Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-27

This was startling indictment of oul
industrial life, coming from men whose
nation has launched the most extensive
program the world has even known tc
convert 1t from the backward, phleg-
matte ways of feudaliSm into q roaring
age of modern factories rapid trans
portation and highly standardized life
asked: by industrializing your ma
ton and speeding your peoples lives
are you not counting the same trouble
some, nervous disposition that is coming
to characterize our people?"
THE same reasons should give the
same results" said DR.. Salkind, but II
will not be so. Though outward aspects
of our industrial life may be the same
the attitudes of the people will be diff
ferent." And here the doctors launched
into the remarkable psychological
theories upon which Russia Is erecting
a new order. They told how old in
stincts will function freely under new
surroundings and how mental troubles
of a competitive society will disappear
and how dominant instincts of today
will be reduced and leveled to lower,
less strenuous plane.
The inferiority complex upon which
modern psychologists fasten human
mental ills Is nominated for obscurity In
the next Red generation. The sub
conscious feelings of inferiority which
holds many people back from accom-
plishment to the full limit Of their ca
pacity, and often prevents the express
sion of instructive tendencies and brings
failure and nervous disorders, will have
! no place in New Russia, the Soviet
PSYCHOLOGISTS explained. The feeling OF
inferiority arises, they say only when a
| man regards every other man as q wolf,
| and that attitude, they say grows out
of the competitive struggle for economic
security and the strenuous fight for life
that individuals must wage in an In.
| dividualistic system. When individual
competition IS done away with and the
group is functioning so that 1t produces
necessities for all, their theory goes,
there will be no reason for struggle be-
| tween men nor any cause for one man
| to feel less adequate than another. And
so the ills will vanish.
| Such a plan, however, gives little
room for the expression of mems desires
| to compete with other men, and so q
natural tendency that has functioned
! in the race from time immemorial Is
blocked The suppression of this in
/ stinct would cause a neurotic condition
as quickly as the thwarting of any other
| fundamental urge would bring on dis
order. The Soviet psychologists realize
| this. So they have in measure given
| this force field in which to work. They
will, they say, allow the competitive in
stinct an outlet by having it work in con-
structive fields with group aim. Thus,
there can be competition between the
various groups without involving di-
rect individual struggle. The various
unions of textile workers throughout
the cities where cloth is manufactured
will compete with each other to de-
termine which union has the highest
standards of production, which one has
the better workers clubs and which
one shows the lowest rate of fliteracy.
Hope TO Use New Channels.
In addition to weakening the COM
petitiye instinct by disuse, the Soviet
scientists hope their plan of widening
the sphere of the peoples interest will
spend much energy into channels that
have not been heavily used before. BY
the creation of richer intellectual and
emotional life the desire for expression
through competition will have outlets
that the Soviets believe less destructive.
The sex life of the nation also Is to
be placed upon a new plane and viewed
from a different attitude by giving a
full freedom to the sex instinct. It Is
the claim of the Soviet psychologists
that sex freedom plus variety of other
interests to use up the nerve force will
bring sex to less accumulated place
in life than it holds in the Western
world. BY removing all sex restraints
and taboos and allowing complete sex
life, unthwarted by social or economic
restrictions. there viii be less attention
paid to that phase of life. It will be
stripped of its dramatic place among
the instincts and brought down to the
even surface of other natural urges.
Easy marriage and divorce, no social
stigma attached to children born out
of wedlock and full sex education for
children are few of the ways that the
government works for q quiet, smooth
and unerotic sex life.
The parental instinct, too, comes in
for its remodeling. The Soviet psychol-
ogists say that, contrary to the general
notion, the Red powers are not at
tempting to destroy the family and ig-
more parental emotion. They explain
that they are trying to give the pa
rental instinct an opportunity to func-
ton under system that will allow it
more freedom and make its function
ing happier one.
The parental instinct is not DESTROYED.
nor is its functioning In any way inter-
fered with, say the psychologists, by the
projects whereby children live away
from their parents and their home and
through which the family as 1t has ex-
listed for generations is done away with.
! The children, living In schools, nurseries
and clubs, are fed aud housed and
trained in a social group. An environ
ment Is set up around them that causes
them to think and act as members Of q
community and not as individuals.
This system gives them wider So
cial viewpoint than confinement in n
| family. At the same time they are en-
couraged to visit their parents, and the
1 latter are allowed at all times TO see
| their children. These contacts with the
| family group are usually only under IA
vorable conditions. The parents are
supposed to avoid the dislike of children
that responsibility for their support
often breeds, and the children do not
see their fathers and mothers when the
older folk are tired and worried and
fretting. Thus, the psychologists point
out, the parental love Is given an OPP
portunity to express itself In only ideal
surroundings.
A lively scene takes place at shutdown
in one of the collectivized villages where
| an experimental children's commune is
in operation. There Is great busting
and hustling among the boys and girls.
Faces are scrubbed and hands washed.
Eyes shine with the sparkle that lights
the features of American children when
| a trip to the movies Is q few minutes
In the offing. But the little Soviet folk
are not bound for picture theater--
that is in their club house They are
going to the village to see their fathers
and mothersl
Don't forget the book, Nicholi," calls
young Ivan to his brother as the two
boys run toward the door.
Meeting Is Pictured.
Nicholi stops short and darts back
into the house, rushing out in moment
with q gayly colored pamphlet To-
gether the two round-headed youngsters
trot down the wide clay roadway to the
settlement, turn through rickety gate