Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-08
LIFE ADJUSTMENT
CENTER TO REOPEN;
TO Be PERMANENT
Experiment Conducted Three
Months Has Shown Value,
Says Rev. Moses Lowell.
SUFFERERS HELPED
TO CARRY BURDENS
confessional" Clinic Answers Cry
of Normal Humanity for Relief,
Directors Find.

Characterizing the work as lone of
the most significant experiments being
carried on in Professionalism" Rev.
Moses r. Lowell, pastor of the Mount
Pleasant Congregational Church, yes
terday announced that the life adjust
ment center at that church is to be
placed on permanent basis.
Conducted experimentally for the
past three months, it will reopen in
October and remain in operation
throughout the year. In addition to
physicians, psychiatristS, social work.
ers and clergymen, the staff is to in
clude an economist and a lawyer.
Sometimes characterized as prot
estant confessional" the project has at
tracted national attention this Winter
and details of its operation have been
sought by many large city churches,
Rev. DR.. Lowell, making his final re-
port on the three months experiment
yesterday, said that it apparently was
opening up great borderline area OF
human behavior and suffering which
hitherto has been neglected by churches
and physicians.
Great Underworld Of Tragedy Found.
'We have found" he said, "a great
underworld in Washington, not of crime
but of tragedy. sorrow, encouragement
and reimbursement. There is q great
cry of normal humanity for help to
find the way out. 1t Is forced into the
underworld of fear and worry"
The Life Adjustment Center has
sought to weld religion and medicine
through pSychiatry, which now is throw
ing much light on the problems of nor
NAL human behavior. At the end of
the experimental period there were five
volunteer psychiatrists on the staff, in
Guiding some of the leaders Of this field
from st. Elizabeth's Hospital. This
number probably will be increased this
year. These, as well as the physicians,
served without pay.
He became convinced Of the FEAST
bility of such project, Rev. Mr.. Lowell
said, partly through studies of the
Catholic confessional and of some Of the
healing methods of Christian Science.
He was convinced that both were
achieving Outstanding practical results;
but was not satisfied with the theoreti-
cal basis of either.
DR.. White Helped Build Idea.
"Then when came to Washington"
he said, 81 fell under the spell of DR..
William A. White of st. Elizabeth's
Hospital and the idea came to me Of
bringing together the idealism of the
church and the technique of the Scien-
tist"
The first night, Rev. Mr.. Lowell said,
there were 80 attendants and it was
necessary to remain open until nearly
midnight. During the IL weeks Of the
experiment there were 191 persons and
$50 separate conferences.
Most of the persons who sought help
in adjusting their lives, he said, were
perfectly normal and there were only
five who had developed abnormalitieS
to such an extent that nothing could be
done for them. The majority were per-
sons who felt themselves slipping or who
had secret sorrows which they could not
get rid of.
Unemployment Is Problem.
The project, Rev. Mr.. Lowell explained,
has proceeded on the basis, that the
body, mind, soul and social adjustment
Of a human being are closely interre-
lated and that the cause of maladjuSt-
ment in one field often lies in an entire
problems, he said, was unemployment.
Where an individual has no source of
revenue this is usually the first condi-
ton to be remedied. He insisted that
churches should maintain employment
agencies.
The work, he said, has convinced the
staff that any program for treating the
individual as a whole must pay atten-
ton to economic problems and that the
trained economist can play a part as
as that of any one else. Many
of the problems have difficult legal an
giles, and a leading Washington attorney
has volunteered his services for the next
year.
The ending of the experimental
period, Rev. Mr.. Lowell said, forced the
workers to drop some OF the cases with
the work half done, and the plans for
next year call for social worker who
will devote her time to follow-up work.
Stories Are Confidential.
From the first, the minister ex-
planned, each story told at the Life
Adjustment Center has been consid- |
cred as strictly confidential.
The field OF the Life Adjustment
Center, he said, Is such that 1t will not
Hygiene Clinic which is to be estab- |
Iisted under the direction of the Coun- |
eli of Social Agencies. The latter will
deal only with such cases as are re-
ferred to it by the public schools, the
organized charities and the courts,
whereas the majority of those who
come to the church never would come
under the observation Of any of these
1885,