Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-01-24
MENTAL DISEASE
BY H. Addington Bruce

& ONE day, it is much to be hoped, there
y will be more general appreciation of
what the term mental disease really
means. In especial, people need to be rid of
The idea that it is merely another term for
insanity. This idea is in itself a serious OBJ
stacie TO the successful practice of both men
tai medicine and mental hygiene.
TO regard all mentally diseased persons as
afflicted with insanity is in fact about as
sensible as to regard all physically diseased
persons as suffering from cancer. There are
gradations and differences in mental disease
just as there are in physical disease.
Sufferers from the so-called functional
nervous acknowledgements. psychasthenia
and neurasthenia-are not insane, yet they
certainly are mentally diseased, inasmuch as
these disorders always involve morbid ways
of thinking. This is also the case of those
numerous harassed by shyness, bashfulness,
envy, unreasoning hate, Or a habitual ten
dency to depreciate oneself and others.
Such unfortunates obviously do not think
normally, hence must be said to be in some
degree victims of mental disease, as truly as
persons having colds or aching teeth or in
fected tonsils are in some degree victims of
physical disease. But always the shy, bash
full, enyious, hate-afflcted, grouchy, and de-
predatory can be helped to mental health
provided only that they place themselves in
the care of experts in the treatment of men
tai troubles.
For that matter, even when mental disease
amounting to insanity is present, there are
gradations and differences which it is Of prac-
tical Importance to appreciate.
To be insane is not necessarily to be in
curabIy insane, any more than to have seri-
Gus physical disease is to be beyond hope of
cure. There are kinds of insanity, as there
are kinds of physical disease, for which in the
present state of medical knowledge little or
nothing can be done. But there are other
kinds that yield to treatment, if the treat
ment be begun soon enough and carried on
by experts.
Because this is not appreciated and be-
cause in the popular mind, insanity is erro-
neousy regarded as something disgraceful
many an insane person is so long shielded"
from treatment as to drift eventually into the
incurable class.
And because mental disease in general is
enormously identified with insanity, many a
sufferer from the minor mental disorders Of
shynesS bashfuneSs, envy, etc, fails to rec
ognize that his or her trouble is essentially
one of wrong thinking, and consequently fails
to consult those most competent to effect
restoration to normal mental healh.
There happily are signs of concerted eff
fort to spread better understanding of this
most important subject.
Psychiatrists and psychologically trained
physicians making it the theme of books
intended for popular reading. Intelligent
presentation of it is made with increasing fire.
quency from the lecture platform. More sig
ni1cant still organizations have been formed
notably the National Committee for Men
tai Hygiene and subsidiary societies-making
it specially their aim to promulgate sound
ideas of mental disease.
SO prevalent and long-rooted are the false
ideas concerning it that Roadway in their
correction will probably be slow. However
slow it may be- all cooperating to effect cor
rection should courageously persist. The
task is one too vital to national as well as
Individual well-beng to be relinquished.
Copyright, 1924.)