Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-09-01
BY ]. HAsKIN

NEW YORK CITY, Sept. IA
healthy mind in a healthy body is
the new slogan of personal fitness.
We have heard a great deal about
the importance of physical perfec-
ton and about preventing disease.
The National Committee for Mental
Hygiene is impressing on the public
a less familiar fact. namely, that
mental disease is also preventable.
We are also told that 1t is as impor-
ltant to keep a healthy attitude to-
ward life as to preserve a sound
digestion.
There is an increasing amount of
Nervous breakdown and more severe
forms of msntal troubles are COM
mon. The war added to the strain
of modern existence and brought dis
eases of this sort in its wake. This
in turn led to wider study along
psychiatric lines. And now the pub
lie, as well as the specialist, ID
aroused to interest in the workings
OF the mind. People r trying this
theory and that, hoping to increase
their powers and to find some elusive
bluebird of mental contentment.
This self study may be helpful or
not, according to the soundness OF
the theory and the temperament
and understanding of the individual.
Some psychologists say that many
people are playing recklessly with
their minds as they would not dare
to play with their physical well be-
ing, and that there may be danger in
applying a mental cure-all formula
merely on the grounds that it has
helped some one else.
At any rate, the signs indicate
that the country is beginning to take
stock of its mental health. DR.. c.
j. Dalton, of tho committee on
mental hygiene, say that doctors
are coming to appreciate the impor-
lance Of treating the individual as
a whole, and of not combining their
attention to those parts which ap-
pear to be affected. They realize
that many physical symptoms can
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factors involved are understood, be-
cause organic conditions are not al
ways present to explain the disorder.
It is necessary frequently to analyze
the patients personal situation,
working conditions, home circum-
stances, his mental and emotional
habits, personality, and other fac
tors before an explanation is found.
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something about the mind. Doctors
recently graduated from a number of
medical schools have been given
training in psychiatry for this pur-
pose. They are not mental special
lists, but they have a fundamental
knowledge of the subject. The med
ical department of Harvard has an
endowed chair of psychiatry, and il
is predicted that in time all of the
prominent medical schools will fol-
low this example. 1t also seems like
ly that the increasing scope of medi-
cal training will necessitate length
ening of the medical course to five
years. This step is now planned by
several colleges.
Mental Hygiene Ii New
Every big clinic has had its psy-
chiatric department for some time,
but treating the mind is still rather
a new thing for the general prac-
titioner. Mental hygiene is new toe
TOR social welfare centers and col
Ileges. An expert in mental prob
lens has already been attached to
the staffs OF some welfare organic
atoms. A few years ago the idea
that there would be anything foi
a mental specialist to do at a college
would have been laughed at. A
QUESTIONABLE recently sent to a num-
Der of colleges revealed that a fairly
large percentage OF students have
difficulty in adjusting themselves to
life. The question has been raised
as to whether carefully given ad-
vice would not keep some Of these
~students from developing into cranki
lgrouches. ervou wrecks, and vic.
tins of i%nferiority completes.
The importance of a satisfactory
adjustment to life has been recog.
nized for some time in the courts
But even here practical attempts tc
help individuals to adjust themselves
have not become the rule. The men
tai hygiene committee has bec1
~sending out travelling clinic to dem
lonstrats the possibilities Of such al
hnstftution In handling iuvaniIa "a