The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-08-03
Mental Hygiene Ages Ago.
BY n. ADDlhoToN BRUCE,
Author of The Riddle OF Personality.
Psychology and Perenthood." etc.

The familiar saying that there Is nothing new
under the sun Is strikingly exemplified by men
tai hygiene and mental healing.
Great emphasis Is rightly being laid on ootn
of these nowadays. But the widespread i'm
preston that they are sudden outgrowths ano
repS,sent entirely new movements IN medt
cine in quite mistaken
On the contrary they have a remarkable his
torical background and were known and prac
ticed in various ways by ancient peoples
Even hypnotism, that extremely up-todate
therapeutic agent. was employed as Ions 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 invaiids by rest cure
methods was practiced both in Egypt and IN
Greece. The shrines of Aesculapius were essen
TALLY what We would call sanitariums. medI-
cal historian thus decribes them:
They were spacious buildings, pleasantly
situated. The hours of rising and OF rest were
definitely regulated. The patients minds were
kept occupied with the details OF the 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
mo wonder that these institutions acquired a
reputation for cures Of symptoms which the
physician had been unable 10 accomplish while
the patient was ar 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 We're priests and. probably In all sincerity,
they sedulously cultivated in their patients
minds the idea that the cures wrought were eff
fected by supernatural means.
Thus, although mental hygiene and mental
healing were systematically practiced, 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. Erasistratos
(about 300 B. c. one. and another was the
famous Hippocrates. At a later day Avicenna,
the great Arabian physician, expressly taught
that the imagination" OF men can and does az
feet their bodies.
Still, even Avicenna had a mystical, occult
strain in his teachings. This tendency persisted
throughout the Middle Ages.
For that matter. 1t Is 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 II is that forms 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, a science Is not more than half a
century oldI-has opened up vistas OF medical
possibilities until now only crudey 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