
,

ton that he would not reveal even to hi s most inti

mate friend And this sort of closet skeleton is
.

always a menace to mental st ability .

 M ild F orms of D is t u rbed E q u ilibriu m

E cannot ha m
t o combat an evil withou t
some kn owledge of its nature S o be .

fore suggesting methods of st abilizing mental

equilibrium something should be s aid ab out the
,

various condition s that influence stability and th e ,

more tangible things that in di cate a state of men

tal unbalance .

N eedles s to say the indic ation s will n ot be ex

a ctly alike in any two cases either in thei r course

or their termin ation —

,

,
that is , in any c ondition
which does not result in actual death But in the .

m ain they follow fairly well defin ed highways all

-
,

termi nating in the condition included in the com

prehensive term insanity
,
.

Unfo rtunately there are many de rangements of

person ality which , if uncorrected may re sult in
,

this catastrophe But if we can gain a clear con

.

ception of some of these premonitory c ondition s

we shall have taken the most important st ep to

ward correcting them For it must be bo rne in
.

mind that although actual insanity is one of the

most incurable conditions in the initial stages
,

when the mental balance is wave ring on the bor

48 I n creasin g Y our M ent al fl
E i cie n cy

derlin e before taking the final plunge it may be ,

prevented .

A recognition of this borderland state is ou r

g reatest safe guard ; since contrary to popular be
,

lie f insanity is seldom of sudden onset Even in

,
.

cases where the mental balance appears to have

been unhing ed by some sudden catastrophe such ,

as some great shock grief or fright we fin d al

, , ,

most invariably that there have been indications

of wavering equilibrium for some time— sym p
toms that an expert would recogniz e a s danger
S ignals Moreover the nature of those signal s is
.
,

usually such that even members of the victim s ’

household would have recogni z ed them, were the

disease insanity as well u n derstood a s are man y
, ,

of the physical ailment s .

S o that we can say with all but absolute cer .

tainty that short of actual physical injury, n o

,

mental or moral calamity will produce sudden in

sanity in a healthy minded indivi dual
-
.

The e ffect of the Ti tanic disaster upon the men

tal condition of the survivors off ers st ri king con
firmation of this statement There have been few .

catastrophes in modern times in which the sur

vi vor s su ff ered greater mental and physica l
shock and grief T o those unfamiliar with the
, .

cause s of mental aberration s it seemed that few

persons could pass through such an ordeal and
retain their n ormal mentality In deed the rumor .
,

that the incoming rescue ship Carp athia was a , ,

 M ild Forms of D is t u rbe d E qu ilibriu m 49

floating mad house -

became so persistent that ,

special arrangements were made to care f or the

insane in the receiving wards of the City hospitals .

Yet when the Carp a thia arrived at her dock not ,

on e of the Titanic sur vivors was insane There .

were many bowed with grief several disabled ,

physically from exposure or injury ; but every one

,

was normal mentally Moreover , a canva s of these

.

survivors a year later showed that no case of in

sanity had developed .

On the other hand several neurotic persons on

shore —persons having neither friends nor ac
,

q u ain tan ces on the doomed ship — became insane

on hearing of the disaster Yet in every one of
.

these cases the individuals were flying si gn als of

tottering mentality and news of the great disaster
,

simply acted a s the spark to set off the mine al

ready laid .

We are powerless to prevent a certain number

of great calamities which result in terrible sacri
fice of human life But it is within our p ower to
.

avert many of the mental disasters that follo w

in their wake .

S ome Familiar Forms of M ental I ns t ability

What particular form a mental aberration may

take in any indiv idual case is of far less impor
tance for our present purp ose than a su rvey of
the premonitory shadows cast by the approaching
so I ncreasin g You r M ent al E fficie ncy
cloud Bearing in m
. i nd that eve ry disturban ce of
the emotions such a s un natural elation or dep re s
sion fear worry, su spiciou s or doubt when ex
, , , ,

hibited to exces s and without adequate cause is a

stepping stone t o actual insanity let u s consider ,

somewhat in detail some of the peculia ritie s of

mental aberrations with which every person
should be somewhat familiar .

Without attempting to draw a fin e distinction

between actual insanity and closely allied states ,

we may examine some of th e characteristics of

certain abnormal condition s which closely resem
ble t h e more serious f orm without necessarily ,

mergin g into it The one with which every person

.

is more or le ss f amiliar is hysteri a , .

A lthough the emotional manifestations of this

disease such as excessive and unrestrain ed
,

laughter and weeping are f amiliar to every one

, ,

thes e are only the better kn own signs of a subtle

condition that may present a great diversity of
symptoms I nstability of temper a tendency to
.
,

a imless dreaming or an in clination to Change from

,

one task to an other whether work or play char

, ,

acteriz e s the h ysterical type of child These chil .

dren are gi ven to exaggeration and love to do ,

startling and f antastic th ings parti cularly in the ,

presence of su scepti ble and gullible parents They .

are often elated to a stage of ecstasy by t ri vi al

events and are depre ssed correspondingly by
,

trifling adversities .
 M ild Forms of D is t u rbed Eq u ilibriu m 51

As a rule they are untruthful and unreliable ,

are given to practicing deceptions and lack the ,

franknes s that is characteri stic of normal chi ld

hood They are likely to be bright and precocious
.
,

frequently capricious about their food and usually ,

( though by no means alw ays ) of poor physical

development .

These chi ldren have an abnormal craving f or

sympathy and resort to all manner of su bter
,

f u ge s to obtain it If their self absorption takes a

.
-

hypochondriacal form they will s imulate ill

,

nesses in every gradation of seve rity from a

trifling cough to what appears to be actual paraly
si s and even convulsions —conditions that keep,

the members of the sympathetic household danc

ing attendance An d invariably they receive this
.

danced attendance f or even neuropathic chil

dren seldom develo p severe hyste ri a except when
surrounded by over sympathetic , or foolishly in
-

du lgen t parent s
, .

The hysterical type of woman difi er s very little

in general characteristics from the hysterical child
except in those di ff erences common to the two
periods of life I ndeed most hysterical women
.
,

have been hyste ri c al children These women are .

essentially childish in their attitudes of mind and ,

tend to reproduce the peculiarities shown in child

“

hood somewhat altered to fit the changed condi

,

tions They demand the same attention of the

.

members of their households , exhibit a want of

52 I n cre asin g Y ou r M ent al E fficie ncy

self control the ten dency to impul sive action s

-
,
,

irritabili ty of temper and the craving for novelty

,

and excitement The basis of this condition is

.

undoubtedly defective will power ; although thi s -

de f ect may be masked by a persistent stubborn

nes s that give s the impres sion of extreme wilfu l
nes s particularly to the members of their own
,

households .

Their cra ving f or sympathy is in satiable and ,

represents a type of selfishness which with the , ,

de f ective will power is a f undamental element of

-
,

the condition There is scarcely any limit to the

.

length they will go to gain this sympathy They .

have been kn own to mutilate themselves to th e

extent of producing seriou s injuries starve them ,

selves to the point of death and S imulate strang e,

and pu z z ling symptoms that are easily mistaken

f or obscure pathological conditions Eve ry new .

disease that is described in the popular press is

sure to be adopted by some of these patients And .

it is remarkable how faithfully they will imitate

in the minutest details symptoms that are u n
known to most laymen Little wonder , therefore .
,

that they deceive sympathetic friends , and all too

frequently the family doctor .

Perhaps the most common form of deception is

a simulated paralysis in which the patient refu ses
to walk becomes bedridden an d lies in bed for
, ,

months or years Medical men have perfectly

,
.

de finite methods of detecting this de ce ption ; but

 M ild Forms of D is t u rbed Equ ilibriu m 53

it is sin gularly difficult to convince the members

of neurop athic hou seholds of the real state of
’

afi airs, even when the evidence is absolutely con

elusive to others .

S ome Radical M e th ods of Tre atmen t

S ometimes a fortun ate calamity is the means of

revealing the deception , where mere medical
science has failed I t has happened more than
.

on ce that ac tu al peril such as the burning of a

,

house , has stimulated the bedridden hysteric to

u se her perfectly good limbs to s ave her life in a

manner that left no room f or doubt about her

”
actual condition The paralytic who can move
.

under the stimulus of danger is not su fi ering from

true paralysis .

The subterfuge s r esorted to by the old time -

physicians t o bring these peculiarly affl icted

patient s to their sense s are numberles s For .

ou r medical ancestors did n ot regard hyste ria a s

a disease , but a mental state characterized by a

”
devilishly persistent obstin acy Yet some of .

the methods of cu ring it were often most e ffective ,

even if much too hard and crude t o appeal to ou r
refin ed twentieth -century sensibilities .

The ba sis of thes e cures was the fact that

sudden danger sometimes caused the hysterical

p aralytic to walk, demonstrating that the nervou s

and m uscular mechanisms were intact , but in need
54 I n creasin g You r M e nt al Efficie ncy
of proper stimulation This naturally suggests a
.

remedy which h as been utilized in one form or

,

another many times , if we may believe p opular

tradition s that have been handed down through
generations of medical men .

One of the classic stories which may well have ,

a basis in fact is that of a certain young woman

,

who had been paralyz ed and b edridden f or many

months despite the e ff orts of the half dozen
physicians who were the medical scions of the
small town in which she lived Each of these .

physician s h ad been called successively to minister

to the su fferer ; each had reached the conclusion
that the case wa s on e of hysteria ; and each had
been indignantly dismissed as soon as he an
n ou nced hi s decision to the family—illustrat ing

the characteristic attitude of neuropathic families .

When the sixth and last physician had been di s

, ,

charged the distracted father wa s at a loss to know

where next to turn for assistance s ince the list ,

of available medical talent had been exhausted .

I t happened that there was living in the town a

retired physician a decrepit old man who wa s still
,

the medical o racle of the vicinity although no ,

longer able t o minister to the su ff erings of his

worshipful townsmen on account of in firmity A s .

a court of last appeal the distraught f ather sought

this venerable physician and begged him f or old
,

time s sake to try his skill upon the bedri dden

’

victim .
 M ild Forms of D is t u rbed Equ ilibriu m

The old physician wh o was still in touch with

,

the medical gossip of his confr eres if not in active

competition with them was cognizant of the true
,

nature of the form of paralysis with which

the girl was affl icted And deeply symp athetic
.

with the distressed father and probably somewhat ,

impatient with the girl for h er wilful sel fishne ss ,

he fin ally agreed to take charge of her case But .

only on this condition : He was to treat her in his

own way, without interference from any relative ,

friend , or outsider .

The father thankfully agreed to this condition ,

an d arranged f or the treatments to begin the fol

lowing morning At the appointed hour there

.
,

fore , the old doctor appeared in the dooryard ,

driven there in a light wagon in th e back of which ,

was a well stu ffed straw tick This mysterious

-
.

therapeutic implement was deposited in the f ront

dooryard by his muscular assistant who had acted
as driver while the physician visited the patient
, .

Without wasting any t ime over unnecessary

preliminaries and disregarding the solicitous in
,

q u irie s of the myst ified f ather the old doctor or ,

dered the girl to get up A n d when she protested

.

her inability to do so commanded her mother to

,

dress her . F or I intend to have her take a little

”
walk all by herself before I leave the old man ,

announced . After which he held a whispered con

versation with the muscular driver , and returned
with himto the sick room when the dressin g was
-
56 I ncreasin g You r M ental Efficiency
completed At a nod from the doctor thi s as sist
.

ant picked the girl u p bodily carried her into the ,

yard and deposited her on the straw tick Then

,
.

he took his station beside the agitated and n ow ,

thoroughly apprehensive f ather while the doctor ,

began his treatment .

The preliminary part of this treatment was a

speech by the aged physician in which he explained
matters very th oroughly to the astonished and
highly indignant patient He pointed ou t to her .

that her condition wa s purely imaginary and that ,

she could walk if she chose to do so ; but since she

was sel fish she preferred to stay in bed and keep
,

her poor old f ather and mother waiting upon her ,

regardless of the fact that she was wrecking th eir

li ves and their fortunes .

Y ou have been fool ing these poor old peopl e

”
long enough the physician said shaking his
, ,

tremblin g finger at the bewildered patient ; bu t

’
you can t fool everybody I know y ou can walk .

if you car e to and I m go ing to prove it right

,
’

”
n ow .

With that the old man drew a match from his

pocket and lighted on e corner of the straw tick
, .

”
Now walk or burn he commanded , .

By this time the distressed f ather was thor

oughly convinced that the old man had gone stark
mad ; and when the physician set fire to the mat
tress he was certain that he had consigned his
daughter to the care of a maniac Disregarding .
 M ild Forms of D ist u rbe d E qu ilibriu m 57

his promises of yesterday therefore he sprang, ,

forward to rescue his su ff erin g child from the

flames and the impending disaste r he had brought
up on her But he got no farther than th e waitin g
.

embrace of the muscular driver who pinned his ,

arms and held his struggling prisoner at a safe

distance from the blazing mattress Meanwhi le .

th e good old mother herself too feeble to efi ect

,

the re scue , collapsed in a distracted heap on the

d oo r-step .

Thrown absolutely upon her own resources with ,

n o alternative but to burn or run the gi rl made ,

the inevitable hysterical choice , sprang from the

blazing couch and ran into th e house—demon
s trating conclu sively that the old doctor had diag

no sed her condition correctly .

The S e cret oi M iracu lou s C u res

Now in all probability thi s particular incident

never occurred exactly as relat ed here Yet it is .

perfectly certa in that if any one of these bedrid

den hysterics were placed on a blazing mattre ss as ,

this one is alleged to have been she would sud ,

denly regain the u se of her limbs But the defect .

of this method of treatment lie s in the fact tha t

cures attempted by it are u sually only tem

p orary. I t would n ot necessari ly change the vic
tim s attitude of mind ; and unless this were ao
’

complished she would presently develop some

,
58 I n cre asin g Y ou r M ent al Efii cie ncy

o ther form of subtle mal ingering to deceive and

distress her afflicted f amily For this reason the .

modern physician does n ot resort to the crude ex

p edi en ts of hi s p redeces sors but directs his e fi,
orts

to gett ing at th e basis of the malady in stead of ,

striking at it s peculiar mani f estations .

Moreover we know n ow that hysteri a i s an

,

actual disease with defin ite pathological manif e s

tation s that may be easily demon strated such as ,

areas of in sen sibility of the skin and mucous sur ,

f aces th e existence of which is n ot suspected by

,

the patient Yet the condition is so clo sely de

.

pendent upon t h e patient s attitude of mind tha t’

,

it i s only by changin g and correcting this attitude

that permanent cures are e ff ected I n proof of .

this witness the n umber of

,
miraculous cure s
efi e cted by faith alone— the piles of crutches th at

psychic cripples have left at a hundred shrine s

when their will power s have been strengthened by
-

faith The evidence is in disputable ; but many

.

people fail t o inte rpret correctly th e meaning of

the seeming miracle .

We see these same miracles performed in a

much less spectacular although quite as e ffective
,

a way in sanitariums every day An d the s ecret

,
.

of these cures is a perfectly O pen on e— that of

ch anging the patient s introspective trend of

’

though t int o better channels leading to a di ff erent

and more rational attitude toward hersel f thu s ,

strengthening th e will power S uch cures are

-
.
 M ild F orms of D is t u rbed Equ ilibriu m 59

much more likely to be permanent than the tem

p orary improvement produced by sudden frights ,

or kindred methods becaus e they reach the foun

,

dation of the difficulty instead of merely touching

,

a su rface manife station .

I t should be said in extenu ation of the selfish

nes s that lie s at th e bottom of hysteri a that the ,

condition is due partly to an in herited defect f or

which the patients cannot be justly blamed .

N either should they be censured if their early ,

tra ining and environment hav e been such as t o in

creas e rather than suppress their hysterical tend
, ,

encies . But no such exoneration can be gi ven

the parents who were re sponsible for this environ
ment .

If these victims had been given p roper train

ing in childhood and helpful surroundings most
, ,

of them would escape hysterical mani f estation s

late r I n short , the onus of re sponsibility f or

.

hysteria frequently rests with the relatives of the

p atient , rather than the patient hersel f Ne rvous .
,

hysterical parents produce hysterical o ffspring ;

the stable type do n ot An d this fact should be
.

borne in mind by the members of every neurotic

household in dealing with children o r adults , ,

who se mental attitudes are directly influence d by

environment .

Hysteria may have its origin in some forgotten

shock or disagreeable experience of early child
ho od—a suppressed emotion of the subcon scious
60 I ncreasin g Y ou r M ent al Efficiency
mental life whi ch still remains a source of dis
,

tu rban ce The course of development of every

.

child is punctuated by these suppressed emotions ;

bu t in stable individuals these emotions remain
dormant throughout li f e I n neuropathic children
. ,

however they tend to assert themselv es later Y et

,
.

even in such children they may be kept in a qu ie s

cent state by parents who exercise that highest
form of mental hygiene usually characteri z ed as
common sense ”
A sim i lar course in mental
hygiene will be just as e ff ective in suppressing
the tendency in the nervous individual later in
life .

The poin t of interest in hysteria here is that it

sometimes pr ecedes and merge s into a condition
of actual in sanity An d falling short of this , it
.

may permanently blight an otherwise u seful life ,

which a little intelligent direction might have
s aved .

The Physical E ff ect s of Worry

An other
condition which has become very com
mon in recent years is that symptom of mental
,

and nervous exhaustion which we call n eu ra s

thenia Many persons suppose that this condi
.

tion is merely a form of hysteria But such is n ot .

the cas e .

The great di fference in the two condition s is

that hysteria may be the result of a forgotten
 M ild Forms of D is turbe d E qu ilibriu m 61

shoc k p lu s a neuropathic make u p ; while u s uras

,
-

thenia is usually the re sult of c onsciou s worry

accompanying or producing brain fatigue This
, , .

brain fatigue may be the result of an actual ill

-

ne ss although it is more likely to follow overwork

,

with the accompanying factor wor ry I t should , .

be added , also , that most su fferers from n eu ras

thenia have a highly developed sensitive and , ,

somewhat un stable nervous organiz ation .

I have emphasized the element worry , as a fac ,

to r ih producing neurasthenia because I believe ,

that it is this rather than overwork that is largely

, ,

responsible I ndeed , if we eliminate those cas es

.

of neura sthenia which come as the direct result of

some organic illness , we find that mental agitation
is responsible for practically all cases .

When we consider the mechanisms by which

physical and mental work is performed we fin d
the explan ation of why either of these factors
separately or both of them together wi thout the
, ,

added element , worry are unlikely to produce

,

more than temporary neu rasthenic conditions .

The amo u nt of work that ou r muscular systems

can perform is limited by the muscles themselve s .

When a certain stage of exhaustion is reached the

muscle refuses to contract n o matter how much,

we may will it to do so We can by sheer .

,

force of will power drive it up to a certain point

-
,

much farther than is desirable frequently—bu t ,

there is a fix ed limit beyond which it cann ot be

62 I ncreasing Y ou r M ent al E fficiency
driven And when this point is reach ed the mu s
.

cle stops acting, to rest and recuperate .

The point of limitation is just as clearly de fined

in the mental mechanism as in the muscl e, al
though less patently so The mu scle rests itself
.

by actually stopping the contraction of it s fibres ;

while th e mind, which is normally active in on e
of a thousand ways during every moment of con
sciou sness, finds means of re stin g any overwor k ed

portion of its structure by throwin g in to activity

some other less fatigu ed portion An d thi s
.

process of mental re sting by shifting the cen

ter of activity is beyond the control of the will .

Most persons hav e had illustrati ons of this

when performing some task which required pro
tracted and concentrated mental e ffort A fter a .

certain numbe r of hours of Work , varying of

course in di fferent individuals the mind tends to
“

wander from the task in hand , and it requires con

stant e ffort of the will to keep the attention
focussed For a time it is po ssible t o do s o , if on e
.

is accustomed to concentrated mental e ff ort Bu t .

presently a stage of exhau stion is r each ed in

which the mind absolutely refuses to stick to
the subject —goe s S kylarking off into some other
channel of thought I t has in short called off the
.
, ,

work in hand for the time being and is resting

,

itself by wandering into fields wher e the con

s tellation s of brain cells are less exhau sted .

Thus the brain has it s own insistent method of

 M ild Forms of D is t u rbed Equ ilibriu m 63

recuperation even in our waking hours and will ,

take its modicum of rest whether we wi ll or no .

T hi s mental safety valve makes it practically im

-

po ssible to injure th e brain with work An d ex .

pe rien ce shows that hard work alone or even a ,

combin ation of mental and physical exe rtion of

the most strenuous kind , seldom cause a mental
breakdown .

But when we add the additional factor wo rry , ,

we form a combination that spells disaster For .

the brain is incapable of automatically s wi tching

off this tormentor as it does legit imate work
, In .

deed th e brain that is exhau sted by work seems to

o ff er a particularly fertile field for the invader .

Restful sleep does not come Dis turbing half .

,

wa ki ng dreams keep the brain active dur ing the

,

night and daylight finds an exhausted nervous

,

system that should be f ully recuperated .

This condition of e xhaustion may be demon

strated in the changed stru cture of the brain cells

themselve s I t is found that such things as shock

.
,

grief fright worry and work both muscular and

, , , ,

mental produce a degenerative change in the

,

brain cells that may be demon strated microsc0p

ically—an actual wearing ou t of the tissues Rest .
,

even for a very short period replenishes this ,

waste as shown in the restored bra in cells But

, .

if these cells are kept in a constant state of ex

hau stion by worry they are given no chance f or
,

recuperation and a mental breakdown may resu l t

, .
64 I n creasin g Y ou r M ent al E fficiency

Th e Pen alty of M en tal A g it ation

We hear constantly of nervous prostration s

from overwork S tudents break down from over
.

study ; bu sines s men collapse under the strain of

excessive work ; and women succumb to social
activities But in every case practically without
.
,

exception it is the insidiou s element worry that

, , ,

causes the collap se A n d so there is full ju stifica

.

tion for the old adage that , Work kill s no man ,

Worry many .

I n no field of mental derangement is this better

illustrated than in neurasthenia A nd in this term .

we include every gradation between mere mental

wav erin gs and complete prostration s The dis .

ease is indeed the penalty and product of ou r

, ,

modern strenuou s methods of life in which men ,

tal agitation is a con spicuou s element .

Nearly every person who is subjected to pro

longed mental application with attendant worrie s
su ff ers from neurasthenic symptoms tempora ri ly .

But this state of transient mental fatigue cannot

be considered a s true neurasthenia Even in .

highly organi z ed emotional in di viduals thi s con

, ,

di tion is usually self corrective unles s a ecom

-
,

p an ie d by some exhau sting physical diseas e .

True neurasthenia is likely to be gi n with pro

longed periods of in somnia which may alternate
,

with periods of unrefreshing sleep The su ff erer .

feels dull and lacks energy on arising his general

, ,
 M ild Forms of D is tu rbe d Equ ilibrium 65

c ondition improving as the day advance s—a con

dition almost pathognomonic of debility He .

notices also that his memory is dulled for recent

, ,

events and he finds d ifficulty in concentrat ing his

,

thoughts Frequently after reading a page he

.

finds that he ha s n ot understood a l ine his ,

thought s having gon e wool gathering while h i s -

eyes scanned the words He reads the page again .

re-reads it several times perhap s—but is una ble ,

to fix his attention upon the subj ect after the firs t

few lines .

Obviously his mentality is below par ; and this

condition becomes at once a source of worriment ,

and apprehensive intro spection He begins to .

d read the ta sks which were formerly routine day

dutie s for him and to doubt his ability to perform
,

them L ittle things irritate and annoy him u m

.

duly, and his usual cheer f ulness may be replaced

“

by moody melancholy I n s ome case s marked .

irresolution hesitation and lack of will power are

, ,
-

characteristic The victim is harassed by indeci

.

sion over trifling matters He cannot decide wha t .

suit or tie he shall wear which train he will catch,

t o town , and doubts his ability to take the tra in at

all once he has reached the station .

He may be obsessed with the idea that he will

“

make mistake s in his work and makes mountains ,

ou t of a hundred and one little mole hills that are -

sure to be encountered in his everyday employ

ments Thus he is worried about his mental con
.
66 I n creasin g Y ou r M ent al E fficie ncy
dition ; and in the wake of these obsession s comes
the in evitable worry over bodily ailments .

One of the early symptoms of this disorder is a

loss of appetite and al so a disinclination to take
,

sufficient quantities of liquids The neura sthenic .

seldom seeks relief from his troubles in drin k .

A n d thus he is deprived of the three el ements

neces sary to repair his organism and restore his
lost energy —f oods liquids and sleep The result
, , ,
.

is a deranged digestiv e tract added to a weakened

nervous system The su ff erer is indeed ill phys
. ,

ically as well as mentally .

The chain of morbid symptoms exhibited by

these hypochondriacal person s while di ffering in ,

each individual of course follows fairly well de

, ,
-

fin ed trends of thought in most case s S ome of .

them have a dread of open places ( agoraphobia ) ,

such as an O pen square or City street ; others fear

enclosed places ( claustrophobia ) such as a car or , ,

room with the door s closed I n some the dread

,
.

of a particular disease such a s cancer appendi ,

citi s or tuberculosis predominates ; or they cannot

,

bear noise s such a s the rustling of paper o r have ,

a morbid f ear of cats dogs or horses I ndeed if

, ,
.
,

we were S imply to catalogue the name s of th e mor

”
bid phobias the list would fill many pages I t
, .

would require a vivid imagination to conceive any

form of phobia that has not been exhibited by
this type of su fferer at one time or another .

A s we shall see in another place many of these ,

 M ild Forms of D is t u rbe d Equ ilibriu m 67

peculiarities are characteristic of certain forms of

actual insanity An d no one will question the
.

abnormal mental condition of a man who has

changed from a vi gorous active clear thinker to
, , ,

on e who spends hours in decidi ng what suit h e

shall wear turns pale if the family cat enters his

,

room fears to cros s a street he ha s crossed a

,

thousand time s cannot trust himself to S ign his

,

name and firmly believes that he is stricken with

,

tuberculosis although a ssured to the contrary by

trusted medical advisers He is abnormal mani
.
,

f estly ; and he is dangerou sly near the borderline .

But in several ways he differs from the man ac

tu ally insane He is still amenable to reason at
.
,

least temporarily, still hopes to recover and wishes ,

sympathy Whereas the person actually insane is

.

not open to rea son is past caring for sympathy

m
, ,

and neither desires n or h o e f or recovery .

The imp ortance of this condition from our pres

ent point of vie w is ( 1 ) that it may merge into
actual in sanity ; ( 2) even in its worst forms it is
curable ; and ( 3) it is a condition which may be
prevented by prope r mental discipline I n any .

event it should not be regarded a s a purely imagi

,

nary il ln e ss even though it is frequently a condi

,

tion so clo sely dependent upon the mental state

that it may be cured by rigid mental and physi cal ,

hygien e without th e aid of medication

,
The .

method of applyin g this mental di scip line will be

sugge sted in a later chapter .
 D an g er S ig n als

ND OUB TEDLY the least understood of all

diseases among the generality of people is
insanity or what the modern alienist refers to as
,

the psychose s Every intel ligent person has a fair

.

degree of more or less accurate knowledge about

the symptoms of quite an imp osing array of other
diseases I t is a part of common kn owledge to
.

know the symptoms of th reatening throat lung , ,

and intestinal troubles and among better in

,

f ormed pers on s there is a fair understanding of

the more obscure maladies such as those involv
,

ing the internal organs and even the nervou s

,

system .

But there are few persons indeed who have any

true conception of in sanity itself or what the
,

symptoms leading up to this calamity may be like .

A n d yet the importance of such knowledge can

hardly be overestimated There are few disease s
.

that give such prolonged premonitory warnings

of its approach or in which the early recognition
,

of these symptoms is of such vital importance .

For despite the f act that the causes symptoms , ,

68
 D an g er S ig n als 69

and course of mental diseases are well understood

by the modern physician the methods of treating
,

these diseases once they have become established

, ,

are scarcely more e ff ective now than in the days of

ou r grandfathers .

Our chief defence again st insanity then lik e , ,

contagious diseases is prevention But this de

,
.

fence , to be succe ssful cannot be left to medical

,

o fficers , or quarant ine laws alone , but requires the

coiip eration of all intelligent laymen For we can .

not exclude this pestilence by shutting the gates

of a city or closing a few p orts of entry since
, ,

there are foci of infection s in every city vil ,

lage and countryside To suppress the se f oci we

,
.

mu st learn to recogni z e certain premonitory symp

t oms that indicate their existence just as we have ,

learned to recogni z e the important symptoms of

incipient bodily ailments .

For this purpo se it is n ot necessary that the in

telligent observer should p os ses s an accurate
kn owledge of the varied forms of insanity bu t ,

rather the general character of the more pro

n ou nced symptoms He must first of all remem
.
, ,

ber that ins anity is a disease or group of diseases

, ,

that a ff ect personality—a certa in de finite change

in conduct which , in the be ginning may depar t
, ,

very littl e from the normal conduct of the in

di vidual.
70 I ncreasin g You r M ent al E fficie ncy

A dju st ment to S ocial E nviron me nt

S peaking in a broad general way says Dr

, ,
.

M . S Gregory ,
. mental health may be defined as
t h e ability of the individual to adj ust himself to
his social environment By this I mean his ability
.
,

to adapt himsel f to society its cu stoms and con

v en tion s—th e social fabric in which h e lives and
,

of which h e is a part M ental life thu s consists

.

of a continuou s process O f adjustment and the ,

measure of ment a l health of an individua l is

directly proportionate to his ability to adapt him
sel f to his social environment .

However we are not born equal Many come

,
.

in to the world burdened with traits ten den cies and , ,

defects which seriously impair their power of ad

justment ; while others in addition to a vicious
,

heritage have the still greater misfortune of being

,

exposed to faulty and unfav orable environmental

factors which accentuate their inherent defects
and tendencies thus completely depriving them of
,

the ability to adj ust themselves .

S ome su ffer maladjustment by reason of

faulty habits— mental and ph ysical ; by misu nder
standings of themselve s and their relations to
others M any of u s hav e desire s longi ngs and
.
, ,

ambition s which must be repressed and sup

pressed as they cannot be grati fied but n ev erthe
, ,

less make our adaptation to our social environ

ment extremely difficult I ntellectual or social
.
 D ang er S ign als 7r

adjustment is obviously more difficult than phys

ical becau se the elemental factors of mental life
,

are mor e complex an d variable .

A s in the case of physical li f e one meets with ,

all gradations of maladjustment from total dis

ability to slight deviation Thus among those .

wholly un able to adjust themsel v es are f ound the

imbecile s idiots and profoundly demented These
, ,
.

require segregation and an in stitutional life I n .

les ser degree we fin d the weak mind ed and some

,
-
,

types of chronic insane wh o S how some slight

power of adjustment Another class includes
.

those who have a higher but still incomplete de

gree of adj u stment—such a s in epilepsy or the re
current mental disturbances A nother larg e .

group comprises those who are capable of com

p le te adjustment with assistance such as neuroses , ,

neurasthenics psychopat h ics alcoholics and so

, , ,

called n ervou s people Finally we might mention

.
,

persons wh o are odd e ccentric have the so called

, ,
-

artistic temperament who S how only a ve ry slight

,
”
degree of maladjustment .

In a general way we may group the symptoms

of approaching o r threatened mental derange
, ,

ment in two grand divisions—tho se in which there

is abnormal depression or thos e exhibitin g the
,

oppo site condition of abnormal excitement , or ex

altation .
72 I ncreasing Y ou r M en t al E fficie ncy

Th e S ignificance of M en tal D epression

Unreasonable or unusual depression , particu

larly in a person of nervous temperament should ,

be regarded with suspicion always remember ing ,

that fleeting feelings of depression are experienced

by every normal person But when the feeling of
.

depres sion persists and i s accompanied by loss of

,

a ppetite failing n utrition and sleeples snes s it

, , ,

should be regarded with apprehension partien ,

larly in persons of usually buoyant spirit s Great .

grie f or distress , will of course produce depres

, , ,

sion in every normal individual ; but in the case of

person s with stable equilibrium this is n aturally
and normally mitigated and the usual state of ,

buoyancy restored by new intere sts and aspira

tions I n this manner the mind adjusts itself to
.

its new sur roundings There has be en a definite

.

cause for the depression , and a normal , healthy

reaction from it .

But the beginning of the form of depression

which may develop into actual melancholia is f re
quently more insidiou s Trifling annoyances.

about household duties or business matters pro

duce needles s worries ; the su fferer see k s seclu
sion loses interest in work or is disinclined to
,

work at all , and does n ot indulge in his ordinary

recreation s He is alert and irritable with tho se
.

about him at times ; but in general his action s are

, ,

slower than formerly, and it is apparent that his

 D an g er S ig n als 73

mind work s with corresp onding tardiness and dif

ficu lty .

His intellect is still intact but the fl ow of ,

thought is notice ably retarded a nd his whole atti

,

tude is on e of dull apathy More than likely he

.

will become carele ss about hi s dress and appear

ance—a most signi ficant symptom And as there .

i s a sluggishness of bodily functions he is like ly ,

to have digestive disturbances .

I f the person show ing these symptoms has bith

erto been of chee rful buoyant disposition the
, ,
“

change in his condition is quickly noticed This .

change is less apparent in those who are naturally

quiet re served or seclusive Yet in either case
, , .

the symptoms are important danger si gnals which

demand active interference and correction if the
su ff erer is to be saved from actual in sanity I f .

such correction is undertaken at once however , ,

the chances for recovery without any perceptible

mental deterioration are favorable .

We need n ot, fo r ou r purpose here picture the ,

next stage of mental deterioration But it is of .

vital importance t o kn ow that at this in itial

stage if the patient is given proper surroundings
, ,

with the right kin d of physical and mental

hygiene that the graver calamity can be averted
,

in a maj o rity of c a ses .

I t should n ot be understood that all cases of

in cipient melancholia exhi bit th e symptoms of ‘

approachi ng derangement in the order just ou t

74 I n creasin g Y ou r M ent al fl
E i cie ncy

lined I n some instances peculiar delusion s and

.

hallucination s mani f est themselves early in th e

attack T h e su ff erer may believe that he has per
.

p etra ted frauds ruined his health be trayed his

, ,

f riends or committed an unpardonable sin f or

,

which there is no hope of f orgivenes s Or he may .

f ancy t h at he sees dis agreeable sights is convinced ,

that all the food o ff ered him is poisoned or hear s ,

voices calling to him commands f rom the Deity

, ,

or temptations by the devil I n this state of h Op e

.

less distress he may commit suicide or attempt

the destruction of th e member s of his family to
save t h em — an example of the illo gi cality of his
distorted reason .

But when any of t h ese symptoms are e xhibited

early in the attack although they indicate a con
,

dition less favorable to ultimate recovery the y ,

usually attract the attention of the friends and ,

thus insure early and perhap s curative treat

,

ment .

B rain Ce lls That Are too A ct ive

Curiouslyenough a condition similar to the on e

just descri bed sometimes alternat e s wi th one in
which the main symptoms both physical and men
tal are of an exactly opposite typ e Exaggerated .

bodily activity exalted fe elings of eu phoria and

, ,

a rapid fl ow of ideas rather than a retarded train

of thought are the curtain raisers for the tragedy

, .
 D an g er S ign al s 75

These may be simply an exaggeration of a normal

condition and if s o are likely to rema in u nnoticed
,

f or a longer time The patient is verbose and

.

talk s in a mildly exalted manner to eve ry one

about him ; he is ceaseles sly active busying him ,

self with trifl es and dabbl in g in first one thing

and then another writing numerous letters on u n

,

important subj ects to chance acq uaintances chang ,

ing rapidly from on e diversion to another making ,

wi tty remarks puns and j ests retail ing funny

, , ,

anecdotes and sh owing a sense of well being

,
-

n ot unlike the general e ffects of mild alcoholic

intoxication I ndeed this condition is f re

.

quently mistaken for mild inebriety parti en ,

larly in those w ho are addicted to alcoholic ex

cesse s
.

These patients exhibit also peculiar irritability

and petty animosities sometimes seeking contro
,

versies without provocation or reason ; and al

most invariably they exhibit peculiarly resistant
insomnia .

The condition is indeed a true intoxication

, ,

in the medical sen se But it should be borne in

.

min d that this kin d of intoxication di ffers from

that produced by alcohol or drugs in that it never
begins or ceases suddenly A lmost invari ably the
.

person sho w s slight abnormalities f or some time

without arou sing the su spicion or apprehen sion , ,

of his friends An d curiously enough the general

.

characte r of this initial abnormality is usually

76 I ncreasing Y ou r M e nt al Efficiency

that of mental depression—precisely the oppo site

condition to the one now exhibited .

The immediate f riends will frequently recal l

that the su ff erer had been given to brooding f or
some t ime , and in many ways has shown gradually
increasing inaptitude or incapacity for work .

They may have observed also a tendency to re

, ,

vert to a condition of depression ( whi ch is gen

erally far less pronounced than in actual melan

cholia ) , after a certa in period of the exalted

conditio n just described I ndeed , alternation of

.

these two conditions is characteristic of certain

forms of insanity .

The mild condition of exaltation or depression , ,

just described is only the prelude to the mor e

serious catastrophe But from our present point
.

of vi ew it is by f ar the most important stage .

For in this condition which at worst should only

,

be regarded a s a state of hypomanic excitement ,

rather than actual insanity the ca se is amenable

,

to curative treatment .

I t is peculiarly desirable therefore , that everv

,

person shoul d have a reas onably clear workin g

knowledge of the significance of these danger
signals and reali z e the importance of heeding
,

their warnings be f ore it is too late We need .

not picture the symptoms of the later stage The .

frenzy of the maniac has bee n s o frequently de

scribed in every field of literature tha t it is
familiar to every one Once thi s stage is reache d
.
 D anger S ig nals 77

the mental hygi en e of the home is entirely in ade

quate S o als o , we admit regretfully is any other
.
,

known form of treatment in a vast maj ority of

cases .

One of these two conditions of exaltation or

depression with their somewhat characteristic
premonitory signals of mental waveri ngs char ,

a cteriz e the initial stage s of the maj ority of men

tal aberrations There are other forms however

.
, ,

in which the signals are so obscure or that are so

,

closely akin to temporary exaggeration in normal

mental states , that they are less likely t o be
recogni z ed .

I t was said a moment ago that persons who

“
are odd, e ccentric and have so called
,
-
artistic
”
temperament frequently show a mild degree of
,

maladjustment to their surroundings We may .

,

indeed , make the statement somewhat more com

prehen sive Persons who develop that peculiar
.

form of mental aberration called paranoia — the ,

clas s from which the calculating assassin s are

drawn—have usually been odd e ccentric or tem
, ,

p e ramental from childhood Knowing this it

.
,

is readily understood why any parent who en

cou rages eccentricity in his child , or any adult
who purposely exaggerates or fails to restrain
hi s own eccentricities , is courting ultimate dis
a ster
.
78 I n creasing Y ou r M ent al E fficie n cy

Th e Sign ifican ce of E ccen tricit ie s

The man
r goes bar e h eaded in societies
wh o -

where the custom of wearing hats is u niversal ;

the man who wears flowing locks in cropped h aired
communities ; the f reak wh o dresses in Greek
robes or goe s bare f ooted m a leat h er shod world
,

—each of these 1 s treading a dangerou sly na rrow

borderline For such unusual actions of noncon
.

formity demonstrate an exaggerated egoism—a

false estimate of one s own importance and mal
’

adj ustment to surroundings that keeps the trend ,

of mentality in the general direction of the asylum .

I say asylum rather than hospital : f or no case

,

of true paranoia ever recovers .

This disease is the result of delusions acting

on a mind having a con stitutional taint—an in

heritance that may have been developed by bad

training in childhood Yet paranoiacs are f re
.

quently persons of unu sual in telligence They are .

the victims of delusions that tend to become sys

tematiz ed—that is the delusions arrange them
,

selves sequentially in support of a fixed id ea , in

a manner that can be logically explained by the

victim although obvi ously grotesque to others

,
.

Un f ortunately this idea is usually unpleasant in

,

character a delusion of persecution

, .

The disea se is likely to be gin about the time

of puberty and as its development is sl ow may
, ,

not be detected for several years A very com .

 D an g e r S ign als 79

mon symptom in
the beginning is a suspicion on
the part of the vi ctim that there is something
queer in his personal appearance and that people ,

stare at him He ima gines that persons who pass

.

him turn and look at him and he suspects that

, ,

groups of person s are talking about him criticis ,

ing and later plotting against hi m

.

, , .

He i s unhappy and feels himself ou t of bar

,

mony with his surroundin gs and fellow men .

He f eels that he is not un derstood and f re

quently his idioscyn cra sies are mistaken f or:
marks of genius An d so they may be But these
. .

misunderstood individuals are much more

likely to be paranoiacs than genu i ses .

Unlike the unhappy melancholiac who blame s

himself f or his unhappiness the paranoiac blames ,

others for his mis f ortune T o the melancholiac

.

the world is right him self wrong : to the paranoiac

,

the world is all at fault .

With this attitude of mind then he sees things , ,

“

in strange relations For that matter s o does

.
,

genius But the geniu s proves his title by turn

.

in g hi s unu sual insight to practical account while ,

the vi sion s of the paran oiac come to nothi ng ex

cep t disaster .

The mind of the paranoiac is clear and may be ,

even brilliant Thus the disease is not on e of

.

clouded intellect as in some other forms of aber

ration but rather a condition of faulty j udgment
,
.

F requently these paranoiacs show great logicality

80 I ncreasing Y ou r M en t al E fficiency
in reasoning from certain premises on many sub
jects ; but their shortcomings lie in their false
j udgment of themsel v es and their abnormal sus
,

p icion of the motives of ot h ers .

A few years ago I witnes sed a series of amus

ing episodes which illustrate the characteristic
paranoiac attitude of mind Two f armers of my .

acquaintance were j oint owners of a valuable stal !

lion One of these men was a typical hard headed

.
-

Yankee the other a man with a distinctly para

,

n oid type of mind A s some disa greement had

.

arisen about the care of the animal the para ,

n oiac partner o ff ered to sell hi s share in the

-

horse .

The Yankee considered the propo sition for a

f ew minutes and then expressed his willingness to
,

bu y o ffering two hundred and fifty dollars for

,

his partner s share ’

.

Now this was a perfectly fair valuation and an ,

amount that the other partner would have been

glad to accept— u ntil it was o ff ered But the .

moment his partner expressed his willingness to

bu y he became suspicious He reasoned thus :
.

This man has made me the o ff er because he kn ows

that he can sell the horse for more Why should .

I not get the bene fit of this pro fit too ? My part ,

ner is trying to cheat me .

A ll this be it understood was not thought out

, ,

on the spur of th e moment but after several days

,

of care f ul consideration Then he sought his

.
 Dan g er S ig n als 81

partner and flatly refused the ofl er, intimat ing

’

his rea son f or refusing .

”
V e ry well then said the partner I ll s ell
’
, , ,

you my half interest for two hundred and fifty

dollars.

A chance to buy was the very thin g that the

su spicious partner was now seeking But the mo .

ment the chance was o ffered he demurred After .

all he thought his partner would not be so anx

, ,

ious to sell unless there was some ve ry good

reason for doing so S omething was wrong with
.

the horse ; or the former o ffer to buy was simply

a blind to wheedle him into buying in stead of
sellin g And s o after br ooding over the matter
.
,

f or a day or two he decided not to buy j ust as he ,

had decided not to sell .

Now in a general way the reasoning of this sus

piciou s partner was closely similar to the usual
circumspection necessary to carry out any careful
business transaction But the su bsequent events
.

showed that the suspicious partner s attitude of ’

min d was abnormal For at the end of thre e

.

years of intermittent haggling back and forth ,

during which t ime almost every conceivable kind

of give or take o ffer was made and refused there
- -
,

had been no change in ownership of the horse .

Then the animal it self settled the matter by dying

of pneumonia .
82 I n creas in g Y ou r M ent al Efficie n cy

Th e G oal of F alse S u s picion s

’
The characteristic thing about this paranoiac s
attitude was that his arguments were per f ectly
logical and might very well be founded on f acts
,
.

This attitude of mind typi fies paranoia in the be

ginning ; frequently the delusion s of persecution
are f ounded on f acts But in cases in which the dis
.

ease is destined to develop into paranoid insanity ,

this need not be so and frequently is n ot M any

,
.

of the fancied wrongs are of a purely ima gin ary

n ature perhaps a single focus in the beginn ing
,
.

But by adding and magni f ying on e fact here and ,

another there always giving it the squint that

,

makes it fit into the general scheme of persecuting

thought the paranoiac weaves an unbroken chain
,

of evidence to support his false premise .

The danger mark in true paran oia is when hal

lu cina tion s make their appearance hallucinations ,

that usually mani f est t h emselv es as imaginary

voices almost without exception threatening or ,

bidding the patient do some violent deed Thus .

the voice s may seem to come f rom enemie s or may ,

come as me ssage s f rom God commanding the

death of a king or a president I n either event
, .

they are likely to result in violence such as the ,

a ssassinations of a Garfield a McKinley or a , ,

King Humbert Yet the overt act seems entirely

.

j usti fiable to the paranoiac to whom the h allu ci,

n a tory voices are absolutely real .

 D an g er S ign als 83

It does not follow of course that eve ry para

, ,

n oiac who has delusion s of persecution as p rac ,

tically all of them do will eventually commit some

,

violence There are many of these unfortunates

.

who bear a cross not a weapon But there is al

, .

ways danger that th e bu rden of the cross may

become intolerable and a spirit of revenge replace
,

the one of humble submission .

I t is important to remember that the signs of

approaching or threatened paranoia are f re
, ,

quently apparent to the immediate relatives and

f riends of the afflicted person long before an out
sider unfamiliar with his normal conduct would
, ,

suspect it When such symptoms are detected

.
,

active mea sure s should be taken immediately to

try and correct them ; f or if the disease progress ed
to the stage of hallucinations it is practically im
,

po ssible to check its progress .

Despite the f act that the violent paranoiac is

the most dangerous type of lunatic becau se of his
logicality and apparent normality of thought a ,

va st majority of the milder types of paranoiacs

remain at large in their communities Frequently .

they are regarded as queer or eccentric persons .

Many of them are unable to hold positions fo r any

length of time because they believe that th eir as
,

sociates persecute them in various petty ways .

They imagine that their mail is tampered wi th ,

that other employés complain of them to their em

ployers ; or they suspect that misplaced articles
84 I ncre asin g Y ou r M e nt al E fficiency
have been purposely concealed to annoy them .

S ooner or later they take their troubles to their

employers ; and f requently the reassurance they
receive quiets their suspicion s for the moment .

For the paranoid type of person usually pe rforms

hi s tasks with great pro ficiency ; and for this rea
son is likely to be in good standin g with those for
’
whom he works But the e ff ect of the employer s
.

reassurance soon wear s away, the ideas of per

secu ti on again dominate the diseased mind and ,

in the end the paranoiac leaves his position and

seeks employment elsewhere
“

Of course his persecutors do not con fin e their

e fi orts to his place of business but carry their
,

activities to th e home or boarding hou se of the -

vi ctim and f ollow him to his n ew place of employ

,

ment He sees evidences of their influence in hi s

.

places of amusement and on the street in the hun

“

dred and one petty annoyances of everyday li f e .

A nd so the unfortu nat e goes about in an atmos

p h e re charged w ith dismal suspicions — a maz e

of tangled mysteries which center about h imself .

These are the men who are forever in litigation

righteous litigation in every in stance in their
hone st opinions An d these are the patients who
.
,

when committe d to the asylums secure habeas ,

corpus hearings conduct their own case s in court ,

,

and are forever convincing lay jurors that they

are sane and sh ould be liberated because of their
ability to rea son with such apparent lo gi cality .
 D an ger S ign als 85

Eventually they drift back into the in sane h os

p itals again ; but unfortunately thi s return may
be deferred until their delusions have driven them
to commit some frightful crime I n that event i t
.

is ofte n the electric chair rather than the asylum

, ,

that close s the dismal chapter .

The less pronounced types wander from one

place of employment to another and from one ,

place of abode to another always seeking to evade

,

their persecutors , but f orever finding them haunt

ing each new environment A s a rule they are
.

great faddists ; and this faddishness may be the

first symptom that excites suspicion of their men
tal abno rmality .

Narcot ics an d Me nt al S t ability

There is one quite common danger sign al in

dicativ e of a somewhat un stable nervous make u p -

that eve ry individual can gauge and should heed ,

.

This is the e ffect s of alcohol Persons who are

.

abnormally sensitive to small quantitie s of alco

holic drinks have less stabl e mental equilibrium
th an those wh o are not a ffected by reasonable
potation s An d persons of this peculiarly sensi
.

tive type should avoid alcohol in every form and ,

should practice mental hygiene at least to the ex

,

tent of avoiding the better known dangers to men

t al equilibrium such as bursts of anger brood
, ,

ing and tendencies to de spondency or excesses of

, ,
86 I ncreasin g Y ou r M ent al E fficien cy
any kind . For their idio syn crasy is most sig
ficant .

Besides these individuals there are many per ,

sons whose inherent mental tendencies may be

judged by the e ff ect that alcohol produces upon
them In a general way all persons fall into one
.
,

of two classes One of these includes the person s

.

in whom alcohol produces an extreme degree of

“

— ”
exhilaration who b ecome cra z y and entirely ,

irresponsible after a f ew drinks The other ( and .

a far larger class I be li eve ) do n ot experience the

,

same exhilaration even with copious imbibitions

—
,

cannot , in short driv e away all care with

,

liquor .

Of these two types the person who is more ,

easily affected and becomes highly exhilarate d by

alcohol is likely to be of a more unstable , or
,

neuropathic make u p This is shown in another

-
.

way S uch person s are much more likely to be

.

come addicted to drugs s ince drugs have the same ,

peculiarly exhilarating e ffects upon them The .

type of person not un duly exalted or excited by

alcohol is usually more phlegmatic and more
stably balanced, and less likely to become the vic
t ims of narcotics .

There is one hopeles s fo rm of mental aberration

for which n o curative treatment can be given , even
if the initial symptoms are detected early This .

form of insanity is called paresis The course of .

this disease is usually rapid , and death inevitabl e

 D an ger S ign als 87

with in comparatively short time But even

a .
,

th ough a detection of the early symptoms will not

avert the ultimate calamity it is highly important
,

tha t such symptoms be reco gnized since these ,

patients tend to do thi ngs that are likely to bring

disaster upon their households as well a s them
selves .

I t seem s paradoxical that this most incurable

f orm of mental aberration is the most preventable
—is indeed the result of the specific disease
, , ,

syp hi lis But fortunately it does not de v elop as a

.

common sequence of this infection although there ,

is eve ry reason to beli e v e that there is no case of

p are sis that is not pre ceded by syphilis eithe r ,

hereditary or acqui red Not eve ry person wh o

.

has contracted or in herited a speci fic in f ection

, ,

perhaps not over one in on e hundred—will become

paretic An d in any event even the ini tial symp
.
,

toms of this disease will not appear until several

ye ars after the specific disorder .

Th e mo st suspicious of all circumstance s

‘

which may indicate the incep tion of general p a

raly si s says Hollander is a gradual,

but obviou s alteration in the mental character

”
istics of the individual There may be also an
.

alteration in the patient s physical system which

’

may give de finite indications of disease quite a s

pronoun ced a s the mental symptoms .

The most frequent and characteristic mental

change is a general state of mild exhil aration ,
88 I n creas in g Y ou r M en t al E ffi cie n cy
quite unlike the patient s usual state of mind He
’
.

expresses himself as being in perfect health

ne v er f elt better in hi s li fe An d t h e expression
.

of his face show s a pleased satisfaction with him

self which may cont inue f or months without
,

other v ery pronounced mental chang es M ean .

while howe v er his f amily may have n oticed tha t

, ,

some peculiar and entirely u nusual physica l

symptoms have developed T here are tremors .

of the lips and tongue with accompanying di ffi

,

cu ltie s in speech when attempting to pronounce

certain words and th e handwritin g may change

,

entirely and become almo st illegible The patient .

is likely to be irritable over small matters make ,

unu sual demands of those about him and whim ,

sics l about hi s f ood Yet all this time he as serts

.

in sistently that he is feeling b etter than ever

be f ore .

This feeling of well bein g which characte rizes

-
,

most cases does not always accompany the other

,

symptoms S ome paretics are depres sed ; and

.

even the elated states are likely to be in terspersed

wi th periods of depr e ssion or moroseness But ,
.

the physical symptoms are f airly constant and ,

e v en the tremulous depres sed patient may have

,

delusions of grandeur completely subversive of

his physical condition He asserts that he is the
.

strongest man in the world the most skilfu l and , ,

the richest even though penniles s and infirm

, .

I t is a peculiar feature of the early symptoms

 D ang er S ig nals 89

of this disease that the patient s are likely to enter

into extravagant business ventures , whi ch leave
their families pennile ss later on They are prone
.

to conceive stupendous undertakings such as buy ,

ing or manufacturing articles on an enormous

scale And if they have been successful in busi
.
,

n es s ventures hitherto , the visionary n ature of

these schemes may escape detection until too late ,

to avert the fatal crash and resultant ruin .

The moral sen se is usually dulled rather early

in the disease The patient may perpetrate frauds
.
,

or actually steal things for which he has no use ;

and detection causes himno remorse Eventually .

he becomes careles s of his personal appearance ,

and in his deportment even though f ormerly most

,

exemplary in such matters But by the time this

.

stage is reached his mental abnormality will cer

tainly have been detected .Let us hope that thi s
detection has not been delayed until this doomed
man has dragged his friends into ruin with
him !
S ome of the visionary schemes of these paretics
are presented with such logicality that they defy
,

controversion except by the dictum of common

sense I knew on e patient wh o conceived a gigant ic
.

scheme for making a million dollars yearly profit

”
by raising white navy beans Beans would
.

b ring on e dollar a bu shel ; an acre of ground will

produce two bushels ; the cost of production is not
over one dollar per acre Ergo : rent a million
.
90 I n creasin g Y ou r M en t al E ffi cie ncy
acres of ground raise two million bu shel s of
,

beans at a cost of one million dollars ; sell the

crop for two millions ; and clear a million What .

could be simpler !
S tated thus the scheme is too o bvi ously gro
,

tesqu e f or consideration But as presented by the

.

patient it was most convincing Fo r he could .

give a logi cal explanation to e v ery pos sible objec

tion or apparent obstacl e and meet them wi th an
, ,

array of figures seemingly unan swerable S ome .

less patently f antastic but n o le ss visionary

,

sch eme has brou ght fin ancial ruin upon many a

,

paretic and his u nsuspecting friends .

Tran s ien t M en t al Waverin g s

Closelyallied t o th e insane states and f re ,

quently merging into th em are abnormal mental ,

condition s which in their milder manifestations

, ,

have been experienced by every one I refer to .

perverse obsessions such as a desire to do or say

, , ,

thi ngs su ggsted by some compelling impu lse—im

p erativ e conception s a s they are called
,
The .

normal mind resists such impul ses But neuro .

pathic person s sometime s fin d great difficulty in

suppressing them particularly when in a state of
,

high nervou s tension , or exhaustion .

A r ecent writer on this subject de scribes these

persons as feeling an irresistible de sire to tell
persons they see to do some h arm ; if they see a
child to tell it to break things or set the pla ce
,
 D an g er S ig nals gr

on fire . Ru fii anly looking men give rise to the

des ire to tell them to kill or to do some harm .

The se imperative conception s are often associated

with a feeling of doubt as to their having per
fo rmed some act ; thus they o f ten doubt if they
h ad told these persons to do harm .

These are the words of a modern psychiatrist .

But nearly three quarters of a century ago this

condition was described by a w riter of fiction in a
manner that leaves no room for improvement .

The de scription occurs in Hawthorne s S carlet ’

Le tter and shows the autho r s marv elou s insight

,
’

into the a bnormalities of the human mind Few .

physician s in Hawthorne s t ime had any such

’

clear un derstanding of this peculiar mental phe

n omen on : none to day has any better
-
I ndeed the .

terse de scription given above could have been

drawn from Hawthorne s masterful delin eation
’
.

The incident in the S ca rlet Letter which in spired

this description is the one in which the erring ,

but un suspected and revered mi nister Mr Dim , .

mesdale has just reached the determination to

,

throw off the oppressive secret yoke that had shat

te red his body and set hi s m ind tottering .

A t e v ery step he was incited t o do some

”
strange wi ld wicked thing or other
, , run s the ,

de scription with a sense that it would be at

,

once involuntary and intentional in spite of him ,

sel f yet growing ou t of a profounder self than

,

that whi ch opposed the imp u lse F or instance , he

.
92 I n creasin g Y ou r M en t al E fficie ncy
met on e of the deacons The good old man ad .

dres sed him with the paternal afi ection and p a ‘

tri archal privilege which his venerable age hi s ,

upright and holy character , and his station in the

church entitled him to u se ; and , conj oined with
,

this the deep almo st worsh ipping respect which

, , ,

the minister s professional and private c laims

’

alike demanded Never was th ere a more beauti

.

f u l example of h ow the maj esty of age and wis

dom may comport with the obeisance and res pect
enj oined upon it as from a lower social rank and
, ,

in f erior order of endowment towards a higher ,

.

Now during a con v ersation of some two or

,

three moments between the Reverend Mr Dim .

mesdale and this excellent and hoary bearded -

deacon it was only by the mo st careful s elf control

,
-

that the former could refrain from utterin g cer

tain blasphemous suggestions that rose into hi s
mind respecting the communion supper He ah
,
.

s olu te ly trembled and turned pale as ashes lest ,

his ton gue should wag itsel f in utterance of these

horrible matters and plead his own consent for
,

so doing without his having fairly given it And

,
.
,

even with this terror in his heart h e could hardly ,

avoid laughing to ima gine how the sanctified old

,

patriarchal deacon would have been petri fied by

his minister s impiety ’
.

A gain another incident of the same n ature

, .

Hurrying along the street the Reverend Mr Dim , .

mesdale encountered the oldest female member of

 D anger S ig nals 93

his church , a most pious and exemplary old dame ,

poor widowed lonely and with a heart a s full of

, , ,

reminiscences about her dead husband and chil

dren and her dead f riends of long ago as a burial
, ,

ground is full of storied gravestones Yet all this .

,

which would else have been such heavy sorrow ,

wa s made almost a solemn j oy to her devout old

soul by religious consolations of the truth of the
,

S cripture wherewith she had fed herself c on

,

tinu ally f or more than thirty years A n d since .

Mr Dimme sdale had taken charge the good

.
,

grandam s chief earthly comfort— which , unless

’

it had been likewi se heavenly com f ort could have ,

been none at all—was to meet her pastor whether ,

ca sually or of set purpose and be refreshed with

, ,

a word of warm f ragrant heaven breathing Go s

, ,
-

pel truth from his beloved lips into her dulled ,

, ,

but rapturously attentive ear .

But on this occasion up to the moment of

, ,

puttin g his lip s to the old woman s ear Mr Dim ’

,
.

mesdale as the g reat enemy of souls would hav e

,

it could recall no text of S cripture nor aught else

, , ,

except in brief pithy and as it appeared to him

, , , ,

unanswerable argument against the immortality

of the human soul The instillment thereof int o
.

her mind would probably have caused this aged

sister to drop down dead at once as by the e ff ect
, ,

of an intensely poisonous infusion Wh at he really .

did whispe r the minister could never afterward s

,

recollect There was perhap s a fortunate dis

.
, ,
94 I ncreas in g Y ou r M e nt al Efficiency
order of his utterance , which failed to impart any
distinct idea to the good widow s comprehension
’
,

or which Providence i nterpreted after a method

of its own . A ssuredly a s the minister looked
,

back, he beheld an expression of divine gratitud e

and ecstasy that seemed like the shine of the celes
”
tial city on her face so wrinkled and a shy pale
,
.

S ome similar attitude of mind in a less ex ag

,

gerated form ,—som e impe rative conception , in

one form or another—is likely to obsess the highly
strung over-wrought normal person I t i s usually
,
.

suppressed and soon f orgotten But it is a danger

si gnal —
.

a red light signal of impending disaster

if you please—which should be heeded and cor

,

rected. Yet unlike many of the others just enum

erated its detection and correction rest almost ex
,

clu sively with the indivi dual himself His actions .

may fin ally reveal his obsession s to his friends ;

but the time for correction is before this—before
his mentality succumbs to such a degree that h e
can not resist acting on the impulse created by the
impelling thoughts .
 Nou rishing th e M ind

ME RI C A is a cou ntry of enthusia sts An d .

enthusiasm is undoubtedly a valuable na

tion al asset . But great enthusiasm about too

many subjects indicates a somewhat faulty judg
ment in many instances—a type of credulity that
leads to the chasing of one phantom after another
without any ve ry definite accomplishment .

There is no nation in the world that has s o little

cause to worry over what it eats as our own ; yet
n o country is so obsessed with diet f ads B reak .

fast -food fads and chewing fads carry us off our

, ,

feet in mad enthusiasm—at least until some other

tempting fad cro sses our path and turns u s into
,

fre sh chann els of pursuit .

F ortunately for ourselve s we are n ot persistent

in ou r fad chasing so that no great amount of
-
,

harm results from our escapades I ndeed most of .

the fads are s o innocuous in themselve s that they

would do little harm if pursued persistently But .

occasionally one is created that would prove dis

astrous to its votaries if pursued too persistently .

S ome on e has said and wi th a great deal of

,

truth that if they !the food faddists ! wer e not

,

95
96 I ncreasing Y ou r M ent al E fficiency

busy chasing one fad they wou ld be busy chas ing

anothe r They are in short , faddists chr ou i
,

cally an d by nature But the recent episode s in

, .

ou r last but one or two eating fads ,

- - - - Fletcher
”
ism demonstrates that f ew person s are entirely
,

immune to the influence of well aime d faddism - .

For this fad draws a horde of usually well bal -

an ced persons into the vortex temporarily

—per
sons who should have kn own that any fad which
attempts to overthrow establi shed customs in cat
in g sleepin g, or clothing ourselves by radi cal
,

ch ange s in methods will be ephemeral

,
.

The history of the beginn ing of Fletcherism is ,

briefly as follows : M r Horace Fletcher an
,
. .
,

A merican gentleman middle aged fat dyspeptic,

-
, , ,

and in a generally demoralized physical condition ,

hit upon the idea of self cure by eatin g less f ood -

and chewing that small quantity mouthful by

mouthful many more times than is usually con
sidere d neces sary f or proper mastication There .

wa s really nothing novel in the es sential features

”
of this cure Even the ancient s knew that
.

middle aged men in easy circumstances usually

-

eat too much and chew too little An d in more .

recent t imes Gladstone had set the example of

better food mastication by making it a rule to
give eve ry tooth a chance —thirty-two masti
cations to each mouthf ul .

But Gladstone wa s a man busy with s o many

things that he did not ride his chewing hobby to
 N ou rishing th e M ind 97

the exclu sion of all others With Mr Fletcher the . .

case wa s difieren t : he had but on e hobby in h is

s table and he focalized his equestrian feats u pon
,

that one Moreover, he was no ordin ary rider .

He had no goods to sell—no new kind of break

.

fa st food to foist upon the gu ileless and gullible

-

simply a philanthropic and entirely worthy pur

po se to tell the world a great discovery that
would make the world much better The principle .

of the new fad was simply to eat littl e food ,

but chew it and chew it and then chew it some ,

more until it was tastele ss and n auseating

,
.

By such means we ak men would be made strong

'

and strong men stronger on a mere pittance ,

of food .

A s proof of this Mr Fletcher could point to

,
.

the great change f or the better in his own physical

condition An d there is no den ying that this
.

change was revolutionary But there are two .

vi tally weak points in the e v idence which Mr ,

.

Fletcher lacking expert medical knowledge could

, ,

n ot to be expected to a ppreciate The first is that .

,

s imply becau se the multi chewing method had -

cured on e man it need not necessarily cure any

othe r man ; the second what might indeed be very
,

good treatment for a sick man ( as Mr Fletcher .

certain ly was ) might be positively harmful for a

well person .
98 I ncreasin g Y ou r M ent al E fficie ncy

Th e D ang ers of D iet Fads

Medical men learned many generations ag o that

” ’
on e man s f ood was another man s poison
’
,

literally ; and experience has taught them not to

found any hard and f ast rules on the re sults of
experiments u pon a singl e individual Mo reover .
,

a s I shall show in a moment ou r k n owledge of

,

physiolo gy which surely cannot be c ompletely at

,

f ault seems to show that Fletcherism could n ot be

,

a scientific cornerstone upon which to build a per

f ect health temple .

But scient ific cauti on was singularly lack

ing among the con v erts to the new fad several ,

of who m were stamp ed into the herd from the

ranks of the medical men themselves S ome of .

these were undoubtedly sincere even if s omewhat ,

too credulous Others we may strongly suspect

.
, ,

were influenced by the prospect of getting aboard

a v ery well patroniz ed an d well adve rtised excur
s 1 on .

We need not chroni cle the stream of adulatory

literature that the new fad called forth An ex .

ample or two will su fl ice One learned professor

.

wrote to the instigator of this stampede : What

you have done to unfold physiological mastication
means more f or human weal than all the mere
medical prescribers have gi v en th e world from
A dam to the present tim e ! A sanit arium
keeper carolled in this mawkish strain : We are
 Nou rishing th e M ind 99

chewing hard at chewing more every

day . We have gotten up a li ttle Chewing
song which we sing to the patients I read .

some of you r notes to my colleagues and they ,

were so much a ffected tha t tears came in to their

eye s ” .

A n d yet half a decad e after this a ffecting

, ,

lachrymose scene Fletche rism was not only dead

,

as a fad but was kn own to be a physiologica l

,

monstrosity in stead of the great physiological

discovery I n the meanwhile it had demonstrated
.

from a somewhat unusual angle the well kn own -

fact that enthu siasm may play havoc wi th judg

ment—even about such a prosaic thin g as eating .

The Fletcherites overlooked some fu ndamental

truths that sh ould be self evident I t should be -
.

apparent to any intelligent person that it is quite

a s impo ssible to create matter by chewing it as ,

by any other known method M oreover the .

,

amount of matter required for bodily nourishment

is much more than the Fletcherites advocated .

That much for quantity .

A s to quality every one knows that three kinds

,

of food are necessary to life : ( 1 ) proteids rep ,

resented by meats fish and eggs ; ( 2) carboh y

, ,

drates such a s the starch furni shed by vegetables ;

,

and ( 3) fats of one kind or another What cfl

,
ect .

doe s mastication have upon these various essen

tials ? On the proteids it has practically none the ,

digesti on of these important kinds of foods ta king

I OO I n creas in g Y ou r M ent al E fficie ncy
place farther along in the alimentary canal .

S imilarly the f at s are not influenced by mastica

,

tion or en salivation in the mouth to any very

great extent ; while the starches are converted
into a form of sugar— a necessary step to absorp
tion of this f orm of food .

I t would appear then that the advantage s of

, ,

excessive mastication were appropriate and help

f u l only when eating starch y f oods I n short one
,
.
,

might consistently bolt h is meat bu t must chew

,

his vegetable soup thoroughly, if his digestion i s

to remain per f ect But Nature has made provi
.

sion f or toothless in f ancy and old age and does ,

not place a v ery severe digestive task upon the

secretions of the mouth at any period of life I n .

deed the important part in the digestive process

,

of those su bstances upon which the saliva acts in

a helpful manner is carried on in the in test ines
,

through the agency of a much more p owerful and

active digestive ferment secreted by the pancreas .

S o that prolonged mastication will at most simply

, ,

help to perform a digesti v e act in the mouth with ,

its relatively ine ff ecti v e mechanism and thus re ,

lieve an e fficient organ the pancrea s of a task

, ,

for which nature specially desi gned it .

Moreover it has been f ound by recent ex peri

ment s that excessive mastication may reduce the
food to such a degree of minute division that it is
n ot handled properly by the natural proces ses of
absorption Like finely groun d powder grain s in
.
 Nou rishin g th e M ind 1 01

a great gu n , it cause s a premature explosion of

energy in a too circumscribed area instead of ,

be ing distributed properly along the bore .

But all this is simply an explanation of why ex

ce ssive mastication is an unnece ssa ry as well as ,

a somewhat disgu sting practice I t o ffers n o ex .

planation of why Fletcherism lost its popularity

a s a fad Yet such explanation is scarcely n eces
sary The fact that it was s imply a fad su fl
.

. i
cien tly explain s its decline in popularity : for such

is the fate of all fads An d as regards this par

.
,

ticu la r hobby it was mo st f ortunate

,
For if we .

had actually carried out the plans of the Flet cher

ites and attempted to raise the youn ger genera
,

tion of growing boys and girl s by the r égime of

chewing and parsimonious diet that had cured an
elderly and patholo gical g entleman we should ,

have produced a race of sickly weaklings .

V alu e of E st ablish ed Cu st oms in D iet

N ormallyhealthy persons should shun all eat

ing-fads For it is a clin ical ob servation trans
.
,

mitted through many generation s of physicians ,

that faddishne ss about eating is a sure road to

dyspep sia The generali z ed food cust oms of
.

”
mankind said S ir William Roberts
,
are not to ,

be viewed as random practice s adopted to please

the palate or gratify an idle or a vicious appetite .

These cu stoms must be regarded as the outcome

roz I ncreasin g Y ou r M en t al E fficie n cy
of profound instincts which correspond to cer
tain wants of the hu man economy They are the .

fruit of a colossal experience accumu l ated by

countless millions of men through succe ssive gen
eration s They h ave th e same weigh t and sign ifi
.

cance as other kindred facts of natural history ,

and are fitted to yield to obse rvation and study

lessons of the highest scientific and practical
value ” .

This being the case we should be able to fin d

some reason why we have f ormed the habit of
eat ing our meals with the va riou s dishes served
in certain de finite order if it i s n ot merely a
,

cap rice of fashion or con f ormity I n short why .

,

we eat soup first and pastries last in stead of the ,

reverse .

S ome recent investigation s ofi er an entirely

satisfactory explanation f or doing so on physi ,

ological grounds A ccordin g to a recent writer

. ,

we have uncon sciou sly established a routine of

courses in the dinner that takes thorough cog
niz ance of the physiological principles upon whic h

digestion is founded E v en such matters as f es

.

tive attire floral decorations and mu sic we are

, , ,

told have their share in composing a generally

,

favorable stage setting as it were for dige stion ;

-
, ,

for it has been abundantly shown in rec ent y ears

that a person s mood is of the greatest signi ficance
’

in the performance of the digestive function s ” .

This last f act should be borne in mind in seek

 N ou rishing th e M ind 3
10

ing a rea son for the undoubted succe ss of Fletch

e rismin some in stances The faddist is an enthu
.

siast for the time being at least , and undoubtedly

,

in many instances his mood rather than his method

accounts f or the bene ficial results .

Why S ou p Precedes Pas try

But to return to the physiological reason for

the order of ou r meals Dr Leverson s explana
. .
’

tion of the logicality of having the dessert course

composed largely of carbohydrate preparation s
pastry sweets f ruit flavors and cream— is en
, , , ,

lightening . F oods of this order a s i s well ,

known are not p rimarily digested by th e ga stric

,

juice but are acted on by the salivary ferment

,

known a s amylopsin This ferment is incor

.

p orate d with the food in the mouth and will con ,

tinu e to act until it is neutraliz ed by the gastric

juice I t was fo rmerly as sumed that su ch neu
.

tra liz ation must take place almost immediately

on the swallowing of the food Recent studie s
.

discredit this view it being alleged that the food

,

la st ingested occupies a central position in the

s tomach f or some time and that only the periph
,

eral portions are actively in contact with th e

ga stric juice .

Thus the carbohydrate s that make up the des

s ert are s o placed as to be acted on advantageously

and f or a long period by the salivary ferment in

1 04 I n creas in g Y ou r M en tal E fficie ncy

corporated with
them ; whereas had the same
f oods been ingested early in the meal they would
have been brought at once in contact with the pe
riph ery of the stomach and their digesti v e changes
,

arrested .

Here is an other reason then why per sons in

, ,

health should not be too ready to disregard es

tabli sh ed customs in eating Of course the case
.

is en tirely difi eren t wh en there is organic bodi l y

disease In su ch conditions clinical and labora
.
,

to ry expe riences of competent observer s must be

the guide B u t th is gui dance sh ould be entru sted
.

to a thoroughly competent and trained ob server

and under no circumstances should self—
,

guidance
be attempted N 0 person who is actually ill
.

should attempt to prescribe for himself in the

matter of diet any more than in kin ds of medicine .

We may feel sure that there is a sound physio

lo gical reason f or the dietary diff erences that
exist between widely separated communities such ,

as those at the equator and those li ving near the

,

A rctic circle T h ere is conclusive e v idence of this

.

in the fact that persons w h o visit these regions ,

and remain f or any considerable time fin d it ad ,

v antage ou s to adopt the f ood and f ood cu stoms , ,

of the native s The people of any commun ity

.
,

taken collectiv ely choose the proper kin d of foods

,

best adapted t o their needs guided by an in stin ct

,

created by expe rience I ndividually there are

.

marked exceptions to this particularly in highly

,
 N ou rishing th e M ind 1 05

civilized communities This last is indeed re.

, ,

itera ting the statement that on e man s food is ’

another man s poison —in in dividual cases only

’
,

however Taken collectively on e man s food is

.
,
’

another man s food An d it is better to follow

’
.

e stablished cu stoms than to attempt to overthrow ,

or di sregard them .

The perennial fad of vegetarianism is a case in

p oint The life of this fad seems to be perpetuated
.

by the application of the sophistic rule that what is

food f or certa in individuals is food f or the race .

There are certain healthy persons wh o live an d

thrive on a vegetable diet ; and there are p atho
logica l condition s in which a careful vegetable
diet undoubtedly prolongs life .

V e g e t ables an d M en t al E fficiency

It may be pointed out with entire truthfulnes s

that vegetable s contain all three of the essential
food elements — proteids carbohydrates and fats
, ,
.

T o be sure these elements are not o ff ered in

ideal proportion s for the use of our systems ; but
the human organism is such a wonderfully adapt
able mechanism that it will select out the right

proportion s f or itself if supplied with su fiicien t

quantities The system will keep up steam on
.

thi s bad fuel just a s a boiler can be made to steam

,

with poor coal But if a bad quality of coal is

.

used , there mu st be more sto k ers and more labor ,

1 06 I n creasin g You r M en t al E fficie n cy
which is poor economy M ore over poor fuel
.
,

tends to foul the boiler and s h orten its life .

A purely vegetable di et makes poor fuel for the

human engine Yet by putting on extr a
. stok
”
ers in the f orm of expended vital energy this
, ,

poor f uel will keep the body machinery runn in g .

A s a result howe v er th e system expends vital

, ,

energy for th e s omewhat lowly purpo se of stoking ,

which might othe rwise have been utili z ed f or much

higher fields of creative work both mental and ,

physical .

I t is a significant f act that meat eating races -

lead the world in ev erytlnn g— war commerce

’

, ,

science and art The relative po sitions of the

,
.

Orient and the Occident exemplify this The .

Orientals consum e f ar less meat than the people

of Europe and A merica partly f rom neces sity
, ,

and p artly on account of religious belief An d for .

centuries they have lagged far behind the Euro

peans in progres s and in war
,
.

Japan is making a strong bid to become the one

exception a mong Eastern nations I n the arts of .

peace she is certainly climbing to a high level ;

and the recent war with Ru ssia demon strates what
she can do in war But is she doing these things
.

on a vegetarian di et as of old ? Not at all Her .

fighting seamen received the same proportion of

proteid f oods in proportion to t h eir body weight
a s t h e British tars ; and h er soldiers in her recent ,

conflict with Russia , had a more abundant p ro

 N ou rishin g th e M in d 1 07

teid diet than any other a rmy in the field has

”
ever enj oyed .

Thus we see that Japan ofi ers no exception to

the rule that meat-eating races are the leaders
physically and mentally An d thi s sugge sts an
.

answer t o the question which i s frequently asked ,

and which concern s us p ri ncipally in this ch apter ,

as to what f oods are brain foods if we may

use the term S o far a s we know it is quite im
.
,

pos sible t o feed the br ain except through the gen

eral proces s of feeding the body The old idea .
,

which still persists that fish acts as a food for

,

the brain rather than the body has n o basis in ,

fact .

I f the child during its early years has been

given proper trainin g its own in stincts will be its
,

best guide in the selection of prope r nourishment

later in life I ll health of course f requently
.
, ,

causes caprices about eating ; but thi s i s quite

another matte r .

Most children at the age of puberty develop a n

appetite for meat and at this period should be
,

encouraged to gratify it I mportant v ital changes

.
,

are taking place in the system at that time

changes that have a direct bearing upon future
mental a s well as physical states— that require a
,

full protein diet for their development Later the .

craving for meat will gradually subside and a ,

well balanced régime be establishe d

- .

The question is asked frequently whether active

1 08 I n creasin g Y ou r M ent al E fficie ncy
mental or physical exerti on should be indulged in
immediately a f ter eating A s a general rul e it i s
.

not advisable to do either one or the other sho rtly

after a meal ; bu t here again th e habits of the in
dividual must be considered S ome persons even .
,

athletes are accustomed to taking strenuous ex

,

e rci se regardle ss of meal time I ndeed s ome .

vocation s make this neces sary But we do not .

fin d that persons following these occupations are

more subject to digestiv e disturbances than
others .

I once inquired about the eating habits of a

champion wrestler who was doing strenuous train
ing for an important match This athlete made it .

his regular practice to take a hearty meal at noon ,

and go at once to the gymna sium to wrestle with

his train ers When I express ed a stonishment at
.

this and asked the athlete if he considered his

,

method a good one he declared that he had always

,

fou nd it so .

How can I work if I don t eat ? he inquired ’

.

A n d this wa s the key to hi s point of vi ew .

Of course his theory was entirely wrong The .

food taken into his stomach fifteen minute s before

beginning his exertion s would not be utili z ed to
f urnish strength until several hours later Yet .

in practice his method seemed to work satisf ac

torily judged by result s
,
.

We must not interpret this wrestler s methods ’

,

however as indicating that violent exercis e im

,
 Nou rishin g th e M ind 1 09

mediately after eat ing is advisable for athlete s ,

or others ; but rather that a vigorous body f re

quently overcomes by adaptation obstacles th at

oppose rational hygiene Possibly if the exce ssive
.

mastication votaries of parsimonious diet had hit

upon a method similar to that of this wrestler ,

instead of their particular hobby this sort of fad

,

would have become popular in pl ace of chewing .

An d then we should have had still another ex

ample of mistaking physical adaptability for
physiological need .

I t seem s to be a perfectly natural thi ng f or chil

dren to take violent exercise regardles s of the time
that food is ingested ; and as no harm seems to
come from this it is not advisable to interfere wit h
this natural proces s by compelling the chi ld to rest
after eating The case i s somewhat difi erent a s
.

regards mental e ff ort Children sh ould not be

.

fo rced to study immediately after taking a full

meal .

This seem ing paradox may be explai ned on

physiological grounds .Physical exercise is a
heritage handed down through co u ntless thou
sands of generations and has established itsel f
,

a s a natural proces s ; wherea s close mental e ff ort

is a recent inn ovation and may therefore be re
, ,

garded as an artificial one Wh en close mental

.

application to printed pages has become a n atural

process through age s of in dulgence it is probable ,

that the children of that future age will be able

1 10 I n creasin g Y ou r M ent al fl
E i cie ncy

to eat and study with the same impunity that they

may eat and play at present But this result of .

future evolution need not concern u s n ow .

The rule that applies to children about mental

e ff ort immediately after eating applie s also to ,

their parents ; and for the same reason But the .

child s craving f or prote in food and the n ece s

’
,

sity f or it f all s into anot h er category

,
A dults of .

sedentary habits should not indulge too freely in

a meat diet There is a grain of truth in th e
.

v egetarian s theory ( as there must be in any

’

fad that gains a hearing ) to the extent that many

persons of sedentary h abit s indulge too freely in
a protein diet I n sh ort a necessity of childhood
.
,

may be a menace to old age .

The habit of overeating may be placed in th e

same category and may be explained on the same
,
“

physiological grounds No rmal children are in a

.

state of almost continuous physical activity while ,

their minds rema in relatively inactive A dults .

are prone to become slothful creatures physically ,

with exaggerated mental activities—a condition

precisely t h e reverse of that in childhood S o that .

there are substantial physiological reasons for re

versing the methods of nourishing the individual
at these two periods of li f e An d pr a ctical results
.

demonstrate the soundnes s of the theory .

But this th eory like many others should be in

, ,

terp reted only on broad gene ral lin es A fin ical .

anxiety a bout the kind or quantity of fo od to be

 N ou rishin g th e M ind 1 1 1

e aten is quite as harmful as gross carelessness in

the oppo site ex treme A healthy person should
.

t hink little about his food , either before or after

e ating Too close sc rutinizing is lik ely to be the
.

gateway to hypochondria sis .

 S t abiliz ing th e Facu lties

HERE is n o one short of the actual imbecile

, ,

who does not appreciate that mental stability

is a valuable individual as set But I think very
.

f ew persons f ully reali z e what a terrible calamity

the shaking of that stability really is largely be ,

cau se mo st peopl e have given th e matter very

little thought I f we pause and consider even for
.

a moment what permanent mental incapacitation

means however I think that any one will agre e
, ,

that death itself is relegated to a minor position

by comparison .

Nothing approaching full compensation can be

returned for the toll taken by death Yet it is .

p ossible for every man to make such provision

again st the ravages of the Grim Reaper through ,

the medium of insuranc e that his loved ones will

,

not be lacking in material comfort if he is sud ,

denly t aken away But no insurance can be taken

.

out to compensate f or mental un soundnes s .

Moreover the person wh o become s in sane not

,

only ceases to be a prov ider bu t himself becomes

,

a dependent burden S o that his in capacitation

.

represents a loss more disastrous than actual de

 S t abiliz in g th e Facu lti es 1 1 3

mise becau se it may add many years of continu

,

ou s in cumbrance to his relative s .

I t is evident theref ore either from a sel fis h

, ,

standpoint or an altruistic on e that the mainte ,

nance of mental stability is a great desideratum .

N or is the quest a hopeless one even among those ,

predisposed to mental un soundn ess For fully .

half the cases of distu rbed mental equilibrium are

preventable .

Every one knows how easily the vertical position

of a rolling h 00p is maintained by a slight touch
on one side or the other just at the moment when
it begin s to waver , but h ow impo ssible it is to
avert the fall once the h oop i s deflected beyond
a certain point Just so with mental equilibrium
. .

A deft touch here and there at the ri ght moment

will keep th e mental mechanism in a flexibly firm
“
vertica l position as it were and ave rt the
, ,

impending catastrophe .

One of the first and most constant symptoms of

threatened mental instability is in somnia or the
, ,

unrefreshing sleep that is f requently its forerun

n er I t is a clinical indication in childhood and
.
,

a danger signal later in life A t either period it s

.

warnings should not be disregard ed We must .

n ot of course , confuse true insomnia with the

,

dreamy states that accompany over sleeping or -

,

the habit of slovenly sleeping that is a cqui re d

by some persons .

S leep it self is still one of the great mysteries of

1 14 I n creasin g Y ou r M ent al E ffi ciency
life An d we are not able as yet to e xpla in satis
.

f actorily just wh at myste ri ous mechanisms p ro

duce sleep or its antithesis , in somnia But we do
,
.

know very de fini tely the general e ff ects of both

these conditions .

Th e Myst ery of S leep

The marvel of sleep is lost upon us owing to

the unfortunate peculiarity th at ou r ability to
”
wonder is soon abolished by mere repetition ,

says Dr W H Thomson. . Because th e recur

. .

rence of sleep is as certain and regular as su n set

itself it does not occur to us to wonder at it or
, ,
”
to ask what it all means .

We a re certain that a change in the blood su p

ply of the brain takes place during sleep less ,

blood goin g to the head at that time than in the

waking hours T hi s may be dem onstrated by
.

exactly balancing a person horizontally on a spe

cially prepared tilting board S o long as the .

person remain s awake and motionless the balance

is maintained but as he falls asleep the board
,

gradually tilts downward , showing that the bl ood

ha s been transferred from the head to the other
parts of the body A s the sleeper regain s con
.

sciou sn es s the hori z ontal position i s again as

sumed as in the beginn ing of the experiment .

This and other experiments make it ce rtain

, ,

that an anemic condition of the brain is produced

 S tabiliz in g th e Facu lties 1 1 5

du ring sleep , and pr obably the ext ent of this

anemi a or blood depletion determin e s the pro
, ,

f ou ndn es s of the sleep although this is by n o

,

mean s certain But for ou r purpose it su fi ces to

.

know that there is more blood circulatin g through

the brain during wakefulness and less during ,

sleep and we need not concern ourselves with the

,

ne rvou s or chemical action that may produce these

conditions I shall show in a moment why it is
.

impo rtant to understand this fundamental fact

in combating wake ful conditions .

We should distinguish very exactly between

t rue insomnia and certa in habits of sleeples s
nes s Most persons wh o sleep badly do so be
.

caus e they have not learned to sleep properly or ,

because they do n ot put their knowledge into prac

tice Many person s form bad habits of sleep ing
.
,
~

just as they do about eating o r drinking S ome .

sleep too little , otherstoo much Of the two faults .

I believe the latter is the more common on e al ,

though too little sleep is more harmful than too

much The person who lies awake s ome littl e
.

time after going to bed or lies in a half wa keful

,

state for any con siderable time before gettin g up ,

does s o usually because he is trying to take more

sleep than he requires .

S uch a person usually feels stupid on arising ,

his mind doe s not work readily and it may be ,

several hours before he feels himself to be keenly

awake The norm al feeling after a good night s
.
’
1 1 6 I n creasin g Y ou r M en t al E fficien cy
sleep should be one of vi gorous re f reshment ,
which continues throughout the day with the u sual ,
’
f atigue but not exhaustion at the end of the day s
“

, ,

work .

A condition of very di fferent signi ficance is that

of feeling exhausted in t h e morning even after ,

an apparently good night s sleep which is fol ’

,

lowed by a f eeling of well being or even exh ila -

,

ration toward the end of the day This condition .

is pathological and indicates that the system

,

is run down and debilitated and needs atten

-
,

tion For it may be the beginning of physical de

.

pre ssion a condition that may be corrected easily

,

if taken in hand in the beginning bu t which leads ,

to serious il lness if neglected F requently it is .

the result of nervous exhaustion or ment al agita ,

tion .

One of the essentials of good sleepin g is to mak e

a practice of going to bed as regularly as p ossible
at the same hour and rising with a correspondin g
,

regularity in the morning I n this way a correct .

habit of sleeping is quickly formed Our .

bodies like our minds a cquire habits very quickly

, , ,

and tend to retain them tenaciously .

A s to the exact time of retiring that must be ,

determined by each individual f or himself in ac ,

cordan ce wit h his habits and walk of life Th e .

old rule early to bed and early to rise

,
is ,

u se f ul only in the sen se that its practice implie s

regularity in sleeping We may stamp as false .
,
 S t abiliz ing th e Facu lti es 1 1 7

also the aphorism that

, an hour s sleep before ’

”
midnight is worth two after midnight F or in .

point of fact it is the number of hours of g ood

sleep that count not the particular time at which
,

they are taken .

It is t rue of course , that if a person goe s to

,

bed at eigh t o clock his most pro f ound slumber

’
,

will be taken before the middle of the night For .

the mind sinks quickly into its deepest u n con

s ciou sn e ss remains so for three or f our hours and
, ,

then gradually approaches the consciou s state .

But this cycle will be produced just a s readily and

just as certainly wheth er the hours be from ten
,

to six or from on e to nine

, The advantages
.

of the earlie r hours lie solely in the fact that

the distrac ting sounds of a busy world are less
likely to be a disturbing factor du ring the earlier
pe riod .

We should remember that the rule about early

retiring was made in an age when night mean t
darkness , and does not apply to the p resent age “

when gas and electricity have made the day

twenty four hours long instead of twel v e M ore
-
.

over , there are many p erson s th e maj ori ty of m

adults in cities at least—whose social or other

,

duties keep them up until midnight several nights

in each week For such persons the rule about
.

retiring early would be made only to be broke n

irregularly ; and for this reason it is f ar better
f or them to choose the later hour as the usual one
1 1 8 I ncreasin g You r M ent al Efficiency
for retiring Indeed it is advisable for any per
.
,

son who is likely to be up until midn ight two or

three nights in the week to make that time the
one for retiring regularly as a matter of habit .

Most people find it necessa ry ( and it is cer

tain ly advisable ) to a rise at practically the same
hour each mornin g I f they make it a practice
.

to retire three nights in the week at twelve and ,

three at ten rising at their regular hour each

,

morning they will obviously be sleeping too much

, ,

or too little at least half of the time

,
I t is f ar .

better to make the hour for retiring more nearly

u niform pa rticularly if there is a tendency to
,

sleep badly .

But six nights only acc ount for the working

day s of the week What of the seventh ?
.

A few years ago the Medical Record published

”
an edito ri al on Blue Monday I n this the .

writer ex onerated Monday for any responsibility

“ ”
in producing the proverbial a z ure hue and ,

placed the onus u p on the fo olish unnatural and , ,

physiologically bad practice s of the precedi ng

day—the hang over e ff ects of irre gu lar sleep
ing of e at in g drinking working and playing
, , , , ,

common to ou r S abbath Day customs If we .

would conduct ourselves on S unday as we do on

week days the writer averred
,
Blue Monday ,

would be striken from the c alendar .

 S t abiliz in g th e Facu lti es 1 1 9

The H abit oi I rregular O ver-slee ping

A great m aj ority of people make it a practice

to 1011 in bed on S unday morning, thu s disregard
ing the e stabli shed habits of the other six morn
ings I f asked why they do this many wou ld
.
,

a ssert that they are catchi ng u p the sleep lost

during the week thus attempt ing to correct in on e
,

day the losses of six .

I n point of fact this is seldom the real reason

f or protracted sleeping and this meth od would
,

n ot correct the fault if it were F or it is imp os

.

sible to force more than a certain amount of pro

found sleep upon the brain —on e cannot force him
self to stay asleep as he can to keep awake I t has .

been demonstrated repeatedly that the person who

stays awake seventy two consecutive hours let us
-
,

s ay thus losing twenty four hours of sleep doe s

,
-
,
”
n ot catch up the lost hours by twenty f our -

consecutive hours of slumber even if gi ven abun

dant opportunity to do so Experiments have .

shown that the average man will not take over

seventeen hours of sleep after the long period of
wakefulness , and thereafter require only hi s regu
’
lar number of hours sleep each night .

This sugge sts that the system is capable of in

ten sif yin g the quality of sleep to meet emergen
cies I ndeed , this mysterious intensi f yi ng process
.
‘

seems to be normal in some favored individuals ,

who require far le ss sleep than most of their fel

1 20 I ncreasing You r M e nt al E fficien cy
lows because their sleeping appara tu s is more
,

efficient Napoleon was an exampl e and Franklin

.
,

another An d undoubtedly it was this special

.

faculty of the American philosopher that led him

t o make the rule for the number of hours requi red
for sleep as , six for a man seven for a w oman , ,
”
eight for a fool But his standard is undoubt
.

e dly much too low , both for man and for woman ;

and the amount of sleep required by the fool is of

n o consequence .

The implication that mo st persons sleep more

than is really necessary however is probably well
, ,

foun ded But each indi vidual is a law unto him

.

self and must determine for himself what his re

,

q u irements really are I f he stays in bed n ine

.

hours and doe s not sleep soundly during all that

time or is not refreshed and in vigorou s men
,

tality on risin g he is probably trying to force

,

more sleep upon his system than it requires His .

symptom s are proof of this I f he sleeps only six .

hours and does n ot feel himself completely re

,

cu p erated he i s being too parsimonious

, .

There is one form of insomni a which is char

acteri stic of a de finite patholo gi cal condition and ,

should be regarded with apprehension I t is char .

acte riz ed by a period of wakefulne ss that comes in

the middle of the night to person s who are usually

good sleepers and which follows a period of sound
,

sleep earlier in the evening When such a thing .

occurs repeatedly night after night without any

 S t abiliz in g th e Facu lties 1 21

apparent cause particularly in persons in middle

,

life or older it is l ikely to be a symptom of high

,

blood pressure which is the fore runner of or

-

gani c disease . The person s wi th this symptom

should seek the advi ce of a physician at once .

For in this early stage it is quite possible to cor

rect the sleeplessness by correcting the underlying
cau s e— which is vastly more important Later on , .

when organic changes in the blood vessels have -

actually taken place it is impossible to correct

,

either the symptom or its cause .

Habitual dreaming is abnorm al although an ,

occasional dream can hardly be considered a s an

abnormality Too much food taken late at night
.
,

too many hours of sleep , high mental ten sion and

worry usually account for most dreams of the
,

occasional variety When the dreams are f re

.

quent and distres sing even when correct habits in

,

sleeping are rigidly practiced some physical ah

,

normality shou ld be suspected .

S ome confusion has arisen in the minds of cer

tain persons as to whether it is a bad practice to
eat heartily just before retiring since physicians
,

sometimes prescribe a glass of hot milk or beer , ,

at bed-time to aid in inducing sleep There need .

be n o confusion on this point however since the

, ,

e ff ect of a glas s of hot milk is very diff erent from

that of a full meal The glass of milk be in g easily
.

digestible doe s not tax the circulation except to

the extent of diverting enough blood from the
1 22 I n creas in g Y ou r M ent al E fficie n cy
head to aid in the mechanism of sleep production .

A f ull meal on the other hand set s the blood

‘

, ,

p ounding through the vessels and tends to in ,

crease rather than diminish the cerebral circu

, ,

lation .

We know of course that there are t h ousands of

, ,

person s who habitually take a full meal before re

ti ring without experiencing any unpleasant re
su lts But here again habit is a dete rmin in g fac
.

tor I n such cases the system has adjusted itself

.
"

to this untimely bu t regularly ingested meal and

, ,

is vigorous enough to counteract the efi ects of a

habit that is physiologically bad I n any event .
,

these exception s do not vitiate the soundnes s of

the general rule again st eating before retiring .

H ow S leep M ay B e I ndu ced

Persons engaged in mental work which does not

stop at the end of the ordinary working day wi th
“

th e usual evening idleness or lethargy frequently ,

fin d that the mental activity wi th its flood of ,

ideas continues when they cease work and attempt

,

to sleep I n such persons the sudden change from

.

active thinking to the exact antithesis sleep is , ,

too great to be accomplished suddenly wi thout ,

some kind of tapering off process Many .

things suggest themselves f or this purpose but ,

the basis of all is really a ch ange of vocation—a

”
mental stepping down diverting the mind into ,
 S tabiliz in g th e Facu lties 1 23

less active channels , and thus gradually diminish

ing the tension .

S ome pe rson s find that a bris k walk in the open

air f or half an hour has the relax ing cfi ect ; bu t
to others this mu scular exercise is irksome and ,

con sequently di sturbing rather than helpful A .

very e ff ective metho d as innumerable person s

,

have discovered , is to indulge in some kind of light ,

pleasant reading for an hour before bed time -

.

Reading in itself is such a reflex act that it re

quire s very little mental e ffort ; while the interest
of the text , such as that of a story relaxes the ,

mind without taxing it and prepares it fo r sleep

,
.

S ome such expedient seems almost necessary

for those wh o spend most of their waking hours in
reading or writing ; for to such persons the ab
sence of the accustomed printed page before the
eye s does not check the activity of the mi nd .

When however the printed page is there but its

, , ,

contents of such nature that it requires practically

n o cerebral e fi ort to inte rpret it , a distinctly re

lax ed mental condition is produced It is said .

that the great German historian , Mommsen whos e ,

mind was wonderfully active and retentive reste d ,

his brain by devouring all manner of yellow

backed n ovels during his res ting periods of the
day or evening Thu s an unusually receptive
.

mind which retained desirable information with

,

remarkabl e precision was rested and recuperated

,

by the kind of careless novel reading that ordi

1 24 I n creasin g Y ou r M e nt al Effi ciency
n arily is so det rimental to the memory But .

Mommsen took his no v els as medicine so to sp e ak , ,

not as real mental pabulum .

The method of preparing the mind f or sleep by

reading or other diverting proce ss may be re ,

garded as psychic rather than physical although ,

it is probable that the ultimate e ff ect of depleting

the brain of blood is the same by whatev er proce ss .

But there is at least one way of producing this

condition mechanically that is most e ff ective and
often expedient This is through the agency of a
.

prolonged tepid bath taken just before retiring .

I n order that the bath may be e ffective some ,

little care about certain details is necessary since ,

careles snes s in these matters may result in e ff ects

exactly oppo site to the one desired Thus a bath .

that is too hot or too cold or one that is taken

, ,

for a very brief period may tend to constrict the

,

vessels of the skin producing a cerebral conges

,

tion rather than depletion On the other hand if

.

the water in the tub is slightly warmer than the

natural heat of the body which can be determined
,

by the hand without the aid of a thermometer the ,

desired e ff ect is readily produced .

The person taking such a bath should do so

j ust be f ore getting into bed He should lie in the
.

tub with the body completely submerged with ,

a cool wet towel placed on the head and remain ,

for fully fif teen minutes He should then dry

.

hi mself quickly and get into bed at once .

 S tabiliz in g the Facu lties 1 25

In this way the blood i s mechanically diverted

from the head to other parts of the body The .

prolonged bath distribute s the blood all th rough

the body by relax ing the ve ssel s in the trunk and
limbs , while the cool towel on the head helps to
constrict the cranial vessel s, and thus aids actively
in the depleting process .

But of course it is n ot always convenient to

take a prolonged bath before retiring ; and in any
event , if one were obliged to continue taking such
bath s habitually to induce sleep a truly bad ,

habit would be formed A s an occasional aid ,

.

however , the prolonged bath is of greatest useful

nes s
.

A s a ready means of inducing sleep one of the ,

various purely mental expedients is probably bet

ter for those who are habitually prone to sleep
lessnes s without de finite physical cause The .

author of The S cience of Happin ess suggests

on e of these methods that seems p articularly com
mendable .

Challenge systematically any line of thought

that appears , and banish it from consciousnes s ,
he in structs . The thing is not difficult f or a dis
ciplin ed mind You have simply to vow mentally
.

as you find yourself thinking on any subject , I

will not thin k about that , and a s it were you shut
’

off the current in that direction Of course.

through association your mind is instantly sup

plied wit h some oth er line of thought ; but this
1 26 I n creasing Y ou r M ent al E ff i ciency
also you challenge in the s ame way as soon as it
appears and so on as long as you are conscious
,
.

You thus prevent any single line of thought fr om

becoming paramount in consciousness and one ,

line af ter another being subordinated the tendency ,

is to a lower and lower level of mental activity ,

till presently consciousness is lost I t is po ssible .

for some person s to put themselves to sleep vol

u ntarily in this way at any time when they choos e

even during the day and in the midst of most

active thinking The boon whi ch such an aecom
.

plishmen t f urnishe s the tired brain on occasion ,

makes the acquisition of this power well worth

”
the effort .

I t is probably superfluous here to call attention

to the necessity of thoroughly ventilating the
sleeping apartment during the night , as a knowl
edge of the recuperative e ff ects of fresh air has
become a part of ou r education Yet experience .

shows that even to day th ere are many cases of

,
-
,

in somnia or at least bad sleeping due to neglect

, ,

of this f undamental principle of hygiene The .

sleeping porc h and cool bedrooms with all win

-
,

dows hoisted will correct many case s of sleepless

,

ness Nothing supplants f resh air as a sop orific

. .

An d we may add that no room even with many ,

windows and all wide O pen quite equal s the open

, ,

air bedroom A ny one who wi ll make the ex peri

.

ment even f or a single night will be convinced

that there is a very distinct di fferenc e between the “
 S t abiliz in g th e Facu lties 1 27

night air in the open and the air that circulates in

,

an open bedroom .

Most person s who make the experiment of sleep

ing ou t of do ors are loth to discontinue it A few .

night s of O pen air sleeping make the bedroom

-

seem stuff y and intolerable An d here in lies the.

one disadvantage of th e sleeping porch : if it can -

n ot be used habitually the discomforts of the in

tervening nights spent indoors may o ffset the re
freshing e ffects of the night s in the O pen .

Under favorable circumstances then the use of , ,

the sleeping porch is ideal But if one is so sit

-
.

u ate d that he must spend half his nights within

doors it is probably better to substitute wi de O pen

,
-

win dows particularly if the individual is so sen

,

sitiv e to atmospheric condition s that the night s

spent in the bedroom are likely to be restless ones .

We said a moment ago that insomn ia was f re

quently a most important danger sign al fore
shadowing possible mental unbalance C on comi .

tant with this and in many instance s producing it

, ,

is the tendency t o worry— the basis of the grea t

ma j ority of cases of mental breakdown referred ,

to in a preceding chapter .

I t would , of course be impos sible except in a

, ,

mo st exhaustive treatise to touch upon the multi

,

f ariou s forms and causes of the all pe rvading and -

most complicated mental condition indicated by

”
the sin gle word worry The life que st of each
.
-

person is happines s in the particular form which

,
1 28 I n creas in g Y ou r M en t al E fficie ncy
f ulfils his conception of the te rm : the opposing
factor which prevents its con summation is worry ,

in one or another of its varied forms Obviously .

then the term is too comprehen sive f or more than

general consideration I n on e form or another
.

it touches upon ev ery phase of human life .

When there is a de finite cause for the mental agi

tati on the remedy is obvious although frequently ,

difficult to apply But sometimes an obscure

.

physical ailment that is n ot su spected pro ,

duces an apparently cau seless kin d of apprehen

sive depression This condition is so well known
.

— although less frequently understood—that it has

been a sub j ect for f acetious comment for genera
tions I t was indeed the theme for the caption
.
, ,

of a humorou s sketch in on e of our lighter

vein weeklie s a short time ago Two intimate .

acquaintances were pictured as meetin g casually

on the street one of them greatly agitated
,
.

”
Margaret the agitated on e exclaimed
,
I m ,
’

”
j ust worried to death about something .

— —
Why e r why f or the life of me I can t re
,
’

dear ? ‘
inquires Margaret .

Why— er —why for the life of me I can t re

,
’

member .

Now the theme for this little pleasantry may be

found in innumerable cases and its import is not
,

a matter for j estin g I t is a kind of apparently

.

causeless worry t h at is most si gni ficant and ,

should not be lightly disregarded Whether th e .

 S t abiliz in g the Facu lties 1 29

person so affl icted can fathom the cause of the

anxiety or not the cause actually exists and
, ,

should be sought out and corrected I t repre sents

.

a state of abnormality in which the mental symp

tom is likely to be cau sed by some de fin ite physical
difficulty u sually the improper functioning of
,

s ome of the organs of the body Our ancestors

.

placed the burden of responsibility upon the liver .

A t present we are inclined to exonerate that organ

in most cases But whatever the exact cau se the
.
,

person a ffl icted with this type of apparen tly cau se

le ss mental agitation—the feel ing that some
thing dreadful is going to happen —is approach
ing a danger z one and should seek medical advice .

S ometime s this condition may be corrected by

proper mental training alone ; for mental upli f t
and fitness tend to induce physical fitness A n d of .

course it i s part of the physician s art to com ’

bine his psychotherapy with his more tan gible rem

edies But knowing as we now do that there is
.
, ,

u sually a defin ite physical basis for mental states ,

on e should not trust to psychic remedies alone until

it is clearly determined that the physical basis is

wanting or unimportant
,
.

Much more tangible physical causes f or mental

aberr ation are the ven ereal disease s And despite ,
,

the fact that the prevention of this fertile cause

of in sanity rests entirely with each individual ,

save in a few exceptional instances the number of

,

cases of aberration resulting from venereal dis

1 30 I n creas in g Y ou r M en t al E ffi ciency
ease is conspicuously large A single disease of .

this category is responsible f or at least twel ve

per cent of all cases of insanity to day— seven
.
-

thousand deat h s annually from its sequence ,

paresis in the United S t ates I t is there f ore of

, .

greate st significance and of gra v est importance .

But sin ce t his condition will be considered some

what in detail in a later chapter we need merely ,

touch upon it here to emphasi z e the dreadful na

ture of the penalty w hich this most easily prevent
able f orm of mental aberration exacts .

The special symptoms that we should regard

with suspicion when occurring in ourselves or in ,

others as point ing or leading to mental insta

, , ,

bility may be summari z ed in a sentence : A tend

,

ency to brooding changeability mental i rrita

, ,

bility unusual susceptibility to mental fatigue

, ,

headaches suspiciousness over sensitivene ss

, ,
-
,

any one of these or combination of them should

, ,

be regarded as warnings T o this list we may add.

,

an unusual sensi bility to small quantities of alco

hol although this is an inherent defect rather
, ,

than a symptom of progressive p athologi cal con

dition .

Normal Exhau st ion an d Abn ormal Fat igu e

Without examining them too categorically let ,

us consider the exact implication of s ome of the se

terms su ch as mental fatigue There is a great
, .
 S t abiliz in g th e Facu lti es 1 31

di ff erence between the normal exhaustion that fol

lows prolonged mental e ff ort and the patholo gical
,

condition in whi ch even a ve ry small amount of

e fi ort causes a feeling of fatigue I n the main .

thi s e ffect must be gauged by each ind ividual for

himself measured by his own past experience I f
,
.

he finds that he is no longer able to sustain his

u sual mental e ff orts—his normal standard in ,

other words—h e should at once seek the reaso n

for this change B u t in seeking this reason he
.
,

should not be misled by the common fallacy of

attribut in g this f atigue to an overworked brain .

Fo r brain fag is u sually merely a symptom of

some obscure physical depression .

A ctivity of mind does not tend to wear out the

brain but quite the reverse I ndeed by constant
, .

exercise the brain increases rather than dimin ,

ishes its capacity for work A n d this activity is

, .

n ot maintained at the expense of bodily vigor as ,

shown by the fact that men whose intellectual

pursuits require constant exercise of their brain
cells are usually long lived On the other hand
-
.
,

mental lethargy like sedentariness f oreshadows

, ,

early decadence in di cating that the brain like the

, ,

body is far less likely to wear out than to ru st ou t

, .

I t is obvious therefore that any person below

, ,

the age of actual senility who fin ds that mental

,

exertion fatigue s himto an unusu al degree should ,

take careful inventory of his condition More than .

l ik ely he wil l discover that his body rather than ,

1 32 I ncreasin g You r M ent al E fficie n cy
his brain is at fault I n all probability he will be
, .

able to loc ate the caus e as his f ailure to give that

body the same healthy exercise that he has given
his mind The remedy is obvious A little active
. .

muscular exercise carried out systematically

, ,

usually brings back the mental activity f requently ,

with renewed and even increased vi gor .

The question as to what sort of exercise should

be taken cannot be answered in a sentence ; for the
same presc ription is not appropriate f or all cases .

A ge environment and previou s habits must all be

, ,

considered in making the choice Healthful exer .

cise f or a man of thirty might be fatal to a man of

s ixty ; and environmental condition s are f re
quently determinant f actors But whatever the .
,

f orm selected it must be pursued re gularly and

,

persistently S pasmodic e fforts are practicall y

.

valueless An d yet nothing is more difficult for

.

mo st of us than to force ourselves to take regular

and persistent exercise .

Open air exercises are of course infinitely bet

-
, ,

ter than those taken indoors largely for the rea ,

son that such exercises a fford greater pleasure

“ ”
than mo st indoor gri nds The e ff ect of th e.

exhilaratin g open air itself must not be min imized ;

bu t the pleasure derived f rom taking any exe rcis e
is even more important than atmospheric c ondi
tions L ittle bene fit is gained f rom any muscular
.

exertion that becomes mere drudgery .

For the man past forty probably gol f o ff ers ,

 S t abiliz ing th e Facu lti es 1 33

more p ractical advantages as an exercise than al

most any other game—provi ding of course one , ,

like s golf or can learn to like it I ndeed for the

, .
,

man who has never taken to any form of violent

exercise du ring his younger life there is really ,

little choice Tennis is too strenuous ; and base

.

ball and football ou t of the question Ro wing .

is a fin e exercise , bu t require s special conditions ,

an d is not adapted to all seasons Horseback rid .

in g fulfils all requirements but cannot be indulged ,

by most persons whil e stream fishing and hunt

,
-

in g, although excellent in themselves can only be ,

pursued spasmodically for obvious reasons , .

The long-lost art of archery o ffers incomparable

advantages a s an outdoor exercise—if one would
on ly practice it I t is a wonderful d eveloper of
.

che st , back and arm muscles trains th e eye and

, , ,

steadies the nerves A lawn some conv enient.

,

vacant lot or even a porch can be requisitioned for

, ,

a range and all members of the family participate

,

in exhilarating contests But unfortunately .

, ,

archery is no longer fashionable A nd where is .

the person with the temerity to flout Dame Fash

ion f or mere health s sake ? ’

One who has been accustomed to vi olent athletic

sports requires a somewhat di ff erent routine of
exercise later in life from the person who has
never been athletic Th e athlete should of course
.
, ,

continue systematic and regular exercise through

ou t life
. But even if he has neglected his muscular
1 34 I n creasin g Y ou r M en t al fl
E i cie n cy

system f or several years —between the age of ,

twenty five and forty let us say and is still or

-
,
-

gan ically sound he can quickly accu stom hi s sys

,

tem to even very vi olent exercise such as wrest ,

ling wi thout danger

, .

The person who ha s never done any violent ex

cr oises in early li f e howe v er should be warned
, ,

aga inst attempting th em later His h eart and .

blood vessels h av e never been developed to f ull

-

capacity or tested by v iolent ex ertion s as have

, ,

tho s e of t h e young athlete ; and it is dangerous

to make such a test a f ter f orty fiv e unles s u nder -
,

the most careful supervision Moreo v er such an .

,

u ndeveloped system does n ot require the same

sort of stimulation as that of the f u lly developed

athlete I t has so adjusted itself to t hi s lack of
.

muscular development that its standard of nor ,

mality is greatly lowered ; and moderate exercise ,

in a very restricted s en se is usually sufficient to ,

main tain a healthy muscular tone .

S uch person s are often fond of walkin g ; and

for them walki ng in the open air a ffords sufficient
exercise But this moderate exertion does not
.

suffice as a rule f or the f ormer athlete or the

, , ,

person accustomed to the v iolent outdoor games

of youth The muscular e ff ort is so little more
.

than t h at of th e ordinary daily routine and is of ,

suc h similar nature mech anically that it can ,

h ardly be considered exercise in the therapeuti c

sense Moreover u nless one is fond of wal kin g
.
,
 S t abiliz in g the Facu lti es 1 35

he does not do it with zest or get the exhilaration ,

produced by some of the more unusual forms of

exertion .

However it is much better than nothi ng and

, ,

un fortunately is frequently the only kind of ex er

cis e available And when it is combined with
.

systematic indoor gymnastics it may serve to ,

complete an ideal combin ation .

A t the present time there are at least a score

of books o r systems which may be had for a
, ,

few cents that give instructions for courses of

,

simple exercises which if followed will put the

, , ,

system int o good physical condition Mii ller s .

’

My S y s tem and Gulick s Ten Minu tes Ex ercis e

,
’

f or B us y M en are excellent But no pre scription

,
.

is useful unless filled And most pe rson s fin d .

the r égime prescribed in these systems so irk

some that despite their good intentions very few
, ,

car ry it out persistently .

I t is perfectly certain however that fifteen , ,

m inutes of exercise daily with o r without any spe ,

cial apparatus will keep any person in good

,

physical condition I n proof of this if proof were

.
,

needed is the fact that gymn asts who do a daily

,

turn on the st age involving about fifteen minutes ’

work each day take no other exercise And yet

,
.

n othing is more difficult for most persons than to

f orce themselv e s t o take those few helpful minutes
of systematic work each day Many of my readers .

can testify t o the tru th of this assertion , I feel

1 36 I n creasin g Y ou r M en t al E fficien cy
sure But when health is to be weighed in the
.

balance against ten or fifteen minutes of odd time ,

there should be no hesitancy in making the selec

tion and pursuing that selection systematically
,
.

At first this daily grind is most irksome and re ,

quires considerable urgi ng of flagging will power -

.

But as soon as th e muscle s begin to respond and ,

become firm and elastic as they do a f ter a few ,

days the t a sk becomes less onerou s ; and presently

,

it becomes a positi v e plea sure The diffi culty in .

the undertakin g lies in getting safely through

those first few days of halting muscles and fl ag ,

ging will .

one of the most de structive factors to mental

equilibrium and stability is the habit of h ar
boring gloomy thoughts— in other word s the
tendency toward pes simism instead of optimism .

I t may be ob j ected that some persons are nat

u rally pes simistic while others in herit a happy
,

d isposition There is of course more than a

.
, ,

grain of truth in this : some individuals are more

f ortun ate than others in their natural endow
ments But we cann ot emphasi z e the fact too
.

strongly that di sposition is not an inherent qual

ity which is irrevocably fix ed by nature A happy .

disposition or a gloomy on e can be cultivated and

,

e nh anced by persistent e ff ort Moreover indivi .

,

dual disposition s are not determ in ed by sur

rounding conditions or circumstance s in mo st in ,

stances .
 S t abiliz in g th e Facu lti es 1 37

We fin d a tenden cy to pe ssimism in pers ons who

have n o extraneous re a son for such an attitude of
min d r ather more frequently than among those in
whom the feeling would seem justi fiable We may .

be certain therefore th at the developm ent of this

, ,

mental attitude is the result of faulty trainin g

quite a s m u ch as any inherent tendency An d .

since the gloomy brooding tendency is the dan

,

geron s one we should follow the di ct ates of the

,

philosophers of all tim e and sedu lou sy avoid it ,

.

It i s ou r own ills n ot those of others whi ch

,
”
we should treat with p hilosophical di sdain says ,

Dubois An d it is excellen t advice

. .

I n c riticism of this philosophy it may be pointed

ou t that persons whose minds have become a o
tu ally unbalanced do not reali z e their mental
abno rmality- cannot appreciate that their atti
tud e of mind is perverted The statement is in .
,

deed , almost axiomatic But this introspective .

obtuseness is a later phase of the disord er I n the .

early stages of mental aberration the afflicted per

s on usually realizes that something is wrong with
him even though his most intimate friends may
,

n ot suspect it Mo st normal or even semi insane

.
-

person s appreciate their own shortcomings f ar

better than any one else ; and if these sh ortcom
in gs are of a na tu r e that tends toward harmful
peculi arities or habits it is the part of ordinary
, ,

wisdom to correct them before they become per

manently fixed .
1 38 I n creas in g Y ou r M ent al E ffi cie ncy
We have said in another place that if the child
has received proper training in its early years
it will have developed a n ormal trend of mind that
will persist through out lif e I t f ollows therefore
.
, ,

that most persons who become unbalanced have

not received such trainin g excluding of course , , ,

those cases of mental aberration caused by in j ury ,

or organic diseases The abnormalities exhi bited

.

by the child are likely to develop in somewhat

similar form later in li f e u n less t h oroughly sup
,

pressed by training T h is fact is helpful in in

.

dicatin g the point from which danger may be ex

p ecte d and thus suggest methods of avoiding it
,
.

A n d thes e methods di ff er very little in principle

from those suggested f or correcting abnormal
tendencies in children although in the adults they
,

must usually be self applied -

.

Frequently of course f riends n otice changes in

, ,

the personality of others before such ch anges are

f ully appr eciated or admitted by the indi vidual .

I n s u ch case s it is the part of duty and of wisdom , ,

frankly to point out the discovery and cooperate

in the process of correction The fact that others .

have discovered these changes which th e p atient ,

may only vaguely appreciate or may h ave ,

striven to conceal helps hi m to overcome the

,

threatened afl ii ction .

We must not confuse p as sing change s of mood

with those th at are per sistent and harmful All .

persons are subj ect to su ch ch an ges which are en ,

 S t abiliz in g th e Facu lti es 1 39

tirely natural normal and , within reasonable

, ,

limits , helpful . The passionless colorless life ,

that seldom fluctuates from a monotonously

level plane is likely t o be a very u seles s one
, .

But prolonged change s in disposition without ,

adequate cause should be regarded with su spi

,

cion.

These changes tend to take one of two courses ,

one toward unnatural excitement or exaltation ,

the other toward depression and degradation ,

more frequently the latter S tated in another.

way the person with wavering mental balance is

,

far mor e likely to neglect the niceties of deport

ment than to exalt them We see examples of
.

these two c ondition s exhibited in the tempora ry

fo rm of insanity cau sed by alcoholic excesses .

S ome drunken men become ludicrously pu nctilious

in their deportment ; but f ar more f requently the
opposite extreme of carelessness in dress and de
portment is exhibited An d a similar careles sness
.
,

rather than punctiliousnes s is chara cteristic of

,

most form s of mental aberration .

An y person wh o is subj ect to violent outbursts

of ang er should labor ceasele ssly until he over
comes his afl liction For the tendency to indulge
.

in such outbreaks is likely to become progressively

worse if not curbed ; and the se explosions are most
destructive to the mental structure There is an .

actual and rapid de struction of bra in tissue dur ing

such outbursts , and the more freq uently they
1 40 I n creasin g Y ou r M ent al E fficiency
occur the les s time is given the system to rep air
,

the physical change The complete exhaustion

.

and collapse that follow such outbreaks is indica

tive of bra in cell changes much m ore de structive
-

than many hours of intense but controlled mental

, ,

e ff ort .

I t is a matter of common obse rvation that the

“
type of person wh o is naturally qui ck tem
”
pered but wh o has learned to control his temper
, ,

is likely to ris e intellectually far above the lev el

of the p a s sionles s and placid i ndividual For .

quick wits and quick tempers frequently go to

gether ; and the suppression of on e tends to en
hance the other .

The person who expends his energy in bursts of

anger depletes his mental maga z ine by an amoun t
exactly proportionate to the violence of his pas
sion— harm f ul expenditure that might othe rwise
have been diverted into useful mental processes .

With his temper under control however his f ull , ,

quota of ener gy becomes a v ailable for concentra

tion along help f ul rather than dest ru ctive , chan
,

nels .

One of the best known examples of a hot tem -

pered man who had learned to control hi s passion

is that of Washington—not the sickly cherry ,

tree Washington bu t the man as he was Dur

, .

ing his long career of protracted trials and ex ,

asp erati on s only on a few occa sions did violen t

,

anger get the mastery of that f orceful personality

 S t abiliz in g th e Facu lties 1 41

— just enough to show that the fie ry demon was

chained n ot de stroyed
, .

Probably the best way to conquer bursts of

anger is to review the actual efi ects of such ou t
breaks in calmer moments A little reflection will
.

show that anger puts one at a disadvantage phys ,

i cally and mentally ! uick straight thinking is

.
, ,

on e of the as sets of ability : the man in a passion

may think quickly but his judgment is proverbi
,

ally bad An d s o when pitted against a calm mind

.

of equal ability his disadvantage is obvious The .

force that should be directed to co rrect thinking

i s consumed in the false thinking created by anger .

Thi s fact alone—the fact that an ger gives advan

tage to the opponent—should o ff er sufficient stim
ulu s f or conquering the tendency to vi olent out
bursts .

The physical disadvantages of great anger are

just a s demonstrable as the mental I t is one of .

the fundamentals of boxing for example to keep

, ,
”
one s temper
’
. Get the other fellow mad is
elemental in the boxer s train in g
’
.

I recall an illustration of this principle during

the early train ing of a promi s ing beginner with
the padded gloves The youn g man who had been
.
,

led to ove rrate hi s fistic ability by successful con

test s with fellow amateurs was taking his first
,

s e rious less on from a master inst ructor The fact .

that the veteran eluded him at every tu rn at first

s urpri sed , and then nettled him into obviously
1 42 I n creasin g You r M en t al E fficien cy
suppressed anger At this stage the instructor ;
.
,

wh o was studying his pupil s mood with thorough ’

understanding began de f tly tapping the young

,

man s fac e j ust h ard enough to sting and irritate

’
,

and with exasperating f requency .

S t u ng by t h e blows and by the laughter of the ,

onlookers the boy lo st every vestige of self con

,
-

trol and r u shed upon his tormentor to annihilat

hi m But instead of accomplish ing this h e now
.
,

recei v ed more f requent and more stinging blows ,

despite hi s f rantic e ff orts Finally he stopped .

from sheer exhaustion sobbing with impotent ,

rage When the boy h ad regained his breath and

.
,

his equanimity th e in stru ctor went over to hi m

, ,

patted him on the back and gave him some good ,

advice—excellent advice for every person regard ,

less of the source .

”
Never get mad my boy he said N o mat
, ,
.

ter what happens smile I f the other f ellow , .

nearly knocks your head off j u st grin at him ,

but don t get mad For if you do you can t thin k

’
.
,
’
,

and then he ll hit you hard and o f ten But if you

’
.

just smile he ll think that he didn t hurt you and

’ ’
,

it will shake his con fidence in h imself P retty .

soon perhaps h e ll get mad— and then you ll beat

’ ’

him .

This is the accepted philosophy of the ring

accepted because it works But it is just as ap .

plicable as a guiding p hilosophy in the higher

callin gs which require bette r although no mor e ,
 S t abiliz in g th e Facu lti es 1 43

inten se mental e fforts For any intense excite

, .

ment such a s violent anger which throws a per ,

s on into a state of temporary confusion may be ,

the portal to a permanent condition of mental

instability .

A certain degre e of sensitiveness and a reason

able amount of suspicion govern the deportment
of every normal person M oreover the limits of
.
,

these n o rmal variations are elastic and difi er in ,

each individual Every self respecting person

.
-

mu st be sensitive in some degree ; and even ordi

nary busines s ventures require that a certain
amount of the kind of suspicion which is engen
dered by caution mu st be exercised
,
.

But hyper sensitivenes s which is frequently ac

,

companied by an exces sive amount of baseles s

suspicion denotes bad mental balance We must
,
.

always be que stioning the motive of others to a

certain extent—it is the basis of all ou r business

tran saction s and studies of human nature But
,
.

a strong tendency to read e vil motives between the

lines is a paranoid one that leads away from the
paths of normal optimism .

The person who is forever on the lookout f or

fancied slight s wi ll u sua lly fin d them and be ,

cau sed much unnecessary unhappines s by a thou

sand and one mean ingless incidents S o long as .

the min d of such a person is open t o reason , h ow

ever—so long a s a plau sible explanation convinces
him of his error his attitude of mind, while u n
,
1 44 I n creas in g Y ou r M en t al E fficie n cy
f ortunate , cannot be con sidered abnormal But if .

constant suspicions drive him to a point wher e

reasonable explanation does not con v ince a poin t ,

at whic h he rea son s f rom false premises he has ,

reached a state of mind that is crowding the inner

border of the danger z one .

S uch a person must take himself firmly in hand ,

cultivate t h e h a bits of overlooking trifl es and re ,

gard the generalities of everyday life from an

optimistic point of view He may to advantage .
, ,

adopt and amplify the rules once given me by a

vill age carpenter whose mind evolved a helpful

,

philosophy whi le his body pursued its more

,

plebeian tasks His philosophy may be summar

.

iz e d thus : I f your friend fails to notice you in the

passing crowd very well : t h er e are oth er f riends
,

— plenty of t h em Or more likely he did not see

.
, ,

you I f you are sensitive and suspect that people

.
,

are talking about you What of it ? They are talk

,

ing about their betters and can be ignored Thus

, .

putting aside each obtruding disagreeable impres

sion and substituting an optimistic one , you stifle
t h e paranoid tendency by a healthful process of
,

introspection and self educa tion -

.

This work of sel f education is less difficult

-

”
than one would think says Dubois , I see every .

day sick people who during all their live s have

su ff ered cruelly from this impres sionability which
renders them incapable of per f orming their duties .

O f ten in some days almo st always in some weeks

,
 S t abiliz in g the Facu lties 1 45

they succeed in altering their point of view in see ,

ing t hi ngs from another angle I n proportion as

.

they recover their mental calm under the empire

of healthy reflections functional trouble s di sap
,

pear sleep returns and appetite arises the body

, , ,

becomes stronger and the success of thi s mental

,

treatment demonstrates the supremacy of the

”
mind over the body .

I t is helpful and gratifyin g in reviewing our

own shortcomings , to reflect that even the wisest

man is utterly incapable of fathoming the motiv e s

of others in a vast maj ority of in stances I t fol .

lows therefore , that it is folly to waste one s time

,
’

on so futile a ta sk ; and it is positively harm f ul if

the motive is engendered by brooding suspicions .

I knew a man—a man who was an exceptionall y

good judge of human nature—who made the f ol
lowing experiment to determine just how accu
rate ly he could interpret t h e motives f or certain

actions in others : Each day he took note of inci

dent s that came to his attention among his f riends
and acquaintances studying them care f ully until
,

he had reached a conclusion as to the motive and ,

then writing down his interpretation When he .

had accumulated a long list in this manner he went

to each individual explained what he had been
,

doing and asked each one to afl

,
i rm or deny
whether his interpretation was correct I n not .

on e in stance was his interpretation entirely cor

rect , and in most instances it was utterly wrong !

1 46 I n creasin g You r M ent al Efficiency
His culminating experiment gives a general
idea of the methods pursued An editor had re .

cen tly returned him a manuscript wit h t h e usual

polite editorial form that it wa s not available

for our publication The experimenter had
.

formulated three reason s for its re f usal : ( 1 ) it was

not written well enough ; ( 2) the subject was not
interesting ; ( 3) it was either too long or too short .

These he submi tted to the editor who promptly ,

gav e him a f ourth ( the real reason ) by show

ing the author a manuscript deal in g with the same
sub j ect as his own writte n and accepted some
,

time be f ore .

Closely allied to the suspicious p aranoi d atti ,

tude of mind is one of excessiv e and unreasona ble

jealousy Frequently the two are concomitant
. .

The difficulty here just as in the case of su spi

,

ciou sn e ss is to draw the line that exactly marks

,

t h e division between normal and abnormal jeal

ou sy .B u t when any one is obse ssed by u n re
f

strained doubts his j udgment becomes v ery

quickly impervious to evidence and the l ine shi f ts ,

towards a bnormality The ine v itable result is

.

unhappiness : th e p os sible result disturbed ,

mental equilibrium u nless th e tendency is cor

,

r ected .

The cultivation of a t h ankful spirit and a

”
reasonable humility, says Hollander and the ,

determi nation not to let the pin pricks of li f e u p -

set them would do much to prevent men and

,
 S t abiliz in g the Facu lties 1 47

women getting on the slide which ulti mately leads

”
to the quick descent into unsoundn ess of mind .

One cannot emphasi z e too forcibly the effects

”
of these pin pricks both in the giving and the
-
,

receiving They are the basis of more mental

.

distres s and unsoundne ss than all the cataclysms .

The hou sehold that is cursed with a nagging mem

ber is far more liable to disruption than one in
which a member i s subj ect to fits of temper .

The term naggi ng needs f uller explication .

There are all gradations in kinds and degree from ,

the vituperating scolds of ducking stool no -

toriety to the quiet , insidious , in s inuating pin

,

prick type The fault fin ding scold is the more

.
-

detestable ; but undoubtedly the quietly obtrusive

type is the more dangerous one judged by ultimate ,

results . The explanation of this has a sound

physiologi cal basis The person who is subjected
.

to periodic beratings with intervening periods of

calm is given O pportunity for mental recuperation
,

be tween castigations But the mind that is su b

.

jected to cont in ual nagging fault fin ding and ,

-
,

criticism is placed in a state of continuous appre

,

h en s ion—a condition of high mental tension in

which there are no resting periods for recupera
tive repair .

Few person s aside from the physician s familiar

,

with the causes of mental un soundness appreciate ,

the amount of actual insanity and the number of ,

prematur e deaths from o rganic diseases produced ,

1 48 I ncreasin g Y ou r M en t al E fficiency
by the quiet smoothtongued typ e of
,
nagg ers .

Yet their peculiar capacity for creating evil may

be little suspected except by their immediat e
f riends For this particular type of person is
.

f ound most f requently among the cultured classes

in the upper walk of life whose esthetic trai ning
,

causes them to repress their feelings in public bet

ter than those in less exalted social positions .

Every veteran physician did he choose could , ,

cite specific cases in his community in which the

nervous systems of entire families had been de
moralized by one naggi ng member An d f re .

quently this particular person is the one that would

be least suspected by an outsider Let me cite .

one typical case that was the subj ect of pers onal
observation f or several years .

The woman who was responsible for this par

ticu lar tragedy was born of wealthy parents given ,

the kind of education fa shionable among the

aristocracy ”
of our grandfathers time and ’
,

launched upon life mated to a man who was her

equal in culture , her superio r in intellect His .

only in f eriority was in the matter of worldly

goods—a thin g that looked at in retrospect
, ,

played an important part in the ultim ate catas

trO ph e .

This woman had one quality of mind th at is

seen so f requently in the highly cultured mem
bers of old families ”
namely obstin acy—a
, ,

thing by no means s yn onymous with firmnes s .

 S t abiliz in g th e Facu lties 1 49

An d the manner in which this peculiar type of

obstinacy manifested itself was in a not unusual

trait of making every one do things h er way , not
their own But this somewhat characte ri stic fem
.

i nine quality obtruded itself into every depart

ment of her family li f e , even dominating the
amusements of her two sons in a peculiar ma nner .

Her attitude of mind may be summarized as wish

ing her children to enj oy themselves but only ,

in the manner which she prescribed or in the ,

amusements she selected .

While the children were young this attitude was

entirely commendable as her selections were
,

u sually good But as the boys grew older they

.
,

very naturally wished to be their own choosers of

,

amusements and companions They were , in .

short approa ching a state of manhood , with the

,

tastes peculiar to men and beyond the under ,

standing even O f a mother .

Yet the mother s peculiar obsession did not

’

change Whatever the boys proposed doing and

.
,

wished to do, wa s always rej ected and some sub ,

s titu te o ffered I f they selected skating she sug

.
,

gested coasting ; if th ey chos e the theatre she ,

advised a concert ; if they had planne d a duck

shooting excursion on the rive r she in sisted on a ,

quail hunt An d what is more signi ficant she inva

.
, ,

riably carried her point S o that although the boys

.

were given all manner of amusement and enter

tainment, they were in reality never doing what
1 50 I n creasing You r M en t al E fficie n cy
they really wanted to do most They su f f ered .

from o v er protection of a peculiar kind ; or ,

stated in another way wer e tied to an elastic

,

apron string — elastic bu t with tension that

, ,

never completely relaxed .

Had these boys bee n of the deceit f ul type who ,

would pretend to go quail hunt ing but in reality

be shooting ducks a s they preferred I believe th ev
, ,

would have profited in mental stability despite the ,

deception Yet had they rebelled and in sisted on

.
,

their own form of amusements they would have ,

been confronted with a subtle obstinacy which of

f ered no loop hole to direct attack
-
They had no .

choice but to take the form of amusement that

their mothe r decided they should enj oy —and so ,

half enj oy themselves The result was the crea

.

tion of an attitude of mind in which the essential

element of complete grat ification was wanting .

The fact that the mother s method was on e of ’

qui et insinuative persistency explain s its efl

, i ,

ciency Open opposition on her part would have

.

produced O pen rebellion in the boys who were ,

sturdy manly fellows But hers was the more

, .

subtle eff ective method of seemingly gently lead

,

in g which was in e ffect obstin ate driving

, .

The mother s peculiar attitude did not change

’
,

even after the older boy had grown to manhood ,

and graduated f rom college I ndeed her peculiar .

ity had rather increased as is usual with any ,

eccentricity that is nurtured by persistent ex er

 S t abiliz in g th e Facu lties 1 51

cise S he still contin ued to select or oppose the

.
, ,

companions amu sements and occupation s f or her

, ,

s on just a s she had been doing fo r years

, .

The result was inevitable I nheriting f rom his .

mother her temperamental peculiaritie s which

were aggravated by her attitude the mind of the ,

older boy gave way, and he became hopelessly in

sane Hard study caused the catastrophe the
.
,

f riends s aid I t had nothing to do with it

. Per .

sistent insinuative in sidiou s nagging ( I know of

, ,

n o better term ) was the excit ing and determina ,

tive cause .

A brief summary of the later phases of this

tragedy i s illuminative The un fortunate young
.

man was placed in the care of the greatest physi

eiau s of Europe and A merica succes sively But .

for several years his condition made con fin ement

in an asylum neces sary Then as his mi nd had
.
,

become more enfeebled and his attitude less ,

aggressive he was allowed to travel about a ecom

,

p an ied by companions and physician Meanwhile .

he had developed a peculiar n egatism similar

to that of hi s mother —an obstinate persistency in
,

refusing to do things that other s suggested even ,

when he really wished to do them .

Moreover like many cases of alienation he had

, ,

taken a decided aversion to the members of his

family This attitude wa s particularly apparent
.

when his mother visited him During those visits .

,

whi ch were made at intervals of several months ,

1 52 I n creas in g Y ou r M e nt al E fficie ncy
the son became progressiv ely mo re u nhappy dis ,

tu rbed and con f used as a result of th e active

, ,

stimulus to his repressed emotion s .

For the passing years and accompanying sor ,

row had wrough t no change in the mother s atti

,
’

tude or activity in selecting recreations for her

,

son ; and meanwhile a s we hav e seen the son , ,

had de v eloped a similar activ e n eg ati sm of his

own T hus their p oint s of agreement were quite
.

as f ar apart as ever The mother s care f ully laid

.
’

plans f or her son s recreations ( and she was f or

’

ev er making them ) were always promptly re

jected and a substitute suggested ; while th e son s
’
,

plan s met the inevitable re j ection or substitution ,

.

Or if by chance both hit upon the same plan at

, ,

the same time neither could resist the opportunity

to switch to some other .

Even in these peculiar circumstances thin gs

would ha v e run along f airly well had the mother
been willing to exercise a reasonable flexibility
of mind Bu t she would not—proba bly co u ld not
.
,

at least in later years On e does not change one s .

’

mental attitude at three score and ten An d so .

the distressing drama was enacted day after day

during her periodic visits .

Y ou will say at once th at this woman wa s ab

normal —quite as insane as her son Had you
,
.

known her h owever even as an intimate acquaint

, ,

ance without the knowledge of her immediate

family you would probably be inclined to change
,
 S t abiliz in g th e Facu lti es 1 53

your opinion A brilliant active mind a tireless

.
, ,

reader and intelli gent interpreter of good litera

ture a charming hoste ss and a matchles s house
,

keeper—where would you fin d ground by ordi

,

nary standards of observation for your dia gn osis ?

An d yet you are not far wrong Her natural .

mother s love which she believed gove rn ed her

’
,

every action was really dominated by an in tense

,

selfishnes s which had become a fo rm of man ia .

This sel fishn ess constantly perverted and in ef ,

feet replaced the natural a ff ection

, .

There is a valuable lesson that may be learned

from thi s strange although in its essentials char
, ,

acteri stic example , and one that every person who

is given to chronic mental antagonism or kindred ,

“
attitudes should heed For
, nagging
. is not
merely a disagreeable habit but a manifestation ,

of that most despicable human trait sel fishness ,

.

Moreover its e ffects are much the sam e whether

,

it be exhibited in perverse actions , couched in the

st rident voice of th e termagant , or spoken with
the carefully modulated intonation of cultured re
fin emen t Like c ontinual bursts of anger it is
.

progres sively destructive of the n ervous system .

But its e ff ects are somewhat di fferent f rom those

of burst s of temper in being less self destructive -
,

but more harmful to the nervous system of others .

The popular metaphor comparing the u nf or ,

”
tu n ate lun atic to a cracked pot is an ancient ,

on e
. It s exact ori gi n is uncertain Bu t if we carry .
1 54 I n creasin g Y ou r M e nt al Effi ciency
the comparison between mental mis f ortunes and
broken chinaware on e step f arther we can see ,

how thi s c rude comparison may h av e ori gi nated .

Every on e knows that cracks in earthenware

cannot be completely concealed or repaired But .

there is another condition which in its ultimate ,

efi ects is j u st a s destructive to th e piece of ware

a s the more pal p able cracks T h is is the min ute .

system of cracklets that occur in the over gla z e -

of a piece in which t h is gla z e is not properly

adapted to the body of the ware A t first these .

minute and apparently harmless cracklets are in

conspicuous although t h ey may be discovered by
,

close inspection But presently they become ob

.

tru siv e covering the ware with a fin e network of

,

discolored lines—a condition seen in old pieces of

badly made ch in a When this stage is reached
.

the substance of the war e i s beginning to disin te

grate little a s one might suspect it I t has los t
,
.

its ringing tone and presently it falls to pieces

,

destroyed much more completely beyond repair

by this network of cracklets than by any s ingle
gaping fissure .

The difference between these two condition s is ,

that although the a ctual fissure can never be re

paired so as to conceal the crack even when use
f ulness is restored t h e little cracklets may be re
,

paired by a proper system of appropriate gla z ing ,

and the piece made as good as new in e v ery par

ticu lar—provided always that this re gla z ing is
, ,
-
 S t abiliz in g th e Facu lties 1 55

don e before the underlying body stru cture is -

a ff ected .

Curiously enough the name that potters give

this fin e crack in g of the gla z e is cra z ing ,
.

I n the human piece of china an alogous condi ,

tions present themselves The con spicuous and

.

irreparable fissures that occur represent the ,

cataclysms caused by injury and specific disease

'

which produce in curable mental aberrations The .

little cracklets are the eccentricitie s obsessions , ,

worries and maladj ustments to surroundin gs

,

ju st a s the minute fis sure s in the china are th e

maladjustment of th e gla z e to the body ware -

which if not corrected in the beginning eventually

, ,

lead to complete di sintegration .

”
Nearly all the world is cracked says one ,

writer ,
but som e succeed in co v ering up the
”
cracks better than others I f actual cracks exi st
.
,

however it will not be possible t o conceal them

,

for any ve ry great length of time An d if they .

are simply little crazings —minute cracklets in

the mental over gla z e—it is f ar better to repair
-

them than to attempt the impo ssible task of con

cealing, or rendering them innocuous .
 Th e P roblem of A n ces try and Environment

HE human race to d ay i s the expres sed sum

T of all the good bad and indi fferent that
, ,
”
have existed in the world from the beginning ,

says a modern philosopher Or stated otherwise

.
, ,

each individual is a composite picture of all his

ancestors .

N o on e has ever seriously doubted the com

ponent elements of the picture ; the only di ff erence
in opinion has been concern ing the perspective ,
and the arrangement of the figures S ome have .

been inclined to give undue prominence to remote

ancestors in the composition while others have
,

practically ignored t h em placing the figures of

,

recent ancestors conspicuou sly in the foregrou nd .

S till others have brought environmental condi

tions to the front thus concealing the remote an
,

cestors completely and crowding back the more

recent I n short there have been no fixed rules

.

for composing the picture at least until the clos

,

ing years of the nineteenth century .

To be sure S ir Francis Galton had f ormulated

his laws of heredity some little time before this .

1 56
 Th e Proble m of A ncest ry and E nvironment 1 57

An d G alton empirical rules have proved to be

’
s

fairly accurate But it remained for an Austrian

.

monk Gregor Mendel , to fathom the riddle of

,

heredity , and formulate accurate laws whose truth

could be demonstrated by practical application .

Mendel s experiments were n ot made with

’

human beings not even with the lower animals

, ,

but were largely concerned with the little plant

familiarly known as the garden pea What pos .

sible relation , you may well ask have the laws ,

governing the heredity of a little plant to those

of the supreme animal , Man ? or f or that matter
, ,

to the lowe st member of the animal kingdom ?

The answer is simple and precise : they have
every thing to do with it The same f undamental
.

laws of heredity that govern the garden pea apply

to all other plants , and all members of the animal
kingdom including man himself
,
.

A t the present time the knowledge of these laws

i s being utilized in the practical development of
better plants and better animals Eventually we .
,

may feel sure they will be the means of produc

,

ing a race of better men The popular eugenics

.

movement of the present time is an earnest of this .

F or bad heredity plays a leading m i le in a va s t

maj ority of nervous disorders particularly in ,

cases of mental instability ; and the science of

eugenics and the application of mental hygi ene
, ,

may in sure future generations a better heritage

tha n ou r own .
1 58 I n creasin g Y ou r M ent al E ffi cie n cy
S ome the miraculous transformation s that
of

ha v e been wrough t in plants , particularly the p ro

duction of disease resisting species sugges t the
-
,

probability th at similar e ffects will be produced

e v entually in human beings since the M endelian
,

laws govern th e heredity and met h ods of pr opaga

tion in both An interestin g instance of the appli
.

cation of t h ese laws is the production of a rust

resisting strain of wheat created by Professor

B ifl i n which seems destined to restore the almo st
,

obsolete wheat raising industry of Great B ri tain

-
.

A few years ago the ravages of the rust fungus -

had practically destroyed wheat growing a s an in -

du stry in the British I sles Microscopic studies of

.

this fungus revealed the fact that in order to com

p lete the cycle of its existence it must live for a
time in barberry bushes ; and these bushes are used
extensively in Great Britain for hedges By de .

stroying the barberry bushe s the rust fungu s -

would be extermin ated But such a radical cure

.

seemed almost a s bad a s the malady itself .

Profe ssor Biffin f ound a substitute f or this ‘

wholesale destruction of the hedges By breed .

ing experiments ba sed on Mendelian laws of

,

heredity he produced a strain of wheat which re

,

sembled ordinary English wheat in its quality as

a foodstu ff but di ff ered in the important par
,

ticu lar that it resisted the attacks of the rust

fungus T hus t h e scholarly old A ustrian monk
.
,

pottering with the pea vines of h is little garden

-
 Th e Proble m of Ances try and E nvironment 1 59

half a century before made it possible for the

,

modern English agriculturist to raise his whea t

and keep his hedges .

This is but one example in a thousand that migh t

be cited a s showing th e practical value of know
ing the laws of heredity The California wiz ard
.
,

Mr Luther Burbank has created hundreds of new

.
,

v e rities and modified thousands by his wonderful

, ,

application of these laws .

But obviously the application of Mendelian laws

for the creation of new species of plants which ,

have neither muscular n or nervous systems is a ,

much simpler process than its application t o th e

complex org anisms of animals Yet even in the .

animal kingdom these difficulties are not in super

able ; and although the laws of heredity are more
di fficult to interpret in the highe r organisms ,

enough has been accomplished already to show

that thes e laws apply with the same fixity her e
a s in the less complex ones .

Thus it is possible to produc e predetermined

changes in color and anatomical peculiarities with ,

almost mathematical accuracy in the o ffspring of

certain domestic an imal s and birds Further .

more the mental characteristics of such ofi spring

,

may be changed along definite lines under the

magic touch of the Mendelian exp er imenter .

I t is one thin g of course , to predetermine that

,

a certain egg in a nest wi ll produc e a thin active , ,

laying hen , its ne st mate a fat stupid sterile fowl

-
,
1 60 I ncreasin g Y ou r M ent al E fficie ncy
for market purposes and quite another to produ ce
,

at will a criminal or a philosopher But if we .

could control the ancestry of the criminal or the

philosopher, a s we can those of the fowl ; and
control , also the additional item of envi ronment ,
,

which enters so largely int o the problem of

eugenics , we should un doubtedly be able to pro
duce results quite as definite in human beings as
in the lower animals .

In a way our civili z ation is doing this very

thin g at the present time and has been doing it
for ages—doing it badly when it produced a crim
,

inal and doing it well whe n a philosopher was

,

created But in either case , the individual was

.
,

simply a happy or un f ortunate result of hap

hazard natural selection Had these selections.

been governed by the standards of modern

eugenics during all past ages we should to -day
have more philosophers and fewer criminals and
degenerates .

One of the greatest di fficulties in makin g com

parisons between the e ffects of heredity in man
and the lower animals or plants is the great dif
ference in the time —
,

element of generations in
volved The cycle of development in the lower
.

order of animal s may be completed in months , or

even weeks whereas in man the cycle is reckoned
,

in years For t his reason the student of human

.

heredity must make his deductions from and base ,

his applications largely upon past records But .

 Th e Problem of A nces t ry and Environment 1 61

even wi th thi s handicap he has been able to pro

—
duce some ve ry definite workin g data e nough at ,

least , to demonstrate the soundness of hi s theo ries .

The evidence s of heredity on normal anatomi

cal structures are too patent to admit of argu
’
ment The commonplace example of a child s
.

resemblance to its parent is su fl i ciently demon

s trative But we are more particularly concerned
.

here with the influence of heredity on mental

traits , e specially thos e that have a pronounced
e ff ect on mental un soundness . And curiously
enough it is through ou r studies of the hereditary
,

element in mental and physical abnormalitie s that

we are able to reach de fin ite conclusions governing
the development of normal minds and bodies .

We have learned , for example , that near -sight

e dn es s ( myopia ) is frequently an inherited defect .

A n d this kn owledge is most useful in studying the

childre n of a myopic parent We have lea rned
.
,

also that the peculiar defect known a s color

,

blindnes s is inherited from the male but trans

,

mitted through the females of the strain Thus .

a color bl ind father rarely has color blind chil

- -

dren But some of his n ephews may be color

.

blind ; and if his daughters bear him male grand

children we can predict with relative certainty
,

that some of them will in herit the defect .

I t ha s been de finitely determined that the color

in the eye is transmitte d with the same exactn ess ,

an d ac cording to th e same fixed laws that gove rn

1 62 I n creasin g Y ou r M en t al E fficie ncy
the trans mission of color to the flowers of the pea ,

or the coat of the guinea pig T h us if both par .

,

ents have blu e eyes e v ery one of their childre n

,

will be blue eyed— a u seful piece of kn owledge

-

in certain legal complications A nd whatever the .

color if the ancestry of the parents is known we

, ,

can predict with great precision what the color of

th e children s eye s will be
’
.

I t is evident therefore that certain abn ormali

, ,

tie s of the eyes as well as normal peculiarities are

, ,

gov erned by the laws of heredity about which we

ha v e some very precise knowledge An d we are .

certain that the other anatomical structures are

subj ect to these same laws even though we are u n
,

able to demonstrate the fact with the same pre

cision a s in the organs of sight Moreover since .
,

mental traits are simply manifestations of definite

physic al conditions it follows that these traits
,

must be determined primarily by the same laws of

heredity as those governing physical conditions .

I n short that the Mendelian laws apply to plants ,

animals human anatomy and mental character

, ,

i sti cs .

We must remember of course that mental

, ,

traits are subj ect to the influence of environment

( training ) to a far greater degree than are
anatomical structures The preponderance of evi
.

dence seems to show that all such traits whether ,

in herited or acquired are likely to be transmitted

,

to the o ff spring particularly those acquired trait s

,
 Th e Problem of A ncest ry an d En vironmen t 1 63

( or the tendency toward them ) that conce rn the

higher intellect .

Galton , who inaugurated and named the mode rn

science of eugenics , believed that an individual
inherited from h is parents on e half his traits ; on e
-

fourth from his grandparents ; one — eighth from

great grandparents , and so on
-
Many recent.

observ ers are inclined to credit the parents with

rather more influence and the more remote an
,

cestor s with le ss than did Galton

,
The di ff erence
.

at most , is one of small fractions But the signifi

.

cance of each of these estimates is the burden of

responsibility f or the future of the child that it
places upon the parents—the only indivi duals in
the line of descent ove r who m we may hope t o
have any direct control .

What we are chiefly concerned with here is the

extent to which mental defects or the tendency
,

toward such defects , are transmitted and to just ,

what extent they may be corrected by training and

environment .

The task of determining the efi ects of heredi ty

becomes increasingly difficult as we a scend the
scale of in telligence We can , to be sure , point to
.

succes sive generation s of person s po sses sing u n

u sual mental endowment—the Darwins the Her ,
‘

s ch els, and th e descendants of Jonathan Edwards

—and n o one will seriou sly question the important
part that heredity has played in determining the
supe rior intellects of these group s But the in .
1 64 I n creas in g Y ou r M e nt al Efficiency

fl
u en ce of heredity is shown even more exactly in
persons at the oth er extreme of the mental scale .

I n other words it is far easier to predetermin e

,

mental in capacity than t o predict the limit of

,

mental capacity from th e known ancestry

,
.

We cann ot predict with certainty that the chil

dren of two parents of unusual mental capacities
will rise to t h e supreme height of genius ; but we
are absolutely certain that all the children of two
imbecile parents will be feeble minded without ex -

ception An d we know also that no child of u n

.

usual mental endowment will be born to parents ,

either one of whom is below the normal standard

of intellect .

We know that the children of two epileptic par

ents will all be de f ectives — many of them epilep ,

tics and some of them imbeciles The results of

,
.

three such matings have been recently recorded by

Dr D F Weeks as follows : I n three matings
. . .
,

both of the parent s were epileptics Of the 28 .

conceptions 2 were still births 3 miscarriages 3

,
-
, ,

died before two years of age and one ( an in f ant ) ,

is too young for classification leaving 1 9 about ,

whom something de finite is known Of these .

,

8 were epileptic 3 feeble minded and 8 who

,
-
, ,

came f rom parents who developed epilepsy l ate in

” ”
f
li e were tainted
, By tainted it should be
.
,

understood is mean t person s of unstable equ ilib

,

riu m who are prone to lapse into mental unsound

 Th e Proble m O f A nces t ry and En vironment 1 65

Another group observed by Dr Weeks o ffers the .

following appalling record : I n 9 fraternities i n

which both parents were feeble minded there -
,

were 5 6 conceptions Of these 4 died before 2

.
,

years of age and 1 4 were too young f or classifica

,

tion Of the other 38

. 7 were epileptic 29 ,

feeble minded and 2 were drunkards w ho may or

-
, ,
”
may not have been feeble minded -
.

We see from the se records that the mental de

feets represented in imbecility epilepsy and in , ,

s anity are so closely related that t h ey may be

,

tran smitted interchangeably so to speak All of ,

.

them seem to re present negative qualities—actual

omi ssions of a positive element in the physical
make u p that is present in normal individuals
-
.

A n d since a thing that does not exist obviously

cannot be transmitted we find an explanation of
,

why imbecile parents , each of whom lacks certain

e ssentials to normal mentality beget imbecile chil ,

dren with deadly certa inty We fin d here also .

, ,

the scienti fic explanation of why it is not advi s

able f or near relatives such a s first cousins to
, ,

m ar ry since both may have inherited similar

,

negativ e qualities thus doubling the chance s of

,

transmitting defects to their children .

Recent inve stigation s of the ancestry and de

s cendan ts of persons of unstable mental balance ,

enable u s to make certa in de finite prediction s .

We kn ow f or example that tw o n ormal persons

, ,

with normal ancestry will beget only normal chi l

1 66 I ncreas ing Y ou r M ent al E fficie ncy
dren But the case become s complicated with th e
.
f

introduction of a single element of marked mental

instability .

Thus if a man wh o has been insane marr ies

a woman of normal mentality with pure n ormal
ancestry all their chil dren will probably be nor
,

mal But some of their grand children are almost

.
-

certain to be defective .

I f one of th e parents have been in sane and

“

the other normal but inheriting a neuropathic

make u p even f rom one grand parent half of the
- -
,

children will sho w mental or nervou s in stabili ty ,

and all will be capable of transmittin g such in

stability to their children .

I f both parents are mentally unstable all their

children will inherit a tenden cy to mental in
stability .

To summarize these conclusion s it appears that ,

any person whose parent s are both abnormal has

considerably less than an even fighting chance
of keepin g normal under ordinary circumstances ,

although his case is by n o means hopeless On the .

other hand the individual with one defective par

,

ent has considerably better than an even chance

under ordinary circumstance s ; and with proper
environment and training will in all probability
rem ain normal throughout li f e .

I t is obv iously of greatest importance there ,

f ore to protect f uture generations by some

,

method of regulating or preventing marriage ,

 Th e Problem of A nces t ry and E nvironmen t 1 67

among the un fit ; and to follow some system

of psychic trai ning for those members of the pres
ent generation of children with neuropathic taint
s o as to fortify them against mental unbalance .

Fo r that character of the child s mind which we

’

designate stability may be greatly increased

,

by environment even when handicapped by bad

,

hereditary defects .

The child that inherits a stabl e mental equ ilib

riu m needs no special training to maintain its

poise I t is doubtful indeed if anything short of

.
, ,

actual physical injury to the brain either by ,

traumatism or specific disease will ever produ ce

,

aberration in such an individual But needless .

to say the number of children who come into the

world with such an enviabl e heritage is limited ; ,

and on account of the complexity of ou r ancestry

, ,

it is usually impossibl e to determine jus t how

preponderant the dominant traits in any p articu
lar individual may be .

On the other hand no chi ldren , short of tho se

,

actually congenitally defective are born with such

,

a bad hereditary taint that they are hopelessly

predestined to become insane But it is obvious
.

that children with bad heredity require far more

careful train ing than those whose heredity i s
good .

Mental training should not be confused

with education in the generally accepted sense .

For in some instances the ordinary forms of

1 68 I ncreasing You r M en t al E fficiency
didactic education are detrimental and may very ,

advantageously be r estricted rather than ex

p an ded . Manual training followed by some
,

humble vocation , is sometime s far better f or a

nervous , sensitive child of restricted mental
,

capacity , than the kind of education given in ou r

schools .

I n an y event we must distinguish between mere

learning and inherent mental capacity One per .

son may have great mental capacity and little

learn ing while another may have considerable
,

learni ng without very great mental capacity I t .

is quite possible to in crease ou r knowledge , but

mental caliber is an inheritance that cannot be
increa sed by training Moreover mental ca
.
,

pacity, in mo st instances has little to do with

,

mental equilibrium I n e ffect they are separate

.

organ isms But the man of great mental capacity

.

is far more capable of correcting the wobbling

of hi s mental balance wheel than the man who
is poorly endowed because his introspective judg
,

ment is more highly developed .

A s referred t o a moment ago an exact knowl ,

edge of certain phases of heredity enables us to

predetermine what the limits of mental c apacity
in the child of imbecile parents will be , and also
the limit s of mental capacity in children whose
parent s are of mediocre mentality This knowl .

edge may be of great practic al value since many ,

of the children from this mediocre stock are

 Th e Problem of A n cest ry and Environment 1 69

precocious in their earl y years thus giving prom ,

ise s that they will never ful fil I n such cases an

.

early appreciation of the child s l imitations may ’

be the me an s of making a useful instead of a use ,

less adult
, .

M any of u s will recogni z e instances of natural

limitations if we compare the ul timate attain
,

ments of ou r schoolmates wi th the promise of

their early s chool years I n the primary grades
.

of school the brightest and most promising pupils

frequent ly come from the most humble walks of
li fe—the children of the village cobbler tinker or , ,

day laborer who have neither good heredity nor

-
,

in spi ring environment A pparently thes e chil

.

dren defy our laws of heredity But if we observe .

them in their later years we u sually find a strik

ing confirm ation of those laws For most of them .

drop into stations of life sc arcely above the level

of tho se held by their parents An d in the case of
.

the exceptions— or rather ap p aren t exceptions

,

we shall usually fin d that despite their humble

,

social po sition on e or the other parent ( usually

,

the mother it appears ) had ancestors of more

,

than ordinary mental capacity .

I recall a t ypical case among my own boyhood

a cquaintance the son of a cooper whose wife was
,

the type of or di nary domestic This boy entered .

the primary class in the village public school when

fiv e years old a bright fin e looking little fellow a
, ,
-
,

favorite with hi s mates and the leader in his

1 70 I n creasin g Y ou r M e nt al Efficien cy

clas ses A s social lines among the children were

.

not closely drawn this little boy had the same

,

advantages as the more favored schol ars going to ,

partie s and participating in all manner of child

ish f estivities S o that aside f rom his actual
.
,

home surroundings he had all the advantages of

,

the children of better parentage .

Moreover since his parents were fairly well to

,

do and greatly interested in educating their son

, ,

there was no apparent reason why this boy should

not acquire a good education and become a lead ,

ing citi z en in his community But in his four .

teen th year he stopped going to school for no good

reason ( he o ff ered as an excuse that he didn t ’

like the new teacher loafed about as an idle

boy for a year or two finally drifting away from
,

hi s classmate s Eventually he married a girl in

.

his own station of life ; and is n ow the vi llage

Oooper occupying about the same social position
,

as that of his parents before him .

Those of village bringing up wi ll reco gnize this

typ e of boy He exi sts in every American com
.

munity ; and he exemplifies the limitations of in

herent mental capacity L eavi ng school at an
.

early age was si gnificant For he really did not .

dislike his teacher more than the other boys in

his class—no more indeed than seems to be th e
, ,

normal amount for a healthy boy of fourteen .

But he lacked that indefinable mental quality that

 Th e Problem of Ance s try an d E nvironmen t 1 71

the winn er posse sses— a quality that is in

herent not acquired
, .

Judged by the success of hi s early school years ,

thi s boy inherited a hi ghly organi z ed bra in But .

his later actions refut e this a ssumption The .

quality he inherited was that of a rapidly develop

ing brain which quickly reached it s limits of
,

capacity .

Even if all education includ in g that of the

,
”
universities were mad e f ree
, says Hollander
, ,

there wo u l d always be some whos e organi z a

tions even after all educational e ff orts ha v e been
,

tried would fit them only f or the position of

,
”
a shoeblack o r a kitchen maid .

Yet as a young child a s we ha v e seen this same

, ,

shoeblack may hav e shown great precocity of in

tellect—is quite likely to do so in f act For the, .

less hi ghly organi z ed typ e of brain like the brain ,

of the lower animal often devel ops more quickly

,

than the hi ghly organiz ed one or may do so con ,

spicu ou sly in cert ain instances Thus we fin d our

.

cobbler s boy the brightest pupil at six and a dul

’
,

lard at thi rty ; whil e an Oliver Goldsmith appar ,

ently a dullard at ten is a genius at f orty

, .

I t is not always so bu t the higher organi sms

,

usually require more time for de v elopment ; and

i f quickly developed by forcing are often poorl y ,

b alanced The penalty of cult u r e and refinemen t

.

seems to be the creation of a tendency to nervou s

and mental instabili ty But perhap s this is only
.
1 72 I n creas in g You r M ent al E fficiency
another way of saying that complicated machin e s
are likely to be delicate ones Yet in the case of .

the mental mechanism it is pos sible to correct

most maladjustments by proper training A nd .

once this trainin g is compl eted the resulting ,

mechanism tends to maintain its equilibrium quite

as firmly as those les s complicated .

There are of course many manifestations of

, ,

the laws of heredity which as yet are not under

stood and which we have therefore no mean s of
,

correcting Thus we know that fecundity and

.

fertility are physiological qualities th at may be

inherited ; and that these tendencies tend to de
cline in the higher walks of life We do not know .

the explanation of this class favoritism of Na tu re ;

simply the fact S ince women in the upper circles
.

of li f e are not so well fitted physiologically f or

hearing children as a rule as those in the lower
, ,

walks Nature may be t hu s remov in g the burden

,

from the unfit I f so we have a s triking example

.
,

of the antagonism between the workings of

natural phenomen a and those of our arti ficial
civili z ation ; f or economically if not physiologic ,

ally the in f ertile upper clas ses are better fitted to

,

rear children than the prolific lower clas ses .

I n s till another p h ysiolo gical phenomenon we

see how Nature is ou t of harmony wit h our es
tablish ed customs of civili z ed li f e This is the .

transmission to the o ff s p ring of certain age de

fe ets Nature h as made it possible for mother
.
 T h e Problem of A n ces try an d E nvironmen t 1 73

hood to begin at a period several years before a

woman may legally marry and at a still longer
,

period before marri age usually takes place I n .

this particular inst ance the man made customs -

are better than tho se of Nature For the chi ldren .

of extremely young mothers are likely to inherit

their imperfect development and weaknesse s S o .

that ther e is a good eugenic as well as an eco

,

nomic reason f or ou r laws prohibiting early mar

,

riage s .

On th e other hand we find that the children

,

of parents at the other extreme of life— children

born at the p eriod of paternal decadence—are
somewhat more likely to show defects than those
of an earlier period that is between the ages of
, ,

twenty an d sixty Here Nature has set limitations

.

f or the woman with better judgment it would ap ,

pe a r than fo r th e earlier period of l if e ; but it

,

would p robably be advantageous to the race if

some corresponding limit had been fixed for man .

There is nothing novel in this observation that

the children of old men are likely to be defective .

The Rom ans observed it two thousand years ago ,

and acting upon their observation prohibited ,

marriage to a man ove r sixty But since the .

’
period of woman s immaturity and man s decad
’

e nce are both relatively short there seems littl e

,

practical need for chan gin g or adding to our

present marriage laws as regards age limitations .

What we need in practical eugenics is enlighten

1 74 I ncreasin g You r M ent al E fficien cy
ment rath er than laws A s soon as we have su ffi
.

cient positive knowledge about the practicalities

of heredity controlling laws will follow as a
,

n atural sequence ; and such laws will work efi ec

tively .But until we have this v ery defin ite
practical knowledge supported by comprehensive
,

e nlightenment we c annot h ope that efi ective l aw s

,

will be enacted, or enforced .

 I ncre asin g O u r Nat ional Efficiency

T the present time there are a number of state

and national societies engaged in the study
and practical promotion of mental efficiency Re .

cen tly tw o of these societies on e a national the

, ,

other a st ate organi z ation held a j oint conferen ce

,

f or the purpose of disseminating as widely as p os

si ble their ultimate aim—national e fficiency At .

this meeting Dr Lewellys F Barker of John s

. .
,

Hopkin s University made some observations on

,

un soundne ss of mind a s a n ational h andicap that

deserve the thoughtful consideration of every per
s on intere sted in our national efficiency whi ch is ,

directly dependent upon the personal efl i cien cy

of each individual D r Barker s statements
. .
’

were in part as follows :

, ,

I t is believed by those who are studying the

subject that a proper application of the knowledge
already at our disposal could gradually do much
to improve the minds of the indivi duals wh o col
lectively make up the natio n The number of chil
.

d ren born into the nation with defective brains

could be d iminished Through a stricter super
.

I 7S
1 76 I n creasin g Y ou r M en t al E ffi ciency
vision of immigrants many inferior bra ins could ,

with advant age be denied admission t o this coun

,

try S ocial and edu cational conditions could be

.

improved so that the sum of t h e influences acting

upon the nervous systems of children adolescents , ,

and adults would be more favorable to brain and

mind than now .

I n the narrower sense unsoundnes s of mind ,

refers to t h ose graver disturbances of the mental

f aculties which we call insanity idiocy and imbe , ,

cility I diocy and imbecilit y due to imperfect de

.
,

v elopm en t of the brain may be the result either of

,

bad heredity or of serious disease in the earliest

,

period of li f e The f orms of in sanity which

.

occur later in life may al so be due in part to bad

heredity in part to bad environment A s ex
, .

amples may be mentioned the insanity of adoles

cence ( sometimes called dementia praecox ) th e ,

manic depre ssive insanities with their mani acal

-

and melancholic states par an oia and th e so-called

,

paranoid states general paresis due to syphilis

, , ,

the in sanities due to alcoholism and the insanities ,

accompanying thickening of the a rteries of the

brain or senility
, .

I n the broader sense un soundness of mind ,

is a much more inclusive term Thu s epilepsy .

,

h ysteri a hypochondri asis and psycha sthenia

, ,

are in reality conditi on s in which the mind is to

, ,

a greater or less extent disturbed Even in the .

conditions commonly design ated as n eu ras

 I n creasing O u r Nat ional Efficiency 1 77

thenia and nervous breakdow n the mental

f u nctions are u sually temporarily slightly dis
, ,

tu rbed .

A gain , many peopl e seem ignorant of the fact

”
tha t mind includes not alone intellect but also ,

the afi ections and the will to such pe ople

unsoundnes s of mind means disturbances of

the reason an d it is hard for them to reali z e that

,

abnormal expressions of emotion or disorders of ,

the will manifesting themsel v es in anomalies of

conduct can be evidences of
, unsoundnes s of
”
mind . F o r the medical man however a kn owl , ,

edge of the perversions of feeling and of the

deviations from normal beha v ior which a ecom
pany defect or disease i s of the gre atest impor
,

tance in making diagno sis of abnormal mental

states and of the disorders of brain acti v ity which -

underlie them I t is just here that the legal con

.

ception of respon sibility ceases to be synonymous

with medical conceptions of re sponsibility— a

notable example of that ambiguity of language
which leads so often to disputes I t is en cou rag .

ing that even in law which i s necessarily and de

,

sirably con servative the ide a of,

degree s and
varieties of mental unsoundness has in recent dec
a de s been gaining currency and with it the ,
” ”
concepti on of a r tial diminished
,
or at ,

ten u ated respon sibility as well a s that of the

individu ali z ation of punishment ”
.

If we keep in mind the fact that conduct ,

1 78 I n creasin g You r M ent al E fficiency
whether good or bad is directly related to mental
,

states— using t h e term mental in th e wider sens e

to include all parts of the mind— will and emotion
as well as intellect— w e can scarcely f ail to recog
ni z e the close relations which e x ist between
mental unsoundnes s ( in t h e bro ader sense ) and
all those forms of abnormal conduct which charac
teriz e the delinquent classes M ore than ever.

be f ore society is coming to recogni z e that the

problems of criminality of inebriety of vagrancy
, , ,

of prostitution and of pauperism are closely in

,

te rwove n with th e problems of brain disorder ,

and that e fforts directed toward the diminution of

the amount of delinquency will be e ff ectiv e only in
as far as they succeed al so in improving brain
quality and brain function that is in as far as
, ,

they provide for better acting minds .

A B u rden to th e N at ion

Unsoundness of mind i s a burden to the nation

in more ways than one I n the first place the
.

economic burden is enormou s Dr Charles L . . .

Dana estimated in 1 904 that the actual cost of

, ,

caring f or the insane and the feeble minded in the -

United S tate s amounted to sixty million dol

lars per year an d that the loss to the nation in
,

industrial activity due to insanit y an d idiocy was

at least twenty million more He believed that .

th e care and cost of th e diseased and de f ective

 I n creas in g O u r N at ion al E ffi ciency 1 79

brains of the country amoun ted to over eighty five -

million dollar s annually and that the amount

,

was increa sing absolutely at the rate of four per

cent Other inv estigators believe that to day the
.
-

cost is much more than on e hun dred million s .

An d these figures bear in mind refe r to the in

, ,

sane and the f eeble minded only I f we add the

-
.

cost of criminals and the delinqu ent classes gen

erally the expense will be seen to be stupendous
,
.

I n addition to the economic burden we must

consider al so the cost in hum an suff ering n ot only ,

that of the mentally unsound themselve s but also , ,

and more particularly the cost in sorrow to those

,

to whom these unfortunates a re near and dear .

This is a burden not measurable in money This .

is a load incomparably harder to bear S ome of .

you who have come in contact with ill fated

-

families will have learned from that contact wha t

I mean better than words of mine can tell .

Every Nation B ears a S imilar B u rden

It is calculated that so me people in the

United S t ate s are insane The number is not
exce ssive when compared with the prevalence of
insanity in other coun tries The number of de .

linq u en ts of various sorts is unfortun ately large

in every land The fact is that every nation h as
.
,

at p resent to bear a similar burden of insanity

, ,

imbecility and delinquency How long will this

,
.
1 80 I n creasin g You r M ent al E ffi cie ncy
continue ? I t i s impossible to say bu t j udging ,

f rom the alertness which peoples in modern ti mes

mani f est wit h regard to condition s making for
national advantage it seems probable that stren
,

u ou s e ff orts will soon be made by the more ad

v an ced and cultured nationalitie s radically to

reduce t h e load of mental disease and de ficiency
by which they are handicapped There are a good
m
.

many who h e and believe that the United S tates

of A merica wi ll be among the first successfully to
move in this direction I s it not probable that the
.

nation s that remain backward in the campaign for

mental hygi ene once on e or more of the great
,

people s have made progress in it will ru n some ,

risk of failure in the world rivalries in whi ch they

may be compelled to participate ?

Can th e O ccu rre n ce of th e Unsou nd M ind Be

D imin ishe d ?

Is the burden to which I have referred remov

able ? Before answering this question it is n oces
sary to con sider the origin of mental un sound
ness Biologically viewed unsou ndness of mind
.
,

mean s badly f unctioning brain N ow a brain may .

f unction badly becau se it has a bad structure to

begin with or becau se it has been subj ected to in
,

fl u en ce s incompatible with good functioning or ,

f rom a combin ation of these two conditions .

Certain qualities of brain whi ch we designate

,
 I n creasing O u r Nat ional Efficiency 1 81

as innate depend upon heredity, that is to say,

,

upon the qualities of the germ -plasms in herited

from father and mother but the development of
,

the brain in th e child and its functioning through

ou t life are dependent al so upon influences outside

itself acting upon it S uch influences arise partly

, .

in the body of the bearer of the brain partly out ,

side his body in the environment This doctrine.

,

that the kind of mind an individual has ( his

thoughts , his feelings his conduct ) depends upon
,

the kind of brain he is born with an d upon the ,

external circumstances which act upon hi s brain ,

shows us the direction in which we must look for

an an swer t o ou r question I s the burden of u n
,

soundness of mind removable ?

Theoretically, the answer is obvious We shall .
,

on the on e hand , have to see to it that children

are born with brain s of such inherent qualities as
will make them capable of development to a cer
t ain grade of individual and social usefulness ,

and on the other hand we shall have to regulate

, ,

the influences which are permitted to act uponthe

brains of children and adults so that the welfare
of their mentality shall be favored and not in
jured .

D ifficu lt ies

The practical application of the broad p rin

ciple s in volved i s , however far from easy
, Pro .

vi sion f or well -bo rn children is the special field

1 82 I n creas in g Y ou r M en t al E fficie ncy
of eu g en ics . Th e control of external circum
stances is the pro blem of eu th en ics But there are
.

barriers in the way of practical eu g enics which

will be hard to pass and the impediments to
,

progress in bettering env ironment are familiar to

every social worker We must take care that the
.

cause of mental hygiene is n ot injured by rash

enthusiasts who propose panaceas who promise ,

the unattainable or who fanatically urge the im

,

mediate adoption of ill considered plan s of re

-

form There will be plenty of distrust and

.

apprehension ev en of the most sensible applica

,

tion s of sound principles I t is important .

,

therefore that the advocates of mental hygiene

,

shall endeavor to purge their ranks of the narrow

min ded the imprudent and the precipitate
, , .

A careful examination by sane investigators of

the variou s measure s which have been proposed is
needed in orde r to ascertain which of them may
be unhesitatingly advised ; and only with such
me a sures should the work of application be be gu n .

We posses s now a large body of facts bearing

upon heredity and environment as they affect the
brain and its f unctions about which there is
,

unanimity of opinion among men with the train

ing which makes them competent to j udge ; many
of these f acts can undou btedly be applied to the

betterment of t h e brain power of the nation The .

public s h ould be systematically in structed regard

ing such fa cts Beyond this we should be content
.
,
 I n creasing O u r Nat ional Effi ciency 1 83

wit h stirrin g up inte rest in the general subject

and with the stimulation of re searches which may
bring us more definite information to be used
later on .

To recapitulate , then unsoundness of mind in

,

it s various forms i s alarmingly prevalent in thi s

and in all civilize d cou ntries I t is veritably a .

heavy burden born e by every nation I ts occur .

rence can be and should be diminishe d There are .

di fficulties in the way but they mus t be overcome

, .

For the present we can do mo st by stimulating

,

investigation and by educating the public regard

in g well established facts
-
S urely the work is
.
,

wi de and noble in its purpose I t is worthy .

,

surely of the devotion and enthusiasm of our

,

most patriotic citi z ens ; in such work they can fin d

ample O pportunity for th e exercise of their high
‘
est f aculties .

E arly M anif es tation s of M ent al D isorders

There are two methods of making the reader

familiar with the symptoms of certain well de -

fin e d and important forms of mental disorders

that may at any time come under h is observation .

One method is to describe these conditions in a

general way ; the other is to select individual cases
and describe their symptoms in detail .

From an ad d ress on Unsou n dne s of M in d N tion l Han di

s ,
a a a

cap,
d elive ed by Prof Lewellys F B ark
r . b fo the Ment l
. er e re a

Hygiene Conference N ew York City Novemb r 1 91 2

, , e ,
.
1 84 I ncreasin g You r M ent al E fficiency
In the earlier chapters I h ave given a general
survey of certain forms of aberration a s a ,

familiarity with general conditions is desirable ,

and necessary if the peculiarities presented by
,

individual cases are to be f ully appreciated But .

havin g thus touched upon the general features of

the subj ect it seems advisable to consider some
,

what more in detail certain mental states that are

peculiarly prevalent at the present time .

I n a recent address Dr Au gust Hoch Professo r

.
,

of Psychi atry Cornell University Medical Col

,

lege presented som e features of this subject in

,

such a masterful way and in a manner so entirely

,

comprehensible to the general reader that I take ,

the liberty of quoting h im at length .

Mental hygiene said Dr Hoch has many points

, .
,

of contact with hygiene in general n ot only in the ,

sense that the bodily condition naturally reflects , ,

upon the mental state , but also in the sense that in

the prevention of insanity a con siderable portion
of our task does not belong strictly speakin g in , ,

the realm of mental but in that of general

, ,

hygiene I t is necessary to constantly repeat that

.

insanity is n ot one disease but a comparati vely

large number of diseases or disorders which dif
fer widely not only in their manifestation s but in
,

their causes ; so that in everything which refers to

the practical dealing with treatment and preven
ti on we have to follow quite di fferent principles
in the di ff erent kinds of di sea se s In som e of .
 I ncreasin g O u r N at ional E ffi ciency 1 85

these diseases we are dealing with plain physical

cause s or conditions such as syphilis diseases of
, ,

the bl ood vessel s the premature wasting of brain

-
,

tis sue in adv anced years or we are dealing with

,

alcohol or other poison s introduced into the body .

The prevention of some of these diseases which ,

in part at least have clean-cut causes is theor eti c
, ,

ally simple and the task before u s clear enou gh ,

as clear a s it is for example in tuberculosis

, ,
.

That nevertheless even in these disorders the task

is a di fficult one is due es sentially to such human
,

factors a s ignor ance sel fishness and prejudice

, ,
.

In the organic mental diseases the early mani

f estation s are much more an integral part of the
disease ; they ind icate the beginning Of the actual
brea k down they represent the first indications
,

that a severe brain disease has started On the .

other hand in the other group of mental disorders

,

w e find frequently even in early childhood or at ,

the age of puberty or during adolescence or later

, ,

here and there certain peculiarities of characte r ,

certain defect s of self management which we must

-

regard as danger signal s an d which should be

taken much more seriously than is commonly th e
case. S uch evidence we psychiatri sts have
learned to recognize above all through careful
, ,

inquirie s into the life histories the characters th e

, ,

habits of tho se individual s wh o are brought to u s

afte r the mental breakdown has occurred And .

the con vi ction has more and more been borne in

1 86 I n creasin g Y ou r M nte al E fficie ncy
on u s that the pu blic and above all the physicians, ,

have not paid enough attention to such signs and ,

that a better knowledge of these early danger sig

n als s h ould be useful to all those who have to deal

with children and young people .

Of course on e might ask then whether we have ,

a right to speak of such danger signals as early

mani f estations of in sanity at all I t might be .

said that these are essentially de f ects of con stitu

tion of make u p of habits and moreover
,
-
, , ,

de f ects which need by no mean s always be fol

lowed by insanity An d it migh t further be
.

said that in treating of these more p articu

,

larly we are really not talking on the sub

,

j cet which was announced But whether or .

not we should regard such signs as true early

manifestations i s after all a purely academic
, ,

question which sinks into in significan ce beside the

essential question namely : what is of practical
,

importance ? and from that point of view it seems

to me that thes e earliest signs deserve more par
ticu larly to be pushed into the foreground How .

ever they undoubtedly represent unhealthy ways

,

of li ving and though they may be and undoubt

, , ,

edly are in part the expression of a poor endow

,

ment there is we are convinced much in them

, , ,

which through better understanding through the

, ,

f act that our attention and ou r studies are di

r e cted to them we shall learn to m anage better
, .

While there has been a certain tendency on the ,

 I n creasin g O u r Nat ional Effi ciency 1 87

one hand to disregard these earliest manife sta

,

tion s of in s anity there has also been on the other

, ,

hand a tendency to emphasi z e unduly heredity

,

and degeneracy a s unalterabl e factors in the in

divi dual which lead to a somewhat fatalistic siz ing
up of th e situation There is much which goes to
.

show that such a view is on e sided and we hope -

,

that the future will prov e that it is unnec essary .

Tw o ways are open to treat the subject in hand .

Either we might give you a su mmary of observa

tions which have been mad e in regard to thes e
earliest si gn s of lack of mental balance or we ,

might briefly consider s ome concrete instance s ,

some livin g examples of indivi duals some life ,

histories which illustrate definite defects which

were presen t f or years o r throughout li f e and ,

which show clearly that the breakdown did n ot

come ou t of the clear sky but was rather an event
ual outcome of inadequate sel f management and -

inadequate management by the environment— to

be sure in addition to a certain weaknes s inheren t
in the individual I shall choos e the second
.

course and briefly make you acquainted with s ome

,

actual observations .

The first patient is a young woman about whose ,

early life we are fairly well informed We are .

told that even as a child sh e was hard to manage

and took advice badly While I cannot fin d any
.

very concrete example s or inst ances under which

this behavior m anifested itself, the notes give
1 88 I ncreasing Y ou r M e nt al E fficie ncy
enough to show that the di fficulties which th e
parents and te achers experienced in managing the
child were not due to any very active traits on the
part of the latter not to that kind of boisterous ,

childish vivacity which is seen in normal chi ldren

who are hard to manage ; but rathe r to a pas sive
resistance S he got along pretty well when left
.

alone but even simple adaptation s were difficult

,

f or her Thus it troubled her when her things

.

were touched or when she was interfered with

,

in any way Her reaction then to such interf er

.

en ce s was however not an aggressive one from

, ,

which a certain healthy shap ing of the situation

might be expected but a rather fruitless irrita ,

tion and more particularly as is stated a going

, , ,
”
off by hersel f Again and quite consistent with
.
,

what we have said we are told that she pl ayed lit ,

tle with other children was apt to cry when things ,

did not go j us t her way and then left her play ,

mates I t is also speci fically said that she was not

.

liked by others Chi ldren h ave a quick apprecia

.

tion of barriers which another child or for that ,

matter an adult erects about him and shun that , ,

kind of person ality I n company she was silent .

,

took no part in what was going on and very often ,

left the room S h e seemed ill at ease and bashful

. .

But she was not stupid on the contrary rather ,

abo v e the aver age in intelligence and she worked ,

hard at school and had good marks .

At sixteen she became over religi ous , a chan ge -

 I n creasin g O u r Nation al Efficiency 1 89

whi ch was n ot accounted for by anything that

happened in her enviro nment Then came a year .

at business college which so far as the work was

, ,

concerned was also passed satisfactorily though

, ,

h er general traits did not change But when the .

time came to use her knowledge that is to change , ,

from a mere receptive situation which makes ,

in finitely les s demands than the much more di ffi

cult task of stepping ou t into the world of respon
sibility then she was unprepared and shrank from
,

it ; instead of taking position s which evidently , ,

unde r the force of example and promptings from

home she did seek f or a time she found fault with
,

every one and remained in active S h e married at

,
.

eighteen and after the birth of the first child de

,

velop e d a serious mental disorder from which she ,

has not and will not recover .

A somewhat similar situation is seen in the fol

lowin g pati ent though here the gradual changes
,

are more plainly shown This patient is described

.

as a gi rl who wa s also shy and retiring inclined ,

to be afraid that what she did she did not do right ,

afraid t h at she was not obedient enough and she ,

was apt to tell other children to be more obedient .

Though she had the opportunity she did not play ,

much with others but preferred to be by herself

, ,

and somehow she was always unable to get into

real contact with those about her and to derive
satisfaction from this Yet she , too was quite in
.
,

telligen t and g ood at school .

1 90 I n creasing Y ou r M en t al E fficie ncy
When puberty came on with its physical ,

changes sh e was unable to take this naturally and

,

had warped ideas about it A t fif teen though sh e .

,

continued to look healthy and was a rat h er strap

ping girl she began to sleep badly and appeared
,

more absorbed S he al so becam e fault fin ding

.
-
,

dissatis fied ; and even when changes were made

according to her wishes this did not brin g satis ,

faction an d sh e could not be aroused T his had .

been the case during the summer When she went .

back to school it was soon found that sh e worked

badly bu t it was months before the mother made
,

inquiries at the school and then sh e was told that ,

the child acted funnily got rattled and was the , ,

lau ghing stock of the class S h e was taken home

-
. .

Then attempts were made to divert her by tak

ing her to partie s and theatres which however , , ,

in her condition did not impro v e matters Again

, .

some month s passed without any one suspecting

anything mor e serious until suddenly she made ,

a str ange remark But this was soon f orgotten

. .

and when vague thoughts and quandaries ap

p e are d about the meaning Of life and death about ,

the universe and so on they were not regarded

, ,

as especially important or strange in a 1 5 year -

old girl However th e c atastrophe was now not

.
,

very f ar off A fter a while she suddenly turned

.

against her mother spoke of the devil being after,

her and finally got into a state of fren z ied excite

,

ment When she was finally brought for treat

.
 I n creasin g O u r National E fficiency 1 91

ment she was in a stupor like state in which her -

interest and her contact with the environment

were extremely interfered with a state in which ,

she had completely turned inward so to speak , ,

and from this sh e has never and will never

emerge .

S omewhat di ff erent is th e following case , that

of a girl whose early history presented nothing

very striking I t is said , however that she always

.
,

objected to control of any sort but she got along ,

fairly well until some six or seven years befor e

the marked mental symptoms appeared tha t is to ,

say sh e got along moderately well until her nine

,

teenth year At that tim e she went to a Normal

.

school . Ther e she was moody and unnatural ,

was given t o all sorts of fads about her die t which ,

is always to be looked upon with som e suspicion .

S h e f elt tense complained of cold feet an d variou s

,

digestive disturbances I n order to escape this ,

.

as she herself says she lived a rather dissolute

,

li f e f or a time but of course wi thout getting any

, ,

real satisfaction from it L ater she began to .

study music but developed again what was called

neurasthenia was dissatis fied uncomfortable ,
, ,

tense Again she made faddish attempts at treat

.
,

ment this tim e by all sorts of absurd relaxation

,

exercise s which of course did not go to the root

, ,

of the matter , and at the same t im e she lived in

an environment in which vagu e thoughts pre
vailed, while balanc e and robust common sens e
1 92 I n creas in g Y ou r M e n t al Efficien cy
were lacking S uddenly th e outbreak came wh en
.

she proposed to a man wh om she knew but

slightly S h e rapidly lost weigh t thought she
.
,

was married and her conduct in other ways , was

, ,

absurd .

Th e following in stance I desire t o speak of , not

because the patient showed similar traits in her
earlier li f e to tho se already mention ed but be ,

cause it is an excellent exampl e to show how

poorly understood were the danger signal s even ,

when they appeared in a very marked form and ,

j ust how that step was taken which above all , ,

should have been avoided The situation was .

this : A predisposed girl begins to show mental

symptoms when she becomes engaged Neverthe .

less she is allowed to marry and upon thi s the ,

p sychosis at once breaks out full fl edge d The -

.

patient is a girl of 22 S he was not very bright

.

at school ; sometime s when the teacher asked her

questions she gaz ed at her without answering .

But on the whol e she was n ot very peculiar not ,

decidedly unsociable From the seventeenth ye ar

.

on however a ch ange came over her and sh e then

, ,

became more reticent and less sociable S even .

months be f ore admission she became acquainted

wi th a man is said t o have become very much in
,

f atu ated with him and got engaged after a short

,

acquaintance S oon a f ter this she began to show

.

an inde finite f ear and h aving lived away from,

home she now returned to her parents hous e

,
’
.
 I ncreasing O u r Nat ional Efficiency 1 93

S he soon developed fancies , thought her fiancé

might come after her with a knife S he had cry .

ing spells without saying why was morose and , ,

asked h er sister to ch Op her head off .

In spite of this plain beginning of the psychosis ,

a s we have said sh e was married some weeks be

,

fore admission and very soon got much worse

,

an d developed a grave psychosis from which she

wil l not recover N ow any on e who is at all ob

.
,

se rvant would have been struck by the fact that

de fin ite symptoms appeared when she bec ame en
gaged Thi s should have been a warning but of
.
,

cours e it wa s n ot a warning because no attention

i s paid to such things very often n ot e v en by

,

physicians To a psychiatrist the situation would

.

have been very plain for not only did she show
,

mental symptoms but mental symptoms which

,

directly pointed to the fact that they were con

n ecte d with a lack of adjustmen t to thi s marriage ,

although this to be sure was not conscious

, , .

The popular belief that marriage cures nervous

and mental trouble a belief which is n ot only
,

common among the laity but also among doctors , ,

is a dangerou s on e I t is precisely a question of

.

defects of sexual adaptation which are so common

among thes e individuals and th erefore we should
,

do everything w e can to eradicate this belief .

That it exceptionally holds good must be admitted ,

but usually th e opposit e is the case and I could ,

cite many instance s in which th e advi ce to marry

1 94 I n creasin g Y ou r M en t al Efficiency
was full of serious consequences in individual s
who were predispo sed The p sych osis brok e out
.
,

as was to be expected with a pecu liar attitude

,

towards her husband and she was a f raid of hi m

and began to doub t whether he was her husban d ,

and in other ways showed that sh e was utterly in

capabl e of this adaptation which was demanded
of her by the marriage .

Thes e char acteristic cases must su ffice to show

some of the traits which patients wh o develop in
sanity presented long be f ore a breakdown was
thought of I t is surprising how rarely we fin d
.

that any such calamity was expected even when ,

th e indications became only too plain The stories

.

which I have presented refer to that form of men

tal disorder which we call dementia praecox o r at , ,

any r ate to disorders closely related to this I

,
.

shall presently try to make clear what is meant

by this disease For the present it seems not out
.

of plac e to state that the yearly admissions to our

hospitals which belong to this general group ,

represent nearly a quarter of all the cases ad

mitted and to further state that it is a conserva
,

tive e stimat e when we say that the New York

hospitals f or the insane at the presen t moment
take care of about such patients that is , ,

hal f the inmate s of all t h e institutions .

A nd now as to the meaning of this condition

We are becoming more and more convi nced that
some mental disorders are reactions of a similar
 I ncreasin g O u r N at ional Efficiency 1 95

n ature as we find in n ormal people ; and as in the

, ,

normal these reaction s to life are adjustment s so ,

are these mental diseases a ttempts at adjustment s,

but n o longer adjustments which take account of

the facts or of the world as it is , but ficti ti ou s ad
,

j ustments they are poor inst inctiv e attempts at

getting satisfaction which life did not furnish ,

partly on account of th e inherent difficulty in the

indivi dual to accomplish proper adaptations t o
the di fficult busines s of life but partly al so as we
, ,

have said on account of often unneces sarily poor

,

self management on the part of the indivi dual or

-
,

defects in the envi ronment Hence we are learn

.
,

in g to understand m an y even grotesque manif e s

tati on s of insanity .

We can when we are able to penetrate into the

,

devi ou s trends of thoughts and feelings of our

patients see a meaning and a purpose in them
, .

But it is precisely this which giv e s u s the convic

tion of a continuity between the person ality with ,

its faulty self management before the mental

-

breakdo wn and the disease proper But it al so

,
.

gi ves u s the conviction of a continuity of thes e

f o rms of insanity with milder forms of mental
disorder which are n ot called in s anity or wi th ,

neurasthenic and ne rvous states or with the in

,

ternal disharmonies of many so called normal -

people The nervous person of any kind i s some

.

what ou t of touch with hi s environment and does

n ot get his full satisfaction out of life ; we find
1 96 I n cre asin g Y ou r M en t al E ffi cien cy
that those natures are most in dange r of breaking
down with dementi a praecox in whom the in terf er
ence wi th th e proper touch with the environment
is most marked T h ey are natures who turn away
.

f rom reality who shun the mor e di fficult ad apta

,

tions to life An d when we analyz e the symp

.
,

toms of this disorder we fin d that they are essen,

tially the expression of thi s attitude of tu rning

inward and the growth of f ancies whi ch in
v ariably result when th e interest in the real world
stops .

We have seen that the chief early manifestati ons

in thi s group of diseases the chief characteristics ,

of the persons were those of reticence , seclusive

,

ness stu bbornness brooding sen sitiveness a cer

, , , ,

ta in suspiciousnes s together with oddities and

,

strange behavior S uch peculiarities which have

.
,

their causes not only in unalterabl e inn ate per

sonal traits have a tendency to grow I t is n ot
, .

surprising that such person s should (be found

unprepared when adaptation s to new situati on s
are required through internal or external changes
as tho se which com e with puberty with stepping ,

out into li f e with marriage etc

, ,
.

Dementia praecox is not the only di sorder of

which I wish to speak A similar nu mber of ad .

mission s to the hospit als is furnished by those

f orms which we c all mani a and melancholia dis ,

orders which may be regarded essentially as exa

g
ger ation s of normal emotions These disease s are .
 I ncreasing O u r Nat ional E ffi cien cy 1 97

le ss erious They are apt to begin much more

s .

abruptly and as a rule , they lead to recovery ; ,

though relapses are common which however , ,

again tend to the reestablishment of the normal

state .A considerable number of the se dis or

ders occur in later life e s pecially melancholias ,
.

In harmony with the better outlook of these dis

orders we find the fact that the individuals who
develo p them are much more natural though we ,

find among them many who habitually have a

tendency to look on the dark side of li f e or we find ,

slight traits like those mentioned above or ner ,

vou sne ss or emotional instability or other traits

, ,
.

I canno t refrain mentioning here a case which

belongs in this group a case which may serve to ,

show how an early treatment would have avoided

more seriou s consequences The patient is a .

woman of 31 who though not very bright was a

, , ,

con scientious worker in a shop S he always wor .

ried a good deal cried easily S he was called a

, .

home body and had little association beyond that

-

of he r mother A young man called on her occa

.

sion ally for a number of years F or a year he .

did so more frequently and finally spoke of an en

gagemen t Nine months before admission the p a
.

tient had found out th at he was already engaged .

S he wa s much upset cried walked the floor slept

, , ,

poorly, s aid sh e had nothing more to live for and ,

w a s unable to work Now this patient should

.
,

h ave been placed under treatment at that time

1 98 I n creasing You r M en t al E ffi cie ncy
when the condition was on e of a simple depression
well accounted for I nstead of this s h e was kept
.

at home S h e did improve a little bu t f riends

.
,

kept telling he r all about the man s doings that ’

,

h e was married and so on and her worry again

, ,

increased and fin ally th e mental disorder took a

,

more serious form—a sudden change came over

her a change which she expres sed by saying that
,

she had no feeling .

Unde r observation sh e complained essentially

of this change said she was not herself her body
, ,

was changed her head empty and she was very

, ,

much agitated This i s a well -kno wn condition

.

and one from which the patient will finally re

cover bu t is one which i s mor e serious than the
,

one sh e had presented at first and one which is

ap t to last much longer I t could plainly have

.

been avoided if the public fully appreciated that

treatment should be instituted earlier in the at
tack an d n ot only when th e condition is so ad
v an ced that we have gone beyond the point of elas

ticity o r that at any rate very much less can be

,

done than would have bee n pos sible at first The .

case teaches some other lessons but I f ear it ,

would take too long if I were to go into details .

A nd it is not insanity only of which we should

speak in this connection We have already men .

tion ed the f act that there is a contin uity between

these forms of insanity and milder abnorm alities .

Here all sorts of nervous symptoms shou l d be

 I n creasing O u r Nat ional E fficiency 1 99

mentioned : moodiness depression insisten t

, ,

doubt s an d uncertainties abnormal lack of deci,

sion unfounded suspicions uncalled-f or feeling

, ,

of being at a disadvantage feelings of inferiority , ,

exaggerated anxiousness and timidity sexual u n ,

certainties and doubts visionary tendencies p e

, ,

cu liarly warped mental attitudes and many oddi

ties of behavior etc Although m any such people

,
.

do n ot break down , they often su ff er enough .

Think of the colossal amount of energy which is

expended in their struggle s and taken away from
u seful activity and think of the trouble which
,

some of them make in the world and the hardship

which they impose upon others and yet many of ,

these traits are often regarded I might say as , ,

legitimate traits or at any rate as traits which

,

are the expression of such and such a personality,

an d therefore are looked upon as settled .

It is not within the scope of a paper which is

supposed to call attenti on essentially to the early
manife station s of insanity to speak at length of ,

remedies And moreover I could not o ff er any

.
, ,

simple mean s of combating all these ailments of

which I have spok en this evening They are the .

outcome of many internal and external factors

an d each case is a problem by itself All treat .

ment even that with medicines , consists in th e

,

application of two principles —that of tr aining

and that of rest I t is not di ff erent from these

.

nervou s condition s Here the pr inciple of rest , or

.
2 00 I n creasin g Y ou r M ent al E fficie n cy

of relieving the strain consists in getting below

,

the surface in trying to fin d ou t what are the

,

real causes of these peculiarities of feeling and of

behavior what are the conflicts the internal atti
, ,

tudes and ideas of the individual ; and the same

principle also takes into account the correction
of wrong influences of the en v ironment .

Recons tru ctin g th e M en t al A tt itu de

The principle of tr aining on the other hand

, ,

is represented by the teaching of healthy living

u n de r r econ s tru cted con dition s All this is a task
.

which may be quite laboriou s and which requires

skill and knowledge But one thing is certain and
.

that is that not only are too few attempt s made

in this direction but the danger signal s as a rule
,

hav e not even been recogni z ed or have not been ,

regarded as such and nothing at all has been done

,

to modi f y them We have looked upon them as

.
,

I have said rather as legitimate traits which this

,

or that person also presented more or less with ,

out coming to serious grief What must be de .

v elop ed is a feeling that all these traits are impor

t ant and are to be taken seriously We mus t learn .

that even slight abnormalities of self-management

or conduct are matters which need to be dealt
with a s matters which not only interfere with the
,

full development of the personality of which we ,

are all so much in need but which later may lead

,
 I ncreasin g O u r N at ion al E fficiency 2 01

to more serious consequence s and while it is diffi

,

cult to give simple uniform ways of handling

these conditions they will nevertheless at times
,

be found to be much more manageable than would

seem especially when taken early Many people
, .

often stand at crossroads ; in one direction lie s

health in the other nervousness or perh aps in
,

sanity Many turn in the right direction f rom

.

innate sen se others tu rn the other w ay because

,

they are con stitutionally doomed But we are .

sure that many coul d be guided better if we only

p aid more attention to these nerv ous conditions ,

and would be thoroughly impressed wi th the fact

that they are wrong to say nothing of the n eces
,

sity of getting a w ay from a certain admiration of

some of them I t might of course be j ustly stated

.

that much go od also comes from people who have

certain nervou s tendencies indeed that it is in
,

part the se tendencies which create the good But .

this is true only of those individuals who fin d ,

from their disharmonies and conflicts a way ,

toward altruistic or artistic pursuits of value ,

therefore a way toward adaptation after all .

This of course is the cause for our admiration of

nervousness which for that reason has a certain
justification but that should not prevent u s from
,

p ointing to the dangers a s well This is on e of the

.

tasks of the ment al hygiene movement—to call at

tention to these conditions What the future will
.

have to bring u s is the development gradual to ,

2 02 I n creas in g You r M ent al E fficie ncy
be sur e like all healthy developments of provi
, ,

sions f or a better management of not only th e

intellectually de f ective but the nervously abn or ,

mal children But mental hygiene should be gin

.

even earlier in li fe namely wi th the infant and , , ,

we should constantly insist on the importance of

t h e early year s of life for the formation of char
acter and modes of re action and upon the neces ,

sity of paying much more attention to these years

of infancy and early chilhood from the poin t of

view of mental hygi ene .

But we need al so much further study along

these lines and intensive occupation on all sides
,

with the question of nervousness and peculi arities

of behavior We need more and more a psy
.

ch ology which will occupy itself with character

f ormation an d with the individual and its stru g

gles and disharmonies and on the part of the , ,

school an appreciation that dry knowledge is not

,

the only t hing that is needed but trainin g to ,

e fficiency and e fficiency on the level adapted to

,

the individual at the bottom of which lies ,

adequate self management -

.
1

S yphilis and I n sanity

The relationship of venereal diseases to certain

f orms of mental u nsoundness h as been r e ferred
F om r E ly M n if t tion
ar of M n t l D iso ders
a n ad
es a s e a r , a
dres sd liv d by D A gu t H o h befor the M en tal Hygiene
e ere r . u s c e
Con f nc
ere N ew Y o k 1 91 2
e, r , .
 I n cre asin g O u r Nat ional E fficiency 3
20

to somewhat at length in an earlier ch apter But .

as the subj ect is on e of the most important in the

field of mental hygiene it merits th e fullest con
,

sideration particularly s ince recent discoverie s in

,

science have given u s the mean s of detecting the

presence of th e s peci fic germs tha t caus e the
initia l disease and of eliminating them from the
,

system .

A t the recent Mental Hygiene Conference Dr ,

.

Ge orge H Kirby of the Manhattan S tate Hos

.
,

pital presented som e features of this subject in

,

a way that it has seldom been presented to a body

of laymen by an acknowledged authority With .

Dr Kirby s permission I ha v e incorporated a por

.
’

tion of this important paper in thi s chapte r .

I n referring to syp hilis and insanity Dr Ki rby .

says : The subject deal s with on e of the most im

portan t as well a s one of the most clearly defined
, ,

problems to be found in the entire field of mental

hygiene I t is a pro blem however which in
.
, , ,

common with all others that come closely into re

lation with the sexual life has been always ,

tabooed as a subj ect for frank discussion in open

meetings and likewi se strictly excluded a s unfit
,

to be menti oned in the pu blic press except under ,

veiled statement s or by mere allusion .

Physician s have therefore in the past had little

, ,

opportunity to present to the public even the sim

ple established facts of the case made ou t again st
syp hi lis as a cause of in sanity Happily there .
2 04 I ncre asin g You r M ent al E fficie ncy
are at the present time many indicat i ons that this
hushing up and keeping quiet policy will
not much longer block the way against the en
lightenment and proper education of the people
regarding the part played by this venereal disease
in the production of mental unsoundness .

I n order to approach thi s whol e subj ect of the

s yphilitic caused diseases fairly one must guard
against a certain attitude founded on error yet , ,

all too prevalent in th e popular mind : many in

telligen t person s not only have no interest in the -

social problem of syphilis but they feel little or ,

no sympathy f or individual s who su ffer a s a re

sult of syphilis There is often something of the
.

feeling that these people are affl icted because of

wil f ul tran sgression of religi ous and moral laws .

Many think only of the disease as something u t

te rly loathsome as sociated always with vice
, ,

crime and the lowest sort of moral depravity

,
.

This as every physici an knows i s untrue While

, , .

prostitution is the chief mean s by whi ch syphilis

is disseminated its victims are claimed in every
,

stratum of society from the highe st to the lowest .

Among the men admitted to the hospital s whose

insanity is due to a syp hilitic infecti on , 75 per
cent of them are married men mo st of whom if
.
, ,

guilty of transgres sion in earlier year s h ave long ,

since mended th eir ways and settled do wn to a

moral f amily li f e .

Among men particularly young men ignoran ce ,

, ,
 I n cre asing O u r Nat ional E fficiency 2 05

thoughtle ssnes s submis sion in a moment of weak

,

ness , and the influence of sugge stion by compan

ion s account f or the wrecking of many a life
, .

Temptation come s to almost every man I gn o .

rance and a wholly wrong attitude towards the

sexual instinct make the fall easy for many One .

is amazed to hear youn g men speak lightly, o r

even j okingly of venereal disease wi th n o knowl
,

e dge of what the results may be if this disorder

is once contracted .

I could quote t o you many cases from my per

s onal knowledge of young men and even boys wh o
acquired syphilis more or less accidentally with
out ever having be en instructed or warned of the
danger to which they exposed themselves We .

have a patient in the hospital at the present time

whose insanity is due t o syphi lis contracted when
he was fourteen years old at an age when he
,

knew nothing of venereal diseases and had n o

realization of the pos sible consequences of an act
which he was induced t o commit by a person he
accidentally met .

It is not within the scope of my paper to dis

cus s the wide r social aspects of syphilis or the
best me an s of combating the evil n or shall I at
,

tempt to recoun t th e multitude of diseases which

it causes and the consequent su ffering and misery
which it brings to innumerable homes and fam
ilie s
. My task is t o present t o you briefly what
we now kno w regarding the damage don e by
2 06 I ncreasing Y ou r M ent al E fficie ncy
syphilis in one particular direction namely in th e
, ,

production of mental unsoundness I t will h ow .

,

ever be necessary f or me to say a few words re

,

garding the n ature of syphilis and its mode of

transmission in order that y ou may appreciate
fully the problem which confronts u s .

A G erm That Cau ses I nsanity

Although this disease has been described and

studied by physician s for centuries its true cause
,

has only recentl y been de finitely established .

S yphilis is now known to be an infectiou s disea se

caused by a germ a micro organism which has
,
-
,

been identified and its characteristics well studied .

S yphilis spreads in two ways : it is transmitted

from parent to child or it is communicated di
rectly from one person to another during the

sexual act Occasionally on e might say rarely,

.
,

it is communicated by accident al contact in o ther

ways On the parts of the body exposed to the
.

infection the signs that the poison has entered the

system may be so slight as to pass almost u n
noticed ; if as is usu al a small sore occurs it tends
, ,

to heal up rapidly with little indication of th e

direful results which may follow The germs .

having once gained entrance into the system , any

part of the body or any organ may later be at
tacked and partially or compl etely destroyed By .

appropriate treatment we may , however, a s a

 I n creas in g O u r N at ional E ffi ciency 2 07

r u le control the symptoms that arise within the

,

first few years after infection t akes place an d it ,

may appear that the disease has been eradi cated

from the body I t is however well nigh imp os
.
, ,
-

sible to say that this has been actually a ecom

p lished f or the syphilitic germs possess the re
,

markable property of lying dormant for a long

space of time often many ye ars and then begin
, ,

ning to cau se trouble again .

This peculiar tendency of the syp hilitic ge rm to

remain quiescent f or years while all obvious
symptoms of the disease disappe a r ser v ed to kee p ,

u s long in the d ark regarding the true cause of

some of the most serious nervous and men tal
t roubles with which physician s have to deal I t .

wa s naturally di fficult to establish a connection

between a nervou s or mental breakdown 1 0 20or ,

30ye ars after a venereal disease when during all ,

the se years there had been f ew if any si gns that

, , ,

the syphilitic poison wa s still in the system For .

tun ately f or ou r better understandin g of these

dis ease s which develop years afte r the initial in
,

f e ction the missing link in th e chain of evidence

,

ag ainst syp hilis has recently been supplied an d

we can now present conclusive evidence whereas ,

we formerly spoke merely of probabilitie s and

could n ot pr ove what we suspected .

The proof was furnished by the discovery of a

very delicate blood test now known the world over
under the name of the physician who devised it
2 08 I ncreasin g You r M en t al E ffi cie ncy
as the Wassermann test for syphilis By this test .

one can through examination of a few drops of

,

blood determine whe th er or not any trace of

,

syphilitic p oison exist s in the body of the person

tested and this in spite of the fact that the
,

syphilis may have been acquired many years

previously and the indivi dual at the time of the ,

test may present no visible symptoms of syphilis

,

itself .

S mou lderin g Fires

Among the syphilitic diseases there stands ou t ,

one in particular that above all others commands

, ,

our earnest attention first becaus e of its great

, ,

f requency and secondly becau se it is not amen

, ,

able to any known treatment ; the result always

being death and that usually within two to five
years after the disease is recognized This aff ec .

tion is va riously kno wn as pare sis gener al ,

paralysis or so f tening of the brain

,
.

Paresis or as it is someti mes called par é sis

, ,
- -
,

dev elops most often 1 0 or 20 years after th e

original syp hilitic infection and as most individ ,

u als who contract syp hi lis do so in the earlier

years of manhood or womanhood paresis will ,

appear most o f ten between the 35 th and 45 th

years just the age at which one is considered t o
,

be in th e prime of life Thu s we find that appar

.

ently robust normal individual s are stricken in

,

the midst of an active li f e The one att acked may .

 I n creasing O u r Nat ional Efficiency 2 09

have almost forgotten the syphilitic infection of

years before and the patient as well as the family
and friends are sure to attribute the breakdown
to some more recent occurrence such as over ,

work business worry intemperance accidental

, , ,

injuries etc , things which we n ow know can never

, .

alone produce paresis .

The disease comes on as a rule slowly ; the

, ,

finer feelings and the higher mental function s suf

fer first ; slight changes in disposition or charac
ter are n oticed the ethical sense is impaired rea
, ,

son and judgment are in sidiou sly undermined ,

and very often before the family or friends are

,

aware that actual mental disease exists the af

fl
,

icted individual has committed acts which too

O ften extend in their consequences far beyond the
patient him self and may bring ruin upon his
,

family and others A s the mental symptoms be

.

come more marked the patient s mind is apt to ’

be filled with all kinds of impo ssible sch emes and

extravagant idea s the judgment is abolished and
,

the memory i s slowly lost so that the p atien t may

,

fin ally have little knowledge of his past life In .

the terminal st ages the greatest po ssible degree of

mental decay is reached—the patient being re
du ced eventually to a mere vegetative existence ,

with little or nothing left to show that the su ff erer

was once an intelligent being Accompanying this
.

mental deterioration there are well marked phys - ~

ical s ymptoms ; the limbs tre mble , the power of

21 0 I n creasin g Y ou r M ent al E fficie n cy
speech is impaired convul sions may occur the
, ,

patient becomes bed ridden from weakness or-

paralysis and so remains until death fin ally closes

,

the distre ssing scene .

The post mortem examination of the body

-

shows us that the syphilitic poison has caused

wi despread damage to the brain t h e result of a ,

chronic inflammatory condition a ccompanied by

s oftenin g and shriveling of the brain matter itsel f .

Recently a very important remedy known as

or S alvarsan ha s been brought forward
,

as a cure for syphilis I t appears to have a very

.

remarkable e ffect in checking various syphilitic

symptoms particularly those that develop soon
,

after the primary in f ection takes p lace but u n ,

fortunately we find that it is of absolutely no use

in the tre atment of paresis .

During the past year 75 8 patients entered the

New York S tate hospitals sufferin g from paresis ,

which number is equivalent to nearly 1 4 per cent .

of all the new cases admitted These 75 8 .

persons represent only a part of the cases of

paresis that develop in the popu lation as many ,

patients are sent to private institutions others ,

are kept at h ome and some die in general hos

,

p itals. Among all the admissions to the S tate

hospitals we fin d with one ex ception more cases
, ,

of p aresi s than any other single f orm of men tal

disorder .

Paresis is much more f requent among men than

 I n creasin g O u r Nat ion al Efficiency 21 1

among women—three times as many men as

women are admitted su ff ering from t hi s disease ;
we fin d that 1 8 to 20per cent of all men admi tt ed .

are su ff ering from paresis .

I t is also known that p aresis is much more prev

alent in cities than in countr y districts Among .

all the admis sion s to the S tat e hOS pitals we fin d

that 22 per cent of the men who come from citie s
.

have pare sis while only 8 per cent of those who

, .

come from the country have this di sease Th e .

women show a similar di ff erence as we find twice ,

a s many cases of pare sis among city women as -

among country women -These figures show

.

clearly that syp hilis is mor e frequent where the

p opulation is most compact .

A nother interesting and important fact is that

paresis is much more prevalent among the
fo reign born population than among the native
-

born inhabitants In New York City for instance

.
, ,

we find that when we compare the foreign -born

with the native born po pulation there are propor
-
,

tion ately t wice as many cases of paresis among

foreigners as there are among th e n atives .

L ast year 627 patients died of paresis in the

New York S tate hospitals A s had been pointed.

ou t by D r S almon this large number of deaths

.
,

take s rank with the mortality r ate of some of th e

most dreaded diseases T yphoid fever is on e of
.

the most feared and widespread of the infectiou s

diseases yet in this S tate paresis causes over half
,
21 2 I n creasin g Y ou r M en t al E fficie ncy
as many deat h s each year Pare sis claims more
.

vict ims annually than does erysipelas one of the ,

most common of infectious diseases Cancer of .

the breast a frequent and malignant disease ,

,

causes yearly no more deaths than pare sis S ta .

ti stics s h ow that in this S tate more de aths result

each ye ar from pare sis than from dysentery ,

malaria smallpox tetanus and rabies all com

, , ,

bin ed .

These hundreds of cases of paresis that stre am

into our hospitals every year represen t only a
part of the damage that syphilis causes to the
mental health of the community Thanks to th e .

Wasserm ann blood test and other investigation s ,

we can now definitely state that syp hilis is re
sponsible for many other conditions of mental
un soundnes s .

Th e Penalt y of I nherit e d S yph ilis

In the first place some ve ry interesting studies

,

have been made on th e families of paretic pa

tien ts . We fin d that when either the father or
the mother suff er s f rom paresis many other
members of the family may be infected with
syphilis and f urthermore we find that a sur
, ,

p ri sin gly large mnn ber of children in these fam

ilies are feeble minded nervous or in other ways
-
, ,

abnormal Dr Plaut examined a group of 1 00

. .

children the o ffspring of cases of paresis and

, ,
 I ncre asing O u r National E fficiency 21 3

found that 45 per cent were plainly damaged .

mentally or physically or in both fields ; the blood

test showed that one third of these 1 00 children
-

had the syphilitic poison in their systems .

A nother inve stigator found in a group of 1 39

children the descendants of parents who had
,

syp hilitic nervou s disease that over 25 per cent,

.

were de finitely feeble mi nded or a ff ected with

-

some seriou s nervous disorder .

Other studies indicate that there exists a close

relation between syphilis and m any of the hitherto
unexplained cases of feeble mindedness including -
,

idiocy, imbecility infantile paralysis and some

, ,

forms of epilepsy While the question is not

.

yet settled , it appears that syp hilis is the real

cause of many of these case s of mental defect in
children .

A strikin g example is furnished by the record

of a family studied by Dr Plaut A thirteen year
. .
-

old schoolboy w as brought to the hospital because

he had a convu lsion while at school Examination .

showed that he was a case of juvenile paresis in

the e arly stages the blood giving the u sual indi
,

cation of syphilis His parents were questioned

. ,

but both denied positively that they ever had

syphilis The father would not allow hi s blood
.

to be examined but the mother permitted the ex

,

amination and she was found to hav e syphilitic

,

blood although at th e time of the test she ap

,

p eared to be in good health and claimed to have

21 4 I n creasing Y ou r M ent al E fficie ncy
no knowledge of ever having had syphilis The .

four other children in th e family were then ex

am in ed Two were found to be f eeble minded and
.
-

the blood test was positive f or syphilis A third .

chi ld had pre viously been treated f or a syphilitic

skin disease and the blood test was again positive
, .

A fourth child appeared well and the blood test

was negative I t was thus found that in a f amily
.

of fiv e children the blood test was positive in

four and three of these were mentally abnormal

, .

The mother also had syphilitic blood although ,

she did not kn ow that she had e v er contracted

syphilis while the father who was probably the
, ,

cause of all the trouble would not submit to a ,

test .

S uch observations as this are particularly in

s tructive because if the family had not been care
,

f ully examined and tested for syphilis t h e tru e ,

reason as to why the children were mentally ab

normal would not have been discovered .

I n another group of cases of mental disorder

”
due to syphilis of the nervous system one ,

finds that th e disease has directly attacked the

coverings of the brain and the small blood vessels -
,

an d inflammatory deposits occur which do serious

dam age to the brain substance and consequently

imp air the mentality .

A very frequent disease is arteriosclerosis or ,

hardening of t h e blood—vessels a certain number ,

of cases of which are cau sed by s yphi lis When .

 I n creas in g O u r N at ion al E ffi ciency 21 5

the blood -ves sel s of the brain are attacked very

seriou s mental decay may result We thus find .

tha t many middle aged or older person s may

-

su ffer strokes of paralysis or have convul sions

and become insane or demented as a result of the
injury that syphilis does t o the arteries of the
brain .

When we know the grand total of all of these

conditions of mental defect and disease as repre ,

sented by the hundreds of case s that are received

every year in the S tate hospital s an d institution s
f or the mentally defective we do not even then
,

gain a correct ide a of how great a menace syphilis

is to the mental health of the nation S till the .

figures which I have quoted to show the actual

n umber of cases of insanity due to syphilis ad

mitted to the S tate hospitals should impress,

every thoughtful citi z en wi th the urgent need of

lending his or h e r e ff orts to t h e solution of this
problem A s matters now stand we know that
.
,

ju st as many hundreds of case s and more will be

, ,

admitted to the S tate hospital s next year as in

th e year now passing .

Every paren t and teacher every sp iritual and

,

mor al adviser should not fail t o see that e very

,

youth is warned and properly instructed before

the temptations of th e world are faced .

Physician s are almo st unanimous in their belief

that the first great step wi ll be taken toward th e ~

prevention of insanity from syp hilis and the con

21 6 I n creas in g Y ou r M en t al E ffi cie ncy

trol of the disease itself when we begin t o treat

s yp hilis as we do other in f ectious or contagious
diseases We protect th e community against
.

smallpox diphtheria scarlet fever tuberculosis

, , , ,

and other communicable diseases by reporting

them to the Board of Health and fighting them by
quarantine isolation disinfection and all other
, , ,

me ans within our power Why should syphilis a .

,

dangerous contagious and infectious disease be

, , ,

excepted ? For th e protection of the community

every person infected with syphilis shou l d be
registered with the health authorities and proper
means taken to limit the communicati on of the
disease to others For the protection of families .

an d for the ultimate improvement of the r ace ,

no person who has had syphilis should receive a

marria ge c ert ificate unless the blood test proves
that the poison is no longer in the system .

When we deal with syp hilis in this manner then ,

will the number of case s of hopeless insanity be

gin to decrease and fewer fe eble minded chi ldren
,
-

will be born into the world .

1

E du cat ional Me th ods an d M en t al E fficiency

The question of mental efficiency is determined

by two great f actors : natural endowment and ,

education The first is entirely beyond our con

.

1 From an a dd ress on Syphili s an d In sanity delivered by

Dr . G eorge H Ki by b for
. r e e th e M en tal H ygiene Con f erence New
,

York, 1 91 2 .
 I ncre as in g O u r N at ional E fficiency 21 7

trol in the pre sent generation of children But .

the second is well within ou r power to direct .

Until recently educational methods have been

left largely in the hands of lay teachers engaged -

in the didacti c work of the schoolrooms But it .

is obviou s that these teachers should include in

their special instructions the general features of
mental hygiene that have been investigated by
pers ons specially engaged in that part of our
education that applies to mental stability This .

can only be done in a general w ay of course but , ,

even such gener al teaching should be mo st valu

able as an adjuvant to the special school train ing .

Dr S tewart P aton of Princeton recently in

.
, ,

dicated the general attitude that teachers should

cultivate based upon observations of person s wh o
,

hav e devel oped mental peculiarities largely

through lack of this very kind of education His .

attitude tow ard the subject is given in the follow

ing pass ages from on e of his recent addre sses
How much meaning there often is in a single
word ! I t may decide great i ssues epitomi z e our ,

hope s or fears or express ou r entire philosophy

of life Think what the term insanity repre
.

sent s t o the minds of the maj ority of people ; ap

prehension fear despair—a very gloomy back
, ,

ground There is one lesson that should be re

.

membered namely the possibility of discardin g

, ,

the word in sanity and substituting for it the term

maladjustment We have been told that life is an
.
21 8 I n creasin g Y ou r M ent al E fficiency

adjustment A s long as the process of this ad

.

justment between the individu al and environment

persists li f e is present bu t wit h its cessation
, ,

death intervenes Dise ase is an imperfect ad

.

justment of which mental disorders are a special

but not speci fical ly di ff erent type By substitut
.

ing f or insanity the word maladj ustment we have

made a great advance .

By this change in ou r point of view we have

also uncon sciously recast some old and difficult
problems in a new form Think how the whole
.

educational problem now stands out clearly before

us Where once we were blindly groping ou r way
.

we n ow follow a plain straight path

, .

What is the function of education ? What is

t h e first duty of the teacher ? Does it n ot con sist
in an attempt t o estimate t h e adj usting capacity
of every student and then try to help h im or h er

fin d a place in li f e where adjustment is possible ?

Think of th e figu res on the charts showing the
incidence of in sanity in the United S tates A t the .

first glance we seem to be looking at a very dark

pictur e I do not think however that there is
.
, ,

any j usti fication f or a gloomy outlook Remem .

ber ou r substitution an d then reflect upon the

actual si gni ficance of these figures D o the num .

bers not indicate th at th ere are so many individ

n als in the community who have been brought by
,

de f ective heredity undes irable social conditions

, ,

o r a poor educ ation in to a position where they

 I ncreasin g O u r N at ional E fficiency 21 9

cann ot readjust ? Why do teachers not realize

that they should assist students to fin d p ositions
in life where it is pos sible for them to work easily ,

with pleasure , and at the same time retain their

capacity of readjusting t o meet the conditions of
life We should n ot dodge the issue Our present
. .

educational s ystem is to a large extent responsible

f or many of the figures recorded on these charts .

If we analyze the statistics carefully there is no

reason to become pessimistic whil e there are ex
,

cellent grounds for facing the future with hope .

What then is the spirit of the whole movement ?

Can we n ot sum it up in a single word ? It seems
to me that such a course is po ssible I should .

have been very glad t o have seen the word teach

ing dropped from this programme and the wor d
learning substituted f or it The spirit of the
.

Mental Hygiene campai gn is one of learning not ,

of teaching . Dogmatic forms of belief as incu l

cated by many teacher s have unfortunately led

directly to many cruel practices Philippe Pinel

.

was fortunately a great learner His spirit of .

inquiry led him to affirm that insanity is a diseas e

of the body n ot speci fically difi e rent from other
physic al disorders Practical results of inesti
.

mable value followed clo se upon his acceptance of

this fundamental principle Hence f orth the in
.

san e were t o be treated a s patients and not a s

prisoners nor a s tho se posses sed with a devil .

When Pin el stood in the old hospital in Paris and

2 20 I n creas ing Y ou r M ent al E fficie ncy
ordered the chains to be removed from these nu
fortunate persons h e O pene d up a new epoch in
,

the history of humanity He did a great deal

.

more than accomplish a great practical reform , as

he set people thinking along new lines H e form .

u lated many problems that are of interest to

,

teachers in a very strikin g manner I n his re

,
.

markable book N osographie Philosophique

the great number of volume s adornin g the shelves
of libraries are contr a sted with the meager record
of exact observations conducted upon individuals .

Possibly he had in mind the numbers of physi

ci an s and laym en who did n ot consider insanity
to be a disease simply becaus e writers of books
had entertained an oppo site view May we n ot .

all pause and think about the valuable lesson ex

pressed in this reflection ! H e appreciated the
S pirit of learning and refers to its importance in

many interesting passages His observations

.

taught h imthat there were not specific di ff erences

between the activities of the sane an d the insane .

”
I n nervous and mental diseases he declared, ,

I see the key which will unlock the secrets of

human nature as they are recorded in history and
mor al philosophy .

I n order to understand the activities of a

normal p erson we must often carefully study
those of the abnormal individual The faculties .

of the former are as a rule so per f ectly balanced

, ,

and well adjusted that it is difficult to analyze

 I n creasin g O u r Nat ional Efficiency 22 1

them Dis ease sometimes come s to our assistance

.

in the proce ss of an alysis and brings ou t promi

n en tly certain sym ptoms thus giving a clew to the
,

interpretation n ot only of the activities of the

,

in sane , but which l ays bare f or u s the secrets of

ou r own nature .

Is it not strange that more than two thousand

years h ave elapsed since the realization of self
”
k owledge ; Know thyself was represented to
n ,

be the highest attainment f or which human beings

coul d strive ? Mankind has waited for centurie s
before any organi z ed e ff ort was made in this di
rection Unfortunately the spirit that Bacon de
.

p lored is still on e of ou r chief characteristics

the de sire to theori z e and to dwell on the top of a
mountain instead of pro fiting by a descent to th e
plain ha s thwarted ou r e fforts to know ourselves .

For centuries man ha s reiterated certain false

doctrine s in regard to himself and the din or ar ,

gu ment ha s served to fix the ideas in conscious

nes s He ha s seldom taken the trouble to see
.

whethe r these notions tallied with the results of

actual experience The mental hygi ene movement
.

represents an organi z ed movement to know our

selves in orde r that the knowledge obtained may
,

be applied to making ou r lives happier and more

efficient There are one o r two ideas of impor
.

tance that should be kept con stantly before our

minds in the discussion of this subject In the .

’
first place we must try and incline people s minds
222 I n creasin g Y ou r M ent al Efficiency
to receive the truth Fact mu st be separated from
.

fiction and to be capable of distinguishing be

,

tween the two it is essential that students should

be train ed to associate the study of biology wi th
the discussion of the human activities I t will be .

a very fortun at e thing when some university in

this country receives the endowment neces sary to
establish a great department of biolo gical p sy
ch ology entirely independent of the restricted in

fl u en ce s imposed by speculative philosophy .

One of the most fertile ide as of biological

science is that there is an unbroken and u ninter
ru p ted chain linking the activities of the lowest

with those of the highest organism I f we wish to

.

u nderstand our own complex activity it is often

necessary to return to the study of the simples t

organisms in order to comprehend th e mental
adj ustments of the human individu al There is .

still another chain that science has shown to be

unbroken by establishing the f act that there is n o
,

speci fic qualitative diff erence between the thought

and conduct of a normal healthy individual and
,

that of the patient afl ii cted wi th alienation .

A dependent section of the department of bio

logical p sychology should include one of Mental
Hygiene ; where students could go for information
in regard to themselve s and f or assistance in at
tempting to estimate t h eir own adj usting capaci
ties Practical experience teaches th at it would
.

o f ten be possible to avert many of the disasters

 I n creasin g O u r N at ional E fficiency 22 3

that occur later in life to tho se who have strug

gled to attain what in conventionality are called
”
the advantages of a higher education The .

surest pro tection insuring u s against the possi

bility of a mental breakdown is a good heredity
and of almo st equal importance the early acqui si
ti on of good mental habits .
’

1 m
Fro an address on du cational Methods and Mental Effi
E
ciency
”
delivered be fore theMental Hygiene Conference in 1 91 2
by Dr S tewart Paton
. .
A National M ovemen t to I mprove Ment al Efficiency

By TH OM A S W. S ALM ON , MD . .
, D irector of S pecial S tu dies f or
t
th e N a ion a l Co mmittee f or Mental Hygiene

LL e ff orts to safegu ard health are made in

A the field of public hygiene ( sanitation ) or
in that of personal hygiene I n th e prevention of .

many diseases it is necessary to carry on activi

ties in both fields .

The measures in public hygiene f or the preven

tion of typhoid fever for instance include the
, ,

protection of water supplie s the sanitary disposal ,

of sewa ge and the des truction of insects which

carry typ hoid bacilli f rom infected material to

f ood while in the field of personal hygiene are
,

the e ff orts of individual s to rais e their immunity

to this disease by inoculation with typhoid vac
”
cine and the detection and isolation of carriers ,
those who while well themselves may bear th e
disease to others A gain in the prevention of
.

mal aria destruction of the breedin g places of

,

mosquitoes is a procedure in public hygien e whil e ,

taking prophylactic doses of quinine is a matter

of personal hygiene There are f ew diseases
.

224
 A Nat ional M ovement 2 25

which can be successfully prevented by e ff or ts

in one of these fields alone .

Until recently the prevention of mental dis

,

eases was thought to be almost wholly a matter of

person al hygiene I t has been shown however
.
, ,

that there are public measures in mental hygiene

without which the e ff orts of individu als are likely
to be un availing and on the other hand much
, ,

must be done in the field of personal hygi ene if ,

the e fforts of the community as a whole to lessen

mental disease are to succeed The precedin g.

chapters of thi s book h ave been devoted very

largely to thos e principle s which must guide th e
individual in safe guarding his mental health and
increasing his mental e fficiency The f ollo wing.

short account of the work of a n ational agency fo r

mental hygi ene may serve to show some means by
which such individual e fforts may be initiated
and then coordinated and mad e e ff ective for the
common welfare .

The N ational Committee for Mental Hygiene ,

founded February 1 9th 1 909 came into existence

, ,

because of the convi ction among some of those

whose work had brough t them closely into contact
with the problem of mental diseases that ther e
was urgent need for a national agency to help
raise standards in the car e and treatment of the
in sane an d to work for the prevention of mental
and nervous disorders .

The way in which this sentiment was crystal

22 6 I ncreasin g Y ou r M ent al E fficiency
liz ed has been described as follows by Dr .

Lewelly s F Barker, in an addres s delivered at the

.

Fifteenth I nternational C ongress on Hygi ene and

Demography This impulse thanks to the ,

initiative of a layman Cli ff ord W Beers author

,
.
,

of A Mind That Found I tself ( now S ecretary

of the National Committee ) whose personal su f
,

f erings led him on recovery to devote himself to

, ,

the c aus e of mental hygiene and who enlisted the

,

cooperation of a group of representative men and

social workers has found expres sion in the v ol
,

u ntary formation of a National Committee for

”
Mental Hygi ene .

Whil e new methods of treatment an d hopeful

measures f or prevention have been eagerly wel
comed and very eff ectively applied in other fields
of medicin e this h as not been the case in th e car e
,

of the insane and the prevention of mental dis

e ases I n this country at the present time the

.

care of those ill with mental diseases varies in

th e diff erent S t ates from the kind of treatment
which humanity requires for all other classes of
the sick to methods which have come down to us
from an age when the insane were looked upon
with supersti tious fear and when cruelty and
neglect were their usual portion I t is apparent .

that only a nation wide movement—carefully

-

pl anned scientifically directed and adequately

,

financed—can deal with the varied and complex

causes for these conditions or , indeed even can ,
 A Nat ional M ovemen t 2 27

secure the accurate information necessa ry f or ef

f ectl ve wor k in ameliorating them .

Th e I mport ance of th e Problem

On the date of the last federal census January ,

1 1 91 0, there were
, persons in institutions
f or the ins an e in this country This number ex
.

ceeds th e number of students in all the college s

and universities in the United S tates I t exceeds.

the number of officers and enlisted men in the

United S tates A rmy N avy and Marine Corps
, , ,

and it exceeds the population of Columbus , Ohio ,

the twenty-ninth city in si z e in this country .

About new c ases of mental disease are ad

mitted to institution s in the United S tates each
year and the annual increase in the number of
patients under treatment is about I f all th e
S tates provided for their insane as adequately as
do New York and Massachusetts there would be ,

more than patients in in stitution s A .

more concrete illustration of the prev alence of in

s anity is the fact that the number of ho spital beds
f or the insane in New York City exceeds th e
number of ho spital beds in all the general hos
pitals of that city .

The cost of carin g for the insane in a S tate

ma king adequate provision s exceeds any othe r
single item of expen se except the amount ex
,

pended f or public education The average annual

.
2 28 I ncre asing Y ou r M e nt al Efficie ncy
cost of maintenance in institution s for the in san e
in the United S tates is about $1 75 per patient ,

maki ng the total cost du ring the year 1 91 0 f or

those in institutions , A s it is esti
mated that the cost of the Panama Canal will be
and that it has taken almost ten
y ears for its completion it is seen that the annual
,

cost of caring for the insane is greater than the

annual cost of construction of that great work .

The latter sum is so great that it was deemed

necessary to distribute it over a number of years
by the issuance of bonds ; whereas the cost of car
ing for the insane is an annual expense whi ch ,

has t o be met from current revenues of th e

S tates.

I n order to state fairly the cost of mental dis

eases there must be adde d to this great sum the
economic loss to th e country through the with
draw al from productive labor of so many people
in the prime of life I t h as been stated by the
.

United S tates Commissioner of L abor that the

average value to the community of an adult be
tween the ages of 1 8 and 45 is $ 700a year E sti .

mated upon this basis the annual economic loss to

,

the United S tates through th e confinement of

people in institutions f or the in sane is
more than I f this is added to th e
cost of maintenance the total is more than
—an amount equal to the entire value

of the wheat , corn tobacco dairy products and

, , ,
 A Nat ional M ovemen t 2 29

beef products exported annually from the Uni ted

S tates .

S uch st atistics serve as a means of comparison

but they cannot convey an adequate idea of th e
most serious results of mental dise a ses— the per
sonal su ffering and unhappiness the social and ,

family disasters and the business troubles which

they cause I t should be remembered that the
.

same factors which bring about the commitment of

people to institution s for the insane are responsi
ble for much m ental dise a se which is never recog
niz ed and for loss of e fficiency failure to meet
,

difficul t situations of life and conflicts wit h

conventions and laws The se o f ten depend upon
.

mental disorders or mental defects although the ,

fact is not generally recogni z ed A ccounts of .

murders suicides marriage troubles an d many

, ,

kinds of misdemeanors often have a v ery definite

meaning for tho se who are familiar with the ah
normalitie s of conduct which result from mental
disease The frequency of these social disa sters
.

indicates the inadequacy of present methods of

dealing with the problem of mental diseases .

Hum anitarian and economic reasons alike call

f or organi z ed e fforts to control the spread of in
sanity I t is known that there are certain ess en tial
.

cause s of mental disease and that some of these

essenti al causes a re within our control I n 1 91 3 .
,

499 person s died from typhoid fever in New York

City, while more than 5 00 persons with general
230 I n creasin g You r M ental E fficien cy
paresis ( all of them certain to die of their dis
ease ) were admi tted during the same period and
from the same population to hospitals f or the in
san e S yphilis causes other mental diseases and
.
,

there is probably no other single cause for insan

ity responsible f or a greater number of cases I n .

spite of this it is an ama z ing fact that many of

those mo st active in th e field of venereal prophy
laxis are not aware that such a prevalent and u n i
formly fatal diseas e as general paresis depends
upon previous infection with s yphilis About 20 .

per cent of all first admissions to hospitals

.

f or the insane are on account of the alcoholic

psychoses forms of mental disease wh ich depend
,

upon another essential cause of insanity These .

are two controllable cau ses of mental diseas e .

I n the varied conditions capable of produci ng

mental disease there are many other controllable
causes some of them deeply imbedded in the
,

soci al f abri c and touching many phases of per

sonal life education and general preventive
, ,

medicin e This fruitful and most important field

.

for work in the prevention of diseas e has prac

tically been neglected thus far very largely on
,

account of lack of popular information .

The most e ff ective work in the prevention of

in sanity as well as in increasing the efi cien cy an d
,

h appiness of those wh o do not become insane ,

mu st be done in early life We know that much

.

ment al disease and more disaster from imperfect

 A Nat ional M oveme n t 2 31

adjustmen ts to life of a little di ff erent sort depend

upon inadequate equipment to deal with difficult
situation s an d upon attempts of people to live
upon level s of activity f or which their mental
equipment and training have n ot fitted them We .

know that in n ot a few cases these inadequacies

of equipment and t hi s tendency on the part of

people to take up tasks f or which they are mani

f es tly u nfitted may be recogni z ed at a very early
period and we suspect that much could be don e
by recasting educational methods and providing
f or individual needs to remedy these condi tions .

This after all is the true purpose of mental

, ,

hygiene A s issues become clearer and peopl e

.

turn to the consideration of these subjects it will

fall to this C ommittee to give constructive su gges
tions for including in th e purpo ses of education
the determination of the level s of capaci ty of dif
f eren t in dividual s at which li f e may be conducted
the most success f ully We may be able to show
.

that any educational system s h ould include the

recognition and possible correction in the schools
of tendencie s which may wreck happiness and
u s efulnes s in future years .

G e n eral Plan of th e Work

Wh t ha s been pre sented is a very broad outline

a

of the field which the National Committee for

Mental Hygiene has entered I t is realized fully
.
232 I ncre as ing Y ou r M ent al E fficiency
that in such an immense field efi orts might e a sily
be so poorly directed as to accomplish f ew speci fic
results With this in mind a plan f or systematic
.
, ,

constructive work by which di ff erent phases of

,

the subject are to be dealt with one at a time, has

been prepared Nearly three years were devoted
.

to careful study befor e this plan was adopted

and it was decided that the time had come to com
mence active work and to appeal for support .

The plan may be summari z ed under three prin

cip al heads The first is origin al in qu iry regard
.

ing the status of the care of the ins ane in this

country—including not only care of patients in
special institution s but care in the communities ,
in general ho spitals and pending admission to
,

hospitals ; regarding the opportunities for eff ec

tive work in betterment and prevention and as
, ,

resou rces permit regarding some of the more

,

important controllable c auses of mental disease .

The second is p opu lar edu cation by which the im ,

portance of the sub j ect can be impressed upon the

public and facts already kn own and those ascer
,

tained by spe cial studies regarding conditions f or

care and tr eatment and the preventable causes of
,

mental diseases can be made widely known The

, .

third is the organ iz ation of ag en cies to take part

in movements f or betterment and prevention in ,

cludin g existing agencies ( Feder al S tate and , ,

local ) and S tate and loc al societies for mental

hygi ene orga ni zed for these special purpose s .
 A Nat ional M ovement 233

The following outlin e of the work proposed

u n der the heading origin al in qu iry is from t h e

plan of work adopted

A study will be made of the operation of the
laws relating to insanity and the insane ; the ofl i
cial methods of dealing with mental cases ; the ex

tent and character of institutional care ; the

extent and character of care outside of special in
s titu tion s the methods of discharge of p atients
,

and their return to normal conditions and such,

other particulars as it may seem necessary to in

quire into with a view of securing for the National
C ommittee full and accurate information concern
”
ing the situation in the several S tates .

Work in accordance with these plans has been

carried on steadily during the past two years I t .

seemed e ssential at the outset to obtain a clea r

idea of the provi sion s for the care and commit
ment of the insane in the several S tates which are
a ff orded by p resent statutes The kind of care
.

received by the in san e depends upon legislation

mor e than does the care of any other classes of
the sick Indeed, good laws regarding the insane
.

are the es sential foundation for good care so we ,

secured the services of Mr John Koren wh o f or

.
,

several years had been in charge of the statistical

studie s of the insane made by the United S tates
Census Bureau and wh o had already collected a
,

great deal of material on this subj ect Mr Koren

. .

prepared a summary of the se laws , which has

234 I n creas in g Y ou r M ent al Efficie n cy
been published by this Committee and which has ,

proved of great use not only to u s but to others

interested .

Besides information regarding special topics a ,

great deal of general statistical information relat

ing to some of th e larger aspect s of our problem
( such as the prevalence of mental dise ase its re ,

lation to immi gration etc ) h as been gathered

,
.

an d made freely a v ailable to all wh o desir e it .

I n view of th e vital importance of impro ving

facilities for early diagnosis and treatment of
mental diseases special e fforts have been made to
,

ob tain all the information available regardi ng

p sychiatric clinics and p sychiatric wards and pa ,

v ili on s in connection with general hospitals .

Plan s of nearly all such institution s in the United

S tates have been secured and redrawn to a uni
form scale A publication will be issued describ
.

ing them and giving detailed information as to

their cost and cost of mainten ance the org ani z a ,

tion of their medical and administrative services ,

the purposes intended to be served and the actual

results obtained I t has been found possible to
.

have excellent prints in black and white made of

these plans A number have been secured so that
.

persons seeking information on thi s subj ect can

be supplied .

S tudies of a nu mber of such special problems as

the unique mode of care known as the Wiscon
sin system have been carried on .
 A Nat ional M ovement 235

It has been encouraging and especially interest

ing to have many spontaneous appeals made to
us for information on variou s phases of mental
hygiene The follo wing requests for information
.
,

whi ch were receive d during a very shor t period ,

may serve a s illustrations

The medical examiner of a S tate Bureau of

Child Labor asked f or detailed suggestions fo r
makin g mental examinations of children applyin g
for labor permits .

A vigilance association asked for information

regarding the relation between syphilis and in
sanity and , afte r receiving it printed a special ,

pamphlet on the subject .

The Master in Lunacy of the S tate of V ictoria

- -
,

Australia asked for information regarding the

,

e arly treatment of mental diseases in psycho

pathic hospital s and psychopathic wards in gen
eral hospitals .

The Tuberculosis Committee asked for in f or

mation regarding the relation between tu bercu
los i s and mental disease .

The Director of Physical Training in th e public

school s of a large city asked f or an outline on
mental hygi ene to include in a course on hygien e
for teachers .

The S ecretary of the Young M en s Christian ’

A ssociation in Peking China asked f or publica

, ,

tions on mental hygiene to be placed in a library .

u sed by officials and students .

A clergyman engaged in a no -license cam

p aig n in the West asked fo r chart s sho wing the
236 I ncre as in g You r M en t al E fficien cy
relation between alcohol and insanity for display
in store windows .

The Director of the Bureau of S ocial Welfar e

in a western university asked for suggestions for
useful fields of cfi ort for an ext ension division .

A number of teachers of biology and of sociol

ogy in universities asked for dat a on various
pha ses of mental hygiene to use in their classes .

m
The editor of a maga z i n e in t h e S outh asked for
information regarding the rel ation of im igration
to insanity .

A n instructor in sociology in a southern college

asked for suggestions for a genetic survey of a
to wn of inhabitants .

The Director of a hospital f or the insane in

C anton China a sked for dat a on the cau s e s of
, ,

insanity to translate into Chinese for wide distri

bu tion .

A member of a lodge of young men in the We st

asked f or a frank statement regarding the
physiological e ff ects of cont inence , stating that
he had been delegated to do so by th e o thers who
were sincere in asking f or in formation f or their
own guidance .

A Professor in Wellin gton College , Cape Col

ony , S outh A frica , asked for information regard
ing mental hygiene and the formation of a mental
hygiene exhibit .

The Attending Physician of a rescue home for

girl s asked f or advice re g arding psychol ogical
and p sy ch iatrical studies of girls in her care .
_

A number of person s submitted proposed

amendments to insanity laws in di ff erent S tates
and asked f or opinions as to their form and pur
poses .
 A N at ional M ovemen t 237

The Bureau Criminology Research in the

of
Department of S ociology of a large university
asked f or advi ce regar din g certain researches
into the relation between mental defect and crime
which the Bure au was about t o undertake .

These are typ ical inquiries An at tempt is .

made to giv e a very careful answer in each cas e .

This necessitates of course a considerable

, ,

amount of inquiry and consultation with those

most familiar with the di fferent problems It con .

sumes a great deal of time but it seems very de

,

sirable to meet such demands adequately for one ,

of the object s mentioned in the statement of our

plan s is to serve as a clearing house for the na

tion on the subject of nerv ou s and mental disor
ders and in the car e and treatment of the in
,
’
sane ?

S ocial S ervice by Corresponden ce

‘
While it is n ot one of the purposes of the Na
tion al Committe e for Mental Hygiene to gi ve aid
in individual cases that being a function of local
,

agencies many such cases have been presented in

,

a way making it impos sible to withhold advice or

a ssistance S everal articles relating to the work

.

of this committ ee appearing at about the same

tim e in the Outlook the Cosm opolitan and
”
,
”
,

the A merican maga z ines gave rise to a flood

,

of letters fro m nearl y all the S tates and fro m ,

238 I n creasin g You r M e nt al E ffi cie ncy

several foreign countries S om e of these letters

.

could be answered by the statement that the ad

vice desired could not be given without a personal
examination or that publications on the special
,

topic mentioned were not at the time available

, , ,

but more than five hundred of these inquiries have

received carefu l personal attention so urgent ,

seemed the need for advice ! uite a number of .

person s sn fi ering from mental diseases have by ,

this means been placed in touch with physicians

,

in di fferent localities I n order that this may be

.

done most e ff ectively a card index has been pre

,
-

pared of the p hysicians in th e differen t S tates

who are me mbers of psychiatrical or neurological
societies o r who are kno wn to have devoted
especial attention to mental diseases .

Thu s it will be seen that this purely philan

thrOpic organi z ation has become a national insti
tu ti on fo r increasing mental e fficiency I t is a .

unique organi z ation and is proving a most helpful

,

one F or it dispenses in f ormation about topics

.

of utmost importance to the individual—informa

tion that it is practically impossible for most
persons to acquire in any other way at the pr e sent
time I n e ff ect it is a national f ree clinic con
.

ducted by competent persons whose obj ect is to

better the condition of the individual directly ,

and thus indirectly raise the general standard of

mental efficiency .
 A Nat ional M ovemen t 2 39

One ca nnot help being impressed by the help

lessness in dealing with mental illness which these
appeal s disclose They provide material for a
.

very co nvincing statement of the need for local

societies or committees for mental hygiene to deal
wi th p erson al problems .

A id in M ovemen t s f or B ett erment

E ff orts have been made to assist in every

movement t o improve conditions among th e in
sane or t o undertaken in prevention which has
come to our attention We have f urnished inf or
.

mation or advice or have cooperated in other

,

ways in attemp ts to secure better laws or to deal

,

with special problems in A laska Cali f ornia Con , ,

n e cticu t Maine
,
Massachusetts Minnesota Mis
, , ,

souri N ew Jersey New York Oklahoma ,

, , ,

Pennsylv ania Texas and Wisconsin

, ,
.

One of the stated obj ects of this Committee is

To enlist the aid of the Federal Government so
far as may seem desirable ”
The mos t important
.

step taken by this C ommittee toward this end

was an intervi e w with Presiden t Wilson The .

import ance of the subject of mental hygiene was

p resented and each of the points of contact whi ch
,

the Federal Government has with mental hygiene

was mentioned S ome of these are the work of
.

the Public Health S ervice in general preventive

2 40 I n creas ing You r M ent al Efficiency
medicine but particularly in the mental examina
,

tion of immigrants and in the dissemination of

,

information regarding the causes and prevention

of disease ; that of t h e C ensus Bureau regarding
the insane in institutions ; that of the Bureau of
Education ; the care of the insane in Alaska and
in our insular possessions ; the care of insane I n
di ans ; the work of the Government Hospital of
the I nsane and the work of the recruiting servi ces
,

of the A rmy an d Navy I n this connection it is

.

not without interest that a very defectiv e commit

ment law and most in adequate quarters for the
detention of alleged insane persons pending their
commitment are to be foun d in the District of
C olumbia .

This Committee has directed attention to the

importance of the exclusion of the in sane and
mentally defective immigrants A ssistance and
.

advice has been given to several official Commis

sions appointed to study this subj ect Represent
.

ative s of the Committee have appeared b efor e

Committees in Congress and th ey were present
at a hearing given by President Taft in 1 91 3 I n .

all that has been done especial pains have been

,

taken to make it clear that ou r interest in immi

grati on problems relates only t o this particular
phase Better and more humane methods of de
.

p ortation h ave also received attention and some ,

suggestion s made by us have already been put

into e ff ect .
 A Nat ional M ovement 241

S t at e S ociet ies an d C ommitt ees f or M ent al H ygiene

During the past year the growth of the work of

S tate S ocieties and Committees f or Mental
Hygiene an d the development of interest in such
agencies in S tates where they have not yet been
organized has been ste ady and gratifying .

S tate S ocieties are now in operation in Con

n ecticu t I llinois Ma ssachusetts and North C aro
, , ,

lina and their equivalents in the form of Mental

, ,

Hygiene C ommittees which are sub -committees

of some other organi z ation a re in operati on in ,

New York Maryland and Pennsylvani a

, ,
These .

seven agencie s are a ffiliated with the National

Committee and look to i t for advice and assist
ance , thu s making it possible for ou r National
a gency to help standardize an d coOrdinate th e

work In Rhod e I sland Maine I ndiana Michi

.
, , ,

gan California and Texas moves toward organ

, , ,

i z ing societies are also being m ade .

I n this brief report a description of the work

,

of the several S tate S ocieties and Committee s

cannot be gi ven S uffice it to say that such

.
,

agencies are now at work in S tates which on J an

uary 1 , 1 91 0, had patients in hospital s f or
the in sane—nearly one h alf of the total nu mber of
-

patients in such institutions in this country .

When the agencies now in proces s of organization

shall have begun work S tate S ocieties for Mental
,

Hygiene will be working f or improved care and

2 42 I n creasin g Y ou r M ent al Efficie ncy
treatment f or more than of the

insan e patients reported in institutions in the

United S tates on January 1 1 91 0 ,
.

I n t eres t in O th er Cou nt ries

In Canada th e Canadian Medical S oci ety has

,

organized a M ental Hygi en e Committee which

will be represented at the C onvention in Balti
more I n S outh A f rica also a S ociety known as
.
, , ,

the S outh A f rican Committee on M ental

”
Hygiene ,was founded last June Thus the .

movement may be s aid to be already intern ational

in scope .

I t is the aim of the National Committee for

Mental Hygiene to bring about a new realization
of h ow the insane have failed to share in the ad
vance in the care of the sick and cause al so a , ,

general awakening to the fact that the prevention

of mental diseases has thus far failed to become a

part of the advance in preventive medicine .

When these neglected responsibilities are as

sumed the returns wi ll be as large as those re
,

s u ltin g f rom any other work for human

happiness an d e fficiency whi ch is being under
taken to-day .