Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-22
The Neurotic Family.

You say that nervous disorders are in
herited In the sense that nervous trouble
nervous" in different ways; but / con-
slider myself exceptionally free from nerves
NY NY sister !olderl Is decidedly nervous. my
Drotner tyoungerC Also and in regard to the
Youngest of the four of us, I can't tell yet.
Am l deluding myself that I have escaped
STOCK BROKER.
There is no reason why one should
not be completely normal and even
Singularly free from nerves even when
both parents show some (slight) signs
OF TINS very, very common departure
from the normal. In hundred families
In which one land especially both) of
the parents showed definite neurotic
symptoms there would be more nervous
children than among the same number
OF descendants of non-nervous parents.
Even this result would be assured only
II you had in the one group definitely
nervous families and in the other
families clearly without neuroses, and
If you discarded great many families
that you couldn't with confidence put
in either class.
Your heredity, unless exceptionally
tainted-that Is, with the dice heavily
loaded against you-does not doom you
to neurosiS; it only inclines and in
in the family one child may inherit
from that strain and the other not.
Your heredity is both composite one
from many ancestors ana specific one
Tin one or more reSpects) from some
one ancestor whose qualities are known
or unknown.
Birth is chance: it's your parents
chance in you. and yours in them and
their parents for few generations back
predominately. To hold that heredity
shapes much in life leads to under
standing, not to despair. The problem
for each is to make the most of his
hered1ty. NeuroSeS are so common that
few family strains are free from them.
viction: and if he can stand the life of
a stock broker. he has additional proof
that he is all right.
Among the many cases that accumu-
late in a clinical "once over" here
Is typical neurotic family-not the
worst, nor the best of its kind. The
father Is a normal workingman, getting
the high union scale wages of his
class. He is one of the following: Car
penter, mason. plumber, plasterer,
machinist and it doesn't matter which
He is absorbed in his job, doesn't worry
has no ambitions, just goes along. The
mother Is definitely nervous, much dis
posed to worry. has reared a family OF
five children, all but the youngest (still
in high SCHOOL, self-supporting. but by
no means normal. OF the high school
boy and one sister, I know little and
call them normal, giving them the bene-
fit of the doubt
The Oldest. a girl, has had one at
tack of mental trouble, which brought
her to an ASYLUM. She has recovered
has a job, is still a problem, and may
have further mental trouble. One OF
the sons is terrible problem, worries
h: mother into her neuroses. He has
been educated to a profession, which
is one of the following: Dentist, &C.
countant, pharmacist, clerk-it doesn't
matter which. He is sex delinquent
and has barely escaped arrest. Another
daughter is problem to herself. She
is full Of fears and hesitations, feels her.
self abnormal, too sensitive, no decision
or energy, feels dull and depressed, with
no command of her powers; makes few
social contacts. She is of the neuras-