Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-12
LIFE ADJUSTMENT
CENTER THRIVING
Unique Experiment Becomes
Fixed Establishment, With
~ Experts on Staff.

The Washington Life Adjustment
Center, started more than a year ago
at the Mount Pleasant Congregational
Church as a unique experiment, placing
at the disposal of the normal individual
the combined resources of religion,
medicine and psychiatry, now Is to be
placed on permanent basis.
The institution has passed so far be-
yond the purely experimental stage, ac-
cording to Dr. Moses r. Lowell, local
Congregationalist minister, who put the
idea in operation, that an appeal for
public support is necessary to meet the
increasing demands.
This appeal for funds to carry on
the work for the remainder Of the year
now is being made by Mrs. w. w.
Husband. wife of the Assistant Secre-
tary of Labor, who is president of the
non-Sectarian committee in charge of
the center, and DR.. Charles G. Abbot.
secretary of the Smithsonian Institu-
ton, the vice president.
On Own Resources.
With the start of the present years
work, says Mrs. Husband, the Life Ad-
iustment Center started out on its own
resources since it had grown altogether
out of proportion to mere adjunct of
its parent organization. the Mount
Pleasant Church. Last Summer the
Life Adjustment Center passed under
the control Of a non-sectarian commit
tee. composed largely Of prominent
scientists and headed by the late DR..
Edwin z. Slosson. Since 1t opened
It's doors this Fall 1t has ministered
Of experts who contribute their serv-
ices has been increased from IL to %.
II the physicians. psychiatrists. social
workers, lawyer and economist were
paid the work would require heavy
endowment. since a single case some
times requires the time of experts.
which would be altogether beyond the
means of the individual.
Entirely Nom Secterian.
The work, DR.. Lowell emphasizes. now
Is on an entirely non-sectarian basis.
The staff contains one Catholic. two
Jews and members of four or five
Protestant denominations. beside several
with no religious Affiliations whatever.
The only paid employee is a permanent
secretary and social worker. The Incl
dental expenses, however. have in
creased greatly with the additional
number of cases.
The object of the institution is not
to treat abnormal cases. but help the
average man or woman in the perplex-
ing and often tragic problems of daily
life-and to combine for this purpose
the resources of all the sciences. All
the cases are treated with the utmost
confidence.
They go through the whole range
of human experience. even to the
strange border line where the tragic
and the ridiculous meet.
Case Of Young Musician.
There was. for instance. the recent
case of a young woman who had de-
voted years TO a musical education and
had made a considerable name for her
self in minor appearances. At last
came the opportunity OF her lifetime
to appear before a notable audience,
where her success would mean that she
was made.
SO much depended on her success
on this one occasion that the more the
girl thought about 1t the more nervous
she became, and on the afternoon
before the engagement she was in al
most a state Of COLLAPSE from stage
fright. Friends took her to the Life
Adjustment Center, where psychia-
trist worked with her until she was
sufficiently recovered to fill the en-
gagement, which she did with complete
success.
While this seems a minor case. DR..
Lowell points out. whole career may
have been at stake that afternoon.
Then there was the case of an Army
fering from an incurable malady. An
excellent soldier, the man was as help
less as child when 1t came to bust
ness matters and he faced the prospect
OF leaving his family unprovided for.
Enn.n~m:~x S~u-.m m-~Ns~~.
In this condition he came to the
Life Adjustment Center for help and
a trained economist was able to make
adjustments in his affairs which as
sured q competence for his wife ard
children.
Another case recounted by Dr. Lowell
is that OF Washington family bur-
dened with hayward son who was
continually getting into trouble and
saddling his people with debts, which
they were able to meet only by a con-
tinual struggle. When the boy was
brought to psychiatrists at the Life Ad-
justment Center they found such abb
normalities In his personality that 1t
was possible to place him In hospital
for treatment, with the result that he
was greatly improved.
These. says DR.. Lowell, are typical
cases, but the ma iority of problems
handled by the Life Adjustment Center
staff are altogether too confidential
| even to be related without names, since
| every one who comes to the center re-
! veals his troubles under the seal Of
absolute secrecy.
The work of the center, DR.. Lowell
says, has revealed the existence In
Washington of "a great underworld of
; fear and worry" with which no other
institution pretends to deal, but which
is all important to the individual.
| In connection with the financing plan
! approximately 1000 letters are being