Hand book of the mental hygiene movement and exhibit.

  • National Committee for Mental Hygiene.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hand book of the mental hygiene movement and exhibit. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    are relatively good, while in disease, of which insanity is a special form, they are insufficient or imperfect. A person with an injured leg is an example of one form of dis- turbed adjustment. Nature makes an effort to readjust by forcing the uninjured leg to do extra work, and its muscles increase in size. Again, one person may have learned to play tennis well, or ride a horse easily, almost automatically, while the automatic activities of another attempting to play or ride are so defective that almost every movement is executed clumsily or with difficulty. A satisfactory adjustment can be made only by repeatedly arousing the higher forms of activity, acts of will; that is by consciously practicing until the voluntary movements become automatic. Readjustments in Higher Levels of Activity Attempts at readjustment are constantly being made within the field of the highest activities. An individual, conscious of a mental or physical defect, makes an effort to compensate for it; he tries to make the best of a bad situation; sometimes he attempts to divert attention from his infirmity by boasting; sometimes he tries to hide it by assuming a cynical air. In physical and mental health, the instincts are held sufficiently in check by the intellect and will, but when instincts are unduly re- pressed or ignored harm may result. When the balance among the various activities of the body is disturbed by disease, certain of the instincts may become so dominant as to control both thought and conduct; often mental conflicts arise which lead to serious mental breakdown. Life is a process in which we are constantly being forced to meet new and changing conditions. In health, not only is there, in general, a symmetrical balance maintained, but these activities are continually being readjusted to meet immediate needs. Disorders of Adjustment The difference between sanity and insanity is, in essence, a differ- ence of balance among the activities, a matter of degree, rather than of kind. If an individual's capacity for readjustment on meeting new