Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-09-01
MENTAL CONDITION HAS
EFFECT ON WHOLE BODY

hHQuentS. Inc clinic urSL renamed
with a court in st. Louis for six
months, and at the end of that time
a permanent local clinic was estab-
lished there. The same procedure
took place in Norfolk and Dallas.
and the travelling clinic is next to
visit Milwaukee.
Two interesting facts about the
mental health question are to be
noted. The word insane has been
dropped by specialists. They point
GU that insanity is a legal term,
and they leave 1t for the courts to
decide whether a man is sane or
not. They prefer to speak in terms
OF mental disease. The other in
teresting fact Ia that mental dis
ease is used to include all kinds and
degrees OF trouble. It is reported
that the strong feeling against the
word mental is fading out. Once, a
person with a nervous breakdown
would have thought 1t a disgrace to
be considered a mental case Now,
every sort of unsatisfactory ad-
justment to life is considered in
this category.
No fixed Standards
The fact is, there is no such thing
as absolute physical perfection and
there is no fixed standard of mental
normally A satisfactory adjust
ment to life in a village community
is different from adjustment to lie
in a metropolis. That is, what is
loosely consic cred normality may
vary with places and circumstances.
The purpose of the National
Committee for Mental Ev giene so lar
as the public is concerned as to
help the individual to acquire a
better understanding of the instinc-
tive forces back of his physical, men
tai and emotional life, SO that he can
bring them under more conscious
control" To further this aim the
committee is working with the
National Health Council in it's cam
palgn to urge the public to have
periodic health examinations, OF
both mind and body. The National
Health Council, composed of the
fourteen principal national official
and voluntary health organizations
of this country, is urging that at
least ten million Americans have
health examinations. With the
slogan Have a Health Examination
on Your Birthday" this campaign
was inaugurated on July 4, 1928,
and win last until July 4, 1924.
DR.. Dalton says: 1.-THE advice to
secure periodic health examinations
for the benefit of ones mental
health does not necessarily carry
with it the implication of deter
mining whether one is mentally
sound or unsound, though it is OBJ
vious that the adoption of this cus-
tom cannot fail to contribute a
crest deal toward the prevention of
mental diseases. Many of the pa
,tients II state hospitals and private
~sanatoria, probably half, are suffer-
ing from mental diseases thai might
have been prevented II symptoms
had been recognized and treatment
Instituted early. But the tradition
ally befogged and mistaken attitude
that regards mental disorder as a
disgrace instead of a disease hal
operated to obscure the danger sig
mails and no hand has been raised
to avert the final breakdowns that
have taken these persons to the
hospitals"
He further points out that this at.
titude has been reinforced by the
common failacy that these disorders
occur suddenly, whereas no one evel
became insane suddenly. Menta'
disease develops over a long period
OF time and the final breakdown
comes as a surprise because the signs
are not recognized for what they
really are.
The periodic physical examination
is based on the principle that disease
conditions may develop in the bod,
of which the individual may be tot.
ally unaware. Even more subtle and
hidden changes take place in menta
development. we are told. Appar,
emily Insignificant factors sometimes
greatly increase the burdens of life
Starting as a nucleus they may form
a center which in the course o.
years collects other factors unit
the cumulative effect is a distinc
disturbance of the mental equilib'
rum of the individual. In a mildel
form such a disorder is Otter
euphemistically referred to as I
nervous breakdown. DIR. w. J. Mayt
had these In mind when he said tina
neurasthenia, psychasthenia, hys
terra and other are tn
cause Of more human misery thar
Eltuherc1loaN or ,eancen a