Evening star., 1934-05-08
PEOPLE DIVIDED
|NTOFOUR TYPES
Dr.. Richmond Describes
characteristics at Hy-
giene Session.

DR.. Winifred Richmond, pSychiatrist
of the staff of St Elizabeth's Hospi-
tai. thus divided folks at the opening
meeting of the two-day mental hy-
giene conference at the Church of
the Epiphany this morning.
Everybody fits into one class or the
other. Y DR.. Richmond indicated. and
the peculiar difficulties of each of
these ways Of facing the world afford
distinct sorts Of mental problems when
the individual runs into trouble. OF
course. a given person may be a
thinker in one sort of life activity
and "huncher" in another and man.
kind can be classified in a good many
other ways.
Thinkers" Are Few.
The thinker" class, as described by
DR.. Richmond, consists OF those indi-
viduals very few and far apart, whose
way Of meeting a problem is to think
1t through to its logical outcome The
difficulty of dealing with such indi-
viduals, DR.. Richmond said. is that
they can never feel satisfied with any
solution of their problems which is
not arrived at by their own thinking.
They are the persistent questioners of
everything and can't take anything
for granted.
Almost the opposite. and far more
numerous, are the feelerS. They do
little thinking. but judge everything
from an impressionistic standpoint.
Regardless of how logical solution
OF life problem may be, DR.. Rich
mond said, the mental hygiene worker
can never bring happiness to such a
person so long as the solution doesn't
bring a satisfied feeling reaction The
person can never escape from the i'm
preston that it is all wrong
The sensationalist class, as de-
scribed by DR. Richmond. are those
whose whole life is passed in the
world Of the senses-who have excep-
tlonal capacities for enjoyment of
sights. sounds, tastes and odors. They
probably enjoy life more than other
persons, but when their sensory
acuity fails they have nothing to tall
back upon.
The "hunchers" are akin to the
feelers. They have no definite pro-
gram for life but proceed with a con-
tlnuouS series of intuitions. There
is little reasoning behind what they
do. They lust know" and that is all
there is to it.
1t is probably futile. Dr. Richmond
pointed out, to deal with thinker by
the same process as one would deal
with a feeler. The psychiatrist or
welfare worker must adjust the pro-
cedure to the class of the patient One
of the great difficulties in the way of
progress, she explained, was the ten
dency of an individual to Judge other
individuals with himself as a STAN
dard.
Movement Spreading.
The mental hygiene movement in
Washington, DR.. Richmond said, now
is beginning to branch out into the
community at large, rather than con-
flning itself to the pathological cases
which come to institutions or clinics
with the idea of spreading knowl-
edge of the laws of the mind by
which people may be able to handle
their own problems. The seriousness
OF the situation. she pointed out, Is
shown by the fact that in New York
State one out of 20 at some time or
other gets into an institution for men,
tai cases and the same condition
probably exists through the rest of
the country. New York has no great
er proportion of mental cases than
other States, but it keeps better
statistics.
The conference was preceded last
night by a meeting addressed by Dr.
William A. White, superintendent of
st, Elizabeth's Hospital
Series of Group Meetings.
This afternoon and evening there
will be a series of group meetings.
From 5 to $50 o'clock. group will
hear DR.. Roscoe Hall, clinical direc-
tor at st. Elizabeth's Hospital Dr.
Benjamin F. Weems will speak before
group 2 on Have Job or Does My
Job Have Me?" DR.. Whitman Newell
of the Child Guidance Clinic of Balti-
more will address group 8.
dinner meeting will be held at
Soholl's Cafe, 1919 G street. DR..
White and DR.. George H Preston,
commissioner of mental hygiene of
the State of Maryland, will speak.
At the 7 O'Clock meeting Dr.
Richmond will be the principal
speaker This meeting will be held in
the parish hall of the Church of the
Epiphany.
Miss Jessie La Sale, assistant su-
perintendent of schools, will preside
at a panel on Mental Hygiene and
Education" in the Sunday school room
OF the Calvary Baptist Church at 7:3O
O'Clock Taking part in this meeting
will be DR.. James Plant Mrs. Alice
Wood. H P Stafford, Miss Bertie
Backus, Miss Margaret Manning, Miss
Marion McBee, Miss Ida M. Lind,
Miss Margaret M Burke, Mrs. Henry
Grattan Doyle, Miss Elizabeth Hum
mer. Miss Jane F. Hilder and DR..
Agnes B. Greig. Miss La Sale will
also preside at the $50 o'clock meet
ing. at which DR.. James Plant. direc-
tor of the Essex County Juvenile Clin-
ic Of Newark N. j., will speak on