Daily Kennebec journal., 1913-12-24
SANITY.
People With Passion for Violent
Clothing Are Three Quarters Mad.

|
| People with a passion for violent
| clothing are three quarters mad. This
is the discovery Of the distinguished
German mental alienist, DR.. Bernard
Holz and he is backed by other in
vestigators. Generally, he declares.
fashion and clothes have direct in
nuence on insanity.
| DR.. Rudolf Forester of Berlin has
been investigating the same subject
and he has just published book on
''The Connection of Professions with
| Mental Diseases" DR.. Forester says
lit is sign of progressive paralysis
when man of plain like takes to
dressing himself up like an Unter den
Linden dude and wears a silk hat.
And DR.. Holz says 1t is sure sign
of paranoia when elderly persons
show a minute zeal about their cloth
ing, and particularly when two eld-
erly members of the same family
copy one another's garb.
"A certain proportion of lunatics,"
says DR. Holz. probably three per
cent, owe their troubles to the in
fiuence of fashion; that is. to wo-
mems fashions. This does not in
|
fashion acts indirectly in an injurious
sense, for instance, to tight-laced wo-
men who suffer from hysteria. Hys-
terra is essentially a fashion nervous
disease. Also 1t does not include
thousands of indirect victims whose
nervous systems are undermined
through disappointment with their
dressmakers, jealousy of the women's
| to- 70 yanu mn
bills If these cases are counted,
then a third of woman lunatics are
victims of fashion"
When fashion is an indirect or con-
tributory cause of insanity, DIR. Holz
finds that 1t chiefly produces function
al disturbances of the mood. such as
undue exaltation, undue depression
and diseases of the will. The COM
| monest form of indirectly caused
fashion insanity Is maniacal depres-
sion. Fashion lunaey seldom appears
early in life.
1.-The greatest of all dangers Tor
women of between 40 and co. says
DR.. Holz, 'is too minute attention
to clothing and to changes of mode.
When young woman is unreason-
ably keen on fashion, that may mean
mental disease: but when woman
getting on in life does so, that almost
| certainly means a mind unbalanced.
"One sign of all half-lunacy Is an
entire lack of sympathetic and human
interests and fussy self-concentra-
ton on ones own petty, often in
significant, needs and imagined needs.
This concentration Is petty and in
significant when in an elderly woman
it takes the form of dress. Women
with gruwn-up children, perhaps
Grandchildren, who persist in lead
ing fussy, worldly lives, who think
only of their compilations and their
hats, are nearly always half way to-
wards insanity"
With this view DIR. Foresters' book
agrees. for 1t notes that insane Wo-
men often collect vast quantities OF
useless clothing, spend extrayagantly
and show an unnatural desire to
!, shine in society.
1.-THE first sign of a normally heal
, thy Drained organism is" says DR..
!, Holz. "a considerable decline of in
terest in clothes after one passes 81.
!, When a woman has passed 90 q craze
for clothing may mean premature
, dementia senilis. A client or mlne'
the brilliant and admired Baroness A,
who spoke five languages and wrote
, attractive verse, suddenly began at
, the age of 20 to study fashion papers
, At first she discussed the fashions
with the brilliance which she showed
? for every other interest and she De
: gan to design her own dresses. for
several weeks she was entirely con-
; centrated in this petty work. SIX
, months later she was entirely lmoe-
! cile. lost interest in everything ex-
|, cent brightly colored clothing, ano
) within a year was dead.
I'm such cases." says DR.. Holz, the
, craze for fashion may be merely a
, symptom of insanity which already
is well under way. But insanity may
be caused in perfectly healthy per-
) sons who pay too much attention to
) clothes. Concentration of the mind
on one subject; the sight of unob-
l tainable furs and gems. and, above
! all. the consciousness of woman OF
: small means that she appears badly
t dressed at social gatherings-these
t things have O. distinctly disorganizing
/ effect upon the nervous system.
"a woman of strong mind escapes
, this peril by keeping to her own Glass;
but If ambition is stronger than
, common sense the ceaseless struggle
for fine clothing and perpetual self
= consciousness may undermine sound
/ mental health. Probably there are
5 other causes. But 1t is not necessary
to assume inherited or constitutional
' mental weaknesses in every case OF
= madness brought on by fashion"
DR.. HoIz's experiments with pa
1 tients and animals indicate that pos
: sibly colors may have something to
do with insanity. He holds that blue
and violet are insane" that is,
5 erve-disturbing colors, and adds that
: the Iunacy rate may be affected by
4 fashion when the prevailing MODE
: compels a particular color to be worn.
!. DR.. Holz tested the pulses and ner-
!, yous reactions of seven women pa
! tients when handsome colored articles
l of attire were unexpectedly placed be-
fore them. He found that, contrary
, to current belief, red and orange do
not excite Green sooths, purple, VI
olet and blue have disturbing effects.
Tho craza for violet which is COM