The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-08-03
Mental Hygiene Ages Ago.
az n. AopiNeroN BRUCE,
Author of The Riddle Of Personality"
Psychology and Parenthood." ETC.

The familiar saying that there 10 nothing new
under the sun is strikingly exemplified by men
tai hygiene and mental healing.
Great emphasis is rightly being laid on both
preston that they are sudden outgrowths ana
represent entirely new movements in medi'
cine in quite mistaken
On the contrary they have q remarkable his
torical background, and were known and prac-
ticed In various ways by ancient peoples
Even hypnotism, that extremely up-to-date
therapeutic agent was employed as long ago as
the time Of the Pharaohs- There Is evidence that
wise Egyptian physicians sometimes put their
patients into hypnotic sleep. during which they
gave them curative suggestions much in the
modern manner.
Treatment OF nervous invalids by rest cure"
methods was practiced both in Egypt and In
Greece. The shrines of Aesculapius were essen
tally what we would call sanitariums. med-
cal historian thus decribes them:
They were spacious buildings. pleasantly
situated. The hours of riang and OF rest were
definitely regulated. The patients minds were
kept occupied with the details Of IL, cure. they
met pleasant companions from distant places
they had all the advantages OF diversion OF
mind, simple diet. long hours In the open air,
and abundance OF rest away from the ordinary
worries OF life.
"No wonder that these institutions acquired a
reputation for cures OF symptoms which the
physician had been unable to accomplish while
the patient was at home in the midst OF his
daily cares and worries.
Sanitariums of the sort were established In
Egypt and in Assyria- In both places, as in
Greece however. the physicians who conducted
them were priests and. probably In all sincerity,
they sedulously cultivated in their patients
minds the idea that the cures wrought were ef-
fected by supernatural means.
Thus, although mental hygiene and mental
healing were systematically pracefeed, there
was no general recognition Of the factors that
really brought about the often curative results
But there are records Of individual physicians
who did not-recognize- them. EFasistratos
(about 800 B. CO. was one. and another was the
famous Hippocrates. At a later day Ayfcenna
the great Arabian physician. expressly taught
that the Imagination" of men can and does az
feet their bodies
Still, even Avicenna had q mystical, occult
strain In his teachings. This tendency persisted
throughout the Middle Ages.
For that matter. II IL in evidence among some
mental healers Of our own day.
And II was because the ancients and their
medieval successors blindly adopted the easy
explanation of supernatural aid that cor
rect understanding of the mental cures was
delayed until modern times
This IL IL that forms q basis for the seeming
newness Of mental hygiene and mental healing.
More Is heard Of them today than ever before
because more Is known about them.
The development OF medical psychology
which, as q science. 10 not more than half q
century old-has opened up vistas OF medical
possibilities until now only crudely utilized
Naturally this has caused unprecedented
discussion and out Of this discussion has arisen
the widespread but mistaken notion Of the
absolute newness of mental hygiene.