Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-18
Mental Hygiene Held
Aid to World Peace
To the Editor Of The Star:

To the Editor Of The Star:
Fridtjof Nansen's remark at a re-
cent dinner of the Economic Club Of
New York that what the world needs
most today is disarmament Of the
mind" expresses aptly the psychological
character of the peace and-war problem
so sharply focused i'll the public mind
at the present time by the Kellogg pact
and subsequent developments. War is a
problem in human adjustments and its
basic causes are emotionally involved.
How often has the course of history, for
better or worse, been determined by the
character and personality traits of in
dividuals in power? We need only to
recall events leading to the World War
to appreciate this-the race for arma-
mentS, the distrust and misunderstand-
ing between governments, the desperate
eleventh-hour attempts to avert war
and the thousand and one illustrations
afforded by the war itself.
We see it in the very attempts to adj
just by pacific means some of the
problems that have grown out of the
war. and in the efforts to perpetuate
war-won peace. The reservations in
treaties, protocols and other internal
| tional agreements. as to questions mot
, war" and special intereSts"-all spring
from emotionally conditioned factors in
! human nature.
Mental hygiene is concerned with
the human causes of war and it's mes
sage to peace workers is message of
hope-hope in the understanding of
human personality-in the understand
ing of the fears, aspirations. strivings
and tendencies that operate, consciously
and unconsciously in all human be-
havior, in individual and group relations.
In the words of one psychiatrist, wars
are reactions to buried conflicts. The
bringing Of these conflicts to the sur
face, the digestion and disposal of them,
he says Is the art of making peace.
An undoubted advantage of such
covenants as the pact of Paris is that
they call for changed mental attitude,
and they may indeed be the means of
forming national mental habits that
will make for Cancellation and peace in
stead of willfulneSS and war. The same
may be said for the creation of peace
machinery like the League of Nations
and the World Court, which provide
opportunities for the study of motiva-
tions, causes and factors back of inter-
national conflict. 1t was said at a
recent meeting of the National Com
mlttee LOT mental hygiene that the
League Of Nations is significant because
it is a great experiment in mental
hygiene. Itshas no power 1t is simply
place for frank discussion, of a kind
calculated to plumb the depths of prob
lens that are essentially human, and to
bring up into the open causes of war
that have remained hidden under the
old diplomacy.
One observer ascribes the failure of
the Geneva Arms Conference to the
fact that 1t did not adopt the Leagues
technique but reverted to the older and
futile diplomatic methods. An old
school diplomat expressed himself as be-
ing deeply impressed by the evident
superiority of the new conference
methods, and he sees in them a new
hope for the pacific settlement of in
ternational differences. 1t is a hope
based on principles of mental hygiene
which have for their aim the freeing
OF the mind. its liberation from the
twisting and distorting shackles of
emotionalism, to the end that the rea-
son of man may not fail him at critical
moments. PAUL o. KOMORA.