Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-03
Clinic With Behavior Expert
to Be Feature of Institute
for Mental Hygiene.
PLASTIC MINDS EASIER
TO TRAIN THAN OLD
DR.. Winifred Richmond and DR..
William A. White Explain
Benefits and Plans.
BY THOMAS R. HENRY.

children-Strange moody, nisunder.
stood boys and girls-are lost in q
wierd goblin land Of invisible forces
and images.
Like the children of Hamelin they
nave followed the pied piper through
door in the mountain of reality ano
is swinging shut behind them.
Such Is the picture presented by
officials OF the Washington Institute fol
Mental Hygiene, composed of prom
nent local psychiatrists and social
workers, who expect to have in opera
ton in the next few months a child
guidance clinic for the rescue of these
children before it is too late. The in
Stitution viii be financed by the Com
munity Chest. The number of children
in need of such help has been esti-
mated from the records of the public
schools.
The object, according to DR.. Wini-
fred Richmond. chairman of the COM
mittee which is making arrangements
for the clinic, is to provide 'the serv-
ices Of an expert in human behavior. -
1t is a strange world indeed through
which these children are wandering
helplessly, as it is pictured by DR..
Richmond and by Dr. William A. White.
superintendent of st Elizabeth's Hos
pital. For the most part it is entirely
unrecognized by the general public, al
though there are few who have not
crossed its borders at some time or
other. 1t is world, as the psychiatrists
sketch it, where thoughts have lost
their normal relationship to things.
Some of the children are above and
some below normal intelligence Left
unaioed many of them probably will
end in jails or hospitals for the insane.
Explanation of Purpose.
The purpose, says DR.. White. is not
to deal chiefly with defective children,
but with those who have normal phvs-
ical and mental equipment who are
wrestling with problems of life too COM
phcated for them to solve, with conse-
quet abnormalitieS of behavior which
may have serious results later.
Most OF the serious difficulties which
brlng individuals to jails and mental
hospitals, said DR.. White, have their
genesis in childhood situations which
could have been remedied if there had
oeen any one at hand competent to
handle the situation.
The final result, he pointed out, is
the end OF long series of difficulties.
extending for 20 or 80 years. which
may be too complicated for much as
slstance. The child's problems, on the
CHER hand, are just beginning and the
mind is plastic. The difficulty is to
0AANtGAStdAlQ bI1G1U. ana even an HXneTT
finds this very difficult
DR.. White has a philosophy of his
own regarding children which is not
lar removed from Wordsworth's mys-
teal picture of the newborn trailing
clouds of glory"
He pictures life as a stream flowing
unchanged through the ages, accumu-
Isting and storing within itself the
wisdom acquired from the experience
OF the millions of years since the SIM
pleSt forms of life originated on earth
individuals, on the other hand, are
pictured as offshoots of this eternal
stream OF life, who gradually lose the
vast store of inherited wisdom the
farther they get away from the source.
acquiring in its place an individual
Wlsdom bern Of individual experience.
20, says DR.. White. in one sense the
enid who is nearer the source is wiser
tnan the adult. sees qualities of objects
winch the adult cannot see and talks
IN Language which an adult cannot un-
derstand. Thus child may be able
TO size up" a person better. In this
sense the older one grows the less one
knows
1t is all, says DR.. White. a part of the
world Of childhood in the understand
ing OF which psychiarists are making
some progress, but which the average
parent or teacher often does not I'm
derstand at all, and consequently can
give little help or sympathy. This win
ps taken into consideration in the work
OF the child clinic
Long Experience.
DR.. Richmond has had long experi-
ence with Washington's queer kids"
with many of whom she has dealt with
In the past.
There for a.
old boy who attracted much attention
as child preacher at street corner
meetings.
Flee the devil and the wrath IN
come" the child would exhort the
crowds. THE devils goin' to get YOU
II you don't seek salvation in the arms
OF my edeemer-hallelujah Bloody
SWORDS are turning at the gate of Eden
ana the Holy Ghost is seeking to save I"
The child, brought up with a mother
VINO was filled with religious emotion
mad great command of words but
investigation showed that he had very
little comprehension of them. Soon he
began seeing devils and ghosts. He had
never passed beyond the first grade and
could not read or write.
When the little boy was brought to
Or. Richmond examination showed that
ne was definitely feeble-minded
Inen there was 7-year-old boy with
an intelligent quotient of 1873, showing
a very high intelligence, who was very
moody, excitable in crowds, and some
times silly and uncontrolled in his ac-
tons for whole day He played with
coils and had to hold onto his soul
when the Hallelujah chorus is playing. =
The child was found to be the victim
OF an unfortunate domestic situation.
and his abnormality had not gone so
lar but that it could be remedied.
The Washington children who will be
handled by the child clinic, says DIR.
Richmond, fall in six types, each diff
Ierent sort of problem and calling for
different remedy.
First are the feeble-minded whose
mental deficiency is not recognized by
tnose around them, who cannot adj
nlst at an adult social level and who
usually must be sent to an institution.
Next come the children of borderline
and subnormal intelligence who might
make satisfactory adjustment to life
with little help. They have not the
ABILITY to progress beyond the sixth or
seventh grade in school and after that
develop inferiority completes which lead
TO abnormal behavior. They are usually
the products of poor heredity, broken
homes and vicious companions.
Constitutional PsychOpaths.
The third class, says DR.. Richmond
are the constitutional psychopaths--